Brightside
I just spent half an hour or so trying to prune roses and weed flower planters. I’m embarrassed that some of the weeds are taller than the flowers! Of COURSE it’s hot outside – it IS August and this IS Arkansas, but the humidity makes the heat index 103 and it is still morning! So, I’m TRYING to spend a bit of time outside each morning to try to get things under control. So far, the weeds are winning….
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature
Nicolas Chamfort-via Carla Stafford-LinkedIn
“The most wasted of all days is one without laughter.”
Filed under Attitude, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Childlike Fun, Favorite Quotes
Advice from An Old Farmer
*Posted by Rick Ferran (Tank) on LinkedIn
Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts, Favorite Quotes
Alma Maghakyan-imgend.com-LinkedIn
It was really muggy and hot when we went grocery shopping this morning. I had pretty much decided to stay inside today when all of a sudden the sky got dark, the wind was whipping the trees’ branches around and it started to rain!
AHHHHHHHH! This is refreshing for the mind and spirit, if not actually resulting in lower temperature and humidity.
I LOVE IT!
Filed under Mother Nature
That Guy Steve
The second load of laundry is in, the groceries are put away. We’re going to devote ourselves to CHILLIN’ today.
Hope YOUR day is wonderful, too.
Filed under Cherishing the Quiet Day, Family, taking care of yourself
DripDepot
When I went outside to check on the tomatoes and weed a bit in our flower planters, I noticed that everything suddenly looked really wilted.
I got my husband and we turned on each section of the irrigation system, and went around to all the planters, making sure all was getting water. Some weren’t getting anything at all, others were getting too much – it varied all over the place. Once we got the back finished – with a lot of the things you see in the picture above, we switched to the front, where it’s mainly actual hoses and controls.
We think we got everything going. We are inside now, drinking ice water and resting. The heat index this afternoon is between 106 and 110. We’ll stay inside until at least dinner time before trying to do anything more out there.
I hope that YOU and your PLANTS are getting enough water today!
Filed under Gardening
NikiFirmin.com
NikiFirmin.com
NikiFirmin.com
Filed under drawings, Niki Firmin - Pet Portraits
Brightside
We are enjoying a nice, quiet Saturday. Our most stressful thing today has been trying to program our thermostats upstairs and downstairs. :0) We THINK we have it done now.
We don’t have anywhere we have to be, so we can do a clean-up of details. I’m going to try to do a quick session or two of weeding flower planters and pruning roses, plus checking on the garden. I’ll keep the sessions short and drink lots of water in-between.
It’s good to be able to enjoy the calm today. Our son is with us. All is good.
Filed under Cherishing the Quiet Day, Family, taking care of yourself
Fiore Cagnetti – “Piccola Elfa” – LinkedIn
Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
Filed under drawings, Fiore Cagnetti, Saverio Scoleri Art
Via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Via Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
I’m definitely of two minds about raccoons. On the one hand, I melt into a puddle when I see pictures like this. Awwww.
The other half of me has to deal with the problems they cause us when a whole family decides that our deck is a wonderful place to eat us out of house and home. Not only do they eat every single seed of any type in our feeders, they trash the feeders! If we had raccoons who understood the concept of sharing, or eating without leaving the feeders needing to be replaced, we would welcome them.
We saw one of our long time friends at the store recently. He had a possum on his shoulder! It was really cute, and super affectionate. He had had the possum since he/she was a baby. He also told us he had a raccoon and a squirrel who both traveled with him and his wife, and were trained to walk on leashes! He also mentioned he had 7 deer…. Such a rich, full life!
We have a humane trap that we use on a regular basis after we have clear evidence of more raccoons. We bait it with apples or crackers and peanut butter. We have to be careful where we put the trap because they do everything they can to get out of the trap – of course – and have trashed our barbecue grill cover, plants in pots, etc.
When we catch one, we put the cage into the back of our truck and drive about 5 miles away, relocating the raccoon into a nice creek that flows under the road. Hopefully, this gives him/her another chance at a happy life, reunion with other relocated raccoons – far enough away that they don’t find their way back to us….
Filed under Amazing Animals, Mother Nature
Painting by Carsten Dahl – “September’s Ocean” – LinkedIn
Painting by Dmitry Levin via Ana Loreta Baicu – LinkedIn
Gif by Padmaja Mandali -LinkedIn
Painting by Stephen McGuinness – Cavan -Ireland – LinkedIn
Filed under .gifs I Love, water paintings
“The Maine Coast” – Paul Crimi – LinkedIn
Jeff Rowland Art via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
“Silence – Oasis” – Paul Militaru Photography
Roy Gonzalez Tabora Via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Filed under water paintings
Photo by Annette Schreiber – annetteschreiberphotography.com
Photo by Annette Schreiber – annetteschreiberphotography.com
Filed under Annette Schreiber, Awe-Inspiring Photography
We went to do errands this morning with Catbert in the back of the truck to put up on the mailbox as we left. When we got out to change the decoration, we found 8,011 (more or less) wasps had taken up residence inside the supporting pole that is between the back of the mailbox and the decorations. It is filled with a bunch of holes in line vertically so that we can attach the decorations with bolts and nuts.
This has never happened before, and they were really swarming. We decided to do our errands, add a stop at Yeager’s Hardware for some cans of wasp spray, and then see what we could do when we got back.
They were having a buy one, get one free sale on wasp spray, so we took advantage of that. We parked at the bottom of the driveway and my husband hosed down one side of the pole after telling me to ‘stay in the truck.’ I thought of all the movies we’ve seen where a character tells someone else to ‘stay in the car’ and they never do, resulting in all kinds of bad things. I also thought of created a cheesy horror movie – naming it, “Revenge of the Wasps” in my head as I watched. He had to use almost one whole can in order to get things under enough control that we were able to
We left the partial can and the 2nd full can of wasp spray in the truck so that we are armed to get our mail tomorrow. I also want to make sure the wasps are gone so they don’t sting our wonderful mailman.
When I told my husband it was time to change mailbox decorations, I really wasn’t expecting such an ordeal.
Animal Wallpapers – Desktop Nexus
Mother Nature is giving us a reprieve today – the heat index is ONLY 100 right now.
SO – my husband is out mowing the lawn and I’ve been weed whacking around the garden and behind the shop where his riding mower won’t go. It’s going to take several sessions to do what I need to do today. I work for 20 minutes to half an hour, then come in, rest, and drink water. I’ll keep doing that until the job is done or I decide to give it another day. The sun is behind a cloud right now. As soon as I go back out there, the sun will show its face again…
I hope the weather where you are today is comfortable, or that you have a good place to rest.
Filed under Gardening
Painiting by Serguei Toutounov Via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Svetlana Milenkovic – LinkedIn
Svetlana Milenkovic – LinkedIn
“Spring Morning – Windermere – Cumbria” – Painting by Graham Colthorpe – LinkedIn
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, water paintings
“Moon on Water” – Anwar B – LinkedIn
Inna Kashkovar – LinkedIn
Inna Kashkovar – LinkedIn
Iguazu Falls – Argentina – Iahsen Haddou – LinkedIn
Filed under water paintings
About Signs
Having a health scare is just that -scary. Trying to get help for it is a character-building exercise at a time you’re under great stress. Once the initial hurdles have been jumped over, another of life’s realities rears its ugly head – you have to take charge, doing whatever is necessary to get the help needed.
Yesterday was a case in point. I have almost no tongue left because of biting it so many times while I was on the phone making my way through the bureaucratic maze, trying to get tests scheduled and appointments made.
I had been told we would receive calls regarding where and when we should show up for tests and referrals to various specialists. I was given a card with a phone number to call in case that didn’t happen. I was to use it if I didn’t hear anything in a week.
When I called the number on the card, I found that the ‘referral department’ doesn’t actually handle referrals – they give you phone numbers to call – one of which was the ‘scheduling department.’ It turned out that the scheduling department didn’t actually schedule the tests, they ‘authorized’ them. I received another number to call to actually schedule the tests. The finally scheduled group of added tests will help the specialists figure out what is needed and who should do it.
You get the picture.
It’s bad enough to go through the health scare. The problem is compounded when you finally realize that even though you HAVE TO go through the maze – endure the system – in order to get help, you are your own best advocate. You have to steadily, persistently, keep pushing until you actually get the needed tests scheduled, the actual appointments scheduled to see the specialists, get the results of those, the plan of attack to fix the original problem, the guidance on how to best care for the person who is sick and isn’t in a position to deal with this.
We are thankful. Our son – who lives and works in Thailand – wanted to come to help. He did and is here. He is keeping us calmer, more able to slog through the mazes, phone trees, delays, frustration, attitudes, and emotions, actually injecting some much-needed humor, as well as calm strength.
Filed under Challenges, Changes, character-building exercises, Family, taking care of yourself
Photo by Annette Schreiber, annetteschreiberphotography.com
Best Nature View via 2 STAR art
Michele Kostka Langlois – Linked In
Nacpan Beach- El Nido Philippines-Image by Warren Camitan Via Mara Spirig – Linked In
“Dandelion” – Paul Militaru Photography
Photography Kaisa via Mara Spirig – LinkedIn
This was posted by one of our local weather people on Facebook yesterday. He said today would be much the same. We are in Greenwood (left column).
On that happy note – we plan to do a lot of staying inside!
I hope YOUR weather is much more sensible. Enjoy your Monday.
Filed under Mother Nature, Seasons
Brightside
We’re enjoying a quiet day here. Days like this have been few and far between lately, so we’re concentrating on being very thankful. We’ve been out, errands have been run, no big plans for the day. Mother Nature is trying to boil us in oil outside, with a heat index this afternoon of 110-115 degrees F., so we’re content to enjoy our cool home and maybe even catch a nap this afternoon.
I’m going to try to make some time to play in my art room today. I have a couple of ideas rattling around that I’d like to try. I’ll play my MP3 player, shut out the world, and enjoy! Ahhhh.
Happy Sunday to you, too! :0)
creativeartworksblog 