My brother-in-law and sister-in-law are on a trip to Europe. She is kindly sending me pics so that I can enjoy the trip vicariously. I thought that YOU might enjoy it, too!
First stop was London. They went to a soccer match and then saw a museum with this –
Next stop was Paris, where they found a chocolate shop –
And – a beautiful stained glass window –
And, finally, they went to a display of Vincent Van Gogh where the paintings filled walls and floors, completely surrounding them –
I’m hoping we get more tomorrow. If so, I’ll share…
Filed under vicarious enjoyment
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Awhile back I told you that two of our 8 foot long brick planters collapsed.
30 years ago we built 14 planters around the yard, so I guess the fact that 2 of them only lasted 30 years is a pretty good result from people who had/have no clue what they were/are doing. :0)
When the planters collapsed, we used a sledge hammer to knock the rest of the bricks down. We couldn’t get the lowest row to let go of the concrete slab we poured, so we cleaned things up the best way we could and declared victory. We shoveled the potting soil from the planter onto the blue tarp you see here and then covered it with another one and put used bricks on top to hold it until we’re ready to fill the planter again. We filled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow with the used bricks and stacked them up behind the well house.
Today we started the rebuilding project in earnest. We bought a pallet of bricks a couple of months ago. We bought 2 bags of mortar this morning, thinking these would be enough for one planter. We wheel-barrowed the bags over to the planter that is on the far side of the house. We used a dolly to bring enough bricks for this planter over to the work area. It was really a job to get the heavy plastic off the pallet of bricks and then stack them on the dolly and wheelbarrow them over to the planter. We did this three times to get enough over there.
I stretched a hose from the back of the house around to the front, and we found the special hoe that has two holes in it that we use for mixing mortar. We went out to the shop to find the trowels we needed.
We mixed one of the bags of mortar. We had forgotten how long it takes to actually mix that stuff! You think it’s good, and then you uncover some that is absolutely dry at the bottom of the wheelbarrow.
We decided we would work until we had used up the mortar in the wheelbarrow. By the time that was done, it was all we could do to clean up the tools and the wheelbarrow. It isn’t super hot today – 86 degrees F. – but we were really hot and tired when we came in. My face was bright red as if I had gotten sun-burned. I knew that wasn’t true because both of the planters are mostly in the shade.
We got huge glasses of ice water and drank them down pretty quickly. I fixed us some lunch and we ate in our chairs in the living room. The next thing we knew, we were both waking up from taking naps in our chairs!
We have agreed that what we did this morning would be it for the day. We’ll probably do one bag of mortar a day until the first planter is done. We now think that each planter will need a bit more than 3 bags of mortar. We’re supposed to be getting rain late Saturday. We think we can finish bricking the first planter, but we may save the second planter until next week.
If I needed more motivation to lose another 30 pounds, I now have it. We are also newly learning how much of a difference 30 years makes in laying bricks. This will be a character-building exercise for us. I see Tylenol, back pain gel, and yoga stretches in my future. :0)
Filed under Housekeeping - Maintenance, Lewis projects
Victor Zundalev via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Viola Sado via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Willem Haenraets via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Young Whan Kim – LinkedIn
Yuriy Hrebenyuk via Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Filed under Acrylic Paintings I Love, Watercolors I Love
On the way to our second round of errands this afternoon, we changed the mailbox decoration. This is Wyle E. Coyote, Sonic the Hedgehog, and the Roadrunner.
This decoration was a lot of fun to make. We cut the main decoration out with the CNC machine and computer-guided torch, then added rod to make the Roadrunner’s legs. The decoration is probably 4 feet wide by 3 feet tall.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
One of my sweet spinach plants!
One of several zucchini plants.
One of about 5 remaining head lettuce plants.
My cantaloupe plant for my husband.
One group of tomato plants.
And the second tomato planter.
Things are going well. There is not enough time in the day to get to everything I want to do. I’m busy and happy and grateful for all of it.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
I just enjoyed walking around the yard, taking stock of what’s what while marveling that it wasn’t raining! Right now it’s 70 degrees F.! Just gorgeous. I wanted to show you the results of my trying to create a bit of order from the chaos created by Mother Nature recently. Here is one of our Rio Samba rosebushes. I pruned the three we have so they’ll bloom again in a couple of weeks. You can also see the tarp that is hopefully preserving the potting soil we removed from one of the two planters that collapsed. We are trying to gear up for rebuilding these ourselves, since the only estimate we’ve been able to get from an actual bricklayer was WAAAAAY too high.
Here you see one of the planters I weeded, cleaned out, and pruned. You can see I need to weed whack next….
The second of the trio planters between our front yard and the driveway.
And this is the third planter. These are end-to-end .
Another.
And another. We have 14 planters we built 30 years ago. We live on top of a ridge line, so what soil there is was trucked in when we had the house built. With the potting soil and an irrigation system, we are able to grow the flowers we love.
This is one view off the deck. We have lots of wave petunias and periwinkles on the deck this year. You can see our view in one direction. We love to pretend we own all this.
Here’s a view the other direction.
Some Impatiens on the front porch.
and more. You can see this planter needs some work.
And finally, I my travels around the yard I found –
Amber
Molly
Smoke
and Abby, all enjoying the screened porch on this lovely day.
I hope it’s really nice where you are, too!
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature
My husband and I were talking last night about how much he has changed since we married almost 50 years ago. He mentioned that if he were by himself, he ‘wouldn’t have any of it” – referring to the 14 brick planters we built, the raised-bed square foot garden, the greenhouse, the deck…. I asked him if he would miss any of it now. His answer kind of startled me. He said an emphatic, “YES!”
When we had our home built, he started doing all this because it was important to ME. He wanted me to be happy, so he not only went along with, but suggested things to encourage my love of flowers, veggies, and working outside. Now he considers it a quality of life thing. He loves the flowers almost as much as I do. He looks for ways to make my gardening easier, since I’m getting a bit ‘long-in-the-tooth’ now. He WANTS to go shopping for plants and takes a great interest when something blooms.
Yesterday the second part of my Mother’s Day gift to myself was several sessions out in the yard, trying to uncover the flowers in a trio of planters that go between our front yard and our driveway. He not only helped me, he sat and kept me company while I worked.
We only have one red rose bush in our yard, but I brought these in yesterday so we could enjoy them inside. I pruned the three Rio Samba rose bushes so they’ll hopefully keep blooming. (A wonderful lady at the local nursery taught me how to prune. You take the spent bloom in your hand and find the next group of five leaves on the branch. You cut in a diagonal above that group of leaves.)
I only finished one of the three planters yesterday, so I’ll be out there today, continuing to try to make sense of the huge growth of greenery. Wish me luck? I’ll post pics when they are finished.
I spent yesterday doing two of my favorite things – playing in my art room and gardening. I finished two tees for myself yesterday. (I’m a slob, so I have tees that are perfectly good, but had a spot or two on them. I love being able to make it so I can wear them again – plus I have the fun of painting them!)
This one says, “A little birdie told me…”
This one is more abstract – saying, “Everything’s gonna be all right.”
Filed under fun in my art room
birstall.co.uk
I’ve just come in from hour # 2 weeding in my flower beds. I’m going to try to get out there for one more session, but this may be it for the day.
I’m making reasonable progress out there, but the monsoon season has made for monster weeds. I can’t tell what’s in the planters at the moment, so I’m having to go slowly, pruning everything and then figuring out what is good and what to get rid of. Slow going.
Earlier, after my first session, I discovered that Amber had black, yucky STUFF on various parts – mainly her stomach, legs, and hips. I rushed to get her back outside, too tired to do anything more than that. After I rested, I used a couple of micro-cloths to clean her up. I felt good that she was now presentable enough to join us inside.
My husband came out for the second session to keep me company while I weeded after he sprayed weeds around the yard and cut back the wisteria which had grown like a weed in all directions. As we were talking, we noticed that Amber quietly walked over to one of the collapsed brick planters and plopped down in the middle of the watery stuff. As she stood, we saw THAT was where all the yucky black stuff had come from. She was covered AGAIN and quite delighted with herself!
I was so tired by that time, we took her around to the back and hooked up the hose. She wasn’t cooperative about turning as we needed her to as we sprayed, but she didn’t freak out, either – a really good thing. My husband changed the washer between the hose and the sprayer and changed out the sprayer because we got as wet as Amber did. :0) I used a dog towel to get her as dry as possible before letting her back in. Since it continues to rain off and on most every day, I’m not sure what we can do about Amber’s love for ANY type of water….
Filed under Amazing Animals, Family, Gardening
Bethany is offering some of these as originals, and then prints in two sizes, I think. If you click on her name below, it will take you to her Facebook page where you can message her.
Filed under Bethany Kerr, Watercolors I Love
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Our planters don’t look QUITE this bad, but I just spent an hour going from one flower pot to another, pulling out huge sunflower plants from the seeds we feed the birds – happily overpowering the wave tulips and periwinkles on the deck, then moving from one place to another pulling out TONS of really tall, healthy weeds in the planters around the house. I still have the trio of brick planters to weed that are between our front yard and the driveway.
Since it’s Mother’s Day, I’m going to play some more in my art room and THEN go back out and do another session. I’m having the best time painting two more tees for myself. I’m a slob, getting spots that won’t come out on tees that are perfectly good, otherwise. It makes me happy to give them new life with happy designs. I’ll post pics when they’re finished.
I approach Mother’s Day with mixed emotions. I’m happy that I’m lucky to be a mom. It’s one of the most challenging and rewarding roles that one can have. If you’re very lucky, it’s a gift that keeps on giving your whole lifetime. I had the best chat online with our son this morning. He lives across the world from us, but we can almost forget that since he’s such a wonderful communicator. We chat almost daily, sending music, pics, jokes, etc to each other, plus talking almost as much as we would like. When we can arrange it (there is a 12-hour time difference) we chat on a conference call where we can actually see each other and talk.
I say ‘mixed emotions’ because my own mom, and my husband’s mom, are both gone, as are our dads. We miss them all and wish we could hug their necks and tell them once again how much they have meant to us in our lives. Mother’s Day hurts a bit, too, because my daughter lived two months and one day, and died many years ago now, leaving a hole that never heals. It makes me extra grateful that I have a husband I treasure and a son we are beyond proud of.
Today I feel I am a super lucky lady, with a bright sun shining, warm temperatures, and the gift of having the day to spend working outside AND in my art room – two of my favorite things – PLUS watching “Game of Thrones” tonight! :0)
I hope that you are spending this Mother’s Day doing things you love, too.
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Happy Mother’s Day!
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Family, holidays
Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
Saverio Scoleri – LinkedIn
Filed under drawings, Saverio Scoleri Art
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
RJ Bennett – LinkedIn
*These photos are taken from talented photographers all over the world. They are posted by RJ Bennett – LinkedIn – and others in an cooperative effort to preserve owls and their habitat.
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, R.J. Bennett
The Guardian
Yesterday I went – armed with my umbrella – to see what is happening in my garden. We have really had an unusual spring here in Arkansas. Cooler than usual, and that is very welcome, but also MUCH more rain than usual.
Some of the trees in the driveway are hanging down toward each other with the weight of the water in their leaves, creating almost a canopy through which we drive. It’s no problem for us, but the UPS and FEDEX drivers may say a few ripe words as they make their way up and down again. I’ve also already told you about the amazing results in my garden. For the first time ever I’ve been able to share the veggie wealth with my friends. It’s a delightful thing and I hope to be able to continue. I harvested the very first-ever heads of lettuce I’ve been able to grow, plus all the radishes I planted.
Today I wanted to show you what I found yesterday –
This is the celery end I planted a couple of days ago. It seems to be happy. :0)
This is zucchini squash. I planted several plants because I can process this for zucchini noodles, freeze it, or dehydrate it.
My ‘mystery weed’ turned out to indeed, be spinach! Woo Hooooooo! I have several plants now. :0)
I’ve never had onion tops this tall. They are over my head! I don’t know what this means in terms of the growth of the actual sweet red onions. Only time will tell.
One head lettuce plant. I’ll get leaf lettuce, too, when I harvest the head.
Another head lettuce plant.
More zucchini. You can also see that the broccoli is going to blossom – signaling the end of it.
This is cantaloupe! I have no clue what I’m doing, but the plant seems happy at the moment. I have some plastic ‘bowls’ with legs and lots of drain holes to put under any melon while they grow – assuming I get some. I’m like a kid at Christmas!
The tomato plants on the opposite side of our house are doing fine, too.
It’s raining all day today. The high will only be in the low 60’s. I’m hoping that we can go to the local stores in the coming week to see if there is more we want to try. Otherwise, once I eat my way through a lot of radishes, I’ll plant some more. They can be planted most any time of the year, so I’m hoping I can get at least one more good crop.
I’m planning to get out and weed this week , assuming the weather will cooperate. Looming on the horizon is my husband and I rebuilding our two brick planters which collapsed.
I hope you’re having a wonderful Saturday, too!
Geert Weggen – Just Something
Geert Weggen – Just Something
Geert Weggen – Just Something
Filed under Amazing Animals, Awe-Inspiring Photography, Geert Weggen
Iahsen Haddou – LinkedIn
Iahsen Haddou – LinkedIn
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography, Idyllic Places
Geert Weggen – Just Something
Geert Weggen – Just Something
Filed under Amazing Animals, CUTE!
I Love Reading Books via Cathy Ruggiero
I’m in the middle of re-reading Book 3 (Eclipse) in the 4-book series, The Twilight Saga by Stephenie Meyer (Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn.)
I loved the series the first time I read it, even though I don’t really consider myself a connoisseur of vampire and werewolf books. It’s so well written and the characters are so compelling you find yourself accepting their world as real and caring what happens to everyone.
So, each day, no matter what else is happening around here, I make time to at least read a chapter or two before heading off to bed.
If you haven’t read this series, you might enjoy it.
Filed under Watercolors I Love
I cut our three Rio Samba rose bushes, plus a red rose bush WAAAAAAAY back, quite ruthlessly before winter. They were all in sad shape, having some kind of fungus and having grown out of shape, having some branches that died, etc. I figured that either my severe pruning would work, or we would have to start over and get new plants.
Happily, my pruning seems to have given them all new life!
This is the red rose bush and you can also see one of the Rio Samba bushes further back in the trio of planters.
We love Rio Samba roses because they start out bright yellow. Then they develop coral edges on each bloom. Finally they turn coral before it’s time to prune them off to encourage new blooms.
Filed under Favorite Things, Gardening, Mother Nature
Daily Mail
We just got back from a dental appointment for my husband. He was flossing a week or so ago and a cap came off one of his teeth. We went in and the dentist found that the part of the tooth the cap was on came out with the cap, so he would have to have an implant.
We had the remainder of the tooth pulled and the prep for the implant done today. We go back in 5 months, when the area is fully healed, for the post and the tooth replacement. My husband is doing fine. I gave him Tylenol for the discomfort he is having, and he is on antibiotics and two other meds for the procedure. He is resting now, under strict orders NOT to forget and chew any ice!
We are SO glad we have such a great dentist – Wes Moore, DDS in Fort Smith.
I painted part of yesterday afternoon and some of this morning, finishing two tee shirts for me. These were old shirts that had spots on them, so the idea of bringing new life to them appeals to me. :0)
I got the ideas from the net. These are not my designs, but I tweaked what I found to make them more my own.
This is the Dandelion Tee – “Make a wish, then blow!”
This one is “Let It Bee”
Filed under playing in my art room
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Jeff Jett – LinkedIn
Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Elena (Livia) D. – LinkedIn
Filed under Awe-Inspiring Photography
creativeartworksblog 