Higher Perspective via Bill Lites
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Think Life Differently
http://www.papercards.com via Free Photos
“We’re having something a little different this year for Thanksgiving. Instead of a turkey, we’re having a swan. You get more stuffing.” ~ George Carlin
Filed under Favorite Quotes, holidays
This is a repost of a blog by Pobept of Town & Country Gardening. I laughed out loud several times, and thought you might enjoy it, too. If you’re interested in wise words about gardening, food, DIY, Health, homemade, and more, please check out and follow this website.
Advice on Cooking Your Thanksgiving Bird
If the link above doesn’t work, here is the URL to paste into your browser –
ENJOY!
Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts, holidays
This is the front side with the first coat on. This will need a second coat, and then the glitter glue and Snow-Tex before it’s finished.
This is the back side of the piece, with the progress I made yesterday. I’m about to go out and start working on all the black on the piece.
I received my glitter glue, but I haven’t received the Sno-Tex yet. I’m excited to see what interest I can add with those new media for me.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
“Rose Beauty 1” – Paul Militaru Photography
“Wild Roses” – Paul Militaru Photography
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Ramblings from a Desert Garden
I covered my fall raised bed garden plants yesterday afternoon in preparation for our first freeze of the season. This gives you an idea of what my garden looked liked, except mine are boxes up in the air about 4 feet or so. I used three bed sheets anchored with a gazillion clothes pins, trying to keep the covers from blowing off in the gusty, cold wind.
I forgot to take my camera, but I was too cold by the time I finished to take a pic anyway. :0)
My plants made it through the first freeze of the season. I went out to the garden, afraid that the sheets would be bunched up against one fence or another in the garden, but all stayed where I put them! And when I took the sheets off, the plants seemed to be fine. HOOOOOORAAAAAY!
I left the sheets and clothes pins in the empty planter boxes, ready to cover things again tonight. If I can pull the plants through another two nights, I think we’re home free until NEXT Saturday, unless they change the forecast.
We turned the heat on downstairs for the first time this season yesterday.
We just put up a cat cube in the garage for our newest cat, Smoke, who is used to sleeping on the back porch. We closed that off to her about three weeks ago, and she’s finally learning that we feed Abby and her on top of the wood pile in the garage. I hope she likes the cube, as it will allow her to be safe and warm this winter. (You can see from the pic that Abby’s cube on the left has been well used. My husband built a strong support for each cube and then anchored the cubes to the wooden support so they won’t move as the cat jumps up or moves around inside.)
Appendages crossed that we make it through Freeze #2 tonight!
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Higher Perspective via Bill Lites
You Tube
At Lunch Bunch today, I told my friends that I had discovered an inflexible thing I didn’t even know I had – the fact that I can’t lie on my back and put my arms up over my head touching the floor.
They both reacted that they were going to go home and try it because they didn’t know if they could do it, either.
Today I did “Legs” and “Overall Flow” on the “Gentle Yoga” DVD set. The legs is one of the harder sections for me. The back of my legs needs a LOT of stretching, I find. I think I did a bit better today, though, and I’m learning to breathe into the strain, causing my body to eventually ‘give’ a bit more.
I definitely feel more relaxed when I finish the two sessions each day. I’m able to get up from that, drink some water, and then I’m ready to go on with my day, rather than having to crash, take a nap, or similar – a definite improvement.
I’ll have to let you know if doing yoga every day impresses the tape measure. Time will tell.
Even if it doesn’t, I FEEL better. I’m sleeping better that last couple of nights. I feel looser when I move. It’s hard to describe, but I’m more aware of my CORE moving, where it has just been ‘along-for-the-ride’ for as long as I can remember.
I’m not dreading going into the living room to exercise now – also a definite improvement.
I may never get to the point where I’m really good at yoga, but trying sure seems to be helping me.
GrowingBolder. com via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under exercise
Filed under Attitude, Favorite Quotes, Good Thoughts
gabWorthy
Wow. Were the weather people right! I went out at 4:30 to harvest some stuff from the garden, in case the weather people were right and we would get a freeze for the next three mornings. I wore a quilted vest and added my gardening gloves, thinking I would probably get too hot trying to cover up the garden plants.
Was I wrong! The temperature has gone down to about 50 degrees with a really strong, whippy wind. By the time I finished covering the plants, I was practically frozen!
I came in a turned on the heat in the house and shut the door we still had open. We’re just about finished with our getting-ready-for-winter list, but not any too soon.
I hope you’re staying warm and snug as a bug in a rug wherever you are this evening. I’m going to be on the lookout for some sugar-free hot chocolate this weekend!
Filed under Mother Nature
We’re supposed to have freezing temperatures tomorrow morning, Sunday morning, and Monday morning before temperatures warm up again. I’m hoping to bring my garden plants through this three-day period, and will go out to harvest again – just in case we lose them – and then cover up the plants with sheets for the night. The idea of the freezes makes me a bit nostalgic. 
We had a really nice summer, and have been enjoying a longer than usual fall. We just had a bunch of stuff cut down in the back by Shane, a young, strong hard worker, so our view is opened up again and the danger from wildfire is a bit less.
We enjoyed lots of flowers this year: mandevilla, wave petunias, periwinkles, impatiens, purslane, zinnias, phlox, lilies, iris, and more. I’ve just finished cleaning out the flower planters and filling them with mulch I made grinding up leaves.
We’ve unhooked our irrigation systems for both flowers and the garden now. The past two days we had temperatures in the mid to upper 80s. We’re due to have a freeze tomorrow morning and then a high of 55. We’ve had a strong wind for a couple of days now – blowing from the south until last night and now from the north, taking our temperatures down.
Most of our flowers are gone now, but we still have some mandevilla blooming. I went out to take some last pictures, as I’m sure, with the coming freezes, they’ll be gone.
All seasons come to an end, but this one was especially nice.
NOW – out to harvest and cover my garden!
Fingers crossed!!!!
Filed under Gardening, Mother Nature
The Literacy Site via Cathy Ruggiero
Filed under Favorite Quotes, Reading is FUNdamental
Almaz Imanova via Akiva Huber
“Autumn…the year’s last, loveliest smile.” William Cullen Bryant
Filed under Mother Nature
Essential Hardware
This afternoon my husband and I prepared the fall garden for winter. We fixed a hose that needed to be relocated in the fall garden section, draining the hose and reattaching it where it needs to go. Then we took off the irrigation system controller that fit between our above the ground agricultural faucet and the hose that goes out to the garden. Now we don’t have to worry about the brains of the system freezing. I took the batteries out and stored the system in the shop.
We also had our geothermal heat and air conditioning checked out by the expert who checks things spring and fall to make sure we don’t have any problems, and we changed the big filters. We then discovered that the exhaust flexible hose from the dryer to the outside of the house was loose and we could see sunlight! We got that fixed pretty easily and THINK it’ll now stay put.
We’re now pretty well ready for winter. The garage now has dry wood up the wall below the cat cubes where the kitties can stay warm. We won’t have to get out into the weather if we need to replace the firewood we have ready to light in the fireplace. (We didn’t actually need the fireplace last winter, but we love to light one, anyway, just for the comfort factor of being in a nice warm house when it’s yucky outside.) :0)
We have a big list on the fridge of what we need to finish in order to be ready to get snowed in. I think there are still a few things to go, but they’re minor things.
One of my friends in Denver said she was watching it snow outside today! I told her it was 86 here today, but that we were supposed to get rain tomorrow along with a stiff cold front, bringing freezing morning temps Sat, Sun, and Monday. Hard to believe, but we know it’s coming.
I’m ready to put sheets over my fall garden plants tomorrow night – hoping to keep my plants alive as long as possible.
Are you getting ready for winter?
Filed under Challenges, Changes
Yinyangmother
Today I did the “Spinal Health” and “Overall Flow” sections of my “Yoga for Old Broads” DVDs. (Actually, the set is called, “Gentle Yoga” and is absolutely what I needed. I’m delighted I found it.
I have discovered an area where I’m really, really stiff and inflexible that I didn’t even know about! When I lie on my back and she tells me to put my hands on the floor above my head – I can’t. OOPS! I can put my arms over my head and let them HANG in the air, but there might be 3 or 4 inches or more between my arms and the floor!
The great teacher has stressed that you should do what you can do, so I’m just letting my arms hang there and breathing into the stretch. The funny thing is that the pose is for your core, stressing abdomen and pelvis, but the thing giving me trouble is the arms.
Another thing on which I’m working is to sit, while kneeling, on your feet. I REALLY feel that on the top of each thigh and my feet tend to cramp. I spend the whole time while she’s telling me how good I’m feeling trying to actually SIT in that position. Today I did a little bit better than I did yesterday.
I do feel that my body is ‘giving’ a bit more when I get into a pose. I guess the breathing into whatever stretch you’re doing allows your body to regroup and ease a bit.
It may take me the rest of my life to actually get flexible, but I’m gaining character, at least, by doing what I can, every day.
Filed under exercise
Today I harvested a bit of broccoli and some nice lettuce.
Today and tomorrow I’m going to look at everything carefully in the garden, spruce things up out there, and get ready to cover the plants up for the coming freezes starting Friday through the weekend.
Last year we were extremely lucky, picking fresh lettuce for our salads through mid January. We got spoiled, and I’m hoping we get spoiled again this year. All appendages are crossed!
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
Dr. David Friedman
Puns for Educated Minds – thanks to Marsha Koenig for her email –
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall.
One turns to the other and says, ‘Dam!’
23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in
the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you
can’t have your kayak and heat it too.
24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, ‘I’ve lost my electron.’ The
other says, ‘Are you sure?’
The first replies, ‘Yes, I’m positive.’
25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a
root-canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope
that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.
Filed under Grin for the Day
You can see two of the three 4×4 foot squares of our raised bed, square foot garden in this picture. I’ve been trying to grow broccoli, cauliflower, two kinds of lettuce, celery, and radishes this fall. You can also see the three NEW squares we now have ready for the spring.
I harvested some broccoli and some lettuce this afternoon. I’ll post pics as soon as my camera battery is recharged. (Don’t you wish WE could recharge our batteries by just plugging into an outlet on the wall?)
Our weather here is nuts. We’ve been having some really nice weather for the past couple of weeks. Today and tomorrow, though, the highs are in the mid 80’s – followed by Friday, Saturday, and Sunday with possible hard freezes. I’ll go out and clean up the garden as much as possible this afternoon. Tomorrow evening we’ll take down the automatic irrigation system for the garden. I’ll still be able to turn it on manually, if needed, but we don’t want the system to freeze. I’ll also plan to cover the plants with sheets for the three days. We usually have a cold snap that kills everything, followed by warmer weather. I’ll do what I can to keep things going as long as possible.
Filed under Gardening, Square Foot Gardening - Raised Beds
The Fitness Explorer
Besides my yoga (I’m going to do “Lower Back” and “Overall Flow” this afternoon as soon as my husband wakes up from his nap), I’m enjoying sitting on the exercise ball while I’m watching the weather and the news each evening.
This is easy, because we’re both in the living room watching the TV anyway, and the ball ‘lives’ in a corner of the living room, ready for action. I simply sit on it and bounce around a bit, keeping my balance. It amazes me that, while I think I’m sitting quietly, I actually have to keep adjusting to keep my balance on the ball.
I find it’s wonderful for working your core. I have some sore muscles (shows I’m DOING something!) and my balance is getting better as I do this.
It’s a wonderful addition to my goal of moving more!
Filed under exercise
This is the Christmas decoration after the billious yellow-green primer and my using the overhead projector to mark it. This is the back of the piece, with the mounting bar going horizontally at the bottom of the sign.
The next step is what I call ‘color blocking,’ where I just get a quick coat of paint on everything showing where the colors are.
This shows where the white paint will go on the front.
Today I added the dark green of the sign, Santa’s skin, and his hat and mittens.
Tomorrow I’ll concentrate on the black and see if there is any correction needed. Then I’ll turn the piece over and do the same thing on the back.
I received my clear glitter glue today. I’m excited to see what that will add to the piece, but I’ll have to wait until the main painting on both sides is done.
The final touches will be the glitter glue and the Sno-Tex, a white paint that is supposed to add a bunch of texture to the white of his hat, mitten cuffs, hair, and beard.
Filed under Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
Silk
The original quote was, “The proof of the pudding is in the eating.” And what it meant was that you had to try out food to know whether it was good.
I told you about getting work done on our driveway yesterday, and hoping it would help our UPS driver get traction trying to come up our steep driveway to bring us deliveries, even though we could only afford to do about 1/6th of the driveway.
This morning the FEDEX guy came up. My husband came in, telling me that he was raving about how much easier it was to get up the driveway – and this was while having to drive around the saw horse we left down there until a few minutes ago, protecting the part where they did extra tar and extra chips.
My husband just drove down to get our mail and said he couldn’t tell where the FEDEX guy drove up – a BEAUTIFUL difference! We’ll wait to see what the UPS man says the next time he brings us a package, but it looks like the driveway people did a good job for us.
Hooray!
Filed under Delightful Surprises
I found this picture on the net a month or so ago. My husband said he didn’t like the Christmas tree we’ve displayed for a couple of years now, and wanted something different. I saved a bunch of possible images and finally got him to look at them a few days ago. We decided on this one.
My husband got onto his computer and ‘did his magic’, transforming an image to a code that the computer can recognize and recreate using the plasma torch, cutting the outline out of a sheet of metal. I will never cease to be amazed that he can do this. I love watching the torch cut the piece out of metal, untouched by human hands!
After we cut the outline, my husband chipped the slag off the back of the piece with a power tool, and then built and added the metal support that attaches the piece to our mailbox.
He then hung up the decoration outside and sprayed it with primer spray – a billious yellow we had plenty of – that will keep the piece from rusting.
We hung it up on a stand in the shop. We had printed a transparency of the design and put that on our overhead projector, turning off the lights in the shop so that I could use a magic marker and mark the design on the metal, front and back. (This one was more complicated because we had to do the Santa and the lettering separately so that it could be read on both sides.)
I’m now painting the decoration in the shop. I’m first just making sure the right color is where it should be on the front side. I did the white yesterday on the front. After I get the color blocked on the front, I’ll turn it over and paint it on the back.
I’ve ordered some clear glitter glue to paint over the red and green to make it sparkle. I’ve also ordered a special paint called, “Sno-Tex” that will give the white a lot more texture. I’ve never used either of these, so it’ll be fun to see if the results will come close to the picture in my mind’s eye.
I’ll take pics as progress is made and post them.
Filed under Decorating Ideas, Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
“I’m Cold!” – Paul Militaru Photography
It’s hard to believe that people and animals are having to bundle up in many parts of the world. It’s supposed to be 86 degrees F. here today, and 83 tomorrow, before a cold front comes through, with a possible hard freeze, on Friday morning!
I’m going to go out to the fall garden and harvest today. Thursday night I’ll start putting sheets over the fall garden plants, hoping to save them for awhile longer. Last year I was able to continue harvesting lettuce for salads until mid January or after. I have no clue what to expect this year, but I’m hopeful…
Filed under Paul Militaru Photography
Lupytha Hermin via http://www.yesemails.com via Marsha Koenig
http://www.trueactivist.com via http://www.yesemails.com via Marsha Koenig
http://www.yesemails.com via Marsha Koenig
Filed under Encouragement, Favorite Quotes
Today before we went to town we put up our Thanksgiving mailbox decoration. People stopped as we put him up, saying they enjoy driving past our driveway to see what we’ve put up lately. Can you think of a nicer compliment?
Filed under holidays, Lewis Art, Lewis Mailbox Decorations
Ryan Fitness Professional – WordPress.com
For two days in a row I’ve been really, REALLY good – eating what I’m supposed to eat, and NOT eating what I’m not supposed to eat. I’ve done two sections on my yoga DVDS for two days in a row – the first day was “Joints Mobility” and “Overall.” Yesterday was “Head, Neck & Shoulders” and “Overall.” Today my day got away from me and I didn’t do my yoga.
My scales are laughing at me.
Clipartix
I realize that the scales may be showing water weight, increased muscle, etc., but right at the moment, it seems I’m making excuses for myself. I’m going to be sure to get my yoga for the rest of the week, but it would be SO NICE if the scale would at least PRETEND to be impressed….
By the way, I tried a nice low carb recipe for chicken, broccoli and pimento cheese that we liked. I’m going to tweak it a bit before I present it here, but this will definitely be a keeper!
We were leaving for errands this afternoon when a guy in a truck stopped at the bottom of the driveway and offered to help us fix our driveway with blading, plus tar and chip application. We said we were in a hurry, but we talked with him about options. We finally said we would allow him to blade the bottom of the driveway where we have the most problem. If we liked what he did, we would consider the tar and chip application for the lower part of the driveway because there was no way in the world we could afford to do the whole thing.
When we came home, there were three trucks on the road in front of our house. We saw that they had really improved the lower part of the driveway – in fact, they had bladed almost the whole length – 650 feet! They were ready to do the tar and chip. We told them we had not come to any agreement on anything and wanted an estimate of how much 100 feet up our driveway would cost. We finally came to an agreement on the price, saying that we would not pay anything more than this.
We are really pleased (and relieved, to be honest) that they really did a good job for us.) My husband went down to see for himself. It looks as if the whole bottom section of the driveway as been newly graveled. They laid down two coats of tar and then covered it with fine gravel, using a heavy roller to imbed the gravel into the tar. Then they put a lot more gravel on top of that. They made the driveway entrances on both sides flatter, so hopefully, the UPS man, who comes up our driveway from the ‘wrong side,’ should have a much easier time getting traction and hopefully won’t cause so much damage to our driveway. We really like him, and we like having UPS delivery, but we’ve been spending a fortune trying to fix the ruts he makes as he tries to make it up our driveway. Here are some pictures of the bottom 100 feet of our driveway –
This shows you a view from across the road from our driveway. The saw horse is there is discourage anyone from using that part of the driveway until it has a bit more time to set. This is the direction from which the UPS guy comes. There used to be a kind of hump just past the saw horse, but the guys bladed it out.
This is the opposite side of the driveway – the direction we use most often.
The improvement (blading, tar, and gravel) go up to several feet past the owls.
This is a few from up past the owls looking down toward the street. We got about 1/6th of the driveway done. This was the hardest part to keep in good shape, so we’re hoping that this will help us a bunch. Fingers crossed!
(I DID make sure that we received a written receipt of what the job entailed and what we paid when the job was finished.) We saved a lot of money by being ready to act when all the trucks, supplies, and equipment were in the area. I don’t think we could have afforded what we had done today if we had simply called the company, had them come out and give an estimate, and then come out to do the work.
Filed under Challenges, Changes
Rothenburg Ob der Tauber, Germany via Triposo
Filed under Seemingly Storybook Places
creativeartworksblog 