I love these images of people being really creative with food. It frustrates me that I find many of them on Pinterest, and not only do they not list the creator, but most of them don’t have the name of the person who pinned them. I would love to be able to give credit when I find creative things to share with you. I’ll provide all the information I have.
As you can see, the lettuce and spinach in this planter seem to be happy so far. I’ll need to do another lettuce harvest soon. :0)
If you look carefully, you can see the yellow blossom! I have several of these now and nothing seems to be eating any of the plants yet. The purple iris are almost gone now, being replaced by yellow ones. My husband brought in a pale purple iris he found on the way to our shop yesterday. It was a nice surprise.
I wish I could meet the person who came up with this.
Update: My husband is healing well from his sudden encounter with our brick planter brought about by our dog, Amber, getting excited while on the leash for her last outing of the night. We are now just letting her out now – no leash – and waiting for her to do her business and return. We do learn from our experiences. He reports no pain in either his ear (7 of 8 stitches removed by the nurse practitioner yesterday morning, and the last one ‘snipped’ so it will come out easily over time as the scab finishes healing and falls off.) When I asked him about his previously dislocated little finger, he held up the wrong hand to look at it. :0) Amber is looking quite innocent about all this, just enjoying life.
I just went out to check the veggie planters. All seem to be doing great. I’ll show you some pics in another post this morning. Since we’re supposed to get a lot more rain today, we’ll go down and get our mail and drag our trash can back up the driveway to its resting spot before lunch.
I hope that your Wednesday is a pleasant and happy one.
We got up at 0-dark-thirty this morning and were waiting in front of the clinic at 7am, since the lady I talked to yesterday told me it was first come, first served with a limited number of patients accepted, so it was best to get there as early as possible. They opened a bit early. We filled out paperwork and were called after only a few minutes.
The nurse practitioner removed 7 (of 8 (!) stitches) from my husband’s ear. She snipped the last one, saying she didn’t want to disturb it because it was embedded deeply in the rather thick scab there. She said it will now come out on its own as the scab heals and falls off. We are supposed to be careful not to bump it a lot, but it looks like it’s healing well.
We treated ourselves to breakfast at The Dari in town before coming home. As we checked for mail, the mailman drove by and handed our mail to my husband. We are in for the day now, and he’s taking a nap.
CNN
I’m still very happy that we got to see the eclipse yesterday. It was different than I expected, in that we didn’t see the whole sun blocked by the whole moon surrounded by a corona, but we saw the sun disappear bit by bit until it was ‘gone’ leaving us in a twilight state for several minutes before starting to appear again, bit by bit. It was the first one we’ve ever seen, and the last one since it won’t happen again for 20 years, so we’re happy that we actually got to see something this time.
Later on today, I’ll check my veggie plants to see if they made it through the night. The forecast said we might get hail. By the time they said that, it was already dark and I decided the heck with it. We’ll see.
I’m feeling pretty groggy since it seems we got up in the middle of the night in order to get to the clinic today. If I do my yoga and my elliptical trainer today, I will decided I have done well.
We’re going to the Walk-in clinic this morning at 0-dark-thirty to get my husband’s stitches out, and then will try to get breakfast at The Dari, one of our favorite restaurants, if he feels like it.
I’m awe-struck. I’ve never seen a solar eclipse before. I set out two chairs in our back yard and got out our glasses. I decided not to try to take pics. I noticed it was getting darker when I looked out the window toward the front yard, so I grabbed the glasses, yelled at my husband, and headed out the back door. It had already started, with a small chunk out of the bottom right side of the sun.
It was amazing to us that even when the sun went completely dark, it was like dusk in our back yard. We could have seen to drive. We didn’t see the corona around the round sun. Our view was such that the crescent kept getting smaller and smaller and then there was just a bit left at the upper left of the circle. Then it was completely gone.
It was dark for several minutes and then a small bit of light showed to the right side of the moon. It’s still getting lighter as I type, but we saw the magnificence of the whole event. My husband is even mowing again right now, being upset that he missed an area on the first mowing.
ALWAYS in the past, when comets are supposed to be giving a showy, showery display, or the planets are in alignment, or something else wonderful is happening, WE get storms or clouds or flying hairballs – SOMETHING that makes it a non-event here.
Today, when we likely won’t be here anymore for the next one, we got to see it. What a sight!
Here in Greenwood AR we are in the ‘path of the totality.’ We are supposed to see our peak at 1:45 this afternoon. It’s sunny and bright right now, but the forecasters say that clouds are coming in for tonight’s rain. :0( I’m hoping that they hold off until I get to see my first and only eclipse. It’s supposed to start here about 1:45pm. I’ll be out there before that with my glasses and my camera, just in case. All appendages, including my eyes, are crossed that as many people as possible will be able to stare, awestruck, at one of the world’s miracles.
We will stay completely clear from town today. We’ll go to the bottom of the driveway in a while to take our trash down and get our mail, then we’ll turn around and come back up. The news people are ASKING people not to stop their vehicles in the middle of the street, on a dam or bridge, or just sidle to the side of a road in the middle of this. We don’t need to be on the road at ALL, so we won’t be.
Saturday was was a zombie, not doing my exercises or much of anything else after a really poor night of sleep. Yesterday I was a ‘good girl,’ doing 11 minutes on my elliptical trainer in the garage and then my half hour or so of old lady stretching yoga. I put TWO stars on my desk calendar. :0) Today I’ll do my exercises for my arms with my dumbbells and then my yoga.
I bought a beautiful beef roast at the store yesterday and got it in the crock pot a while ago. We haven’t had one in a long time, so this will be a real treat. My husband immediately said he would make the mashed potatoes. I had to tell him that would be fine, but to just make enough for him, since I wouldn’t eat them with my keto eating plan. He looked at me and said, “___ the potatoes. I’ll eat whatever you’re eating.” (He’s definitely a keeper.) So we’ll have a nice tossed salad – with some lettuce included from OUR VEGGIE GARDEN and some steamed broccoli.
I wish you a Happy Eclipse Day. I hope we can all see at least a piece of it.
Things are starting out quietly here this morning. I actually got some good rest last night, so I’m feeling almost human this morning. My husband is sleeping in.
We plan to run errands today, getting the mail we didn’t yesterday, plus hitting a couple of places for supplies.
Britannica
We will only be going down to the bottom of the driveway tomorrow for mail and to leave our trash for pickup, since our small town expects viewers to arrive for viewing the eclipse. The schools will be closed, too. We have traffic jams twice a day (around schools opening and letting out – hence, the bypass that is being constructed) so – even with the schools closed – if three people come to see the eclipse, we’ll have a mess on our hands… :0)
Our skies are due to be ‘partly cloudy’ which probably means we won’t be able to see much at all here. I’ll be out there with my glasses to see whatever I can see. I have a pair for my husband, too, but he tends to scoff at things such as this, so I don’t know if he’ll join me or not.
Yesterday was a complete wash-out since I had gotten very little sleep. I did a bit in the veggie planters and some cooking, but did not exercise, except to get into and out of my recliner. :0) I’ll make up for that today, doing my yoga and the elliptical.
This is an old picture of Amber and me. It gives you an idea of her size.
I told you that she has been getting into trouble lately and causing us a bit of grief. I am taking her out late at night as her last outing of the night NOT on the leash, as my husband was doing, since she pulled him into the planter and caused a lot of grief plus an all-nighter in the ER. I am simply letting her out, telling her to ‘hurry up’ and hoping she won’t be gone long, if she leaves the area. So far, so good.
The other problem is that we had taken down baby gates, leaving only one between the tiled areas on the first floor and the carpeted ones. She has a nice bed in the utility room right next to the garage. Suddenly, she was stealing food off the counter in the kitchen, or grabbing not-yet rinsed dishes and taking them to her bed, etc. We finally re-installed the baby gate between the dining/kitchen/pantry areas and the utility room.
The problem THEN was we installed it so the gate opening part got in the way of the door to the garage. We go in and out of that door all day long, so we were TRYING to adapt to the difference. We finally decided today to turn the baby gate around so it opened the other way – AWAY from the door to the garage. It took us a bit of time but we just accomplished it. This will save us a bunch of problems, as I found myself with the gate part open, the door to the garage open, the dog trying to bull her way past me to get OUT and the cat trying to sneak past me to get IN – all at the same time with me right in the path.
Hopefully we can now separate Amber from any food that needs to be out to thaw, or the chance to take a breath after dinner before cleaning up the kitchen. I’ll be able to let Amber out without getting trapped between the doors and the cat streaking her way in.
Life gets complicated sometimes, but we – as our animals’ people – are supposed to be smarter than they are…
I won’t say I have built a ‘habit’ of doing my approximately half-hour of old lady yoga stretching daily, but it HAS become a grudging ‘responsibility to myself.’ I highly resent that I don’t get a flood of endorphins, or whatever you’re supposed to get that makes you happy to be alive, raring to go, climbing Mt. Everest in the morning, and what not. I just do my stretches the best way I can, usually feeling a bit ‘looser’ than I did when I first got down on my mat, and put my sparkly star on my calendar.
Women’s Health
Yesterday I started a new thing – a few exercises to strengthen my arms with 5-pound weights. I only did 5 reps of each movement, but it’s a start and I’ll build up from here. I’ll do this M-W-F. (I put TWO stars on my calendar yesterday.)
vgajic – Getty Images – Fit and Well
Today I’ll do 10 minutes or so on my Elliptical Trainer in the garage – after cleaning off quite-a while’s-worth of dust off and finding my MP3 player. (I just FOUND it – plugged into its charger behind my computer screen, along with the earplugs that go with it. :0) ) I’ll plan to do this right after lunch, and the plan is to do this T-TH-S and increase the time as I can.
Since I’ve already been out weeding and harvesting my veggie planters this morning, the yoga and the elliptical will round out my day nicely on moving the bulk.
I THINK I’m functional this morning, but I’m sleep-deprived. Last night was awful. My husband was constantly moving – an unusual thing for him – intermittently snoring – NOT as unusual. He was actually cross-wise in the bed at one point and I had to wake him up to get him to move so I had a spot. Then I had a bad dream, so I went downstairs to read until about 2:30. I was just dozing off again upstairs when Amber started barking. I went downstairs to ask her firmly to stop. I caught about 45 minutes sleep, I think, and she started in again. AND, of course, I was up twice to pee…. So I’m feeling like a zombie, trying to get what I need to do done anyway.
I checked on my veggies and actually had my first lettuce harvest!
I harvested the largest lettuce leaves from two planters, cleaning up the plants a bit, snipping off dead leaves, weeding a bit, etc. Things are looking good right now.The spinach is doing well so far.Combination tomato plants, lettuce, and spinach.Just tomatoes (although I did strew some green bell pepper seeds around a week ago in all three planters.)1st lettuce harvest – 4-6-2024 – we’ll enjoy some of this tonight with some baked fish and spinach (one day some we’ve grown, I hope).azalea
mystery blue periennial
I hope that your Saturday is more ‘alert’ than mine and that you feel really good this morning.
I’m finally making a bit of progress on my efforts to do woodburning in my art room. I’m working on a couple of things at the moment – a little owl on a small piece of wood and a larger wooden plaque.
It’s fun, but I’m still a bit intimidated by the whole process. I found that the special gloves I ordered that were stretchy and pretty comfortable – with only the first two fingers and thumb covered – didn’t really do the job. After only a very few minutes, I was feeling the heat and had to stop. I finally got some pretty used-up leather gloves that I had in the shop and cut them up in the same manner as the stretchy ones. They are more cumbersome, but they seem to protect my fingers and hand better. I’ll continue to use those.
Learning to use the various tips in the kit will take a long time. I’m only using two basic ones so far – one for outlining and lettering and the other for shading. I’m moving very slowly because I have little clue what I’m doing.
There are lots of people online doing woodburning via lasers and computers. They are doing some really nice things, but it’s a question of buying or writing computer programs that guide the lasers. My husband and I have done things like this in our shop, with metal, using computer-guided CNC equipment. It’s fun, but I don’t consider it very creative or real art. We do our mailbox decorations like this. I would rather try to do the woodburning myself, creating things manually.
I’m down 23.6 pounds – closer to my interim 5-pound goal. I’m doing my 30 minutes of old lady stretching yoga each day. I’m going to add exercise for my arms with 5 pound weights on M-W-F and a few minutes on the elliptical trainer T-Th-S. It would be nice to see a good difference by the end of April.
American Montessori Society
My sweet veggie plants are still doing well despite the wild changes in temperatures. I just watered everything, and I’ll take some pics tomorrow to share with you. I also plan to harvest some lettuce!
We had to re-install one of Amber’s gates last night. We’ve been keeping her on the tiles since her tummy hasn’t been completely reliable lately. It doesn’t happen often, but we try to at least make sure her food has settled after feeding her before we let her into the carpeted area. Now she has started routing around for more food in the kitchen. I’m careful about not leaving anything on the counters or island, having learned the hard way that she will eat anything she can find. Last night I heard something and found her with her front feet on the counter in the kitchen licking the counter! So we re-installed the gate between the dining area/kitchen and the utility room.
I learned this morning that with the new gate I have to plan ahead to get out into the garage without incident. I managed to have the utility room gate open while trying to also open the door to the garage. Amber wanted out and Abby wanted in at the same time. It was a mess. I ended up shutting the door to the garage, closing the gate, then starting over on going out. When I finished, I related my ‘lesson’ to my husband, hoping to save him from experiencing the same thing.
Freepik
I’m still having bad dreams about trying to help my husband after Amber pulled him down into the brick planter on the 30th. I was really freaked out that I couldn’t get the blood to stop, and then we spent all night in the ER getting him the help he needed. In my dreams I continue to rush around frantically trying to gather what I needed to help him. We HAVE 1st aid kits, but they tended toward snake bite kits, etc., and I was rushing around upstairs and down, trying to find things to help us.
I have now ordered several things online in order to create two bins of wound care supplies – one for upstairs and the other downstairs, gathering the things I would have liked to have, or have more of. I’ve received some of the things I ordered, and I think I’ll receive the rest of them today. We’re going to get two bins with lids that I can label, distributing the things I ordered into them. Having them organized, where I can grab them quickly and have more of might be needed to at least get us to the ER intact will help me sleep better. Hopefully, I won’t need them.
The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions, some days nano seconds… Grab that joy wherever and whenever you can. A heart filled with happiness 2U. 😽🪄✨️💫♥️🫵 pic.twitter.com/dSSJ1X0g5l
— 🐈MEOWSHY😽 Neshama נשמה (@Meowshallah1) April 4, 2024