Daylilies and Buds – Les – @lgvd on X
Pinterest – I think the signature says, Rachel McNautry
Victor Bauer Paintings
Filed under paintings I love
Getting the Lard Off
I’ve come across several recipes for getting the lard off recently and thought I would share –
I’m incorporating portion control, eating more fruit and veggies, eating more fiber, intermittent fasting, drinking more water, and trying to get more exercise. 11 pounds down so far. Trying to make it to 12…
Filed under DIET!
Toys
Sent by a good friend
I won’t look this cute, but I plan to use this wonderfully cooler day today to get some things done in the yard. It’s 49 degrees F. right now, so I’m actually waiting a bit until it WARMS UP (imagine that!) before I go out. :0)
I’ll probably do several sessions, with some resting in-between, and see how much I can accomplish.
Filed under Gardening
The Art of Autumn
I think this is lovely. I could just sit and watch it, soaking up the atmosphere of it, for hours.
Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts
Happy Fall, Y’All!
ASA Builders Supply
I know ‘autumn’ began on the 23rd of September, but since Arkansas has been experiencing record-breaking heat for the month, it really didn’t SEEM like it. Just an abstract ‘wished-for’ concept.
Recently we got rain and a cool front that appreciably lessened the high temperatures. This afternoon we’re due for another cool front (without the rain this time) that will take the temperatures down even farther. HOORAY! The high will be in the low 80s today and I think in the high 60s tomorrow. Woo HOOOO! It’ll be NICE when I’m trying to work outside. I can’t wait!!
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SeniorGif.com
We have Lunch Bunch today. No one has contacted me yet, so I’m hopeful that SOMEONE will be there to eat with us. If not, we’ll just enjoy some lunch and do our errands.
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Makoto Shinkai Potato – Tenor
I’m planning to do a couple of weeding sessions on the area to the side of our shop and in front of our garden this afternoon. I’m making progress, but it’s slow.
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Delish
I’ll also get the makings of chili in the crock pot when we get back from Lunch Bunch. Not sure what else is in store, but I hope the weather where you are is nice and that you have a wonderful Friday.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Amazing Facts You Need to Know
(sent to me by a friend. I’m STILL laughing)
HelpGuide.org
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If you yelled for 8 years, 7 months and 6 days you would have produced enough sound energy to heat one cup of coffee.
(Hardly seems worth it.)
If you farted consistently for 6 years and 9 months, enough gas is produced to create the energy of an atomic bomb.
(Now that’s more like it!)
The human heart creates enough pressure when it pumps out to the body to squirt blood 30 feet.
(O.M.W.!)
A pig’s orgasm lasts 30 minutes.
(O.M.W.!!!)
A cockroach will live nine days without its head before it starves to death.(Creepy)
(I’m still not over the pig.)
Banging your head against a wall uses 150 calories an hour.
(Don’t try this at home; maybe at work.)
The male praying mantis cannot copulate while its head is attached to its body. The female initiates sex by ripping the male’s head off.
(Honey, I’m home . What the…?)
The flea can jump 350 times its body length. It’s like a human jumping the length of a football field.
(30 minutes. Lucky pig! Can you imagine?)
The catfish has over 27,000 taste buds.
(What could be so tasty on the bottom of a pond?)
Some lions mate over 50 times a day.
(I still can’t believe that pig …quality over quantity.)
Butterflies taste with their feet.
(Something I always wanted to know.)
The strongest muscle in the body is the tongue.
(Hmmmmmm…….)
Right-handed people live, on average, nine years longer than left-handed people.
(If you’re ambidextrous, do you split the difference?)
Elephants are the only animals that cannot jump.
(Okay, so that would be a good thing.)
A cat’s urine glows under a black light.
(I wonder how much the government paid to figure that out.)
An ostrich’s eye is bigger than its brain.
(I know some people like that.)
Starfish have no brains.
(I know some people like that, too.)
Polar bears are left-handed.
(If they switch, they’ll live a lot longer.)
Humans and dolphins are the only species that have sex for pleasure.
(What about that pig? Do the dolphins know about the pig?)
Metal Posters Display Multi-Media Art
Displate – Glass Shards Landscape – Alfred Ipkis
Kirigami Art
Displate.com provides a metal poster for artwork like those above. The poster mounted with magnets.
Go to their website to find out more.
Filed under metal art
Thursday 10-5-2023
Crocheted By Ana – Etsy UK
This little girl and her costume simply melted me into a puddle.
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TIME for Kids
It rained here, but not until last night. The forecasts, depending on which ones you chose, said the rain would begin at 8am yesterday morning, or noon, or after sunset. The after-sunset group won the forecast battle, but the thunderstorms they were talking about didn’t materialize here. The temperature decreased and we got some civilized rain with a few rumblings. NICE. It’s 69 here now, and is due to get to 81 this afternoon. This is a nice relief after all the super-hot-for-September-and-October weather we’ve been having. We’ve been breaking records daily and I’m glad to stop.
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@Britton65Sam on X – hahahahahahahaahah
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iStock-TanglewoodMoms
I’m going to try to get up to my art room today to see what havoc I can wreak. I finally have a day where it’s too wet to work outside and I just finished vacuuming the first floor tiles, so maybe I can play a bit. :0)
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I hope you have a fun Thursday.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
Wednesday 10-4-2023
We just got our mail and put up this mailbox decoration of Catbert, the evil HR director in the Dilbert cartoon series. I was planning to put up our Jack-0-Lantern, but my husband wanted this one. I forgot to take my phone, so I’ll have to get a pic of the front the next time we go out.
Unsplash
We’re due for some heavy thunderstorms today and tomorrow along with cool fronts that will take the highs into the 70s and 80s. The rain is supposed to start around noon. I’M READY! Woo HOOOO!
Amber is acting much more like herself now, although she is still over-exuberant at times. I went out with her this morning, just planning to walk around with her a bit. I didn’t put her on her leash. She immediately went to a spot in the yard, put her nose down, held the pose a few seconds, then started digging furiously, having probably found a mole, vole, or other ‘ole.’ I stopped her quickly and brought her back in. She seems to be healing well now. She is still on antibiotics and eye cream and I’m washing her wounds carefully with soap and water daily.
“No Rain, no flowers” 8×10 Hand-Painted Inspirational Sign on hard board – $16.95 with FREE SHIPPING to the contiguous U.S. – HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy
I hope this Wednesday is a good one for you.
Life is Full of Surprises
I had to share this one with you. I was so surprised and pleased. Wonderful ‘story,’ and great surprise for the ones kind enough to stop and try to help.
Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts, video
Gift to Myself
The Last Flight of the Starleap by Simon Panneton
I downloaded this book on my Kindle a month or so ago and loved it, racing through the 526 pages of it to find out what happened. I then did something I almost never do – I started it again, reading it much more slowly so that I could savor the clever and unique turns of phrases employed throughout the book.
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A few examples –
“Swing straining a little under the weight of kids trying to kick the blue off the sky.”
“her face painted ten shades of astonished.”
“I can’t find words big enough to fit how I feel.”
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Next, I did something I’ve NEVER done – I contacted the author, telling him how much I loved the book, writing a review on Amazon (my first) and telling YOU about it on my blog.
THEN I did something I REALLY don’t do much anymore. I have more books than I have shelves, even though I regularly donate books to our local library for book sales. Book are expensive, so I’m trying to only keep books I NEED to have with me. Also, since money flies out the windows these days, more and more with inflation, I’m trying to read my Kindle more and more, limiting myself mainly to what I can find through my free Kindle subscription – even though even Kindle is starting to charge me monthly. I bought this one, though, even saying all the above. Even having had read it twice already.
This is Simon Panneton’s first book. It’s already one of my favorites and “have-to-haves-for-my-own.”
It came yesterday. My husband opened the package, leaving the book on the dining area table for me. This morning he asked me about it. Then asked if he could borrow it and read it. Since I know where he lives (:0) and am sure he’ll return it, I’m letting him read it.
I highly recommend this book and am eagerly awaiting his next one.
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews
Tuesday Thoughts 10-3-2023
We’ll get our Jack-o-Lantern mailbox decoration up this week. We have my husband’s haircut and a couple of errands, but otherwise, a quiet day.
We took Amber back to the vet yesterday. If the cone was OFF, she messed with the stitches on her arm. If it was ON, it aggravated the mass in her neck. Her neck started to bleed pretty heavily yesterday and the stitches on her arm were in shreds. The vet looked her over, decided she was healing well. The blood was draining from the abscess in her neck. End result – the cone is OFF. She is free to kick and chew whatever parts she wants. The draining has stopped for now. We are still giving her antibiotics, applying eye cream, and cleaning the wounds daily.
Unsplash
I’m doing several weeding sessions each day, trying to clear the area to the side of the shop that is between our house and the garden. There are a gazillion or so ‘weed trees’ that are too much for the weed whacker. I’m pulling them out, 15 minutes or so at a time, until I get to the place I can cut the rest down with the weed eater. When I finish THAT, my plan is to spray the whole area with KillzAll. There is no reason for grass or weeds there. There is some gravel underneath. So this is a multi-layer project I’ll do a bit at a time.
We’re supposed to get a cool front and rain tomorrow and Thursday, so I’ll redouble my efforts on the weed trees today.
I hope that you have a really nice day.
Filed under Thoughts on a ________
My Favorite Ugly Birds
Mr. Contact
Frogmouth – SanDiegoZoo.org
Pink Backed Pelican – @AriaaJaeger on X
Potoo
I just LOVE these birds. There is something endearing about them. My absolute favorite is the Shoebill Stork, but a close second is the Pink-backed Pelican.
Filed under Amazing Animals
The Wonderful Peter Hogarth
Peter Hogarth Artist – Dog Portraits
@PeterHogarth55 on X
Filed under animal paintings, drawings, Peter Hogarth - Artist
Halloween 2023 – 1
diydarlin.co
I love Halloween – the feeling, the creativity people show regarding costumes and decorations, trick-or-treating, Halloween parties, and more.
I have fond memories of trick-or-treating with my friends when I was in grade school – a hundred or so years ago. Back in the dark ages, it was safe to actually go trick-or-treating. A group of us would head out to the neighborhood behind us where the houses were closer together and the Halloween spirit was high. People would turn on their porch lights or keep their house doors open to show kids they were welcome.
We wouldn’t stop until our containers were full and we hardly had the strength to walk all the way home again. It was glorious.
The only warning back then was to be careful of apples because some bad people might put a razor blade in them. Since an apple was the least favorite thing I might gather that night, I could readily ‘watch out’ for that! :0)
I loved the freedom of that night. Being with friends so late at night, sharing the one night a year it was okay to gather and then eat candy, the day we donned our costumes and enjoyed the houses decorated for the occasion.
Can You Hear My Sigh of Relief?
Clker
I’ve been fighting with my WordPress program all day long. I hit some awful combination of keys and inadvertently made the viewing screen unusable, as far as writing anything. One word would fill up the entire screen. I couldn’t even tell which page I was on, much less where I was on the page.
Of course, the chat help people weren’t available today. I couldn’t figure out how to email them, or to explain the problem in a way an expert could help me fix it.
I’ve worked on it, then given up in defeat countless times today. At least it gave me a reason to brave the heat and strong sun to do more weed tree weeding in my current project area. I would work out there, get overheated and tired and come back in, rest, try to fix the WordPress problem again, then do it all again.
A few minutes ago I sat down once again. I looked across the top of my screen again and suddenly saw a ‘400%’ I hadn’t noticed before. I went up to it, changed it to ‘100%’ and my problem was fixed. Ahhhhhhh!
When I caused the problem, I had been trying to change an ‘n’ to a Spanish ‘n’. I had looked up the procedure and it said to hit ‘control’ then ‘shift’ and then ‘n’. When I did that, I got 99 screens one on top of the other of my email screen PLUS the unusable WordPress screen. Needless to say, this non-technical person will just forego the change in the artist’s name the next time I try to share his work with you.
I am SOOOOOOOOOOO relieved right now! :0)
Filed under Challenges
Happy October!
Unsplash
I’m hoping that THIS month the weather will finally turn fall-like. It doesn’t need to stun me with all colors of leaves on the trees. I don’t have to have all the things I love about the fall – sweaters and hoodies, hot chocolate, videos of dogs or kids jumping into piles of leaves, etc. I would just really appreciate being able to work outside without being warned of heat stroke, conscientiously keeping my outside sessions short, having to take half an hour or more with a cold drink to bring my temperature down after one of these short sessions.
There is something about lowering of temperatures that makes me SO much more energetic. I love to putter around in my yard and my garden, cleaning things up, making plans for the spring, just enjoying the sunshine and cool breezes.
I’ve done one short session in the yard today so far. It is forecast to be 92 this afternoon. UGH. I’ll try to get several sessions in anyway, since we don’t have errands today.
I hope it’s nice where you are. I wish you a happy October.
Filed under Seasons
One Thing Leads to Another
Our driveway detector went off while I was at the computer. We have TWO detectors. When one goes off, it’s probably a deer in the driveway or another critter. When one goes off followed quickly by the second, a vehicle is on its way up.
I got up to see if it was, in fact, a deer because the last few mornings, I’ve been treated to quite a view of them. Some run right off, but other stop and stare at me as I’m staring at them. It’s wonderful.
This morning I didn’t see anything, but on the way back to the house, noticed my elephant ears needed a bit of cleaning up. I took these pics –
It’s still a bit misty this morning, but this group of elephant ears is blooming the best I can remember. The leaves are way taller than I am. That’s really appreciated this year because my garden was essentially a bust due to the wonky weather we had. It’s good to know that some things really enjoy the highs and lows we’ve had, the storms, etc., and thrive anyway.
Filed under Gardening, Thoughts on a ________
Beautiful Post on X
“Our 14-year-old dog Abbey died last month. The day after she passed away my 4-year-old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so, and she dictated these words: Dear God, Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick. I hope you will play with her. She likes to swim and play with balls. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her you will know that she is my dog. I really miss her. Love, Meredith We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven. That afternoon she dropped it into the letterbox at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had. Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, ‘To Meredith’ in an unfamiliar hand. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, ‘When a Pet Dies.’ Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page were the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note: Dear Meredith, Abbey arrived safely in heaven. Having the picture was a big help and I recognized her right away. Abbey isn’t sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don’t need our bodies in heaven, I don’t have any pockets to keep your picture in so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by. Thank you for the beautiful letter. (Heart Icon)”
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Posted by @Dalbodog on X
When a Pet Dies by Fred Rogers
Filed under Blog Repost - Wonderful Posts
Saturday 9-30-2023
VinePair
I don’t actually have this hole in our back yard, but one about half this size is what I mentally picture from time to time when my husband and I are having a disagreement…
I won on the latest ‘discussion’ of whether Amber should be wearing her cone or not. Her surgery was Wed. This is Saturday. She’s supposed to wear it at least a week, if not two, so she doesn’t mess with the stitches on her arm or paw at her eyes. End of discussion? NOOOOOO. Just the beginning. After I went outside to contemplate the hole, my husband finally relented, so Amber is protected from herself again. Fighting over things that shouldn’t be issues is exhausting.
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The 8 Hour Diet by David Zinczenko with Peter Moore
I read Intermittent Fasting for Seniors by Norah Halstead recently, since I’m trying to put together things that will help me lose and then keep off my lard. Norah’s book made me want to learn more – specifically, more details of what to do and how to make it work.
I’m now reading the 8 Hour Diet. It expands on the idea of intermittent fasting, zeroing in on the time I had chosen from Norah’s book, where you fast for 16 hours and then eat during an 8 hour time window. I’ve been doing this for several days now, even without more information, and the scales began to notice this morning. The smirking was less, enabling a small smile to appear on MY face. I’ve been bouncing around about 10 pounds off lately, and this morning I have almost 12 pounds off. I feel that I’m working a 1,000 piece puzzle, but the pieces are finally beginning to come together.
I’m about half way through my first reading of the book. I’m dog-earring pages to read later (like success stories) because I’m already convinced that this might help me in my efforts. I’m digging for the meat – the details these two men are providing – that may lead to success for me. I’ll share more as I go, but thought I would go ahead and recommend this book in case you are considering intermittent fasting.
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Craftsman – Lowe’s
We have a push weed whacker similar to this. I’ve been planning to use ours to do a major clean-up around our garden. It’s WAAAAAY to wet to do it now. I was just walking Amber and came in with not only my shoes wet, but my jeans about half way up to my knee! Waiting till afternoon seems good, but the temperatures have been climbing into the 90s – too hot for me to do much. I’ll give it a try, but I may have to wait until the afternoon temperatures moderate a bit more.
I hope that you enjoy this last day of September. I’m hoping that October brings us some good fall weather.
Filed under Book - Movie - TV Reviews, Challenges, Gardening
creativeartworksblog 