My newest paperback in the J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts “In Death” series is on its way to me today! I’m re-reading the previous books so I’ll have them all fresh in my mind before I dive into the newest one, “Forgotten in Death.”
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Each of these books stands alone, and I’m really impressed by how little repetition there is from one book to another. I enjoy revisiting the crimes, but my favorite part of this series is the building up of friendships, the sharing of their lives and their interaction with each other. And especially the wonderful relationship of the main character, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her love, Roarke.
My husband and I will change our mailbox decoration today to our celebration of another Happy New Year.
I’m finding it hard to believe that December is almost gone. AND 2021. May 2022 be a wonderful year for all of us.
Our weather is still absolutely amazing for December here in Arkansas. I noticed that we had the first day of winter on the 21st. Sometimes we have already had some snow by now. Our grass is green again. My husband refuses to mow in December and I can’t blame him. I’m still trying to get my body moving to get our planters in reasonable shape before we have a cold weather snap and it’s too cold to get out there. I’m TRYING to get one planter done each day, but so far, my INTENTIONS are speaking much louder than my actions.
I visited my friend Kay again yesterday. She is still in pain from her recent fall. She did find a rib support that seems to be helping her. I hate seeing her hurting. We all feel helpless to do anything but show we care.
Things happen – and more changes in a second than you can believe. Since I’m becoming an heirloom, more happens to the people I love, too.
My friend’s MRI is Monday, where they see how much damage she had from her recent fall. (Nothing broken, thank goodness.) A family member went from the ER to the hospital last night due to trouble breathing. She’s not in pain, thank goodness, but having trouble breathing is scary. My own next test/procedure is the middle of next month. A lot will depend on the results. Another friend texted me to tell me that she and her mom wouldn’t be at Lunch Bunch today. (she was going to a funeral and her mom wasn’t comfortable driving in the rain.) I’ll see what they think of having our Christmas gift exchange next THURSDAY. Fingers crossed.
We repaired a CB Radio antenna wire that the hugely gusty winds we had had snapped off. It runs between our well house and the main house and was hanging down in the yard. So, of COURSE my husband grabbed our tall ladder and wanted to climb to the top of the well house to try to fix it. I helped the best I could, running to the house to get parts, tools, and scrambling up and down the ladder to hand them to him. We got it repaired and back up again. No injuries.
This was topped off by our dog, Amber, coming back covered in ‘that-that-is-not-to-be-named,” and we had to finish off the afternoon by giving her a cold bath in the back yard, something that really got our attention.
Christmas cards feel like hugs. We’ve started hearing from friends and relatives we wish we could see more often. We sent out ours last week, and hope they feel OUR hugs, as well.
I’ll be really glad when Mother Nature decides which season we’re having. We MAY get another 3 inches of rain between now and tomorrow morning. Severe weather chances are low, though, and I’m really grateful for that.
I’m trying to immerse myself in my book and in listening to YouTube videos to keep any bad thoughts in the back part of my mind, happy that we are snug-as-a-bug-in-a-rug here. :0)
I’m trying to get our yard ready for the winter, but Mother Nature isn’t cooperating well. It’s been cold, then warms up and is rainy, then back again. It’s rainy today, and we have storms that might be severe tomorrow. Fingers crossed we come though the next batch of storms in one piece.
I keep listening to the news about the awful tornado damage and lost lives in so many states recently. It’s heartrending. My irritation about it not being comfortable to work out in the yard is selfish and I’m embarrassed.
Wish me luck on trying to keep my head on straight and my mouth firmly shut.
There are no words today after seeing the devastation and heartbreak Mother Nature wrought last night over Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky and Tennessee. I’m grateful we weren’t hit, but we keep learning more and more about the lives that were lost, the people left behind, and the terrible destruction.
My heart goes out to everyone. Words don’t help at a time like this, but I care.
I guess you can tell from the expression on my face above – it’s the height of being spoiled to admit that, when I’m lucky enough to have one of the best dentists on the planet with a full crew of good hygienists, I still HATE going there for our twice-a-year appointments.
Other than braces as a teenager, until this year I had never had a cavity or anything else done. One of the perks of getting to be older-than-dirt is that you start falling apart. Now I’ve had one cavity filled and one tooth pulled.
One of the things that scares me the most is the cancer check. My mom died of oral cancer. Hers, I think, was due to smoking. It still worries me that there MIGHT be a hereditary factor at play. Thankfully, my hygienist now does that screening for me first. (Did I tell you what wonderful people these are?)
I did the repainting of the greeter robot at the bottom of our driveway yesterday afternoon. He doesn’t look ‘new,’ but it definitely looks as if he is a treasured member of the family now. I’ll try to get a pic of him to show you later as we leave for the dentist this morning.
We’re due for thunderstorms and colder temperatures starting this afternoon, so I’m glad I got that little project finished.
A couple of days ago my husband turned off the irrigation system to the planters in our yard, turned on the propane heater in the well house, and plugged in the electric heater out there. Several weeks ago I cleaned out my raised bed square foot planter boxes and put tarps over them for the winter.
Today I unhooked the hose on the outdoor agricultural faucet that goes to the garden and unhooked the garden irrigation system control and stored it in the shop.
I will now try to clear out and neaten things up for the winter in the yard, along the driveway, etc. so it looks like someone cares. I will try to do something out there each day where the weather is cooperative.
The end of the growing season makes me sad, but I realize that everyone needs a rest before the whole cycle can start again.
It’s TOO cool and rainy here this morning! It’s 41 degrees F., gray, breezy, and rainy.
Cliff and his guys from Safe Elite Transformations 479-849-0520 are due here at 10:00 to re-install a board that trims the ceiling on the porch for us. When they made a new ceiling for us and painted the porch not too long ago, Cliff told me that there wasn’t much to attach the trim to. He’ll try to figure out a way to remedy that today. I can’t say enough about him and his group. If you need work, remodeling, building, or repair done in our area, you won’t find a better, more honest or hardworking company.
I will continue my repainting of the back of Wonder Wart-Hog, the mailbox decoration that was damaged when it was up on the mailbox for the first time. Someone really did a number on the back of it. It has been sprayed with ‘something’ that wouldn’t come off. I put a first coat on the green and white parts of the painting yesterday. When Cliff and his guys finish, if it’s not pouring, I’ll go out to the shop and see if I can get the second coat on. I’m hoping I can repair the damage. I’m disappointed that someone would do this. We have been putting the decorations up on the mailbox for years and years now without a problem. I hope we don’t have to stop.
The trees are NOT colorful here in this part of Arkansas this year. We’ve lost a TON of leaves already. So I was amazed when I looked out the back door two nights ago just before sunset and saw all the COLOR all the way across our valley. I’ve never seen it this way before, like the trees were bursting with light. I tried to get some pics, but most of them didn’t come out right. These two were the best I could do at the time.
It’s gorgeous this morning here in Arkansas. Most of the fog has already burned off, but I just snapped this pic –
When we first woke up, you couldn’t see we HAD a ridge line behind us. When we doing morning chores, it looked like someone had stretched rolls of wispy cotton between the hills in the valley. Cool, and simply gorgeous.
I walked around the yard briefly, enjoying the lushness surrounding me. I wanted to share how well the elephant ears are doing.
To give you an idea of their size, you can see a smaller leaf over a group of Impatiens in the center of the planter. That is at my eye level standing close to it.
I worked on the new mailbox decoration in the shop yesterday – Wonder Wart-Hog. I’m still laying in the basic color blocks on the first side. The piece is about 2-1/2 feet tall. I’m still feeling intimidated by all of the detail and difficult painting. My husband came in just before I broke for lunch and said, “You’ve made a lot of progress.” I hope I can do a good enough job on it that he is pleased.
I’m SO happy. I was sitting in my chair, re-reading a book and sipping coffee, front and back doors open to a nice breeze and suddenly heard the rain. Ah, glorious rain! We really need it.
We went out on the screened back porch (my dog Amber and I) so we could hear it better and smile at each other.
The forecast is for a ‘good chance’ of rain today and an even better chance tomorrow. Hooray!
I finished the weed whacking I wanted to do yesterday! The tomato planters are clean, the debris is gone, and I got the grass and weeds down from around the planters, under the house, under the deck, down the back sidewalk, and around the brick planter beside the garage pad. And now it’s raining, right on schedule. Hooray!
We’ll run our errands in half an hour, delighted by the rain even if we drown while we’re out. My husband will spew bad words because he’s tired of mowing for the season, but the plants are all breathing a sigh of relief.
It’s quite dark outside, looking like nighttime instead of morning, but we aren’t supposed to have severe weather, just a cold front with cooler temperatures. I’M READY! :0)
If the wind isn’t blowing a lot when we get home, I may get out my umbrella and enjoy a walk in the rain.
We’ve had an amazing several days on our trips to town. Almost every day we have seen deer, either standing beside the road watching us, or jumping in front of our car, scaring us to death before we can breathe enough to appreciate their beauty.
Yesterday it was a doe and two fawns crossing the road. The mother went first, followed by her baby, and then, when we thought the show was over, another fawn followed them.
I don’t know if it’s the really hot weather we’re having lately (heat index of 113 F. today) or what. Usually, if we see them at all, it’s early in the morning or just before dark in the evening. Now it’s in broad daylight.
I love it – but I HOPE we can give each other enough space not to get hurt.
Our mailbox decoration represents a return to our ‘normal” summer in Arkansas, rather than the cooler, rain-filled summer we’ve had this year. We’ve gotten quite spoiled, not fearing heat stroke as we mow, weedwhack, tend our flowers and square foot garden veggies.
All that ended about a week ago now. The rain stopped, the sun came out with a vengeance, raising our actual temperatures to 100 or more in the afternoons, and the heat index to surge even higher. UGH.
The only thing left in the garden now is sweet onions, weeds, and our two planters of tomatoes.
My husband managed to get the civilized part of our yard mowed, mowing right before dark one evening and then first thing in the morning the next day. I followed that with weed whacking right before dark night before last, and then finished it up last night and blew the debris off our sidewalks and driveway pad with our leaf blower. I was planning to use our push weedwhacker this morning in the area behind our shop and beside our garden, but we talked about it and decided I would really be risking heat stroke. I walk outside, with my headband on, and I’m instantly wringing wet. I think we will only do what is absolutely necessary until this “Punishment from Mother Nature” passes. We might even wait until fall…
I WILL pull the sweet onions and start drying them soon. I don’t know how much longer the tomatoes will make. Even with our irrigation system, the tomatoes are almost boiling on the vines. Happily, my elephant ear plants and phlox or doing well, even with the heat. I’ll try to get out and get pics for you.
When I get out there early enough, I’m still working on the refurbishment project of of our yard critters. Right now I’m repainting “Mama and Baby Snail.” I post a pic when they’re ready to go back outside.
Every summer I regret the fact that we ran out of money when we were building our home over 30 years ago. We managed the main house and the small shop, but we had to give up my dream of a pool. I taught swimming every summer from age 14 through college to help pay for my education. We live on top of ridge line, and had to dynamite several times to be able to have our basement, septic system, and the pool. We got the first two, but not the third. Every summer I dream of a beautiful in-ground pool. Of course, I also dream of Sven, the gorgeous pool man, coming to take care of it – and me. (If I’m going to dream, I’ll include it all… :0) )
It has rained off and on for 3 days straight, and we’re feeling a bit water-logged. The yard between the house and our shop is standing in water, so I’ll probably have to wait until tomorrow to put the pieces of the “Dog with Bone” yard critter together and him back out in the yard.
I’ve been playing in my art room painting a mini-purse for a nice lady. She bought one from my Etsy site recently, then wrote to tell me that the snap on the purse was so tight she couldn’t use it. I didn’t know about the problem and was embarrassed. I took the two mini-purses that had snaps off my site and ordered some that had zippers. It’s beige, but I’m painting it a dark blue to resemble denim and then will paint ladybugs and leaves on both sides. I’m hoping to have the replacement in the mail to her tomorrow. I’m grateful for the chance to make it right with her.
I had a rare, fun thing happen recently. I ordered some tops from Amazon. I tried them on when they came and they were WAAAAY too big! Talk about a rare, fun thing!!!! :0) I returned them, and ordered a totally different style and a smaller size. THEY came a couple of days ago and are GREAT! They’re called “yoga tees” and come in a package of 5. They’re comfortable, stretchy, and have moisture wicking. I love them!
I’ll be painting, waiting for it to dry, then painting some more the rest of the day. I hope my customer will like the replacement. Fingers crossed.
I hope you’re having a safe, comfortable, dry day.
Amber is not afraid of storms. This is what she looked like, though, last night when we were having lots of thunder, lightning, rain, and gusty winds, plus our power going off and on repeatedly for very short periods.
When I reached out to pet her and talk to her, she climbed right up into my recliner with me, circled behind me, and settled in. Since she weighs 95 lbs, that left ME with only the front edge of the chair to balance on while I petted her and talked to her. We stayed like that for about half an hour, til things had tamed down. She jumped down and happily went back to choosing a toy from her toy basket.
This shows you a bit of what our yard looks like this morning. We have leaves EVERYWHERE. We haven’t found any damage, though, and that’s wonderful. We only have a chance for afternoon thunderstorms today, so we’re relieved.
The elephant ears came through without damage. Hooray!
The poor phlox is pretty battered. Hopefully, they’ll pull back up.
Our heat index this afternoon will reach the triple digits, so I’m going to get our to the shop pretty soon to continue work on refurbishing the ‘turkey’ yard art critter I started yesterday. I’m hoping he can go back out to his place at the base of a tree beside the driveway by the end of the day. I forgot to take pics of the ‘before’ on the turkey. He was basically just super dirty and desperately in need of new paint. I’ll take pics to share when he is back in place.
Did I tell you I HATE automatic Windows updates? For some reason they always cause us problems. We can’t NOT do the updates, but it’s sure a pain to deal with the havoc they generate. Yesterday it was one of our printers that suddenly won’t print plus our personal DVD computerized collection isn’t opening as it should. My husband fought with it most of the day yesterday to no avail. He wrote Microsoft and is hoping they have some help for us. He also talked to our son via a conference call, in Thailand. Hopefully, answers will come today.
Tomorrow at Lunch Bunch we’ll celebrate the birthday of one of our core members. Our friendship – going on 20 years now – is priceless.
My husband has been celebrating the lack of rain lately. He’s been praising the ‘brown and crunchy patches of grass in the yard, meaning he has to mow less. I told him to enjoy it while he could. Rain is due this weekend.
My spring garden is about to come to an end. I got what is probably the last of the yellow squash, leaving only sweet onions. I’ll probably pull the onions soon, leaving them to dry on the trailer bed and clean up the garden. On the good side, though, we had the first two ripe tomatoes of what I hope will be a wonderful season. My husband and I shared them for lunch yesterday. They were delicious. I hope we get enough that I can share them.
Every year about this time I wish we had been able to build the pool we wanted when we built the house. Since we’re on top of a ridge line, we had to do a lot of blasting to build a house amid all this rock. We blasted for the septic tank, the basement, and then blasted the whole back yard for the pool. We ran out of money before we got to the pool, though, so it never got done.
I worked every summer from the time I was 14 through college teaching swimming with my 6th grade gym teacher to make money for college. I really miss the great exercise I got. I tell myself that if we had a pool, I would go out and swim every possible night before bed. The reality of that would probably be that I would gritch and moan about having to get my exercise cleaning the pool, rather than getting to swim in it. I would have to fight for space to swim laps, having to dodge raccoons, opossums, squirrels, and other critters I don’t want to think about who thought we had built the pool for THEM…
We did our errands and I went out to the shop to work on the Farmer Robot.
I replaced his ‘hands,’ having found an old pair of work gloves. I stuffed the fingers with plastic peanuts and the palm of the hands with plastic bags. I drilled a hole in one side of the gloves so I could screw them onto the arms – having learned the hard way that if you don’t do that, the hands ‘disappear.’ I then wrapped some duct tape around the bottom of the gloves – also having learned the hard way – that if you don’t, wasps make nests in the gloves.
I laid him on his back in order to be able to glue new eyes in and have them stay on, instead of falling off before they are dry. When I eased him down onto his back, water came streaming out! Apparently he filled with water during all the heavy rains we’ve been having. I left him on his back and finished painting the lower part of his overalls and legs.
Later today I’ll turn him over, seeing if more water comes out, and also so I can paint the lower part of his back and legs. When I stand him up again, I’ll use duct tape around his neck to keep as much water out as possible, then tie the bandana back on.
My husband will use our truck dolly to give him a ride from the shop to his spot on the right side of our driveway pad against the house. When he is back where he lives, we’ll take pics to show you.
I’ve almost finished the 2nd piece in our metal critters refurbishing project. There are 8 more in the shop, with more to come.
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,I think I told you that we got fiber optic Internet and TV when we finally got the opportunity recently. We’re very happy with the Internet. There is much less lag time than there used to be. The TV, however, is VERY upset when the system goes off, in a sudden power outage, for example. It takes forever (seemingly) to get to the point where it is up enough that our remotes again work. We decided to get a UPS that will live in the entertainment center with the TV plugged into it. Our power outages are of very short duration. We have a generator that comes on when the public power is out. It switches on by itself when it detects the public power is off for a certain amount of time. It switches off again when it senses we have public power back. A couple of mornings ago, our power went off and on several times in succession. I thought we would never get the TV back again.
The UPS we ordered came this afternoon and my husband hooked it up awhile ago. Now we’re waiting for the TV to resurrect itself and be able to watch TV again. Fingers are crossed that we have this small irritation solved now.
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I find it almost impossible to believe what a gorgeous day we’re having. It is normally in the mid to high 90s with a heat index in the triple digits. Right now it’s sunny and 78 degrees F. with a light breeze. Stunningly beautiful!
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” ~ Margaret Wolfe Hungerford
Some say these birds are ‘ugly.’ In fact, I found these pictures when I used the search term, “Ugly Birds.”
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I love these birds. Their faces are full of character. I would much rather enjoy these birds than male cardinals, who wait for their mates to check an area out to see if it’s safe, and THEN will come and preen before taking a sunflower seed. This emu would as soon as peck you as say, “Hello.” I love him.
Red Wattled Hornbill-Carl Purcell
I had never seen this bird before. He looks quite dignified to me. Royalty, for sure. :0)
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This has long been one of my favorite birds. He’s beautiful, isn’t he? He looks like he’s laughing.
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And this sweet bird is just trying to be left alone, hopefully camouflaged so he can catch a nap.
I admit I love all birds, but these hold a special place in my eye and heart.
I’m having a good day so far, though – as you can see above – obviously not a good hair day…. :0)
First of all, IT’S NOT RAINING! In fact, from the look of the weather forecast, our rainy season has finally come to an end. This means that we need to get out some time this weekend – preferably this evening – and test our irrigation system, fix any blowouts, and schedule and run the system. Some of our spoiled plants – used to the cooler temperatures and lots and lots of rain, are starting to look wilted.
One of the last tasks remaining on the dismantling of the greenhouse project was to tie some neon pink surveyor’s tape on the stake in the ground so that the people who come (on no particular schedule that I can tell) to mow the gas company’s easement on the side of our yard won’t hurt themselves or their equipment running into or over the stake. I also took a sledgehammer. I hit the stake several times in all directions and was able to pull the stake completely out! So I brought the stake, hammer, and tape back to the house. Mission accomplished!
I took some pictures of some of the prettier things in our yard while I was out walking around.
This picture and the next are really making me smile today. Last year I had truly great elephant ears. I over-wintered them in peat moss in the garage and replanted them at the beginning of the spring. Nothing happened. :0( They were gone. I ordered some bulbs online in desperation. I received and planted three bulbs. Nothing was happening, so I decided that I wasn’t going to have anything. This one popped up yesterday. You can see the second one in the next picture. The third one hasn’t done anything, but I won’t be greedy. I am truly delighted and hope they will get large and lush.
Isn’t this wonderful? The child’s happiness just radiates from this sculpture. (Not sure how happy the frog is, though)
Summer is here in Arkansas all of a sudden. The temperatures are soaring, the humidity is rising. Afternoon thunderstorms are forecast almost daily, with or without severe weather. We have had SO much rain this year that one of the next things we need to do is trim out some of the greenery that is trying to close off our driveway. I will drive the truck S-L-O-W-L-Y down one side of the driveway. My husband will ride in the back, yelling at me to stop each time he needs to work an area. He’ll lop things off as well as possible, throwing the debris to the side of the driveway. When we get to the bottom (650 feet down our steep driveway) I’ll drive to the church, turn around and then go UP the other side of the driveway. We have SO much this year that we will probably need to do this several times before it is reasonably clear.
Ironically, one of the next pressing things is to get our irrigation system for the yard on, tested, repaired where we have blowouts, and schedule to run. Our rain will probably shut off one of these days, like Mother Nature turned off the faucet, and things will dry up and die fast.
I’ll spread out the black plastic we had on the floor of the greenhouse, trying to get the remaining plastic to dry enough that the mud will fall off. Right now the mud and rain makes it weigh a TON. I think that once it is dry enough, I can get the remains into two more leaf bags. Then I’ll spread grass seed on the bare area that was under the plastic and clean things up. And the dismantling of my beloved greenhouse will be finished. I’m disappointed that I wasn’t able to make it work. It was too cold or too hot 99 percent of the time. We did what we could, with barrels of water warmed up by the sun, plus a space heater on a LONG extension cord in the winter, and extra fans and as much cross breeze as we could get in the summer. I think we could have made it work if we could have afforded to fully heat and cool it. Maybe we can try again if we win the lottery or the Publisher’s Clearing House Sweepstakes.
One thing we were looking for over 30 years ago now when we were looking for land on which to build our home, was running water (a brook, or stream, or even a pond.) We couldn’t find that and ‘settled for” the top of a ridge line with a terrific view of two more ridge lines behind us and the valley in-between. If we had been able to find the water, maybe I could still find the childhood joy of catching a frog…
You HAVE to laugh when you have to “update” the first blog post of the day 5 times to get rid of as many mistakes as possible. My lesson learned for the day is that you CANNOT cut and paste from the Etsy website to the blog without a MESS. Sorry about that. I think it’s straightened out now.
The Etsy shop is NOT messed up, and I AM offering a 25% discount on any two pair of my hand-painted wooden earrings – dangle/wire, post/stud, and/or clip-ons plus free shipping. If you’re interested, please take a look and take advantage of this and other discounts. HandmadeHavenByLinda on Etsy.
TheSprucePets-GettyImages
We’ve been setting a humane trap each night on our deck, trying to catch the critter who has been emptying our bird feeders lately. No luck until this morning, when we caught a cute raccoon. He didn’t hiss or spit at us, even though he was in the cage. We went out in the rain, put our trash at the bottom of the driveway, got our mail, and then drove out about 5 miles to relocate the raccoon in a stream. Raccoons don’t share well. They not only clean out all the feeders – they TRASH the feeders. He probably has brothers or sisters, mother and father, cousins, etc., but it’s ‘one down’ now.
The Mercury News
It’s raining, of course. I drowned putting out the trash. My husband had put the cage with the raccoon in it in the back of the truck, plus the bags of trash around the cage. I couldn’t get the bags out without moving the cage, scaring the poor raccoon as I drowned. Of course, he had pulled part of one of the trash bags into the cage with him, and I had to extricate that, as well. I was not a happy camper when I got back into the truck. My HUSBAND got drowned when let the raccoon out, so we’re even. :0)
Since it is supposed to rain off and on all day, it’s a great day to now stay home and stay inside. I plan to do a few things on the ‘should’ list, read, and maybe play in my art room today.
Our weather can’t decide if it wants to rain or let the sun come out. When we awoke this morning, it had rained very recently. Now the sun is peaking out a bit. We’re due for scattered showers from now through Tuesday, at least. We’re starting to get used to trying to get things done between storms…
THANK YOU to the people who have looked at my new site on Etsy HandmadeHavenByLinda and have written to make suggestions. Fresh eyes and new ideas are priceless. I appreciate your help. :0)
I’m gearing up to
finish clearing off the last of the greenhouse. We have one long, heavy 4×4 remaining. My husband has been carrying one at a time out to the shop to remove whatever is still attached and save the wood for another project. With the price of lumber now, this is a thing for us. Also remaining out there is the black plastic we put down on the cleared space that was supposed to keep weeds from growing inside the greenhouse. This had limited success, and was also invaded by fire ants. I will go out armed with Eight Bug Killer and will carefully try to gather up the plastic. And finally, I’ll use the weed whacker to neaten up where things had grown up.
It’s time to refurbish the metal critters we have created over the years that are all around our yard. We are taking them out to the shop, where I will clean, repaint, replace parts, etc. before we put them out again. The sun and rain and whatever are hard on things, so it will take a bit of effort to restore them to their former ‘glory.’ First up is our “Box Turtle” –
This is the way he is supposed to look. Right now he’s VERY dirty. Some of his paint is peeling, and at least one of his eyes has fallen off. I’ll try to take pics as I go to share with you.
WEATHER – It’s a good thing I’m not water-soluble, or I would have sogged down into a puddle by now with all the rain we have had. We just returned from putting our trash out for pickup and running errands. I wore a hoodie, since my husband has no patience for me trying to use an umbrella. I just throw my hood up to stay as dry as possible.
YARD WORK – I pruned our rose bushes and weeded a bit yesterday. Some unfriendly bug bit me on the back of my hand. It swelled up and itched like crazy. I finally got the itching to stop and the swelling should be down by tomorrow.
I was watching for ants, since I react badly to their stings/bites, but whatever bit me snuck up and did it before I was aware. I am going to try to harvest more lettuce, since my plants are starting to bolt, but it will have to wait until the rain stops.
EMAIL HACK – I seem to be over the worst of the repercussions from my email being hacked. I spent the entire day yesterday, except for the time pruning the roses, contacting as many friends and family as possible, giving them my new address, plus getting on our important websites and changing email, user name and password. What a hassle! I did get to talk to people I would LIKE to talk to more often, so that was a really good thing. If I finally reach a real person at Google, I will try to enlist their help in finding out who is responsible for the hack.
GENERATOR – Just as your car will never act up or make the noise you’ve been hearing when you take it to the shop, our generator came on just fine when the tech came out to help us figure out why it didn’t do its weekly test and or continue to run when we started it manually. He looked it over carefully. It started right up and continued until he turned it off. We told him the ‘overcrank’ light was on when we went out to look. My husband suspected the carburetor, but the tech was looking more at the fuel regulator, whatever that is. He said he would check his manual for ‘old’ generators to see if he could be of more help if we need to call him again. Meanwhile, $131.50 later, the generator IS working…
WEIGHT LOSS – My newest motivation to lose the lard seems to be working – at least, so far. Last Monday we had our routine doctor appointment with blood tests. We were doing fine (for old people) and the doc said we didn’t have to come back for 6 months, rather than the 3 months we have been doing. I decided that I wanted to try to finally lose a significant amount of my poundage by the time we go back in November. Since Monday I have lost 4.6 pounds. I’m trying to keep my focus on trying to really watch my portions, try not to eat in-between meals, or if I do, eat a really careful snack. I’m trying to move more, and pick up my afternoon yoga stretches again.
So far, my yoga efforts have been a dismal failure. Usually, I’m out in the yard when I WAS doing yoga. I’m telling myself that if I’m up and moving, that’s good, but I know it’s not a substitute for the good stretching I do with my practice. I’m going to rethink WHEN I’m trying to do my practice so that I can work in the yard AND do my yoga stretches on a daily basis.
ART ROOM – I’m still trying to overcome my stupid fear of failure regarding trying a new art technique. I’m really fascinated watching people demonstrate ‘acrylic pours’ and then ‘pours with crackle gel.’ They are getting wonderful abstract colorful work with gorgeous texture and cracks highlighted with gold. I’m going to keep making careful notes as I watch (and drool) and see if I can get started on it in my art room this week.
I hope that you are having a fabulous day, enjoying the weather where you are, if possible, or if cooped up inside like me, changing over to something fun INSIDE.
We will leave for Lunch Bunch in about an hour. It looks like we may need a boat if this keeps up.
I would like to harvest more lettuce, but Mother Nature has been playing with us over the last week or so, starting the rain up every time I get ready to go outside, almost like a faucet, waiting until I am out there, and then dumping on me. I can imagine her laughing at me. :0)
Other than squeegeeing, mopping, and toweling off the porch floor over and over, I’ve been playing in my art room. I’m trying to eventually try an ‘acrylic pour,’ but I’m a bit intimidated, so I’m trying one new technique at a time, building up to it. I put the second coat of a stuff called, “crackle medium” on the background of a painting on which I used Unicorn Spit paint. So far, nothing is ‘crackling.’ I’ll continue to experiment, having lots of fun, until something good starts to happen. :0)
I think I already told you that I am newly motivated to get the lard off. We had a routine doctor appointment Monday. We were doing so well that she said we could wait 6 months to come back, rather than the usual three. I’m now trying to lose a significant amount of my lard before we see her again in November. This week has been a good start for me.
I hope the weather is good where you are and that you can make this a wonderful day.
Good morning. I’m not feeling very energetic this morning. No problems, really – my get-up-and-go just got-up-and-went. :0)
I harvested a lot of spinach yesterday. I still had some in the fridge, too. After watching a YouTube video on storing fresh spinach, I’ll take mine out of the gallon bags. The guy recommends using plastic containers and paper towels. I’ll store some that way for salads. I’ll chop up the rest and freeze it.
It hasn’t started to rain yet, but it’s supposed to today. In fact, it’s supposed to rain all week. I’m actually looking forward to it because I won’t have to feel guilty that I’m not out in the yard working. :0) I really want to start playing with the new art stuff I received last week.
I have materials to try an ‘acrylic pour.’ The Internet defines this as, “Acrylic Paint Pouring is a fluid painting technique used to create art by pouring acrylic paint onto a canvas. … The Acrylic Pouring technique allows artists to apply colour in puddles, pools and marble-like patterns. Pouring results in a smooth, glossy paint film that is perfectly even and blemish free.”
A lady did a beautiful demonstration of using some leftover “pours” that she did on a piece of plastic, transferring that to a piece of wood. She used a material called, “crackle gel” to add texture, and then rolled on gold paint to highlight that texture. The resulting piece looked like this –
Mii’s Paintings
This makes me drool, and itch to play. So Mother Nature, please bring on the rain so I can give myself permission to play in my art room! :0)
I hope that you are safe and happy this Monday morning. Have fun with your day!
The predicted rains haven’t started yet, so I will try to harvest some veggies today. I’ll post some pics after I wash and bag them. Happy to live on top of a ridge line right now. We may need a boat by the end of this…
KFSM – TV5 Fort Smith AR“Dancing Dragonflies” Hand-Painted Tote Bag
I sold this tote on Amazon Handmade last night. The image doesn’t show how sparkly it is. It will go in the mail tomorrow. :0)
TopSail Beach NC
My SIL and some friends are renting a house on the beach for a week for lots of peace and relaxation. She took this photo this morning, pre-sunrise. I am so happy she can get away and soak this up! And WE can enjoy her vacation vicariously!!! :0)
Yesterday the postman delivered a big box with the things I ordered to try a couple of techniques new to me – acrylic pours and crackle paint. Here is the link to a YouTube demonstration if you’d like to watch
It is a wonderful day here so far. It’s overcast, but not raining. I have two main things to do:
THING ONE – get a haircut this afternoon
THING TWO – finish planting flowers.
Yesterday we went to the local nursery to get two flowers that my husband likes – impatiens and wave petunias. We’ve cut back on what we’re planting this year as kind of a leftover from the pandemic. We had already checked several places for flowers. This year I would have been content with planting any number of flowers we saw. Finally, it came down to the fact that my husband wanted wave petunias and impatiens, and was willing to drive to Ft. Smith to get them. Happily, we were able to find a bright orangy impatiens for the front porch and other shady areas in front of the house, plus wave petunias in a gloriously deep purple.
Pahl’s Market
This is the color of the impatiens I planted yesterday. It should spread nicely, filling a couple of shallow round faux terra cotta planters on the porch, plus I dotted them in the brick planters that line the front of the house.
Good Shepherd Holbrook, NY
This is the color of the wave petunias we found. I’m cleaning out 4 large terra cotta pots that live up high on the railing of the deck, plus some other planters on the floor of the deck.
I’ll take pictures when the flowers start to look nice.
Tonight the rains are supposed to start. (My mouth dropped open when I saw this. I may still look like a gaping fish. )
Partly cloudy early with increasing clouds overnight. A stray thunderstorm is possible. Low 63F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph.
Sun 16
79°/64°PM Thunderstorms50%SSE 11 mph
Mon 17
76°/65°Scattered Thunderstorms51%SSE 9 mph
Tue 18
77°/66°Scattered Thunderstorms51%SE 9 mph
Wed 19
74°/66°Scattered Thunderstorms57%SE 11 mph
Thu 20
79°/67°Scattered Thunderstorms45%SE 10 mph
Fri 21
78°/68°Scattered Thunderstorms44%SE 10 mph
Sat 22
83°/67°Scattered Thunderstorms37%SE 9 mph
Sun 23
82°/65°Scattered Thunderstorms38%SSE 8 mph
Mon 24
82°/65°Scattered Thunderstorms41%SSE 8 mph
Tue 25
82°/65°Scattered Thunderstorms36%S 9 mph
Wed 26
82°/64°Isolated Thunderstorms33%W 8 mph
Thu 27
83°/65°Isolated Thunderstorms31%SSW 7 mph
Looks like we’ll be dodging a lot of raindrops until further notice…
This morning my husband and I ate breakfast at one of our favorite restaurants in Greenwood, The Dari. We did this (1) to celebrate a stellar report from the dental hygienist for both of us, and (2) we always have breakfast out when we have to get blood tests at the clinic for a doctor appointment.
So my diet is pretty much blown for the day. We are having a portion controlled frozen dinner of tortilla crusted fish this evening, so maybe that will make up for the truly delicious, rare breakfast with all the fixings. I have to say that my emotions are like a yo-yo lately. I go from being really serious and sticking to my diet, to thinking I’m getting older and the world seems to be going to Hell in a hand basket so I might as well enjoy one of my last meals. Until I can get my ‘yo-yo-ness’ under control, I foresee very slow, if any, weight loss for me. :0(
I’m trying to get into the mood to get and plant some flowers in our deck planters. We will probably go to the local nursery tomorrow after Lunch Bunch to see if we can find some wave petunias and periwinkles. We’ve checked a couple of other places, but can’t find them. I hope our luck is better at the nursery.
We are about to start more monsoon weather. It’s a lovely, sunny day today, and we’re supposed to have another nice day tomorrow. I couldn’t believe the weather website, though. Starting Saturday, we’re supposed to have rain EVERY day from then, through the following Saturday, AND through the following Thursday. (Saturday, the 17th through Thursday, May 27th.) REALLY. I need to get out tomorrow and harvest more veggies.
I’m finding it hard to grasp that we’re already into May, and a third of it is gone!
Arkansas is having a ‘monsoon’ season this year. I’m growing some veggies in a raised bed square foot garden and they are loving this weather. It’s been cool and wet. For example it’s overcast, looking like it could rain any second, and is only 49 degrees right now. Friday I was able to share some spinach and lettuce with good friends. I’m planning to do my third harvest of the season today, if the weather will cooperate.
lettucespinach
Yesterday, after over a year of absence, I started accounts on Facebook and LinkedIn again. My accounts had been hacked and I couldn’t change my passwords or get any help from support at either place, so I gave up and closed my accounts. I missed some of the people I had met, so yesterday I created a new email address so I could sign up again. I have no idea of anyone remembers me anymore or will connect with me again, but I figure it’s worth a try.
My latest project – after putting the house back together after new carpet and porch flooring – is to switch my winter clothes for summer ones. Funny timing, since we may be setting a record for the coolest May we’ve had since I’ve lived here, but I’m in the middle of it now. I have the actual clothes switched. Now I’m trying to get things organized, plus I’ve promised myself I will try things on, going through for things I can donate.
We are continuing to enjoy getting healthy, individual portion meals from Real Food and from Stu’s Clean Cookin’, both of which have opened in the past year in Greenwood.
Calvin & Hobbes Mailbox Decoration
We haven’t been putting up mailbox decorations for awhile, due to the chaos in the world. We finally put up my favorite recently. I think we can all use a hug.
I hope that you are having a good start of a new week, too.
I melted into a puddle when I saw this puppy. I couldn’t resist giving him whatever he wanted. Those eyes. :0)
We had lots of severe weather last night. It was all around us, but mostly went just north of us, with tornadoes, really high gusty winds, hail, lightning, heavy rain, flooding, and flying hairballs. Lots of people lost power, had damage, etc. A semi was blown onto its side on one of the main highways through Fort Smith. Trees were down, some on homes, and more. Several of the public schools in our area of Arkansas went back to Zoom learning due to damage and lack of power. I don’t think any lives were lost.
We lucked out. We walked around checking our roof and yard. I checked my veggie plants. We had some leaves and branches in the yard, but just little stuff.
We did our errands this morning, taking our trash down to the bottom of our driveway (650 feet steeply down to the street in front of our home). No damage on the driveway. We didn’t notice any damage in Greenwood as we did our errands.
We are home now, hoping for a quiet day. I finished getting things back in place yesterday after our new carpet and porch flooring project. I’m determined to keep getting rid of STUFF. I’m trying to get into a ruthless state of mind. Hopefully I can make some significant progress – AFTER I rest from moving all the stuff OUT and then back IN to our office, living room, foyer, and porch!
I hope that you are safe and well, enjoying a quiet Tuesday.
creativeartworksblog 