Pumpkin Sunrise

  Holly staring down Frodo who is under the ottoman Hello!  How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good.  We had an outing!  I know you're wondering 'what is an outing'.  Well, ours was a simple one.  We picked up subs and ate them at the park near the river.  It was one of the best decisions of of the week. We also went to a neighboring town for selective store shopping.  I was strategic and brief while shopping and was thrilled to see mask wearing everywhere I went.   Saturday and Sunday were blissfully uneventful.  I did my weekly chores as well as spent time knitting and reading.  Holly has been bold bugging Frodo and Frodo has been up to his barking antics as well.  It's been a noisy weekend. It's now Monday and my to do list is mighty long!  Tell me about your weekend -

How was your weekend?  Mine flew right by.  I had the best intentions to read all day every day and do some creative watercolor paintings.  Instead I made coleslaw (because my dad's coleslaw was so good and I knew I could make it as well).  I also made basil pesto for some pasta and a cold rice salad with veggies, feta cheese and olives (yum). Oh and I made two loaves of zucchini bread.  Our zucchini is producing and my dad gave me some as well.  I have to admit I am thrilled to be out of the banana bread phase.  Oh and the best nuts are pecans, just saying. the boulder wall with growing grass! Saturday I toodled about knitting and half heartedly reading a book on my Kindle.  I have 1 1/2 hours to go and I am determined to finish it today.  I swear! Sunday I you-tubed Mass and did all the laundry and cleaned the house.   My son and future daughter in law to be are settling in nicely up in Indiana.  I hope we can visit them soon and see the place in person.  Fingers crossed for that

Isn't Holly so cute the way she stuffs herself into the top of the tower?  She is one happy cat.  How are you?  We are in the midst of a heat wave and phew! It's hot and humid.  Yesterday seemed a little less intense but I can tell how my hair goes everywhere on how humid the days are.   As quickly as the landscapers came and disrupted the silence, they have been gone for over a week, our seeded grass is growing and life goes on.  They might have to come back and re-seed in certain places because the downpours go running into the woods taking some of the straw with it. By now the cicadas and locusts should be making their symphony appearance,  each day I listen wondering where they are.  Same with the tree frogs!  They should me adding to the music. I've been reading Michelle Obama's autobiography, Becoming.  We are around the same age and I'm enjoying her thought processes on motherhood and juggling work.  I am over half way through the book on the brink of his pre

This morning I'm sitting at my kitchen table before 7:30 a.m. watching the sunlight beam through the trees.  I'm delighted to report that the heat and humidity is gone.  Tuesday and Wednesday were a bit 'steamy' for me.  My husband was delighted, he loves summer - the hotter the better.  Oh hey - some good news!  My husband is retiring effective mid-August. The massive amounts of paperwork and busy work was sobering but we are down to one more phone call and one more form.  Thank goodness.  I lost two solid days to paperwork and two hour phone calls.  Sadly my knitting and reading and having fun were minimal this week. We have no big plans in retirement except to see our kids.  I'm sure we will be planning something sometime somewhere.  I have to confess, I'm used to the 'staycation' frame of mind and could easily keep this up.   We only walked twice this week due to the weather and schedules.  The daisies are out and about!  Any day now the day lilies w

Hello!  I hope you all are doing fine this Friday morning, I sure am.  I'm loving the green on my walks and the warmer weather.  Of course a heat wave is coming so I'm soaking up the temperate temperatures while I can.  Once it's 85 degrees, I'll be hiding in my house again.  On our walk this week we saw a turkey vulture (above photo).  I was pleased I could get a photo of him/her with my iphone, usually when I zoom in I lose the integrity of the composition. I mentioned on Wednesday that I wanted to finish a cross stitch project within a week.  I have over half of it done already so my goal is attainable if I work on it daily instead of knitting all the time.  I'll keep you up to date on the progress.  I spent way too much time shopping for frames online.  It's so much easier to pop into a craft store and zip through an aisle and choose.  I hope they ship the frame soon! Holly's first sneak by Yesterday Holly insisted on slinking by the ot

How was your weekend? Mine was pretty good over all.  Saturday was picture-perfect weather with blue skies and warm low humidity weather.  I had the back door opened all day long.  Even the birds sang louder than ever rejoicing in the day.  My husband opened the pool and has slowly been turning a dark green pool into a blue pool.  He is nearly done.  I doubt anyone will be swimming anytime soon since the pool is 57 degrees.  On Saturday I read all day while doing some knitting.  Saturday night started the knitting woes.  I had to rip out about 7-8 rows on the shawl I'm working on.  Apparently I cannot count!  So three hours were lost ripping out and knitting back up what was ripped out.  However, I am back on track. Sunday morning I repaired one of my husband's  hand-knitted socks.  That took 45 minutes undoing the bind off and figuring out where I was (which is easy since I knit the toe down to 16 stitches). He has another pair of socks that I've been mean

My Weekend contained: walks on the dirt road phone calls from the kids an afternoon of painting and some photography enjoying the brilliant sunshine and warm weather lots of reading and knitting a gigantic deep clean of the bedroom moving furniture dusting and vacuuming  (and I am sore from head to toe) putting together the back yard swing and the patio umbrella baking another loaf of banana bread How was your weekend?

Good morning!  How has your week been?  This week was probably my best week to date with being productive and focusing on what I want to accomplish each day.  Also yesterday while it was tipping down buckets of rain, I really didn't lament about it. Usually I whine and whine (out loud and to myself) about the clouds and the dreariness of it all. Can't say why yesterday was a non-whining day but it made for a great mental attitude day in my head. The violets are blooming as well as my flowering apple tree and my dogwood trees, I hope to get out this weekend and get some photos during some partly sunny hours.  The forecast is looking quite summery and maybe we will get the swing and lawn furniture out so we can sit in nature. The above photo is Holly looking at her beloved nemesis.  She checks in on Frodo every morning sometimes sitting within one foot of him (he's under the ottoman).  I know Frodo knows that she is there, I'd like to believe he likes her com

My husband and I have settled into a new rhythm to our weekdays.  He's busy working remotely from home in my craft room upstairs (also known as the cat room...or guest room).  He'll be in various virtual meetings and Holly will walk across his laptop to take center stage.  If only she new that people were watching.  After lunch we take a walk with Frodo as long as it's not raining or like yesterday not super windy.  This morning I heard a woodpecker while drinking in the beginning of the day as I stood outside.  I try my very best to write a few things down that I'd like to do during each day and they're simple goals.  Mainly my watercoloring has been scant.  I don't 'feel' like it and when the afternoon arrives I know I won't do it at all. Yesterday I set up the paints and supplies right after breakfast so that when I walked by I would be reminded to do something, anything.  This worked!  I enjoyed playing around with color mixing and foun