Pumpkin Sunrise

  There is nothing really going on around here - true blessings! It's hot and humid so we are all hiding in the air conditioning and only going outside if it's a must. Frodo and I walk daily in the early mornings and that's enough outside for me. I'm trying really hard not to romanticize about fall and all its goodness. The cicadas started up this week and joyfully I thought 'yay, one step closer to fall'. Next up will be the acorn drop in a couple of weeks. My husband is a summer lover so I keep all these thoughts bottled up. I also try not to complain about the weather. But you and I know, fall is coming and it's going to be glorious! I bought a humidifier for our bedroom after being gently told by the RA doctor numerous times (four visits?)  it would help with dry eye and dry mouth. (Sjogren's Syndrome). The photo below is Holly giving the humidifier the stink eye. She cracks me up. And if you are wondering, YES the humidifier helps. The tattered tan

  Good morning! Here we are another Friday and here I am writing another post about everything and nothing at all. This time around I'm going to be musing about simple pleasures and what I take for granted on a daily basis. Grab your tea, coffee or juice and join the meandering. When the nasty summer cold was at its worst, I romantically thought about all those days I could breathe through my nose. Seriously, we should all sing praises to nasal breathing. When I sat around and read my book, I thought about all the exercising and walking I do on a daily basis effortlessly. I have walked this week but golly it was an effort and I was so glad to get back home to sit. I am grateful I had the time and the luxury to sit at home and recover, there are many who cannot do that. I am feeling so much better! I am grateful for that.  Simple pleasures:  knitting, as always - thinking about a pumpkin hat for the grandson - buckets of hot green decaf tea - logic puzzles and sudoku puzzles - summe

  Good morning! Boy do I have a lot of catching up to do so grab your tea or coffee and let's begin! Last Wednesday our son, daughter in law and GRANDSON arrived for a three day visit! We haven't seen them since March and the visit was fantastic. Our little guy was friendly and full of smiles after a brief 'who the heck are you' look that was priceless. I fed him many bottles and changed very few diapers. (that is a great visit) They left on Saturday morning and I miss all of them already. I forgot how tiring babies can be and cannot remember where I had the energy to keep up with them. It took me 48 hours to recover from their stay. During their visit we went to the zoo and we had a family get together at our house. The other set of grandparents were able to attend and we had a grand time doting on the baby. Holly does NOT like babies. She hid under our bed until they were all asleep each day then came out begrudgingly.  Poor Holly!! Frodo thought the baby was here to

  How was your weekend? I enjoyed a super quiet 'no workers drilling out bricks on my house' weekend. Today they are coming to take down the scaffolding. Next up are the roofers. I don't know when they are coming here, end of this week? Besides being deliciously quiet, I enjoyed doing a little bit of everything. Writing, journaling, knitting and reading. Sure I did some chores as well. My kitchen floor is squeaky clean!  Today I'm writing out the mighty to do list and sketch out a menu plan. If you haven't already, please read Bonny's menu plan post and especially the comments section. I found it helpful! I am nearing the end of knitting my grandson's Christmas sweater, what a fast knit!!  How was your weekend?

  After two noisy days at the beginning of the week created by the insulating company, I basked in the silence of Wednesday and Thursday. Even the pets breathed a sigh of relief. Frodo did well and mostly ignored them. Holly hid under our bed for most of the first day but on the second day she put on her big girl pants and ran downstairs to be under the sofa that my husband (her beloved) was sitting. Of course that was the time the workers were propping open the front door for the blown in insulation.  Luckily, she has no desire to ever be outside and we fenced off the area just in case.  All of that strategizing exhausted me. (for those of you who are new here, we rescued Holly in the winter off the side of the road - she was close to death at 8 weeks old being abandoned by a not nice person). Around here, there was a heat wave that I skillfully ignored for two whole days. I walked as early as I could and briefly so Frodo and I didn't get too hot. My inflammatory arthritis does n

  How was your weekend? Friday night my husband and I had dinner on the patio, it was fantastic! The weather was perfect. Over the weekend, I've battled the bullying blue jays at the feeder who were over-eating, fighting with each other and not letting any other birds at the feeder. My feeder has a setting so that I can exclude by weight which is what I did on Saturday. Now I'm battling with my guilt that they cannot eat. But there was so much fighting going on! It's like recess at the playground, someone has to ruin it for everyone. I also have a multitude of red squirrels and chipmunks that stand at the bottom and pray for a seed to drop, their prayers are mostly answered. Oh and I saw the raccoon again this time at 8:30 p.m. so now the feeder comes inside the house at 6:30 p.m. The bird feeder is squirrel proof but not raccoon proof. The main point is that I am grateful there is NOT a bear like at our old home!! I wound up some lovely green yarn for our grandson's Ch

  A few days ago my ONE peony blossomed. Our neighbor gave us three peony plants, one survived through the winter and gave us a pretty show. Peonies are one of my favorite flowers but really many many flowers are my favorites whenever they bloom. Can you believe it is June? I cannot.  This time last year I was packing up a house we lived in for sixteen years, donating many belongings to lighten the load. That weird mindset 'I'm never going to hoard stuff again' has waned. I do buy the occasional used book knowing that each one I purchase might lead to a slippery slope of accumulation.  While I knit from my stash I still buy more yarn, I hope that it's at a slower rate but it is not stopping me from visiting yarn stores and keeping them in business. It's what knitters gotta do. One year ago I was frantically checking a list making sure the selling of the old house was on track and the purchasing of the new house was on track. I romantically daydreamed of boring days

  Good morning! This week has been really nice. I was appointment-free all week long, a rarity. The weather is right back into the rainy season. Since I'm coming up to one year living here, I don't know if it always rains here or if this is unusually wet. Does it matter?  Since moving here, I've let my hair grow long and just let it be. Another freeing decision! Why fight humidity? Growing out my bangs was another-freeing decision made more than five years ago, I highly recommend it if you fight styling your hair and yet it does whatever it wants anyways. I love when Holly stuffs herself in the downstairs cat tower. She enjoys looking out the windows and watching the world go by. She's been playing with all of her stuffed mice and leaves them outside our bedroom meowing to us that she gave us a special gift in the middle of the night. Sweet! Yesterday while noodling around on Ravelry I came across a laceweight shawl  that inspired me to dig through my yarn stash, wind u

  After 2 1/2 years we were able to go up to London Ontario to visit my husband's mother for the weekend. We had a busy long visit and lots of shopping. The weather was super sunny (too sunny?) and quite warm. We got back yesterday and right now a thunderstorm is brewing outside along with some rain. I have classical piano music playing in the family room right now to distract Frodo from the thunder. I wish I would have thought of this years ago. It feels weird traveling after not traveling for so long. As you know I am a homebody and just love being home. I was grateful to sleep in my own bed last night. Oh! and I miss Frodo and Holly too much as well. We are all reunited. How was your weekend?

  Around here I've been watching Spring do its thing. The trees are super leafy green, my walks are intoxicating with beauty. All those pesky rainy days seemed to have rewarded us with sunny pleasant weather. More rain is coming but I'm ignoring that for now. This week I witnessed my first hummingbird of the year at the feeder. So sweet!  Around here, my husband and I have been enjoying seeing what blossoms on this property. Mystery flowers and sometimes plants we are familiar with from our old house. I sometimes still miss living in a rural area but I'm slowly getting used to living outside of a big city.  Around here my creativity is overflowing with many ideas. I can't keep up with them all so I jot them down so I don't forget them. Maybe I need to start a nature journal? Do you have one?  Around here I am enjoying all of my knitting projects.  

  How was your weekend?  Mine was quite restful and calming. On Saturday we went to a few shops and a garden center as an outing. For the entire week we have been having rainy cloudy days. On Saturday I was just tired of it all. Did I move to a different weather zone? Or it just an unusually wet spring? Based on my photos you can see I am adoring the dogwoods that continue to blossom and shine. The above water feature was in a business building that I had to capture, sitting in the rain seemed appropriate to reflect the never ending downpours in this town. Sunday, Mother's Day, the sun came out and it was the most cheerful day. The entire neighborhood came out to garden, ride bikes or walk their dog. We all gave a collective sigh of relief. This week looks like it will be a really nice week. My Mother's Day was quiet since both kids live out of town. My aunt and cousin came over for a chat which I just loved! One of the reasons we moved here. Of course I saw my sister and we ex

  Good morning! How are you on this wonderful Monday morning? The weekend was pretty good. I didn't do anything super exciting which is fine by me. The weather was fabulous on Saturday and super drippy rainy on Sunday.  I am thoroughly loving the flowering dogwood trees in the back yard. I've shared with you one photo but gosh my phone has so many. All of a sudden everything is green! Trees, bushes and lawns, the beginnings of the month of May are simply the best.  I worked a tiny bit on the cross stitch project which is so challenging for me since it's on linen. I know some of you say to keep at it but at one point I wanted to scrap the whole project and start over on Aida cloth. I resisted and will keep going. Sunday was all day rain and some rumbly thunder. I put on some piano music for Frodo and it seemed he didn't hear the thundering (he is afraid of thunder!). I might be onto something good. How was your weekend?

  This week I've been working on 'being present' in what I do. When I'm on a walk with Frodo I notice what I see, hear and feel. The wind, the neighborhood dogs barking to say 'hello' to Frodo, the birds singing and feeling my cold hands and face while Mother Nature dips into wintry weather (I am not complaining!).  I've noticed that mornings are favorite times to notice the here and now.  I am a part-time dabbler in the 'what if' scenario thought process. "What if this happens?"  "What if that happens?" These thoughts are not being present. And so I work hard at my mindfulness techniques, a constant work in progress.  Guess what is NOT a constant work in progress...I finished that blanket! Oh boy what a labor of love. I hope to have some photos of the blanket for you next week. I'm excited that I can now do some casting on of short term projects while I mull about what long term project I want to do in the future (not a blank

  Oh boy was it hot this weekend.  Saturday I was all 'yay, it feels so nice' and by Sunday afternoon I had to put the AC on due to my hands and wrists swelling and aching. (The arthritis symptoms I experience are terrible in hot weather). Isn't it crazy that it was so hot? Isn't it crazy that too much of a good thing could be wrong? The dogwood trees in our backyard are about to bloom, for that I am truly grateful. I had many at our old house and am quite pleased we have them here as well. I also have a resident Mr and Mrs brown headed cowbird couple that are adorable. Sometimes they eat at the bird feeder and sometimes they are standing on the ground eating stray seeds that have fallen down from the bird feeder. I did a bit of watercoloring and sketching over the weekend. It was good to be returning to art in some form or another. My husband did major gardening work on Saturday then was achy on Sunday! I did my weekly laundry chores and cleaning the house.  I'm re