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Archive for July, 2011

Mud-Daubers

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on July 31, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Day Four of Summer. The weather gurus are predicting temperatures in the low 80’s/upper 70’s for the next week. It has been so cool for so long that 80 degrees actually feels hot to me. Have I finally acclimated to the lower Willamette Valley? I would hate to think so!!

It’s just that I have been so “summer-starved” that I am taking “upper seventies” and running with it.

Today I spent an hour trying to get a good photograph of the mud-dauber wasps that are always hanging out around the garage. I like mud-daubers. They can sting and they do carry a “whollop” of a sting but they are not aggressive wasps. You really have to piss them off to get stung. Most wasps fall into that category (including yellow jackets but they *are* aggressive wasps). In fact, the only two “aggressive” bees/wasps I am somewhat “afraid” of are yellow jackets and bald-faced hornets.

I don’t jump around and freak out. I might duck, but I try to avoid sudden movements with wasps. I’ve allowed yellow-jackets to crawl on my arm and bite me: did you know they like to taste you? They won’t sting unless you jerk suddenly. Bald-faced hornets are a whole lot more aggressive but I’ve never had one land on me.

Truth is, I have been stung by more bees than I have been stung by wasps. I once stuck my arm into a wasp nest (I didn’t know it was there, I promise) and I got enough stings to make my arm swell for days. But usually I feel something crawling on me and give it a swat only to find it was a bee – and the bee stung me as it tried to defend its life. bees can only sting once. They lose their stinger and die.

Wasps can sting multiple times.

On a side-note: as a hobby entomologist I HATE it when people confuse bees and wasps. They aren’t the same thing. Yellow jackets are NOT bees. Honey bees don’t attack you (unless they have been crossed with the aggressive African honey bee (aka “Killer Bees”) unless you seriously piss them off. I am teaching my grandsons to respect the hordes or honey bees and bumble bees in my yard.

Bumblebees are pretty mellow, too, unless you start jumping and swatting. I like to stand in the rhododendrons when the bumble bees cover them. The bees buzz and look at you, but they aren’t willing to sting you (and therefore die) unless you hurt them. Only times I have been stung by bumblebees was when I picked a flower where one was sleeping and I didn’t notice. OOPS.

Bees die when they sting you.

Wasps go on living unless you stomp them.

Anyway, the mud-daubers are especially black this year. Usually they are more yellow. I am not sure what makes the difference. This year they seem to be more black than yellow. Whatever. They are fascinating creatures.

For one thing, they are fairy-like in flight.

For another, I am not sure what they are looking for: water? They don’t go to flowers for nectar but they do like the the hummingbird feeders.

They are solitary. But they are not. They build individual cells for one-time hatches out of mud-and-water.

And here are my hard- earned photos.

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Little Birds

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged on July 30, 2011| 1 Comment »

The Bushtits came to visit me today.

It has been three days of edging over that 80-degree mark and I am in heaven. SUNSHINE and I can actually go around without having to wear a sweater. Hear me sigh in contentment?

I didn’t think the day could get much better but when I set the sprinkler out this evening, it did.

I no sooner set the sprinkler than I heard a familiar “pip! pip! pip!’ as a flock of Bushtits hurried in to take advantage of the sprinkler.

I grabbed my camera and attempted to get some close-ups of these tiny, nervous, “drab” little birds as they flitted around in the camellia and the Hawthorne catching bugs and drops of water. I shot 30 photos.

I miss my old 35mm when I am faced with something like this. I could “push” the f-stop and I usually had 400ASA film in my camera just for shots like the Bushtits in motion. My current cheap Canon Rebel XT DSLR doesn’t afford me the option (or it is broken, like the “manual” setting on the lens is).

Still… the Canon served me well tonight. Out of 30 shots, I got 4 that I am happy with.

Where’s the bird? There are three of them in the photo. You’ll have to click on the photo to view it full size, but I promise you there are three little Bushtits in there.

A Bushtit spreads his feathers.

She has a miller (moth) in her beak.

I like this photo precisely because I do not think of Bushtits as “drab” little birds. They’re beautiful little creatures that are no larger than a hummingbird and they tend to fly in large family groups, but I simply would not refer to them as “drab” or “plain”. Charming little grey birds.

This is the photo I like the best. Two Bushtits playing in the sprinkler while one sits on the branch and enjoys the water. Click on the photo to view it full size: you can see the water from the sprinkler in the air.

I did not know I had that photo until I downloaded all 30. I knew I had some of Bushtits in mid-air but I was certain they were out-of-focus and far too blurry to use. But there was this.

That makes for a pretty “perfect” summer day!

 

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I Think It’s Here

Posted in Uncategorized on July 28, 2011| 2 Comments »

(But don’t say anything or it will evaporate in morning mist and afternoon clouds):

(soto voce): summer.

Cross your fingers, knock on wood, throw salt over your left shoulder – wait! That’s only 8if* you spilled the salt.

I know, I know, I know: you are reading this from your sweaty domicile in the Midwest or Arkansas or Texas or parts of the Northeast and you’re thinking “I wish summer would just end or cool off or…”

It hasn’t been so here in the Pacific Northwest where we are not starved for rain water or cool temperatures. It has edged up over 80 a handful of times. I’ve been wearing a jacket EVERY SINGLE DAY for at least half the day.

Today was one of those beautiful days that edged up over 80 degrees. The weatherpeople are promising us eight more days of this (I never trust them so if I get three nice days out of it, I’ll be quite content for about 30 minutes). Eight whole days of summer! Woot!

And to herald in summer, my grandsons came to visit me.

Well, my son-in-law came over to help me move a large item of furniture from the garage to the studio but he brought my grandsons and my daughter along with him. Good son-in-law.

Yep, Eli is walking.

They came in the gate and Z said, “Where are my digging tools?”

“I don’t know! Where are they?”

Pointing at the garage, he offered, “In there.”

“Well, if you knew where they were, why did you ask me?”

He had to think about that.

Z and Javes hauled all the toys out. Eli toddled around unsteadily. Javes asked if he could “pay with eggs.”

WHAT? OH. Play in the hazelnut mulch. I guess the little hazelnut shells look like egg shells…?

We are eternally grateful for a handicap ramp. Every home should come with one (why do I hear a resounding “YES!!” from the handicapped section? I mean for little kids you silly people!).

Some kids get the hang of it faster than others.

“I win!” the winner proudly proclaims. Except there wasn’t a race.

We took a walk around the yard. Grandma cleaned up most of the dog poo but we stepped carefully anyway. We found: a horse, a crocodile, a goose, a frog, some mushrooms, an owl and some butterflies. And apples and green tomatoes.

Grandma has a very fun yard even if you have to watch out for dog poo.

Too soon they had to leave.

What a perfect way to bring in the warm weather. Thank you, Sam, for bringing your family over to visit me.

Oh. And thanks for moving that ridiculously large piece of furniture upstairs. I know it was a great sacrifice.

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Songs from the Seventies

Posted in Uncategorized on July 25, 2011| 4 Comments »

My dear friend from over at Tea With Dee was taking a Facebook poll yesterday about our favorite tunes from 1970’s. She admitted she had no Beatles’ tunes on her list and someone rightly pointed out that the Beatles disbanded prior to the ‘Seventies.

I did not participate.

But that doesn’t mean I didn’t think about it. I was just getting into Bob Dylan in the 1970’s.

And I have a couple (or more) favorite ex-Beatles songs from the 1970’s.

Imagine and Give Peace a Chance by John Lennon, for instance. Band on the Run by Sir Paul McCartney (1973) comes to mind as well.

Off the top of my head I can come up with a list – mostly early 1970’s:

Sylvia’s Mother Said by Dr. Hook (1972)

Mandolin Wind by Rod Stewart (1971)

When the Levee Breaks covered by Led Zeppelin in 1971

Aqualung (and every other song on the LP) by Jethro Tull (1971) – I remember that Jethro Tull played the casinos in Reno that summer and I. Could. Not. Go. I also remember some girl out at Stead (Reno) who did not like Jethro Tull because he was “anti-Catholic”. Made me like the band even more.

Walk on the Wild Side by Lou Reed (helps that this is one of a very few songs that has my name in it. Not that I relate to the Jackie in the song.)

Sisters of Mercy and Suzanne by Leonard Cohen.

Pieces of the Sky – the LP – by Emmylou Harris. I fell in love with Emmylou in 1974. She has never disappointed me.

Running on Empty (1977), Doctor My Eyes (1972) and Stay Just a Little Bit Longer (1978) by Jackson Browne.

My Sharona by The Knack (1979).

Bicycle Race by Queen (1978)

Pinball Wizard by The Who (1975)

I could go on and on.

But one song really stands out and this one is especially for Deanna. It was written before a 1972 performance at a casino in Reno. Please enjoy Loudon Wainwright Jr:

Deanna – you ASKED. 🙂 Love, Me.

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Yard Art

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , on July 18, 2011| 3 Comments »

This is not my passion but it is a fun outlet and takes a minimum of effort. I’m still figuring out what glue works best (yes, I know: search, search search the Internet and maybe someone who does this for a living will dish on the secret to gluing porcelain and having it hold through torrential rains…)

Two saucers, two vases and a new marble.  I like the colors but it really isn’t a work of art – just two saucers, two vases and a marble glued together.

A tie-dye vase with a leaf-shaped saucer, a votive holder and a ceramic frog… Tie-dye garden flower! I like this one. I should have angled the camera so you could see the leaf-shaped saucer and the frog a little better. It is hiding in the penstemmon.

Willy Wonka tea cup flowers! They aren’t yellow daffodils but they were such a perfect find at Goodwill! Three little flower-shaped white porcelain cups, 3 saucers (from Pier One according to the label on the bottom) and three funky and very different stems. These are my favorites. Of course all yard art will have to come in when winter sets in but how fun to have a bit of whimsy in the garden!

THIS is what I have been spending a lot of time on. This is the underside of the glass top to my outdoor magazine rack. I used craft paint. According to my online research it is the recommended medium for outdoor window painting. Surprised me but then it is what I used before and the previous painting lasted several years and was still a bear to scrape off when I decided it needed a new painting this summer.

The “right” side of the glass. I should have painted more orange on the two butterflies, but I took artistic license with the whole design anyway, so who cares? The butterflies & owl are courtesy Dover Books. I love their copy-right free stuff.

In place in my garden.

The magazine rack was one of those little brass ones. My boss decided to throw it away because it didn’t match any of the office decor (he was right about it not matching anything) but I couldn’t bear to see it reduced to scrap metal. I brought it home and my husband nearly croaked.

Not in his house, he said.

“I have no intention of bringing it INSIDE the house,” I retorted. And then I painted it flat black and painted the glass top.

Since then I have added the hens and chicks and the new painting on the glass top. I love it.

Reuse, reuse, reuse. 🙂

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July Rain

Posted in bird watching, gardening on July 17, 2011| 1 Comment »

My goal last night was to do some gardening today.


I woke up this morning to find that Mother nature was refilling my rain barrel at a very steady rate.

I decided to take photos of the front yard in lieu of actually working on it. It was a great sacrifice: by the time I got back inside the house my jeans were soaked to the knees, my hair looked like I had been standing in the shower, my windbreaker was dripping and I badly needed another cup of coffee.

My lovely prickly pear cactus that never blooms.

A touch of front porch color. I haven’t killed it (yet). I usually end up killing my hanging basket flowers. I think the rain we’ve had this summer has saved this one (so far).

The pale pink rhododendron is much prettier in bloom, when the bumblebees cover it. I planted the hostas two summers ago and they have eked out an existence under the rhodie. I think I need a better plan for the hostas but I haven’t come up with one.

Oh look! Raindrops on the camera lens! This is the dark pink rhodie under which I have a hosta, some honesty plants (now past), some lilies and the forsythia. There’s some foxglove back in there, too, but I am afraid it is year one for that pretty biennial. I lost the established foxgloves last winter. It’s sure weird what plants you lose and what manage to make it through the winter.

This is the mid-pink rhodie, not as dark as the one and not as pale as the other. It needs so much pruning! There’s a stack of pruned branches sitting there on the base of it because I got in there and trimmed it up, cut out a bunch of dead stuff and tried to open it up. Don hauled half of it off already. I need to trim more.

I have bear grass under this rhodie, some wild licorice ferns, bunchberries that need to be moved to a better location (they don’t like the rhododendron and the constant layer of fallen leaves, and fringe cups all growing under this bush – all native plants I have gathered and transplanted (with a permit, of course). Nothing grows right under the rhododendrons except the native “Boston” -type ferns. Even the licorice ferns appear to be trying to escape the alkali soil and lack of sunlight…

The side closest to the front door with my store-bought picket fence. The Dianthus (Sweet Williams) are all falling over themselves in an attempt to escape the rhodie.

I planted this hydrangea seven years ago. It is nestled under the lone tree in our yard, a half-dead Lodgepole pine that we hang our bird feeders from. I chose the spot carefully: I wanted my hydrangea flowers to be blue. The color of the flowers is dependent on the acidity of the soil.

This poor bush doesn’t grow very quickly. The tree saps the water from the soil. I forget to water it and it is in direct sunlight most of the day. But after seven years, it has begun to hold a nice round shape and it shows signs of surviving the Lodgepole pine.

The pine has a fungus inside of it. I don’t want to cut it down because it holds my bird feeders. It isn’t a big tree and our house is in no danger should it ever fall. It’s just that it is our only tree and the birds love it.

Rain drenched day lilies. These were salvage plants. I brought them home and planted them in the grass in front of the retaining wall and hoped they would live. Day lilies are rather like irises and Shasta daisies. You have to work hard to kill them. I picked a place where I knew I would never want to move them from. They thrive on lack of water and neglect and they reward you with a couple weeks of beautiful blooms.

And, yes, my car door is open in the background. I was still unloading groceries when I decided I needed to take some photos of the front. In the rain.

The ever-popular bird bath, overflowing in the rain.

I had no idea how popular a bird bath would be when I bought my first one last summer (it froze and broke in half. Don purchased this one-piece concrete one for me to replace it).

Last summer, I had the bird bath closer to the house. This year, I put it closer to the retaining wall and the day lilies, where the birds could see cats coming. The change in location seemed to help: it gets used by crows, the band-tailed pigeons, robins and more.

Robins especially like the bird bath. This guy was so soaked that he had to sit on the edge a few minutes to allow his feathers to dry! Robins won’t use the bird feeders but they love-love-love bird baths.

The water in the yard art more than doubled since yesterday. Little rain gauges.

A lovely shot of the weeds in front of the garage door: forget-me-nots, dandelions, false dandelions and more. I was going to pull weeds today but instead Mother Nature watered and they will grow taller before I get to pulling them.

Last (but not least) my lovely yucca. It was also a salvage plant. The guy up the street had it sitting on the curb with a sign that read “FREE”. that was five years ago. It’s grown, it’s bloomed every year, and I completely forget about it when it isn’t blooming. I love my yucca and it loves me.

There’s a weed growing in it that is nearly as tall as the yucca itself. I keep forgetting to pull the weed.

The creek beyond the yucca is the street I live on. Lovely how it turns into a creek when we have nearly an inch of rain fall in one morning.

That’s the tour for now. I have so much work to do. So much work… But it is all worth it.

ttfn!

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Garden

Posted in Uncategorized, tagged , , , , on July 16, 2011| 3 Comments »

It’s another colder-than-normal summer here. Woke up this morning to rain on the tree peonies. I’m pretty much done with rain but I guess the skies aren’t, so rain it is.

The rain knocked my oregano around some. I grow the oregano more for the honey bees than I do for use as an herb. No honey bees out in the rain, though. They’re fair-weather insects.

Somehow, taking those two photos this morning evolved into a photo essay about the shape of my garden as of the middle of July, 2011. My hollyhock hasn’t bloomed yet but it does have buds. It’s a deep purple hollyhock (“black”). When I was a little girl, I learned that my dad hated hollyhocks. I love them. What he made us pull out of the yard, I purchase seeds for and plant in my yard.

See that funky metal stuff in the background to the hollyhock? You’re looking at my future pond. More on that in a future post.

One upside to the cooler temperatures and the never-ending rain is that my evening primroses open up in the day time and I actually get to enjoy them before dusk. Gotta look on the bright side, right?

I think this is the best my prayer garden has ever looked. I’m discovering that a benefit to opening it up to allow the dogs access is this: they have beaten a pathway through it. I used to have to figure out a path between the plants. Of course, the down-side is that the dogs have beaten a pathway through it.

My future pond will be right where those yellow sedums are right now. I’ll have mosquito fish in the pond & hopefully we’ll attract some Pacific tree frogs into the neighborhood. I want a water feature with the water spilling over that big rock that is balanced above the sedums. Dreaming now…

Eventually the rest of my little picket fences will go around my Shasta daisies. I can see the flower bed needs weeding again. Never-ending job. The cool weather and rain is only encouraging the weeds to grow.

I fell in love with Shasta daisies when I was in high school. The elderly woman who lived across the street (her name was Hazel and we corresponded for years after I moved out on my own) gave me a gift of a clump of Shasta daisies one year. They were my first attempt at outdoor gardening. I was fourteen. They brightened my life when they actually thrived and bloomed. I didn’t know then that you have to try real hard to kill daisies. They’re a little too easy to grow.

I lost one lavender plant last winter but the one in my north border is thriving. And I am thrilled to see my gladiolas have returned despite the fact I did not dig them out last fall. I guess you’re supposed to dig them up every autumn. Mine will just have to hope we don’t have a deep freeze.

I almost pulled this out back in early June. I was certain I’d lost my grape vine. I’m so glad I didn’t act rashly because my grape is doing just fine. I probably won’t have grapes for years, but I have a grape vine starting!

This is Harvey’s hobby now that he is allowed the freedom to wander around the yard without being tied up: looking through the fence and dreaming of escaping. I’ll never be able to fully trust him alone in the yard because he has a bad case of wanderlust, but it is nice to know that he isn’t really trying to get out. He’s just day-dreaming about it.

I would never leave Harvey out unsupervised any more than I would allow toddlers and little children to roam my back yard unsupervised. Some things require constant vigilance.

People are always stopping and asking me what breed of dog Harvey is. He’s an English Setter. I always thought English Setters were pretty cool dogs. I think God looked down and smiled on me when I met Harvey at the dog pound. Or maybe He looked down and smiled on Harvey because he was on Death Row. Harvey has turned into an awesome companion and friend. I am so happy he came into my life.

He looks happy, too. 🙂

The little triangle garden by the garage is doing pretty well this year. The tree peony and the other peonies are fading as is the voodoo lily, but the asters are up-and-coming. I moved the hummingbird feeders in hopes of attracting more hummers.

They prefer the feeder by the back door.

There’s a random sunflower growing in the hanging planter by the back door.

I planted the sunflowers out front. Usually I have giant sunflowers planted out there but this year I just didn’t get any seed into the ground in time. But the little sunflowers work well with the garden art so I can’t complain. At least not too much.

 

Another bright spot in the cooler temperatures is that my violas in the little pots are still blooming. It’s probably a miracle that they are still alive, but it really hasn’t been hot enough or dry enough and I haven’t forgotten to water them. Yet.

Those are Don’s bonsai trees. He has an entire forest of bonsai. Really. Some day I should do a blog post about each one of his trees. Some day.

Speaking of a forest in the back yard, how many people have a log in their back yard? Just a log. It’s about five feet long. Don practices crosscut sawing on it. Mostly, however, it is just a log. In my back yard.

Also speaking of forests, there’s this in my yard. It’s a forest of it’s own: a mess of a male variegated holly tree that someone topped years ago. Grown up under and through the holly’s canopy are a couple wild hazelnuts, a tangle of Himalayan blackberries and an infusion of nightshade on the vine. It’s an eyesore.

It is also the site of our future two-dog chain link dog run. The dogs will have their dog houses set inside the shelter of the shed and a play yard of 8×12′. It will have a cover and a concrete floor.

I regret to say I should be cutting on that holly tree this weekend. it just looks so intimidating. Daunting.

It looks like work.

Tomorrow I’ll tour my front yard. It looks like work, too. I’d rather take photos and bore you with my plans than actually work on them.

Thanks for letting me procrastinate and for allowing me to bore you with my greenery.

ttfn –

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It Was, However, Perfect

Posted in Uncategorized on July 9, 2011| 2 Comments »

Was it a perfect day? Not really: I didn’t have the gumption to do everything I wanted to do and the sun set far too soon. Summertime should mean sunsets after 10, but we didn’t have much “summer” weather before the equinox and the sun is setting too early. My son in law even complained as he loaded up the babies tonight: the sun had already set by 9:00.

It was, however, a perfect day. Two of my five grandsons came to visit. It was unplanned and I had to set aside some of my plans to babysit, but it was a welcome distraction. I even saved some yard work for the grandboys.

We spread hazelnut mulch in Grandma’s garden. Two year old Javan doesn’t begin to understand the concept and picks up the hazelnut shells already in the flower beds and moves them to another spot. Three year old Zephan made hills out of the hazelnut shells. Grandma had to pick shells up out of the lawn several times. But it was oh-so-much-fun.

Zephan is so bossy. He’s like a movie director. “Let’s go watch cartoons.”

“What does Javan want to do?”

“Watch cartoons.” (Javan is oblivious to the conversation, pouring water from the dog pool onto the apple trees. I think he had no opinion whatsoever.)

We watched cartoons. We watched “Stuart Little: Call of the Wild” for the umpteenth time, finished watching Curious George and Toy Story 3 (for the umpteenth time also). We dined on macaroni and cheese, Ritz™ crackers (carckers), cheese slices and juice.

Harvey had to be tied up. Javan was in a sensitive mood and just seeing the big dog loose in the yard sent him into wailing. I totally relate. I understand. He isn’t really afraid of Harvey but he is intimidated by the size of the dog and the pure bulk of animal. And the bark. The bark sets his little Highly Sensitive Person system off.

Grandma understands. As a fellow HSP, I understand all too well.

Harvey is just a dog and can stay tied up when grandboys come to visit. Some day Javan will over come that fear. Until that time, I am not pushing it. I want to enjoy his little person-ness.

We watered grandma’s garden.

And we gave grandma tickles.

Grandma needed all of that time with little bossy people. Her grandsons remind her that life goes on, a different generation picks up the torch, and that she is loved by someone as a child. After all, who else is going to tell me to “Play, Gandma. Play wit me.”

Or “Tickle.”

Love you boys!!

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Name One Good Thing

Posted in Uncategorized on July 7, 2011| 3 Comments »

This morning in our monthly staff meeting, the president of our company, Bert Waugh III, asked each of us to name one good thing that happened in the first six months of 2011. The question caught me off-guard.

One good thing? What raced through my mind (and set off a day of teetering on the edge) was the events of the past six months: a cancer scare that turned into a kidney stone and surgery, the loss of my nineteen-year old cousin in Wisconsin, the death of my father and the ensuing two weeks I spent in Nevada packing up his 83 years of life with my brother, the news that we have to do some imminent repairs to our house for insurance purposes, and the hassle we’re having with the bank and Dad’s Trust. Of course, good things have happened. Every one of those events spawned numerous good things.

I still have my sense of humor, for one thing. I don’t have cancer. I still have my brother.

But I’d really just like a 2011 “do-over.”

I said that I’d drawn closer to my God, and that is true. But it’s also lame and it opened me up for the rest of today’s events.

I no sooner sat down at my desk and got deeply involved in my work when the phone rang. My doctor’s number was on the caller ID. I groaned: I knew I was supposed to return his call but I was really, really busy. And it was just the results of the follow-up x-ray from the surgery to get rid of the blasted kidney stone.

But I answered it. I was in the middle of a math problem, but I figured I could listen to the good report and crunch numbers on the calculator at the same time.

Except it wasn’t all that good.

Did I just say I had drawn closer to God? Here came another wave (“This is a test” spoken in Bill Cosby’s voice):

That blasted kidney stone is smaller but it is still in my left kidney.

My doctor is embarrassed. This is not supposed to happen. I haven’t passed any stone fragments, I haven’t been bleeding, and except for the fact that I put my back out, I am not in any pain. Yeah, I put my back out. there is that.

The upshot of this is that I have to go back in for another x-ray but this time he wants it done by his technician. And then we have to decide what to do: another go at surgery? I’d best do that while I’m still feeling brave.

The downside is: I have used up my vacation time and all my sick time and I don’t even know where all the previous expenses are going to land in insurance land.

So here I was: trying to work, thinking about the mysteries of the human body and the composition of a 5mm kidney stone that is resistant to ultrasound blasting and missing my dad.

There’s more to this story. Boring details like hiring an attorney to push the Trust through probate court and needing to sign the papers in front of a Notary Public, finding an honest roofing contractor to remove the moss from our house, trying to avoid thinking about a second surgery…

AUGH.

I ended up crying all the way home after work. Stupid emotional stuff. Those of you who have walked this path of grief know from whence I speak: it hits you. They’re gone. Mom, Dad, little sister. You remember a laugh, the feel of their hands, the color of their hair. And you’re bawling.

I don’t want to be a negative whiney person. It does feel like it sometimes. But the emotion is still too raw. There have been a few too many burdens added to the load. And the pressure to name a good thing out of it all just sort of set it all off.

So here’s a list of good things:

I am thankful my employer is a positive person and is making me think about what good has come out of the last six months

I don’t have cancer. I know people who do. I have loved people who did not win that battle. I miss Ellen. Ellen was a joy to know and a good thing to have happened in my life. So were Trudi and Carolyn. I am thankful for the cancer survivors I know: Kari, Julie, Jodi, Angie (to name a few).

God is my Rock.

Harvey is my Buddy.

Summer finally arrived.

I don’t have Kaiser insurance.

I have good insurance.

I have a close circle of really good and dear friends, some in “real life”, some on the Internet, and some thousands of miles away – but all who are very real and very kind.

I got to watch Willy Wonka (with Gene Wilder) for the first time with my good friend, Mary, and her granddaughter, Joy.

And I have these guys to love:

Justin, Micah, Zephaniah, Javan and Eliran. My Grandboys.

Life is still good.

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Independence Day Creations (Not Patriotic)

Posted in Uncategorized on July 4, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Busy day today. Right now I am listening to some bluegrass music and early fireworks. Every time something explodes, poor Murphy thinks he has to go catch the perpetrator! Harvey just curls up and hopes it will all go away – soon – but Murphy runs from one end of the house to the other, barking. He isn’t afraid of the fireworks but he does get all worked up.

Happy Fourth of July!

I spent the weekend doing exactly as I wanted. I worked on little art projects all weekend.

I made two little picket fences (four to go) and put up a “lens” on Squiddo with the “how-to” instructions (shameless self-promotion here).

I tackled the question of how to make “mushrooms” and how to make something similar to those daffodil tea cups from Willy Wonka.

I stripped the paint from the glass top of the outdoor magazine rack. I picked out the design for the new “stained glass” look. I didn’t get any further with this project. Look for that in a future post.

I spent $9 on new plants (see previous post), $9 on mushroom “caps” and $24 at GoodWill selecting my “flowers”, “stems” and mushroom “stems”.

 

I had a pot here at home to use as a mushroom cap, too, but neglected to get a photo of it.

I prepped everything by washing and removing all the sales tags. I removed old glue and wiped all the surfaces with acetone to ensure a good contact with the glue. Then I glued everything and waited to let it set.

In the case of the glass “bell” flowers, only one day was necessary to “set” everything. The tea cup flowers took two days because I had to glue the cups to the saucer and then glue that to the the “stem” (once I knew the first glue would hold). I still plan on painting the glass bell flowers and maybe – just maybe – I will embellish the tea cup flowers.

I’m pretty pleased with the results.

The mushrooms proved a tad bit more difficult. For one thing, I wanted to fill in the space between the cap & the stem to prevent slugs and other creatures from using that space as a home. And one “stem” needed ballast.

Ballast ended up being glass “stones” for a decorative vase glued to the inside.

I assembled the mushrooms and set them aside to set. And while they were setting, we made a run to Home Depot for some other weekend needs.

Don’t you love it when the answer is dropped into your lap? What the heck is “Great Stuff” anyway? Some sort of expanding foam insulation for $3/can. I bought a can and told my husband that I wasn’t going to let anyone at the hardware store know what my intended use was. He just grinned.

And told me that it expands as you spray it, so I thought “COOL.”

Except it expands as it hardens.

Um… Not sure I wanted it to expand THAT much. Oh, hahaha! This could be interesting.

I figure, what the heck! I am going to sand it and cut it and shape it to look like “gills” anyway. And I plan on pulling out my unused airbrush to paint the final mushrooms.

So on that note, here are the not-so-final mushrooms right-side-up.

Use your imagination. Pretend they are already painted.

I can “see” them.

I am jumping the gun by showing you the raw products but I am just so excited at what I got accomplished this weekend. It makes me very hungry to do more!

See you tomorrow!

Oh – and these may not be “patriotic” but they do represent something this Nation was founded on: our right to the pursuit of happiness. I certainly was pursuing happiness today!

ttfn~

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