It’s a gentle rainy morning here and we are happy about that. After an excess of rain throughout the spring and early summer, we’ve been having very hot and humid weather with no rain at all. The culvert has dried up. Phileas has disappeared. We’d love to see him come back, but he sure isn’t coming back if there isn’t any water. He may be hanging out near the pond on our next door neighbor’s property. Let’s hope so.
Mama Catbird is sitting on the nest, though she disappears at times, no doubt getting something to eat.
I saw this first thing this morning:
The first two blooms on one of the Rose of Sharons. If that doesn’t bring a smile to my face, nothing will!
Truthfully, it’s been so hot and humid that we can’t really do anything ourdoors and we feel incredibly lethargic. Our brains are mush. And that is going to be the case throughout this week. So any brief respite – some rain, running outside to take a picture of the blooms – is very welcome.
These mulleins are growing up in the back forty. The one on the right is taller than me and I’m 5’8″! (Used to be 5’9″)
The mullein flowers.
Since I got Nina a year or two ago, I’ve been looking for a proper neck joint for her. She was capable of looking straight out but she couldn’t tilt her head at all. The problem was that the neck joint that came with her was impossible to remove because Dragonfly Blythe (the customizer) had glued it on. I tried and tried to remove it, believe me. I ordered another Obitsu 24 body, and ordered a neck joint from PalmaDolls in Spain. I did all the ‘surgery’ but the neck joint didn’t fit properly and her head was too loose. So I would go back to her original body. I did this off and on for a long time. I’d give up. Then I’d try it again. Still didn’t work. Finally, I contacted Palma and sent her photos of the neck opening and the body and she sent me a slightly wider neck joint. Saturday, I replaced the old joint with the new joint. It was still too loose!! Palma suggested I try cutting up a little strip of an expired credit card and inserting it on both sides of the joint.
Well, I did that yesterday and lo and behold, it worked!
As you can see, Nina is tilting her head. Now she has much more flexibility.
Hurrah!
I have opened up her head and changed out bodies and neck joints so many times that I’m surprised she isn’t suing me for malpractice! Poor kid.
I’m deep into John Connolly’s new book, The Children of Eve. And, after a long wait in the queue, I finally have Michael Connelly’s newest, Nightshade, as well. So I’m all set for this week.
Stay safe.
Happy Monday.
Love Michael Connolly’s novels. Nina’s little head tilt is perfect. Enjoy your reading and stay cool. Hugs, Elaine
It’s awful out there! Hope it’s cooler where you live, Elaine.
Stay safe.
Thank you for the wildlife updates from your garden. I don’t think that I had even heard of catbirds before, not sure that we have them in England, and I liked the casual mention of a possible eagle sighting the other day. It would make front page news should one be spotted locally!
I attended a free author library event a few weeks ago and am currently reading The Moorstone.
It’s a detective novel set literally in my area. The places he describes, I can see from my front window and alongside the villages and local police headquarters he has included, I don’t need to use my imagination as I know them so well!
It’s just started raining lightly and is a welcome change to the heatwave of the weekend.
Happy Monday
That’s so neat – I looked up the book because I was wondering if “Moorstone” was a spellcheck error because of The Moonstone. But no, I can see the cover for the novel. Enjoy! It sounds just perfect for you.
Stay safe, Dee Dee.
Your Rose of Sharon is quite lovely…very pretty coloring. My hibiscus took a very long time to come out of hibernation,,.but it’s grown quickly, and buds are starting to show.
I had a Mullein plant one year pop up out of nowhere. Around here, they are called Tobacco plants, according to my neighbor. It was really pretty, and we planted other things around it, but, it never returned. The seed was probably brought by a bird. Wouldn’t mind if they brought another one lol.
Enjoy your day! ;)
We have them every year – but they pop up in different areas of the back forty. They’re really neat plants.
Stay safe, Donnamae.
Claudia, nice job being a Blythe surgeon! Having the tilt feature gives Nina much more personality.
It does! I have it all the dolls now. A HUGE difference.
Thanks, Wendy.
Stay safe.
Oh my…sort of like being a surgeon, lol. I love that Nina can have a saucy tilt to her head now. Cute !!! It is 98 today with heat index of 104 right now, but supposed to be heat index of 110 by 5 pm . What fun, summer in the south !!! YIKES. Stay comfy and cool.
Oh my goodness! I’m so sorry. That is HOT.
Stay in the A/C Dawn.\
Stay safe.
great work to help nina. i’m sure your perseverance is appreciated. and i love a good head tilt from people and animals. :)
beautiful flowers. looks nice and lush.
got quite a few things done here over the weekend and this morning (one was especially tough) so am now taking a break … maybe for the rest of the day.
hope everyone has a lovely day. stay safe.
kathy
I hope you take a break for the rest of the day, Kathy.
You accomplished a lot.
Stay safe.
What a joyful post! Flowers, birds , books and Nina feeling more comfortable with her neck.
This all lifted my mood/spirits.
Take Care,
Kaye
Oh, I’m so happy to hear that, Kaye,
Stay safe.
Well done– your perseverance paid off! (Love her Ukraine t-shirt.) We’re in the no mojo phase here too. I’m awaiting my ear surgery and the headaches really slow me down. I heard NYC flooded and hoped your rain wasn’t as bad!
NYC had awful flooding but most of the heavy rains were to the east of us.
Hope your surgery goes well, my friend, and you feel better soon.
Stay safe.