Well, after 48 hours, I tried to turn on my laptop and nothing happened.  Very depressing. I have some decisions to make, but I’ll hold off for a bit. In the meantime, I’ll peck away on the iPad keyboard. Far from ideal, but better than nothing.

Forgot to show you the finished puzzle. I finished it on Sunday. As seems to be the case lately, there’s one piece missing. I know I didn’t drop it, so…who knows? Anyway, I worked on this for a long time with a longish break for rehearsals and 3 weeks of being sick. I love Renoir.

I didn’t keep my promise yesterday. Instead, I found myself mowing the lilac side of the lawn, the back forty, and the secret garden. All I can say is that sometimes when I’m very tired, I need to do something to get me through it. We still have to mow the front lawn and corral, but that can wait a few days. Meanwhile, Don did the recycling, several loads of laundry, and made an apple pie. Today, we are definitely taking it easy.

Oh, so pretty,

I somehow managed to transfer this photo from my big girl camera to my iPhone via Bluetooth. It wasn’t easy, at least this first time, and I MISS MY LAPTOP! There’s no slot for my camera chip on my iPad.

Writing via the iPad is tiring. I could buy a little keyboard for it, but it still can’t perform all the functions that my laptop does. It’s basically a large iPhone.

I’m going to warm up my coffee and contemplate the mess I’m in.

Stay safe.

Happy Thursday.

I’m trying to edit photos on the Lightroom app for the iPad and it’s much more cumbersome than the one on my laptop. Oh well, challenges keep my wits sharp and that’s a good thing. This is the chokecherry bush that’s right in front of the big maple. It’s fully in bloom at the moment.

I paid a visit to the nursery yesterday and got the rest of the plants for my pots. Everything has been potted now except for a few stray planters that I haven’t decided what to do with. It’s looking more finished around here.

Then, since I was going on very little sleep, I took a nap for just under two hours. Much, much needed! I slept a bit better last night, thank goodness.

Don’s hand is still sore but that will eventually fade away. He drove for the first time yesterday. He bought some groceries. Today, he’s doing some laundry. Hurrah!

Another sunny day today with a high of 72 degrees. Perfect. I’m going to sit on the porch for awhile and admire my handiwork. Just saw a bunny outside the door. Adorable!

Tomorrow, more mowing, but today? We’re taking it easy.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

A shot of the Paper Mill Playhouse – I only have these because Don asked me to take some pictures, so I ran out of the theater and snapped a few. Track 3 and Track 4 are references to Murder on the Orient Express, of course. This is a very old theater and there are other buildings in the complex – a restaurant/catering facility, etc. It’s quite lovely and has a long, long history as a major regional theater which happens to be quite close to NYC. In fact, it’s the State Theater of New Jersey.

Part of the courtyard. It was dusk when I took these, so they’re not the best.

The show officially opened on Sunday night. Everyone associated with it has done a great job. In all honesty, I’m not crazy about the script, which mines the mystery for laughs. It was adapted by Ken Ludwig, who wrote the well-known Lend Me a Tenor, which is a farce. So, there are elements of farce in this adaptation. I’d prefer the mystery itself with maybe a few quirky elements along the way. We all know that Poirot has his own quirks. But I think farce cheapens the brilliant Christie story. It’s not all farce, of course, but I did find it jarring and unnecessary. However, the director and cast have done an excellent job with this adaptation.

We worked outside yesterday, clearing a few more garden beds. I think they’re all fairly free of leaves now. Working outside is tiring for me because of my allergies, which flare up and sort of take over for the rest of the day.

I wanted to tell you that we had a long phone conversation with Adrian on Sunday afternoon. He’s home – we were quite surprised at that bit of news – and, after two months there, he’s very, very happy to be home. But he has to go through rigorous testing every week – a heart biopsy (which is done to see if the body is accepting or rejecting the heart) and a slew of other tests. He’s still in a great deal of pain. Adrian has had a lot of injuries – some major and life threatening – in his life and he said it’s like every bit of physical trauma that he has experienced has come back to haunt him. He’s obviously not sleeping as well as he would like, given the pain. We love him so much and pray that the pain eases soon.

I woke up very, very early today so I’m going to take it easy. We do have to buy some top soil and netting of some sort, but that will most likely be tomorrow.

Stay safe.

Happy Tuesday.