Slice of life:

Let’s take a little trip around the photo.

In front of me, two books. I just finished Orfeo  yesterday and started The Lincoln Highway  last night while reading in bed. The books are sitting on a throw I knitted many moons ago.

My foot.

To the left –  a basket full of throws, sweaters, quilts, plus a quilt in the seemingly endless process of hand quilting. I crocheted the afghan on top.

Continuing on – the sheet music cabinet with the girls perched on top. The framed watercolor above the girls is of a windmill. We bought it many years ago in San Diego.

Then the steps and beyond them, the living room and kitchen where Don is currently making our second cup of coffee.

On the right, a favorite houseplant plopped in a piece of McCoy. A box of tissues. Art books in a big stack topped by another piece of McCoy. And a partial view of my beloved planner- underneath the planner is a book by Mary Oliver.

On my left, but unseen – my coffee cup, my phone, my book of passwords, a McCoy piece full of pens and brushes and crochet hooks, a lamp, a photo of Don and me on the beach in San Diego, Carmex, vaseline, various ear buds, the beautiful French bowl that I bought in Paris. Below the table – a basket full of books.

Also unseen: the heating pad currently warming my back, which is slowly getting better every day.

There you have it. The view from my blogging chair.

I used to do this kind of post fairly often and I think it’s time to bring it back into the rotation.

I’m thinking of reopening my Etsy shop. I have some things that I’ve accumulated over the years and it’s time to pass them on to someone else. Don’t worry, I’m not doing a big clear out because I love my collections too much, but there are items that I could bear to part with. However, my back has to be in shape so I can crouch down and take pictures of everything. So far, I’m just making lists of possibilities.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

I call Livvy my Emotional Support Doll and she is. This is where she’s sitting right now, on the coffee table just to the right of my chair. She’s keeping me company because I threw my damn back out again yesterday. Unbelievable.

We were getting ready to recycle and stop by the grocery store. I had insisted on going along with Don because I didn’t want him lifting heavy bags of trash. We had to get this done before the snow today, which, as I write this, is falling heavily. Crap. Anyway, I bent over to fix a cushion on the green sofa and I felt it go. Just a simple movement and bam! I mentioned it to Don but continued on to gingerly bag up the trash and carry the recycling bins to the car. By the time we got to the grocery store I was walking pretty slowly and carefully.

Fast forward to this morning. I could barely get out of bed. I woke up before Don and I didn’t want to disturb him as sleep has been hard for him lately because of his shoulder. I wasn’t sure I could navigate everything, but slowly, I did. Now I’m ensconced in my chair and Don – who is also in pain – is taking care of me. As Don said, we’re the walking wounded.

And we’re getting 4-8 inches of snow today. Cue my scream.

It will all start to melt on Monday but in the meantime, we may ask our other neighbor if she would be willing to use her snowblower on our driveway – we’d pay her, of course.

I have officially had it. With my back, with winter, with the world.

But ibuprofen is helping, thank goodness. And my faithful heating pad. Yes, I used ice yesterday, as well.

Okay. I’m off.

Stay safe.

Happy Saturday.

It needs to be painted – that’s not happening this year – and the landscape is rather bleak right now, but this baby has a new roof:

We get a LOT of wind here and this shed is in the line of fire. After 20 years, lots of the shingles on the back slope of the roof had blown off. And so the leaks began. Even after our big clean out of the shed a couple of years ago, we had to group things inside the shed in places where there were no leaks. So all of our excitement about the relative spaciousness of the interior after the clean out was ‘dampened.’

These guys were great. They were done with everything – including replacing some shingles on the porch roof and creating a barrier so that we will not have leaks inside the screen door every time it rains – by 2:00. The town inspector came by and okayed everything. We are very happy with their work. The nails used on the shed shingles are longer than the ones that were there, so they should be more secure.

The dumpster is still here, but it’s supposed to be picked up today. Today…when we’re getting some snow. Everything finally melted and here comes winter showing its face again. Though we’re not getting much and tomorrow it’s supposed to reach the mid-forties, so it won’t be with us long.

Frankly, snow will make it look somewhat pretty again. We’re at that stage of winter where everything is brown and gray and both Don and I were saying this morning that it looks depressingly bleak out there.

Thank you, Spoiler Alert. You enabled us to pay for the roof repairs!

I’m getting an itch to start painting in oils again. I have to finish the puzzle I’m currently working on and then maybe one more? Maybe not. I have some ideas – I’d love to paint some of my egg cups. Don would like me to paint some of his guitars – wouldn’t it be neat to paint each of them and have them framed for his space in the office?

So, soon I’ll be transitioning the kitchen table from puzzle pieces to the easel.

I’m so glad the repairs have finally been done. There are many other repairs that need to happen around here, but the roofs were the top priority.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.