The other day, I counted 53 morning glory blossoms (including the ones in the chicken wire fence garden.)
Yesterday, there were 50. Today? I’m not sure yet because it got colder overnight and they’re slow to open when the morning is cold. I can’t tell you how much pleasure they give me; watching the bumble bees crawl in the blossoms, seeing their beauty as I go in and out the side door or walk to my car. Thank you, morning glories.
Morning glories, zinnias, and lots of leaves. I raked again yesterday and I’ll rake again today. I don’t mess with the leaves in the back forty – they can stay there. But the front lawn and the corral get raked. I’m not a perfectionist about it, not by a long shot. Today I’ll mow part of the lawn, which will shred some of them. The rest stay on my garden beds because they work as protective mulch.
Thank you so much for the anniversary wishes yesterday! Don had a long day of tech, but we managed to snatch some phone/face time. He’s feeling a bit better, by the way, so things are looking up.
Next year: 20!!
I finished Jan Karon’s book. Just as when I read the last page of a Louise Penny, I sat here and didn’t want it to end. Both Karon and Penny have managed to create towns that live and breathe and are just as much a part of the story as the characters. I’d live in Mitford or Three Pines. Easily. Anyway, if you like her books, I highly recommend it.
I think of my mom every time I read one of her Mitford novels. Mom loved them and we sometimes traded them back and forth. Maybe she was reading along with me. Wouldn’t that be nice?
Now, I’m on to the newest in the Lisbeth Salander series, The Girl Who Takes an Eye for an Eye.
I’ve been taking a break from the news and Rachel Maddow because, as I said to Don, I feel like I’ll go insane with rage otherwise. I know what’s going on, but I’m not lingering there right now. I can’t. I think we all have to do this when it gets to be too much. Give yourself a break. I have realized that I can’t live at this level of anger and rage for extended periods of time. It isn’t healthy. Reading helps. Chores help. Projects help. Looking at nature’s beauty helps. Cocooning helps.
Sigh.
I’ve been repotting some plants that had become root bound. Yesterday, it was time for this Chinese Evergreen to be repotted. I really love this plant. Add to the list above: tending to houseplants helps.
Happy Friday.
yep … breaks and chores and puttering and reading (and knitting here instead of morning glories there for you) … all good and necessary things on their own and especially now as a break from troubles of the world.
i am thinking for sure your mother was reading along with you. :)
glad don is beginning to feel better. hope you stay well … you have a big trip coming up! :)
happy friday!
kathy in iowa
Thank you, Kathy!
I have truly been avoiding the news. I still ‘see’ what’s going on but can’t get in too deep right now. my mental health has demanded a break from it all. Had a great family dinner last night with Sara and Family and her Dad was visiting. He and I are getting along great and it’s nice to share memories with him once again. It’s a cloudy gloomy day here so that doesn’t help me at all. I’ll have to make myself do something positive today. Hugs!
I started painting the kitchen and I’m exhausted!
I have never been a social media junkie, I now don’t even watch the news. My husband and I have always been huge sports fans and recently I don’t even watch football. When did it become ok and acceptable to call each other names and be cruel because we all do not share the same thoughts?
Wishing peace,
Kandi
I would like the answer to that myself Kandi…it is sad that you even have to ask that question isn’t it?
Very good question, Kandi. Thank you.
Oprah advised a friend to stop watching the news and watch Ellen. Wise woman. I told my husband that I need an intervention. I am letting this “person” taint my very happy life. So…. I have decided to not let him control my happiness. Because quite frankly I have let him! So I so understand your rage and frustration. I have been been steadily contributing to each disaster. Not large contributions but if we all did it would make a difference. Of course for obvious reasons I was most generous to PR Take care of your self and let’s all look for the joy in life. We need to be kind to others and especially ourselves.
Lani
Thank you, Lani.
I’ve been concentrating on my stitching. I recently pulled out a UFO, a birth sampler for my adult daughter. The project was a bit ambitious, but I’m glad there is only about 20% more to stitch and I’m making good progress. (I learn fairly quickly though…the birth sampler for my second daughter is not as large, but just as beautiful. It was fully stitched and framed before she entered kindergarten, so older daughter needs to have hers finished too.) stitching relaxes me, and I putter for a few minutes every half hour or so. Stitching helps me to cope with the horrible fires going on in Northern California, though my friends in that area are ever on my mind. I finally heard from them…they don’t need to evacuate, for now, but they are packed and ready to go in case. Claudia, have a wonderful day, welcomed by the profusion of your morning glories.
I painted in the kitchen today. Took on too much and I’m really tired. But at least it kept my mind focused.
We are almost home from our Wisconsin adventure. We’ve stayed abreast of the news, but refused to discuss it. Too much going on that is too hard to stomach…it’s been a wonderful break. I guess heavy rains are coming our way…it’ll be time for mowing and raking this Sunday I fear. Enjoy your day….glad to hear Don is feeling better! ;)
Thank you, Donnamae.
Claudia, just the other day I was reading an article – “Plants That Are Difficult to Kill” – [LOL] and it mentioned Chinese evergreens. Apparently it’s not ONLY low-maintenance [which in my case means ‘generally immune to neglect’] but it’s a great plant for cleaning the air indoors. I may have to check them out. My apartment gets southern & western light so African violets, which I love, are out for me. Glad Don is feeling better. Singing when you don’t feel like singing is just no fun. And being sick is just plain never fun to begin with. Have a great weekend. Supposed to be quite warm on Sunday – 80s I heard. Yikes. And I don’t think we can call it Indian Summer because we haven’t had a frost yet. I’m participating in the Women Boycott Twitter deal today – are you? Peace. 🍁
#Resist
Yes. Haven’t been on twitter once.
Love that you and your Mom traded Mitford books. My mom was the same way. Back when she (Karon) lived in the ‘real-life Mitford’, one mountain town over from us, we would run into her out -and-about in town. My Mom, a quite-dignified older woman, would become quite the tongue-tied fangirl. It was funny to watch the transformation.
Sigh…I have also taken a break from Rachel and from the news. I am now working through my collection of classic movies. It will have to happen without me for a time. I don’t like feeling this angry, and I hate the sense of loss I feel—things have been taken from us that will never be returned. Some things can be re-established legislatively, and will, I trust. But some rubicons have been crossed and cannot be uncrossed, and it makes me keeningly sad.
Raking our colorful leaves has become a very zen occupation for me, and I NEVER feel that way about raking leaves! I wish you a good weekend–
Peace, and please, oh please peace–
Leslie P.
How lovely that you would run into her and that your mom was a fan!
Peace.
The crap he has been pulling the past 2 days ~ especially with health care ~ it is just beyond belief. Anything that President Obama touched is what he wants to destroy. Anything and everything. I totally agree with you about needing a break and also staying aware. It is a tightrope for sure.
Glad Don is feeling better. Enjoy the rest of your Friday…. in a week you will be in NOLA!!
I truly despise him. I’d use the word hate but my mom told me not to say that word. Thanks, Chris.
I feel the same way and got the exact same instructions from MY mother. So I won’t say I hate him. But I feel perfectly comfortable saying I’ve never DISLIKED anyone in my life as intensely as I DISLIKE [and I was once called a “fat pig” in the school cafeteria by a boy when I was 12 years old]. Even THAT boy – who is now a doctor by the way – I like more than Donald tRump. 😛
xo
That’s what I need so badly now at the tail end of a crazy busy season. I need TIME OFF from work to putter around my cozy house. My houseplants are all mad at me, my garden is a jungle, my pups need baths, my house needs cleaning, I have repairs I need to make….and a sweetie who I am playing nurse for, so running from work to home to his house to work to home to his house…..rinse and repeat.
You need some rest, Debbie!
I’m doing the usual fall decluttering and rearranging. I hate to listen to the news also. It goes even further, I can’t even get any joy in watching John Wayne movies. I used to always love to listen to a John Wayne while folding laundry, dusting etc. This piece of history is ruining all of our happiest moments.
Yes it is. I’m sick of feeling angry or scared or worried and I’ve been that way since November 8th.
We happen to be in one of those cities where they say N. Korea could possibly reach with a nuke, so we would be really happy if sanity prevails.
That’s an understatement, Jan! Yes, please. Sanity.
I awoke this morning to a noise with which I was unfamiliar and sourced it to my neighbor cutting down a tree which he planted but which intrudes A LOT on my property. As long as it’s not compromising the big block divider wall, I haven’t minded the natural privacy ‘blind’ of the tree but it teems with birdlife and, between the leaves and bird poop all over our grill and outdoor eating area (which also makes it not such a great place to hang out unless you’re wearing A HAT), well, we put up with it; we pay a guy to trim our side of the tree (the neighbor never offers). It’s expensive for us. Trimming this tree is a pretty big job because the tree is pretty darn big; it towers ‘way over their roof and we don’t want its limbs rubbing on our roof.
Anyway, I went out there to see what was going on and, at that moment, a large bough he’d just cut fell smack on my roof, on an add-on room we have that serves as a mud room/closed-in (screened in) porch with four walls and windows but not a shingled roof – – rather, a sort of corrugated plastic/vinyl (sun-resistant/heat-resistant) roof. I thought, “Hello. Welcome to Friday the 13th.” All the neighbor said was, “Sorry.” So, now, my husband is going to have to climb up there tomorrow and see if we have any damage because, hopefully, we’ll eventually be into a rainy season and I DO NOT want leaks because I have furniture and decor in that room, which has a wood floor topped by vinyl floor covering; it’s a regular room, not a covered-patio sort of thing. I’m trying not to be TOO pissed off because these aren’t bad neighbors; I just don’t understand why they do things the way they do; that sort of tree trimming isn’t a one-man job, it needs a professional crew just so that accidents like that don’t happen. This is the irony…the guy won’t pay for a tree-trimming service, trying to do it himself instead and botching the job, yet he can go out and buy a 30′ (I’d thought it was 26′ or 2 7’ but it’s even bigger than I thought), brand-new 2018 model, tricked-out travel trailer which can sleep 10 people and is only tow-able with a super-duper diesel pickup truck that he had to buy for it! People & their Priorities. How they choose to spend money. It’s a head-scratcher.
During this nervous morning, and wanting to stay close to the tree-trimming action, I turned on the TV in the room adjacent and it was just more headlines on MSNBC and CNN about Trump’s latest threats for health care, Iran and North Korea and, yes, for my sanity because I was already on high alert about the tree trimming, I just turned off the TV. Things with the current administration don’t get better over time and in the first year, they just get worse and worse and worse and worse. I almost have a fatalistic attitude now about my vulnerability and the specter of war and destruction; my lack of control over a situation out of control. It’s a runaway train and I’m nowhere near the engine where I can alter the speed and direction. I’m praying hard for other people in positions of authority…as well as the free press…to uncover what they can and try to have power over a madman’s rhetoric, with rhetoric really not even being the right word to describe what are really just insane rantings, like to get attention in the worst fame-seeking way which might work on reality TV but not with serious world leaders and nations and a U.S. public who feel in jeopardy. I don’t like a bully toying with me; this is MY LIFE. I still naively say to myself, “How? How could this happen? How can sane people wind up with an insane person at the helm?” They said it could never happen in America, yet it has. This is real and this is dangerous. And, yeah, like anybody else, I’ve got a lot going on in my life in various areas but then, on top of it all, I’ve got to be worrying to this degree about my security in the country I love, feel daily anger and incredulity over what’s going on at the top, which will then filter down to me as the one who can only react after the damage has been done…oh, resentment doesn’t even start to define what I feel. You’re right, Claudia. Normal, rational people can’t help but rage at such abnormal, irrational behavior. It’s definitely scary.
He’s taken us hostage. We need to be rescued.
I ddi not know there was a new Lisbeth book. Yay. Last night the orange menace removed the subsidy for my insurance . As of Jan, I will likely be uninsured until I turn 65 in July. Just as I am being diagnosed with an auto immune issue. Which will now be preexisting. If I wasn’t already weeping from discomfort I would certainly begin now.
My head hurts from it all.
Belated best wishes. I was out of touch yesterday. <3
I’m hoping that Congress will rescue us. Please!
I too am taking a mental health break from Chester Cheeto. You may want to read the Vanity Fair article though, if you haven’t already. An interesting read. A little comforting to know that there are people around him who care about the country and are trying to keep him under control.
I read the Vanity Fair article a day or so ago. It’s comforting, but I don’t see them stopping him.
The best thing is to stay away from the television and think good thoughts. Enjoy your book and garden,.Those Morning Glories are beautiful. Have a good week end.
Marilyn
You too, Marilyn.
Your morning glories make me smile too Claudia!…We shall enjoy them as long as they last this year…as Vicki mentioned I am seeing the spectre of war these days and he is looking mighty frightening…oh please let me be wrong….
Very, very frightening.
I read the Mitford books, too Claudia, but I thought she’d said she was quitting after number 9. Now I see there are quite a few more, which makes me happy!
If you like that series, you may like the Thrush Green series by Miss Read, if you haven’t already read them. Set in England, they reminded me very much of the Mitford series and I think I enjoyed them more. I’m not religious, so I found myself skipping the prayers in the Mitford books.
Also, if you haven’t tried them , the Barsetshire series by Angela Thirkell is very charming.
Hope they’ll take your mind elsewhere.
I have a variety of Aglaonemas as house plants and in my garden. They’re lovely and so hardy down here in FL.
She did say she was quitting, but apparently she didn’t – and aren’t we glad!
I have read a couple of books by Miss Read And Angela Thirkell, but not the whole series. On my list!