Our local guy who takes care of our oil burner and our plumbing stopped by yesterday to look at our well pump, which has been coming on when we use water (that’s normal) and then continuing to stay on for an hour (that’s not normal). He tweaked some settings and it’s better now, but eventually, we’ll have to replace it.
And by the way, the water table in our neck of the woods is low. It’s been very dry around here and last winter was virtually devoid of snow. If you have a well, that is not happy news. We have four days of rain coming up, but what we really need – and I can’t believe I’m saying this – is lots of snow this winter. Suddenly I’m cheering for snow.
Anyway, while I was going up and down the outside stairs to the basement, I noticed something. As I ventured closer to the moonflower vine, I saw this:
What the heck? A moonflower had opened overnight! This flower had been torn by the rain that was falling overnight, but look! I’m thrilled. The scent is wonderful. I had been watching this vine like a hawk, and had convinced myself that I wouldn’t see any moonflowers this year.
On closer examination:
Hello!
There’s more, including a few tiny buds that I didn’t photograph.
So last night, I kept going outside during commercial breaks to see if a flower had opened.
No, not yet. Maybe tonight?
My Squint Box arrived yesterday. This month’s theme is Petite Boîte – Little Box.
A decoupaged wood serving tray, a bouquet of roses, a cheeseburger and fries, a caramel apple, a lovely enamel water pitcher, and a signed and numbered print by miniaturist Mad Missy. Let me show you the print more clearly:
I really love it and think it would work perfectly in a contemporary room setting.
Today is my dad’s birthday. He would have been 93. It’s the first birthday where I can’t call him on the phone to wish him a Happy Birthday. And next month is the first anniversary of his death.
Missing him. Happy Birthday, Dad.
Happy Wednesday.
Good morning, Claudia! So happy to see the moonflowers blooming! I love the miniature caramel apple – so cute! Sending a long distance hug to you on your Dad’s birthday – I know the loss and sadness all too well. xxoo, Martha
Thank you so much, Martha.
Love your minis and your moonflowers! I don’t think we ever outgrow missing our Dads. They are such special people in our lives.
Have a good day.
Judy
They sure are. It’s a tough day today, Judy. xo
Love the moonflower Claudia, and that print is absolutely gorgeous. Purple is my favorite color after all. :-). Thinking of you today as you’re missing your dad.
Blessings, Betsy
Thank you, Betsy.
Well…if you believe in the farmer’s almanac…good news. Everybody east of the Mississippi is supposed to have lots of snow this winter! And last time I checked…that includes you and me, and lots of your readers, too. These anniversaries of loss, unfortunately, don’t get any easier with time, I’ve found. I’m still missing my dad 15 years later. Thinking of you! ;)
We need the snow, Donnamae.
Thank you for your kind words.
Sorry it is a sad day for you. I am not sure about wishing for a lot of snow, Ha Ha! The little picture is adorable! Take care.
I have to wish for it. We don’t want our wells to run dry!
Those minis are too cute! The print reminds me that I saw some teensy tiny canvases in the art supply aisle at Walmart the other day, and I wondered who would buy them and for what? Maybe you just answered that question.
Love the moonflowers, too. I’d never heard of them before. It looks like they must be close relatives to the morning glories…but from a different time zone.
Yes. They open at night instead of the morning. I just hope I can catch one opening. That would be so neat.
Sending a big hug as you remember your Dad’s birthday. When you remember your Dad, and your Mom, you remember from where you came and how you were shaped….they must have been exceptional people, Claudia.
Oh, thank you so much, Wendy.
Pretty flowers!! I have heard the same thing that Donnamae heard about it being a very snowy winter in the Eastern half of the country this year. I am hoping and praying that we are on the edge and will lean West when the snow flies. We are above normal for precip this year, so we will gladly let you have a great portion of any which is destined to come our way. Just ugh.
Getting through another “first” without your Dad. So hard. Will you be at Meredith’s when that day arrives? We, who are left behind, are sad. But sometimes it helps to remember that the ones we have lost are finally together again, and watching over us smiling. Hope you can find peace in your day today. ♡
In October on the anniversary of his death? I might. It just depends on our travel plans, Chris.
Moon flowers always seem magical to me. That tiny, tiny caramel apple is too cute! Joining you in missing my Dad…he passed away 3 years ago next month. He would have been 96 this past May. We talked daily when he was alive and I so miss those conversations. I will say though I believe he would be appalled at this year’s election mess!
So would my dad. He couldn’t stand Trump. He saw right through him. He would have been appalled that Trump was actually nominated. I miss talking politics with him.
Moonflowers…love the name…
I don’t know a thing about wells. They run dry? Then what? I remember from that film, BABY BOOM, how something happened to the (Diane Keaton) character’s well in winter and she was advised she’d have to hook into a city water line ‘down to the road’ which seemed complicated and expensive.
So strange…I, too, looked at the calendar this morning and noticed I have an appointment on my own dad’s upcoming birthday; he’d be 93, too. I feel it’s completely feasible he could still be alive, so I mourn the fact that I had to watch him slip away from us nine years ago. Coincidence of the exact age, yours and mine, but so many of us here are all around the same age, equally having parents all of that same age, too…that wonderful Greatest Generation. We daughters will always miss our dads; thinking of you, Claudia.
Then you have to wait it out. Or pay $10,000 to dig another well.
I have to think that’s it’s been this dry before. But we do need rain and snow and lots of it.
Claudia, I’m always happy to see you post photos of your monthly Squint Box. This way, I can compare it to mine. Aren’t they beautifully packaged? And very thoughtfully ‘themed’ and put together as a unit. Thing is, twice now, I like your box better than mine!!! I thought your ‘unmentionables’ (fancy undies) were prettier and, this time around, I like your pitcher a lot better than mine, which is plain speckled blue ‘enamelware’ (your pitcher has that cool writing on it, making it look very authentic). He did say (Mr. Scala) that to mix things up, they were putting three styles of pitchers in the boxes to customers; now I’d like to see what the third pitcher was but, all in all, I know I’m sounding a bit petty because, truly, I just LOVE these boxes and I don’t mind a bit that someone else is making the choices. It’s such a treat…a little gift in the mail! Again, it was a bit of splurge for me and, like you, I don’t know if I can or will renew the subscription but, until then, isn’t it the MOST fun?!!!
It is a lot of fun and always a surprise!
Reading the comments about a lot of snow. I hope that it isn’t going to be like it was 2 years ago in Massachusetts. I am thinking of my FIL who passed away then. There was so much snow that it was a challenge for the limo to move around. Tomorrow my dad would have been 81 years old. I was grateful that I got to talked to him before he passed away suddenly several years ago. Sending hugs to you today.
I looked up moonflower and I never realized there were so many varieties. Down the street from us there is someone that has the one that looks like a trumpet. IMHO not pretty. I like yours better. Are the blossoms big? Or like the size of a morning glory?
Well it would be hard for me as I’ll be working in Hartford and in NYC and that means a lot of travel in the snow. But I’d rather put up with that than lose our water!
Bigger than a morning glory, Trina. The only one I’ve seen so far is quite big!
Dear Claudia, I ‘m not sure if I have told this before,but I think it bears repeating.
Just a small statement,as true as anything I’ve heard, “As time Passes the memories will Sweeten”. In the grand scheme of things ,No time has passed for you in your grief.
You just keep on getting through how ever you can. and one day you will wakeup and realize
you are thinking about him,(or one of your very recent Losses) and it won’t hurt so much, and you will be smiling,and even laugh a bit. I promise it will happen just like that! I don’t think you can ever get “over” the loss ,but you can learn to live with it. -Much Love to you. -Judy A-
Thank you, Judy.
Yay for the moonflower! My uncle rebuilds well pumps Claudia and keeps ours running well. Wasn’t it last year when your dad enjoyed reading all our well wishes for his birthday? My step dad passed away in 1987 and I still think about him often. He was 23 years my mother’s senior and they were only together for 10 years. I was 16 when they divorced but our bond never wavered. He had 6 children but I alone was with him at the hospital in the end. He would have been 103 on March 25th of this year. I feel beyond blessed to have had him in my life.
I think it was on his 90th birthday, Janie – which was a few years ago.
Thank you for your kind words.
What is the idea /behind a Squint box?
Monthly subscription Judy. New minis every month.
I am so excited Claudia..I must tell you this..my son and I just returned from one of our walks around the edge of our property..we were down along the stream at the edge near the bridge and there I spotted it…A gorgeous Monarch Butterfly…she/he was resting on some honeysuckle vine and proceeded to show us how beautiful her wings were…I was thrilled of course..she didn’t seem afraid of us at all…she even let me reach out and coax her to turn back around so we could get a better view of her wings..she was still there when we moved on..That is the first one I have seen in quite a while and she has now convinced me that I need to be planting some Milkweed next spring…Now..I am happy that you finally have a Moonflower bloom…I do hope you have a chance to see one in action…It is so hard to believe your Dad has been gone for almost a year…my Daddy is gone 53 years now and he still lives in my heart every day…I think this is the cutest Squint Box you have received yet..I just love the mini painting and the tiny caramel apple…are you going to give those tiny roses to Caroline??…It looks like the rain will be starting here soon…I hope it rains enough to help your well situation..I was lucky when I bought this place..They had just recently switched over to town water but the old pump house is still here…I use it for storage..Hugs
So happy you saw that Monarch! We saw one in the woods the other day and also near my neighbor’s house. But I haven’t spotted another one here, I saw a few of them about 3 weeks ago.
We’re too far from town – most of the people who are residents in this rural community have well water.
I’ve gotta go read up on this well thing; see how they work. Just never thought about it; don’t know about it. Sounds very intimidating, to run out of water. And I thought those of us in Southern California were the only ones who ever thought about such a thing! Good grief, $10,000; I can’t imagine. How would you know how long to ‘wait it out’? I’m probably sounding abysmally ignorant, but this is a whole new category here for me.
Hmmm. Lots to read on this subject (how do wells work?). I pulled this off a home construction blog (hope they don’t mind):
“Question: Do wells ever run dry? Answer: They usually don’t. Sometimes we do get calls to come out and re-drill a well because the old one ran dry, but that’s usually because it’s a very old well with an old casing that has collapsed on itself. Modern wells are very solid: they have the proper seal out, they have 42 feet of upper steel, they go deep into the aquifer, they’re airtight, and they last a very long time. There are some cases where aquifers run out of water, but these are usually alluvial aquifers, which are extremely shallow and are essentially groundwater wells that farmers used to dig by hand.”
I’ll keep reading about this, Claudia; hoping all the best for you. I don’t think I ever really understood that an aquifer is actually an underground river.
It’s always such a surprise to me how much I enjoy seeing all the teeny little everythings you get for Caroline’s house, Don’s studio, little Z’s house – it’s just so much fun. If anyone had told me 5 years ago that I’d find “dollhouse culture” interesting, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t have agreed. And yet I DO – I love it! I’m glad that I’m still being surprised like this – and clearly I’m not alone. Why is it that we humans love teeny versions of things? Can it really be just the undeniable cuteness of it all? Well, whatever it is, thank God or Nature for it.
PS – big warm virtual squeeze on its way re your Dad’s birthday. My mom’s is Sunday, and it’s always bittersweet. Happy memories, but Mom still isn’t here… xoxo 💔
Thinking of you, Claudia.
((((( hug )))))
Claudia, I love that miniature tray…Paris! Catching up on blog posts as my family has come and gone. So good to see them but so much talking wears me out!! Hugs!
I know! I get exhausted after that kind of get-together. Wonderful, but draining.