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Damp

September 8, 2011 at 9:19 am by Claudia

Someone stop me from screaming. This rain is endless. And I know how much some of you in Texas need it. As usual, the part of the country that doesn’t need rain is getting way too much while there are huge areas that are desperate for the stuff. This morning I woke to torrential rain and a bit more leakage from the chimney. The sump pump is working overtime. The dogs come in from their ‘constitutional’ outside looking like drowned rats. More roads closed. More flooding.

Yesterday in the early morning, I took the car in for its inspection. It passed, thank goodness, but I was given the charming news that ‘your exhaust system will be the next thing to go.’ Thank you, Bill the Mechanic. The Honda CR-V is ten years old, so I guess that is to be expected. I hope our county mobile DMV is on schedule today because I plan our renewing my registration. The mobile DMV is stationed in various small towns throughout the week. Thursday is our day.

Anyway, on the way back from the inspection, I viewed the devastation in our neck of the woods. Flooding everywhere. Crops decimated. Remember these photos from last year at this time?

This whole area – acres and acres of land in what is called ‘the flats’ completely flooded. No corn, dead sunflowers, rotten pumpkins. Water everywhere. It was really shocking to see. Our farmers are really suffering. I live in an area that is very popular in the fall. Pumpkins, apple picking, sweet corn – all of it is essential to our local economy. My complaints seem rather petty when viewing the larger devastation that has been heaped on so many in our area.

Let’s close with a happier scene from the porch last week:

Those are my hot pink garden clogs, by the way. Here’s to dry weather and more time on the porch – soon!

In Need of Sunshine

September 6, 2011 at 5:44 pm by Claudia

Rain, rain, rain. It seems to be raining endlessly here, which is bad news for the already swollen rivers and for those who are still coping with flood damage from Hurricane Irene. So many people in our area have lost so much. One of our friends still does not have power. Another has 3 feet of water in his house. Enough already, please?

I took this photo the other day – you know fall is on the way when the Sedum Autumn Joy starts turning pink. Such gentle splashes of pink all over the garden.

This vine is growing in our back forty. Does anyone know what it is? The leaves are star-shaped with spiky white flowers.

Growing all over the edges of our property – and everywhere else on my travels around the neighborhood.

The day after the hurricane I noticed this spectacular spider web. It’s stretched between two trees in our overgrown back forty. Amazing, isn’t it?

Mom is still in the rehabilitation facility. She is barely speaking to anyone – she says about 10 words to my Dad and my sister and then sends them home. I call her every day and lately I get about 30 seconds of phone time before she cuts me off. She is withdrawing from everyone. She wants to die and she says it fairly often. I wonder if this is her way of pushing us away so she can transition. I don’t know. I only know that my father is heartbroken and that my mom is desperately unhappy and determined to remain that way and that there is nothing but sadness permeating everything.

A little sunshine might help.

Potpourri on a Rainy Monday

September 5, 2011 at 10:04 am by Claudia

Thought you’d like to see me in full Boston Red Sox regalia, though I look pregnant here and I assure you, I’m not. And since I’ve lost weight recently, I must tell you that’s not my gut. The windbreaker is blousing out in an unseemly manner.

It’s a rainy Labor Day here in the northeast. Gray, drizzly and humid.

Don has to work today. In fact, he worked all weekend.

I’m bored.

Random thoughts:

:: Why does my Feedburner count change from day to day in such an extreme manner? Once day it is 7, the next, 50, the next, 792 and then 3. What the? I took the feed count logo off of the blog because it was so embarrassing.

:: I’m not a fan of blog posts that show photos from elsewhere on the web; specifically, a lot of decorating-type photos. Nine times out of ten, I’ve seen them already. I depart from that kind of post quickly. I’d so much rather see a blogger’s own photos – much more interesting any day.

:: Like clockwork, every year at this time I get the urge to knit or crochet. I’ve started working on the mammoth throw again while watching the Red Sox win and then lose their games with the Texas Rangers.

:: I bought the new Flea Market Style. It’s really wonderful – full of all sorts of neat ideas and interesting homes and totally fresh. Which leads me to another thought I’ve had lately. I hardly ever buy magazines anymore. I flip through them and often see pictures of homes I’ve already seen on blogs. Of course, being featured in these articles must be simply wonderful news for the bloggers involved and I’m happy for them. However, when money is tight, why would I buy something that has content that I’ve already seen? This world of blogging must be a tricky situation for magazine and book editors. On the one hand, it makes available countless possibilities for feature articles in a way that just wasn’t feasible years ago. On the other hand, many of us have also seen those photos and blog posts so they are no longer new and exciting. I suppose the same could be said of my Studios feature. Tricky stuff.

:: I have been blessed with the arrival of 2 packages in the last few weeks.

My friend Catherine, who hails from Sidney, Australia, sent me a box full of beautiful trims and laces and ribbons and fabric. She is in the process of moving her creative space to another room in her house and that involves cleaning and sorting and all that sort of thing. Lucky me! Catherine doesn’t have a blog yet. She writes beautifully and I’m hoping she starts one soon. Thank you, my friend.

Then my friend Sue, of Vintage Sue, sent me a box full of treasures. Sue writes one of my favorite blogs. Her husband is in the Armed Services and they are about to be transferred to Texas. She’s cleaning and sorting, just like Catherine, and I am once again the one who benefits from it.

I almost missed this package. I walked down to the mailbox one evening and out of the corner of my eye, spotted a box in the culvert that runs along the edge of our property. I thought it was trash that had blown there in the hurricane. Fully expecting the box to be empty, I realized it was heavy and addressed to me (and a little wet at one of the corners.) My only thought is that the mail lady thought she could balance it on the top of our mailbox. It didn’t work.

Sue remembered a comment I made on one of her posts and included this:

This is a beautiful Hull vase that Sue found while she was thrifting. One of the handles was broken but Sue knows that doesn’t matter a whit to me. Isn’t it pretty?

Just perfect for the studio. Lambchop had to approve, of course. Thank you, Sue.

:: I’m up to 2 cups of coffee a day. I can’t help it, I love it so. But that’s all I’ll drink. I swear.

:: I have read 13 out of the 15 Jack Reacher books. 2 more to go. Then I will suffer the agony of withdrawal.

Have a great day off!

Damp

In Need of Sunshine

Potpourri on a Rainy Monday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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