Thursday, May 31, 2012

Photos in May (cont'd)

A few more photos for May days:
May 10 -- A favorite word I love to use, sometimes in exclamation, other times, sarcastically:  "Super!".
May 21 -- Where I Stand -- at Panera's on their beautiful patio entrance.
May 22 - Something Pink -- a couple:  the covering on the antique (well, from the '40s) rocker and a throw my mother-in-law made me.  She was quite the crocheter!
May 23 -- Technology -- the new Kindle Touch my friend, Fran, was given for Christmas from the casino where she is one of their best players.  She's not big on technology, so she offered it to me.  I was thrilled!  Reading the latest Alexander McCall Smith "No. 1 Ladies Detective" novels.  Yay!
May 10 - A Favorite Word
May 21 - Where I Stand (Panera's)

May 22 - Something Pink

May 23 - Technology

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Lawns

Ah.  Just came in from mowing my back yard lawn.  Yikes!  Too many holes made it nearly impossible to walk and maneuver the mower.  Got me to thinking -- where do they come from?  Moles and voles?  Skunks?  When my husband tended the lawn and the dogs were alive, the holes were very few and small and the ground level.  Now, some are nearly as round as a small ball like the one you play catch with your children.  The awful thing about all this is that after my husband died, I hired someone to keep up the lawn.  He worked at keeping the ground level, the holes under control, and the weeds at a minimum, and the lawn flourished again.  Soon, though, his son, who did the mowing, graduated from high school and his wife felt he should just be working on their yard.

Since then, various people have mowed this lawn, including me, periodically, but it has fallen into a sad state.  Every year, I've added new soil, weeded, fed, and tried to keep the lawn looking like it once did when my husband tended it.  Alas, it has defeated me.  Tonight, I thought I would never get it mowed, the ground was so uneven, the weeds so strong and high.  Even after weed whacking, the mower didn't always succeed in bringing some weeds to their roots.  Sigh.

I'm so glad I had a massage today.  My back is screaming and my hands hurt from the vibrations from the weed whacker and the mower.  Maybe I should let my lawn grow wild and not give it another thought -- that is, until I look out my kitchen window and see the weeds rising above the grass, mocking me!  Sigh.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

May Pictures Continued

So many things to do and now I have problems with my back again.  Dang!  Sitting definitely aggravates it and I can barely walk after sitting or laying down.  Guess it's back to the neurologist or pain dr, eh?  Since I haven't been up to much, I got behind in my photos for May.  So, here are a few I took to share:

May 3 - Something I wore today -  a blue cotton blouse by Ralph Lauren; my go-to blouse when I'm not sure how I feel and can't settle on anything to wear.  Wore it to the foot docs.

May 4 - Something I do for fun -  sew.  A picture of a set of pillows I made for my niece, Nicole.






May 11 - My kitchen - the top of my unit which houses my books and small electrical appliances.  (It's a microwave stand, but I prefer to keep that in the laundry room.)  Fannie Farmer and The Joy of Cooking are the two cookbooks I use the most and give as gifts.  They are wonderful!


May 12 - Something that makes me happy - my two beautiful Lhasa Apsos, Sian and Ming.  Just looking at this picture of them makes me smile and my heart feel so good.  They aren't with me anymore -- Sian died 4 years ago and Ming last year.





May 13 - Mum - a picture of my Mom; one she really liked.

May 14 - Grass - a picture of the grass in my front yard and in the back yard (with the raspberry patch so low; usually by this time the bushes are nearly knee high).


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Peace, Bird, Smell Photos

Since I started the "Photo a Day in May" 6 days late, I'm working on adding ones for the days I missed.  Today I'm including a picture of "Peace" (May 1), a bird (May 5) and a smell I adore (May 8).

Here are those three pictures.  The first one is of this glass Peace item a niece gave me a few years ago. It rests on my desktop, reminding me of her and the '60's.  I love her and I love it.

The next one, a bird, posed quite a challenge.  I couldn't find a bird anywhere in my house. Of course, I have lots of pictures of birds I've taken over the years, some in our yard, some at bird sanctuaries, some just out and about in nature. But in keeping with the spirit of a photo a day, I wanted to actually take one. And then I remembered! A friend had given me a little ring holder -- a beautiful little piece with a small bird perched on its top. Now, the interesting thing about this is that my cat, Shadow, the beautiful Chartreux a friend left with me, likes to play with this piece, often knocking it off my dresser! Hmm....does he know that' a bird on top?

Lastly, "a smell I adore".  This was actually extremely easy at first, and then very difficult to narrow to one smell.  I love the smell of cinnamon, coffee, chocolate cookies, and oh, so many others.  But then I knew the one to share -- Heaven Scent.  I love the smell of that perfume.  Unfortunately, it is no longer made, so the bottle you see (in between the Chanel No. 5 and the Arpege, two other favorite smells) is the last one I'll ever own.  I'm still able to squeak out a little to enjoy it on days when I really, really need its special powers -- its smell makes me smile and feel good is the only way I can describe its effects.

Well, a few more pics caught up.  Just three more missed days to go.  Looking forward to taking them, too.  This has turned out to be quite interesting and challenging.  Also, it's getting me back to taking pictures, another joy I let go of after Richard died.  Blessings.



Tea Every Day

Today's photo a day in May is "something I do every day".  Every morning I make a pot of tea, usually English Breakfast tea combined from various sources since I haven't found one I absolutely love.  I used to drink Indian Breakfast tea, my favorite, but I am no longer able to buy it.  I always use this teapot, a china one from PortMerion's Botannic Garden collection.  However, I rarely use a cup and saucer (although I have quite a collection), and alternate my choice of mug.  The two here are my most recent favorites.  I like the one that has "Tea" stamped all over it, but the wide mouth allows the tea to cool too quickly (I drink mine with milk, not sugar), so I've gone back to using the smaller one.  The red tin with "Keep Calm and Carry On" has English Breakfast tea in it, also.  (It's kinda weak, so I don't use it very often, but I love the tin.)  Once I've had my first cuppa, I decant the rest into the carafe (the white Palm one in the pic) so that I can enjoy a cup throughout the day.  A couple of years ago, I would drink two or three cups, and then have to toss the rest because I don't like microwaved tea.  Then I remembered I used to decant tea years ago, but had stopped when the last carafe had broken and I couldn't find a suitable replacement.  They seem to be available more today.  I love tea.

May 9

Monday, May 7, 2012

Someone who inspires me

Monday.  Still not myself, although I think the stomach bug is gone.  Yay!  Today I was mostly sleepy, tired.  Did very little.  Didn't mow; dang!  It rained late this afternoon, so now I don't know when I'll be able to mow.  Pretty soon the backyard will be so high I'll need a machete to cut it down!

Today's photo suggestion was "someone who inspires you".  No brainer for me -- Richard.  Here's his pic --the only one we ever had done professionally.  Both of us being amateur photographers never bothered to get our pictures taken by anyone.  Too bad.  

Thank you for nearly 36 wonderful years, sweetheart.  I miss you.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Sunday evening.  Quite a day.  Started off really, really sick (sick all day yesterday); guess it was the stomach bug going around.  I didn't know one was until I turned the tv on and heard some baseball player telling the interviewer about guys being out of the game the last few days due to a stomach bug.  Wow!

I didn't go to church.  I was up soooo early, but I was sooo sick.  Just couldn't do it.  Then, after I'd just made tea about 1 pm, my niece called and said she wanted to come up and bring my sister (my only one living).  I was so excited until I remembered I had a dinner to attend tonight.  (I really didn't want to go because I was so sick.)  Told my niece about the conflict, but she said she wanted to drive up anyway (1 1/2 hrs away).  Yay!

The visit was wonderful.  My sister rarely leaves her house except to go to the drs, so I was so happy my niece brought her up (her niece, also, not her daughter -- that's another story).  Made my sis coffee and my niece drank my tea, of course!  Gave them English muffins, too.  Love them!

We had a wonderful visit -- too short, though.  It was wonderful to see them both.  My sister looked absolutely beautiful -- her hair is back to its natural medium brown (she always lightened it to blonde) and she looked really great for 77.  My niece looked beautiful, too.  She's lost a lot of weight (well, not really a good thing, she's been having problems for which she is going to have surgery soon).
After they left, my friend, Susan, and I went to our dinner, the Women Transcending Boundaries (WTB) International Dinner.  I really didn't want to go, and wouldn't you know it, I had a wonderful time.  Saw so many wonderful women who were genuinely happy to see me.  Had some great conversations, caught up on the replacement operations (Darryl had both her hips replaced in March and she was quite agile tonight!).  Betsy had her left knee (same one I need replaced) replaced last year and she told me to get mine done!  She's so much happier because of hers.  Really encouraging!  So glad I went for so many reasons.  Not the least of which, the food was asolutely delicious. 

Actually feel so much better tonight.  Thank you, God, for such a wonderful day.  I am so grateful.

Photo a day in May

Here's my first photo.  I'm going to backtrack and post five more for the previous five days, though.  I'm really excited about this project.  Joined Fat Mum Slim's May Photo a Day challenge.  Yay!