Catching Up (a little) on Photos in May - May 15-18

Well, I let the stomach isses (colitis from an antibiotic) get me down.  Or, rather, I just didn't have the energy to keep it from wearing me out.  Sigh.  So, have a few days of photos to post.  (Still have some to take.)  I've really enjoyed thinking about what pictures to take to represent the suggestion, and especially enjoyed figuring out how to take said picture.  Here are a few more:

May 15 - Nero, Something I Love

May 16 - What I'm Reading

May 15 - Nero, my American shorthair black cat (named after a favorite character, Nero Wolfe, of Rex Stout's). He's resting after coming home from the vet where he'd had an abscess on his elbow drained and removed. He fights with my other male cat, Shadow, and sometimes he gets hurt. Boo hoo. Shadow was left with me and I cannot find him a home, but poor Nero doesn't care. He wants his home all for himself.

May 16 - My drs told me my bad cholesterol level is too high and my blood sugar is no longer acceptable borderline. They're giving me a few months (a year?) to get the numbers under control or it's cholesterol-lowering and insulin pills for me. Sigh. I really don't want to take either!


May 17 - Snack (Lemon Cream Bars)

May 17 - My treats, lemon cream bars.  Add to my cholesterol/blood sugar issues?

May 18 - Something I Embroidered

May 18 - Loved this saying when I first saw it and finally took the plunge and embroidered.  I completely understand why the woman at whose home I saw this remarked when I commented on it, "It was a bitch to do and I'll never embroider again!"  It was a bear, but I learned much about embroidering cursive and doing such freehand work, and still I want to embroider more sayings.  Oh, forgot to mention, my brothers (who live in Lexington, KY, so I don't get to see very often) always say how much I look like Mom when they first see me (yay!).

Final Photos for May (May 27-31)

Turns out, I hadn't posted photos for nearly two weeks.  Yikes!  The last of the May photos are here.  I was really hoping this challenge would not only keep me interested, but also dedicated.  I'm still struggling with trying to make a life for myself without Richard and this 10th year without him has been almost as bad as the first and I just can't seem to right myself!  Doing the photos did help.  I've been thinking more about composition, opportunity, and many other facets of shooting.  So, I really am glad I started this (and I'm continuing with the June challenge!).

May 27

May 27 - Something Sweet - Strawberry shortcake
May 28 - The Weather today - Rain. It's been raining every day almost since late April. Ugh!


May 28

May 29 - A number - Waiting for my delicious dinner at the Cafe 107 in Liverpool.


May 29

May 30 - My personality - This view of my personality shows needlework I've done, a painting of me, and collectibles and jewelry of mine.

May 31 - Something beautiful - A beautiful hot pad my lovely niece, Linda, crocheted for me.


May 31

May 30

May Photos (May 2, 19-20, 24-26)

Can't believe I've let May end and I haven't posted my pics for the rest of the days in the month.   I let my grief overwhelm me again and just managed to live my life.  So, here goes:

May 2 -   A skyline

May 2

May 19

May 19 - A favorite place  -  CNY Healing Arts where I get a wonderful massage and enjoy their soothing steam showers, sauna, pool and jacuzzi.  Ahhh.

May 20 - Something I'd rather not go without - Tea - English breakfast, Ceylon, Indian breakfast and more

May 20

May 24

May 24 - Something new  - A new summer top.  In keeping with the trend (I didn't really know), it's striped!

May 25

May 25 - Something usual  -- Natural sandstone formed 180 - 225 million years ago.  The sphere shaped one is called a "Shinarump".  These have not been altered in any ways except cut into shapes.  They were found in Utah and are considered "Nature's Most Beautiful Paintings".

May 26 - Twelve noon - At my writing group (well, we're not all here, yet).

May 26

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

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.

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).

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.