Beat it With a Stick!

I spent the weekend cleaning. I clean a bit every day, but this was a weekend to deep clean. It was in the negative temperatures, with wind chill, and, on Sunday, we got 3 inches of snow. I wasn't going anywhere and there has been a lot of "crunchiness" to the floor. The litter box area was thoroughly cleaned and scrubbed, with new litter and a new litter box. One of our usual boxes was taken to the basement to be scrubbed. Pilchard has a tendency to register displeasure with anything by peeing outside of or just on the edge of a box. There has been a lot of that since my California vacation. I've scrubbed the box area, changed the litter and she still seemed to be peeved.

I don't know what triggered the thought but it occurred to me that I hadn't rotated out the actual boxes and scrubbed them. There was an old one in the basement that I'd forgotten about. I used to be really good about this, rotating a completely cleaned box out once a month but had not done this all last year.I couldn't smell anything, but I don't have a cat's sensitive nose. It was time to get back into thorough cleaning. The old box went downstairs to be soaked. I put it in the wash tubs with some Dawn dish soap (Is there anything this soap doesn't do?) and as the washer spins the water out of the laundry, it scrubs the box clean. I just follow up with some minor washing.

Since swapping out one of the boxes, there hasn't been an on-purpose mistake outside the box. I'll need to swap boxes over the next month so all three are clean heading into spring. You should have one box per cat and one spare.

After doing that, I set my sights on other rooms. The weekly sweeping just didn't seem to be getting all the winter grit so I gave the mop a good shake and started with my bedroom, working toward the front of the house. I have to take a break every so often and, when I sit in the office, I can see into the bedroom and partially under the bed. I thought I'd swept under there, but there was a shadow. When I took Mija to the vet, Pilchard had dashed under the bed and into the office closet to avoid what she was sure was her turn to ride in the carrier. She pulled a long string of a dust bunny from under the bed. So, I paid attention to that spot. But this shadow, which was NOT a cat, I checked, seemed to indicate something else was under the bed. Maybe it was a missing sock.

I got down on my knees, a daunting prospect because I never know how easy it will be to get up, and ran the mop under the bed. The first two passes yielded 3 cat toys and one sock. With the third pass, I aimed toward the head of the bed which is up against the wall. I swear I had swept that area but this came out.

It occupies the same amount of space Mija does, although it is not sentient nor does it have her mass. I think what happened is that my previous passes just shoved amounts of dust and fur and hair and whatever else goes into dust bunnies, up against one of the bed's legs. I was scraping off the mop what I had swept from under the bed. The angle I used on Saturday's pass pulled all this out.

I'm not really grossed out by this. Fascinated is more the correct term. There's very little grit in this. When I dusted it up to toss into the garbage, the dirt left was a couple of teaspoons and that was more loose litter, which I kind of expect.

One of my friends, upon seeing the photo, said I should give it a name and suggested "Charlie"; not sure why but there it is. No, I am not naming my dust bunnies. Come spring, when I move furniture for spring cleaning, I wonder how big some of those dust bunnies will be. Will I have a whole family? I read somewhere that birds like to have you toss this kind of dust outside in the spring because they use it for nesting. Um...no. Sorry chickadees. This is going away.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

The Bestest Place

I enjoy writing my weekly post over at House Panthers. It gives me the opportunity to take more cat photos. They know that sound of the camera and, sometimes, cooperate. I got a couple of great photos over this past month and the cold snaps we've endured.

They like to be next to me now. When I'm in the recliner, I usually have Pilchard in my lap and Mija asleep to my right. Sometimes, she climbs up onto the back of the recliner and stretches out by my head. She has a loud purr but it is so comforting.

I try to leave a chunk of time on Sunday afternoon for "lap time". I read or watch TV and Pilchard gets an uninterrupted block of time to be in my lap.

This seems to be hugely important to her. We do this at night when I come home from work, too. I sit down and watch the news. She commandeers my lap for an hour and then I make her move because I have to make supper and continue on with my evening. If, for some reason, that hour doesn't happen, she will 'yell' at me later in the evening and try to sit in my lap. Maybe it's a calming thing. Maybe it's just a ritual. Whatever it is, it's important and, seriously, what is more important than giving my cat an hour's nap time in my lap. Lowers my stress from the work day, too.

Look at that face. You tell me animals don't show emotion. She is really happy.

Beverage:  British Breakfast Tea

Deb

A Win and a Loss

Iowa played Ohio State this past weekend. It was a really good game until the 4th quarter and then the wheels slowly fell off the bus, so to speak. The best news out of the game was that I got to watch it, on my own TV.

I purchased a new converter box to replace the one that died during the late spring. The salesman said these are getting hard to find because "everyone" is going to flat screen TVs which don't need a converter box. That's really nice, but I watch TV from September through New Year's and then maaaaayyybbbeeeeee, through March but the basketball team seems to be on free TV even less than the football team. That infrequent TV watching doesn't inspire me to purchase a flat screen. Eventually, I'll get one, but not right now.

Normally, I stream the games on the computer. I can listen to the announcers while I do other things. I started listening to this game, but then the station cut out and up came the message that the game was not streamed due to TV restrictions. Okay, fine. That means I have to get the converter box up and running, which means I need to move the TV stand and clean behind it. In order to move the stand, I had to make some decisions about the myriad of boxes in the living room. For the first time in three iterations, I cut down a box a Macintosh computer came in. I know you're shocked, but it was just too big and they were not as interested in it as I expected them to be.

Having accomplished all of this, I set about hooking up the converter box. There are a great number of assumptions made when one goes to hooking up these things. The biggest one is that the person doing the connecting understand what the acronyms are for each cable. The old box had color coded everything. This one had numbers and letters that meant nothing to me. I was so worried I was going to short the thing out.

It took a couple tries but I, obviously, got it working. I can now watch Iowa lose to Ohio State. More importantly, our Sunday afternoons have become languid hours of lap time and napping.

I "watch" bad Halloween movies while crocheting scarves and they sleep. Having the TV working again means I don't have to disturb a sleeping cat to watch something else.

Beverage:  Yorkshire Gold Tea

Deb

Will You Look at That!

I finally got around to watching "Despicable Me" over the weekend. I've been tired when I get home from work lately. Collapsing into the recliner, having the BBC attach herself to my lap and then popping a movie into the DvD player is a perfect recipe for a sound nap that will interrupt the sleep schedule later in the evening. I decided this was a weekend afternoon event. Sunday afternoon it was.

The movie is hilarious and I watched it twice and saw something new the second time. I found the DvD player's remote so I can finally watch the "extras" that come with these. I didn't read the movie box so it wasn't until I was watching the "extras" that I realized Steve Carrell had done the main character voice. "It's something between Dracula and a butchered Eastern European accent," he said. I certainly didn't recognize his voice and kept wondering which character he was. Now that I've see the first one, I need to see the second one which several people have said is better than the first one. When do I have the time to see it in the theatres? I don't know. I still haven't seen "Much Ado About Nothing". I wish I had more friends in the area who were available and interested in the occasional movie.

One thing I noticed when I opened up the "Despicable Me" DvD box is a large recycling symbol.

See that to the left? I had never seen that before. I pulled out the recent movies I've purchased and none of them have that symbol. This is fantastic! It means the whole container is recyclable. The movie poster is printed on paper and placed into a sleeve on the front and back. The top and bottom of the sleeve are sealed. If I would want to get rid of this, I can take a knife and slice the sleeve to remove and recycle the paper poster. Then, the sleeve could be removed leaving only the plastic container which is, ta da, completely recyclable. This could have been several laundry detergent bottles in a previous life.

I'm behind in my knowledge of recycling but I'm wondering when this became available. "Brave" and "Wreck-It Ralph" are in hard plastic containers without the recycling symbol on the inside. While this container is of a softer, more malleable plastic than the other two movies, it protects the DvD just fine.

The only thing that is a problem is the actual DvD itself. There just aren't recycling programs for these. I have a huge stack of old games and programs that I'd love to get rid of. The cardboard or hard plastic containers are recyclable (Remember the old jewel cases? Many of those had the recycling symbol on them.) but the CD or DvD currently is not. One can only make so many Christmas wreaths.

But, this is a step in the right direction. As more people experiment with the waste we generate, someone is bound to come up with something that reuses our refuse. This symbol made a great movie even better.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

Weekend Afternoons

I'm not sure what clicked but back in December, when my home computer died and I spent my evenings sitting in the recliner, Pilchard decided my lap was the place to be. I had wanted her to be a lap cat but she showed no inclination to do so before December.

This is her preferred position. To my left is an ottoman on which rests my stash of magazines, whatever is the current craft project (Right now, it's yarn) and a tile on which to set my current drink. The arm of the recliner is to the left, too. She stretches out, extending her right front leg and nodding off to sleep. She doesn't stretch the other direction, probably because of the arm. When she changes position, which is little more than stretching a bit and going back to sleep, I can get rear claws in the tummy. She doesn't always purr but I can tell she is contented. I will watch a movie or channel surf on TV. I have watched more TV this winter than in the past 3 years combined because who wants to awaken a sleeping cat.

What's interesting is that, come summer and shorts weather, she wants my lap but does not like the feel of skin on her pads. Hence, if I'm wearing shorts, I have to go get something to cover my lap or she won't stand, then sit, then lie down in my lap. Because she takes up the whole thing and then some, when I crochet, the current scarf goes over her. At first, she was annoyed but she's come to realize that if she wants my lap, she has to put up with it.

This has become such a ritual in our house that she "yells" at me when I don't do it. Lately, the lap time has reduced, her choice, to 30 minutes during the week. On weekends, she'll be here all afternoon if I let her. In the winter, it was nothing for us to start at 1 p.m. and end at 5 p.m. when I needed to make myself some supper. It will be interesting to see, as summer comes and warmth arrives, if this continues. There are a lot worse things to do with a weekend afternoon than allow one's cat to have your lap.

Beverage:  Irish Breakfast tea

Deb

Soon There Will Be More

This guy or gal, has been living under the deck all winter. On Saturday, he or she was emboldened to be out in the sunshine while I emptied the car.

It never ceases to amaze me when they are just right there, almost within touching distance. I've seen the squirrels chasing each other in the springtime mating dance. If there is one rabbit, there are bound to be more long about May.

Beverage:  Irish Breakfast tea

Deb

I Think That's Sunshine

I know it hadn't been that long but it seemed as if sunshine was something forgotten in these parts. We might get a partial day and back the clouds would come and with them, snow. The one sunny day would be in the middle of the week, with the weekend cloudy and gray. Last Saturday, we saw the sun.

I ran some errands. When I unloaded the car and had presence of mind to just stand on the deck, I heard the sound of spring. The geese are flying around looking for water. I don't recall if you hear this kind of honking overhead when they head south for the winter. I think you only hear this in the spring. I couldn't see them but it was a veritable cacophony of honking Sunday at noon.

So, I threw open the back door and encouraged the ladies to come outside in the sunshine.

It's interesting to watch them interact with fresh air and sunshine. With their more highly developed sense of smell, I'm sure they smell things I can't and, possibly, don't want to. They both sniffed the air and examined the deck. After sniffing everything, they sat down to warm their backs.

This was fine until the neighbor opened his garage to take out trash. The sound of the garage door opening and then the banging around of his garbage cans sent both of them scurrying inside. This was good for them. I think they needed to smell the smells of an awakening spring. It's been a calm weekend, I think, because they had a chance to be outside in the sun.

Later in the day, Mija decided more sun was what she needed and stretched out on the rug in the office.

It's impossible to resist not reaching down and petting her.

Flat Stanley got into the act too, coming outside on Saturday to enjoy the sun.

Today, we're back in the heavy overcast with snow flurries. At times like this, I remember the feel of sunshine on my face and know that spring is close even if old man Winter is having the time of his life messing with us.

Beverage:  Root Beer

Deb

Sunday Snoozes

Sunday has been the start of the week for millennia  I remember finding a planner that had Monday starting the week and thought "how could you organize your week like that"? But, reality is that, for most people, Sunday ends the week. Those of us churchly inclined start with a dose of the religious and think we are starting the week out well when, really, we'll talk about all the things we have to get done, "before the week starts tomorrow and I go back to school or work or the life of the week".

Around here, Saturday is a day of getting used to me being home. There is no clock radio at 6 am. I'm around and, one would say "over foot", all day. Yesterday, I cleaned. I blogged. I organized. I washed. I sorted. Today has started out quieter. It's the day they really do realize it's the weekend. 

I changed the sheets and the blankets on the bed yesterday. I did a load of wash and draped these two sweaters to dry over the towel rack and the shower curtain in the bathroom. It's this time of year I think about a sweater drying rack, something that could stay in the basement with the rest of the clothes and just be used for sweaters and other delicates, things I wouldn't hang on a laundry line. But, it would be one more thing in a cluttered life that is the basement so I only 'think' about it and don't actually buy it. 

The sweaters are dry and need to be hung in the closet. Um...yeah. Not going to happen at this present time. There are worse places she could be sleeping. 

And take her royal highness, Pilchard. She's taken over the recliner this morning. It is abundantly apparent where this cat sleeps most of the time, when she's not in a box. 

She's decided to branch out onto the side where I sit and crochet. We have our territories, we do. Hers is to the left and mine is to the right. She usually gets to be on the right when I'm there and she can take over my lap. We may be in for negotiations for territories. 

It's kind of funny to me, in a way. I really never noticed the fur on the recliner itself until I uploaded the photo from my camera. Today, the sweater has been tossed into the wash. I need to look into a hand vac to give the recliner a thorough going over. Such is life in a household with a long-haired cat. 

They have been asleep most of the morning. There is a gentle peace inside my home. Tomorrow will dawn too early and I'll be out the door and on the way, but, for now, the calm is wonderful. 

Beverage:  Lady Gray tea

Deb

Stitching Away

I've made time to stitch. Now that we've lost daylight savings time. It's dark by the time I get home. I don't know about you, but I find it difficult to be very productive after a full day and then it's dark. It's enough to get something cooked, let alone a load of wash or do some cleaning. So, I've made the time stitching time. I feel productive and, frankly, cross-stitching has a calming effect. So Monday and Wednesday, I spent time, after coming home, to stitch and made some progress on the project.

And last night's stitching.

I should spend one of the days this weekend just stitching. I probably could get this done. 

Beverage:  Rooibos tea

Deb

New Project

I have started a new project. After finishing the cat banner, I couldn't seem to thrust myself into anything else. There's some personal stuff going on and it sort of interferes with the flow of motivation, kind of like, to use a current analogy, the defense stops or impedes the offense going down the football field. Sometimes things break through but there's been a lot of halting and just sitting in the recliner with a cat next to me.

Last weekend was the. last. weekend. of the summer of 2012. I cleaned on Saturday. There's an old joke about sweeping under the bed. "Ashes to ashes, the Bible says. If that's true, someone is either coming or going under my bed." The sounds of summer fading away in the warm afternoon made me determined to be out there on Sunday. What do I take with me?

It's International Book Week so a book wouldn't have been inappropriate, but I finally heard the call of the project I've had in my head since March. This will be a bit of a stretch for me. If I'm going to be cross-stitchingly (I'm an English major. I'm allowed to make up words.) creative, it tends to be in the line of stitching the design on something other than what the pattern shows. Witness the Eiffel Tower project from the spring. The pattern was stitched on a lavendar background. I chose an oatmeal imbued with gold flecks. This meant I had to stitch the entire sky in color instead of leaving sections open. The other change I made was stitching the bottom bushes a dark green. I think, in looking at the finished piece, those changes made the design "mine". But that's really as wild as I'll get. 

The project I'm starting is a combination of things. There is the piece of a pattern you see above. I happened to have all the colors of floss needed for this one. That is a red letter day in my book. No need to abort before blastoff simply because I don't have number 734. I am using the companion fabric to the oatmeal. This is a very light grey with silver flecks. You can't really see that in the above photo. Below is one afternoon's stitching. 

Some of the flecks are sort of visible. It's a very pretty fabric. Working with this and the oatmeal colored one makes me wonder what other projects might look like on something other than white. I realize this doesn't look like much but remember, like all my other projects, it will blossom into something in a few weeks.

And here's where the scarey part is. I have a design I'm working off of. I'm kind of messing a bit with the colors but not much. After that design is done, I have to freehand some words around the design. I'll have to pick the colors, pick the lettering style, pick where the words go on the piece. I've never been real good at figuring that out. What I want doesn't exist, anywhere, so I have to create it. In about 3 weeks, I'll be working without a net and that's a bit daunting.

It was a lovely day to work outside but I lost my scissors. These were my best cross-stitch scissors. They were roughly 3 1/2 to 4 inches long, silver metal, small, sharp, lightweight, perfect to stick into the plastic bag with the project. I had finished off a section of dark green and went to snip the inch of thread after making a quick anchor knot. The scissors squirted from my hands and when sideways between the slats in the deck and down below.

Now, I'm not heartbroken in that I will have to set this aside while I grieve. I have other scissors, but I am really bummed. The other pair of scissors I have is longer and not as sharp. They have a slightly clunky pink hand grip and will never be able to slide effortlessly between the slats in the deck floor. I couldn't have dropped the scissors through the slats if I'd have tried. It was one easy motion and plunk, they were gone. At some point, I want to replace them.

So, here I go into another project. Depending upon how fast this takes me, it might be the last that makes it out the door for Christmas giving.

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb

Just an Hour

I am a weekend warrior. It's not much but I do what I can. Step one last weekend was to sharpen the loppers.

It has been awhile since I used the sharpening steel. It was also awkward to try to get the proper edge on the loppers. I used to do this every time I took the loppers into the yard. I didn't have a good feel for whether I was sharpening the edge correctly or just window-dressing.

Once finished, the loppers and I took to clearing the area by the hydrangea off the northwest corner of the deck. I have no idea what kind of tree it is but it's not where I want it. Thirty minutes later, the corner was liberated and you could see the hosta again.

It was slightly oppressive in the heat and humidity department, but I was on a roll. I spent another 30 minutes pulling Queen Anne's lace and other stuff that wasn't where I wanted it, spraying Round-Up on the trunks of trees that I had sliced off and cleaning up a section of limbs that Zeke had cut in the spring. In the end, a nice section of the back by the house is tidy again. I had to quit at an hour as it was just too warm for me to continue.

This is a small victory. I couldn't do this last year. There's a lot I couldn't do last year. This year, I'm limited in what I can do by how many yard waste stickers I can purchase. I have to wait for extra cash for stickers. We used to pay a monthly fee for garbage and yard waste to be hauled away. But some people, like me, can go a month or more without putting anything, other than recyclables, to the curb. So, the city decided to go to this sticker program where you pay only for what you put out. Garbage and yard waste are the same sticker and price. Leaves, in the fall only, are less. Recyclables are free. From an economic stand-point, it's a great deal. The stickers are $3.50 each and I don't always have the cash for some. That means that the yard trimmings get piled instead of hauled.

It felt good to haul 3 containers of limbs, twigs and branches to the curb this week. The deck looks better; more open and inviting. It was good exercise, physically and mentally, to be outside working in the yard. Huzzah! This weekend looks just as productive.

Beverage:  Pepsi

Deb

It's Sort of Organized

Last Saturday, I finally got around to organizing the closet full of fabric in the office. I started with these boxes.

The top box is one I brought from the office. It's now the "Projects" box. The hexagon quilt pieces reside there, as do some tee shirts I was going to decorate and a couple of unfinished clothing items. The middle and bottom boxes I've had in the house for awhile. Items are just stuffed into them.

These two boxes contain fabric I've purchased over the years. The pinkish pillow is from the old sofa-sleeper we got rid of decades ago. I keep thinking I'm going to recover it. I probably should just give it away.

It took the better part of the afternoon to go through all of these boxes and the box of fabric I brought from mom's back in March. I wanted to put things into the same kind of box, these boxes in which we get paper at the office, but we didn't have any. We've gone to a bit more electronic reports and we don't have the huge jobs right now that required paper copies of reports so we aren't going through paper as we were. I just have to watch for the next time we get paper and snatch the nearly empty box then.

The sorting process and what I found will be covered in subsequent blog posts. It took all afternoon but now the closet looks like this.

In my somewhat addle-pated state when I look at the closet, I think I should have a little envelope glued to the front of each fabric box that has a color photo of each hunk stuck in that box. That would make finding the fabric when I want to sew it, easier. Yeah right. I'm just going to be happy I got this far. Sorted and labeled is a huge victory. Pilchard "celebrated" the emptying of the box I brought from Iowa.

Beverage:  Pepsi

Deb

Stitching Indoors and Out

It's a toss-up whether Saturday spent stitching on the deck or Sunday spent stitching in the living room was more productive. On Wednesday, I finished off the tail.

Outlining, when that comes at the end of the cross-stitching, will make the feet more visible. This is what I accomplished on Saturday, in between, "Get back up on the deck!" and lap scratches and encouraging them to just be outside.

Oh yes, there's a face there.

On Sunday, I finished that face.

There's a hat and wording left as well as the outlining and it's completed. Perhaps in a couple weeks, I'll be looking for a new project.

Beverage:  Darjeeling tea

Deb

I Might Have to Buy Another Chair

Yesterday was the perfect morning to have breakfast on the deck.

I'm not sure what it was about the morning, but, when I got up, it just felt like I should be outside. I opened the back door and stepped out. It was in the upper 70's. I dressed, made myself a bowl of cereal and sat on my deck enjoying the morning. This is the first day since power washing, planting, staining, planting, scrubbing, and painting that I have been able to just sit on the deck. When my cereal was finished, I brought out the scissors and deadheaded the flowers. I probably should prune the geraniums back a bit, particularly the pink one, but I think I'll wait until August. 

There was a lot that went into the compost bin, but the flowers look fresh and nice and they have a lot of buds on them so there will be more flowers this coming week.

I decided the morning deserved cross-stitch. I brought my project to the deck, made myself some tea and commenced stitching. Eventually, the girls decided to come outside, too. The first forays onto the deck included going down the stairs to the yard which is a no-no. All I had to do was say the name and "no" and the offender dashed up the stairs and back into the house. They know. They just want to see if I'm paying attention.

Pilchard came out first, after being shoed inside once for attempting to go down the stairs. It took a bit of persuasion but she hopped up into the other chair.

The whole chair was given a thorough sniffing and then, viola, she settled down.

I love the position of the ears. It's the familiar, "Must you take a photo of EVERYTHING I do" look. She stayed with me for about 20 minutes and then the novelty wore off and she went back inside. That was Mija's cue to come out and take a look around.

Sometimes I wonder what they smell. Their highly developed olfactory sense means almost everything has a scent. They just tune out what isn't important. I'm not sure a raccoon, for instance, hasn't been on the chair. It's entirely possible that it came up on the deck and climbed up into the chair looking for food. Perhaps it's another cat, although I would have seen that face they make when they've smelled another cat. They both gave the chair a thorough sniffing, legs, arms, seat and back.

Mija didn't lie down. She sat there for about 10 minutes watching for birds and bugs and swatting at the flies that would land on the chair next to her. She actually wanted my lap a couple of times in the 2 1/2 hours we were outside.

So this pleasant interlude causes me to wonder. If I bought another chair, would they each claim one and then settle down for a time? I think being outside in the fresh air is good for them and, as long as they stay on the deck, we can do this. Perhaps another Saturday morning experiment is in order. These chairs will be dirt cheap after Labor Day. Storage might be a problem, getting them in the storage container.

We went inside when the sunshine had covered half of the deck. The day was heating up as well. It was delightful and a purr-fect way to start.

Beverage:  African Rooibos tea

Deb

Stitching Right Along

This is coming along nicely and I may be able to do exactly what I had hoped to do.

Saturday after the book fair, stitching was a great way to wind down having completed a drive into and out, an hour and 15 minute walk-about and 3 errands on the end of the adventure. After this, I took a nap.

I could not sleep Saturday night. After 90 minutes of tossing and turning and Mija leaving the bed in disgust because I must have kicked her at least 3 times, I got up and spent a few minutes stitching. This was just enough to calm me down and I was able to fall asleep and stay asleep.

This is last night's stitching. I am enjoying this, very much.

I'm thinking this may be an idea for future gifts. The design has to be simple and there can be no partial stitches as you can do with cloth to get a circle effect. It's small enough that I can drop the project in my purse to take with me. With my camera broken, I took this to the office and scanned it for this post. I can see taking a project like this with me on my doctor's visits.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Here I go, off on another cross-stitching tangent. Wait until I start working on whatever will come after this project. I'm thinking I need to finish something now. I've done a couple of new projects and finished one. I should look through the "to be finished" box and do one of those. In two weeks, I'll be making a decision.

Beverage: Huckleberry tea

Deb

The Bad, the Good and I Took A Nap

This weekend was filled with events. The best way to view this is from the bad point first and work forward.

My camera broke; this one, here, to the right. I was setting up a photo for my blog post on the Printer's Row book fair. I had the camera on the ottoman behind me as I worked to get things arranged on the recliner. The girls were in one of their "chase me-chase you" moods". It's rather funny to watch. There's some hissing and spitting as Pilchard chases Mija into the bedroom. Then, Mija turns around and chases Pilchard back into the living room. They seem to be having fun so I don't break that up.

Saturday, Pilchard was being chased back into the living room and she collided with the ottoman. Now, 13 pounds of cat colliding with 5 pounds of wicker ottoman and, well, you can imagine what happened.

When the thing tipped over, that scared them enough that Mija dashed under the bed and Pilchard ran behind the TV. I can't really get mad at them. They didn't know. But, I am without a camera until the end of the month when I can afford a new one. I really, really liked this one. It was compact, fit in my purse, went everywhere with me and took very adequate photos for what I needed. Since it broke on Saturday, I've had several occasions where, "Oh I need to take a photo of that" come up and I can't. Plus, this is an unplanned expense at a time when I'm trying to save up for a trip west at the end of July.

But, this is minor in life. I took a raft-load of photos at the book fair and I never finished blogging the theme for last month, old photos. I'm sure in the 6600 photos stored in my Mac, I have something I can use to illustrate a blog post. Not having a camera is an inconvenience, but I did very well when I had a camera that shot only film. I wrote long letters that didn't include photos. This is not the end of the world.

The good was a great time at the book fair on Saturday. I'll have a separate post on that. I didn't spend all the money I had budgeted for the event. I didn't find any books that jumped out at me as "Buy Me! Buy Me!" but I had much fun wandering around and poking my head into stalls. I did come home with one treasure and I handled the heat and the amount of walking required fairly well. I prepared and enjoyed the time I spent there. I have always wanted to attend the Gold Coast Art Fair which is at the end of June. I think, based on how well I did with the book fair, this will be the year I go.


I came home and, after the camera fiasco, decided the best course of action was a nap. Naps are wonderful things. I stretched out in the recliner, turned on the AC and fans and the girls and I drifted off into blissful sleep. I didn't sleep very well Saturday night so Sunday late morning saw us stretched out again in the recliner. I didn't get the outdoor furniture scrubbed. I got the closet sort of organized but the box on the kitchen table didn't get unpacked and moved. Instead, I did laundry, did cross-stitching and did a lot of "me" time. I set aside the "shouldda's", set aside the anger at myself for not setting the camera somewhere safer, set aside the slightly fried feeling after being out in 90 degree weather and just spent time sitting without guilt. Life is to be lived and sometimes that simply means just being and a nap in the recliner.

Beverage:  Huckleberry tea

Deb

Weekend Project

Well just "ewww". I fished the two deck chairs and the table out of the storage container last night. I haven't had them out in a couple years. It was much, too much, of a hassle to move everything to get these out and then put them back in.

But with the deck painted and flowers growing in pots and actually feeling better, I want to be outside now. That space is more inviting. I was going to fish these out last weekend but got involved in other things.

They are pretty dirty. Empty, dirt-filled flower pots sat on both of them. I found the chimney to start a fire, if I'm ever inclined to grill on my falling apart Weber grill. I found the brackets that go over the deck rails, if I had money to fill the pots that sit off the rails. I really need to recoil the hose and reorganize the contents of the container so it's easier to find things. That's not going to happen now.

The weekend's task is to scrub these off so they can be used. If Zeke comes around to mow the lawn while I'm home, I'll ask if he could power wash them. Otherwise, where did I put that scrub brush?

The other thing I need to do is buy gray spray paint and repaint these two plaster animals I got about 10 years ago in Canada. They have seen better years but they are whimsical and I like whimsy. They just need a fresh coat of paint for more weather protection. That's a pig on the top and a chicken on the bottom. I get an expense check next week and I also want to paint the front steps. I think next weekend will be a painting weekend.

And three out of the 6 pots in which I planted seeds are doing well. I'm unsure if the other 3 will even sprout. I need to water them all tonight as we've gone almost a week without rain. Our next chance is next Monday. I should also rotate 2 of the pots as you can certainly tell these are set against the north side of the deck.

I'm not sure if I should try to replant, at this late date, those other pots or just let them be. Who knows what might happen if just left to their own devices. The biggest plants are the sunflowers. To the right is a mix and those small plants in front are asters. The white pot is supposed to be poppies and nicotania is in the pail at the bottom.

Once I add the chairs, the table and the statuary, this will be a comforting space to be in.

Beverage:  Raspberry Earl tea

Deb

Painted

Zeke power washed the deck a couple weeks ago. With the weather slated to be sunny and dry all weekend, it was the perfect time to get the deck painted. I admit this hadn't been done in, roughly, 5 years, but I was looking forward to it.

I headed over to Ace Hardware and spent a good 30 minutes with the very helpful people deciding what stain to use and how much of it to buy. "How big is your deck?" Um...that question I wasn't prepared for. "It's 2.5 steps this way and 4 steps this way." We had a chuckle about that.

There are so many options and colors of deck stain. Zeke said that the washable stains and paints are just as good as the oil based ones now which opened up a whole section of colors. I really liked the light color of the exposed wood. The original stain color was a dark redwood. That was nice, but I wanted something different.

After much discussion, I chose this; Cabot brand Australian Timber Oil stain in Honey Teak color. I bought brushes I was just going to toss when done and mineral spirits to clean myself off should I get sloppy. I also got a pack of latex gloves to save my hands, but wound up not using them or the mineral spirits.

Painting started at 11 a.m. The deck steps were done first, followed by the railings. Then, I sat down and began working on the deck floor. Even without arthritis, I wouldn't be the most limber person. The arthritis made difficult the job of maneuvering around as I painted. I'm awkward and sitting cross-legged is not something I think I'll ever be able to do comfortably again. The stain went on very easily and quite quickly. I had to take a break at noon with a little over half of the deck done. I got my cane because it helped me to stand up and move to a new spot to paint. An hour later, the first coat was done.

Part of the time in the store was spent trying to decide if one can of stain would be enough. With bare wood, you know it would soak up whatever was put onto it. The guy helping me was a bit leery that one can would be enough to provide an adequate stain. But, when I said I really didn't want a can 3/4ths full sitting around in my basement, he read the side of the can and it says one can would be enough. As it turned out, I had about a fifth of a can left from the first coat. Figures, doesn't it?

So, on Sunday, I decided to use this up. It was harder to scooch around the deck this time. My muscles complained and several times, I just had to sit to recover. What I had left covered most of the deck top. I had done some planting and put flower pots on the deck. I painted around where those were sitting, but covered almost every other section.

I'm very pleased with the final result. It looks rich. I know I could not have done this last year. It would have been way, way beyond me. While it was painful at times and my range of motion is not what I remember it being when I did this 5 years ago, it is a testament to my recovery that I could scoot along, albeit slowly, and get this done. I don't have to do this now for a couple years.

I fixed the crack in the pseudo bird bath this weekend and opened up the storage shed to bring out some pots for seeds and found ants in various places. Now that they have been chased out, I want to bring out the deck chairs and table. I'm looking forward to enjoying this space again.

Beverage:  African Rooibos tea

Deb

Rainy Days

This weekend's rain had me thinking about rain, specifically the summer rain.

That's Carole when she was 3. In the summer, we would grab umbrellas and go walk up and down the sidewalk in the rain. Many times, we would ditch the umbrella and let the warm summer rain soak us to the skin. We'd walk to the end of the driveway and stand in the gutter on those days when the rain was a "gully washer".

I can't find a photo I know is somewhere. Perhaps my mother has it. In it are my brother, Steve, and me with umbrellas, standing ankle deep in water in our farm driveway. I have such memories of sitting in the mud and making mud and pebble dams to divert the flow of water down the incline. We didn't have that opportunity for Carole as our drive, though partially gravel, was too hard packed to generate the required mud.

I remember being excited for rainstorms and permission to just stand in the driveway with or without an umbrella and let the water fall on and around me. I hope Carole has the same happy memories of doing that too. We would jump and splash in the puddles we'd fine. I'm sure the neighbors found it amusing to see a mother and daughter out in the rain.

Now days, I don't go for walks in the rain. I generally take a mug of piping hot tea and sit on the deck, getting soaked to the skin. Rain water is great for your hair and skin. I don't go for walks when there is lightning and thunder and I don't remember last year, there being a warm summer rain without the fireworks. That's the key. You need a rain in July or August, a warm rain, a steady rain, that comes without the explosions. This weekend, we had rains that started out okay but turned explosive. I'm going to be watching the rains this year, hoping for just the right one to sit on the deck and get soaked.

When I get to be a grandmother, I want to take my grandchild for a walk in the rain. I think I'd like that to be part of my legacy. "My grandmother would go for walks in the rain with me and we wouldn't use an umbrella."

Beverage:  Edinburgh's Finest tea

Deb