A Thank You

Got a card from Marcy and Roe (to us and family) saying thanks for the wedding present.  So, if you didn't get one, you were probably included in this one, if you are part of my family.  

Not much going on up here on the hill.  My desert four oclock is growing so big and has so many blooms on it, it is amazing.  I don't know if they keep growing bigger each year or what.  I should take a picture of it, yes.  I actually have been thinking of doing that, but haven't yet.  I have been pulling weeds, we have been invaded by morning glory the wild kind, what a pain.  I have worked lots out in the yard and it looks pretty good.  Mostly, it is good excercise for me... the only kind that makes sense really.  I hate just walking or something for the excercise, but when I do something, like moving rocks, or pulling weeds, that lets me see an improvement, then the exercise is worth it to me.  

DH's heart and stress test showed no problems, which we were glad to hear.  He still struggles with breathing, and probably needs to be on oxygen more, but is only on it at night.  He groomed the road up the hill yesterday, and smoothed some spots up here so I don't get stuck on my yard tractor as I tootle around on it.  It doesn't take much of a hole to get me stuck, lol.

Memories

I was thinking the other day about moving back to my home town from the city.  As a typical teen, I could not wait to "get out of town" and find a "real" life.  Little did I know....

I was twenty eight when I moved back home.  My Mother was sixty two when I moved next door to her.  We became a blended family.  She was part of almost everything we did from then on out.  The kids ran back and forth from her house to ours almost at will.  Jack fell on her step and made a huge lump in the middle of his forehead when he went to Granny's, I think before he could walk.  If I went to the store she went with me.  If she wanted to go to town in the evening for a coke and people watching, me and the kids rode along.  She went with us to pick asparagrass, to the drive in theater, camping, fishing, for rides, everywhere it seems like now.  We kept her company when she had things she wanted to do too.  I think myself and my kids are better off for having lived next door to her.  I know I had a better life after I moved back to the town than I did before then.  

In the end, the next door situation became hard to cope with.  It was hard to try to take care of two houses and contradicting demands on me from people whom I loved and wanted to help and do for.  I wanted to move away.  But, my Mom reacted so adversely to that, we changed our minds and stayed next door to her.  I am glad now, in retrospect, that we stayed and I had her friendship for so long.  

I have been vigilant to not be a burden to my kids.  I hope I have succeeded.  I am sometimes sad that we are not as close as me and my Mom were, but on the other hand, am glad they are independent adults with lives of their own.  A two edged sword, really... I sometimes have an overwhelming desire to be with them and see them and talk to them.  I think about being age sixty five, and the down hill quality of life that is left for me and wonder what will happen when life gets beyond my control.  I still miss my Mom... who was my best friend forever for so long.

Finished!

Arting

Here is a little cupboard I am fixing up so keep my ATCs in and  little bench I have started to decorate for the littlest car girl.  

I find things for the car girls, well have always done so for all the GKs and  Kids, at yard sales.  How can one resist when you can pick something up for 25 or 60 cents?  My finds have been pretty good lately... sometimes the pickins are far between.

For my DL a designer jacket, that is made of off white canvas, and has about a kazillion zippered pockets and is brand new, which I thought she would like to wear on her scooter.

For self, cupboard, art supplies, old linens to paint on, fabulous fabrics, organizing shelfs for art spaces, much other...

For two biggest car girls, lava lamps and light ropes for their rooms, high fashion socks, some halloween lights for the porch, , piggy bank and bench, and a basket,  for littlest.  

The kids always love the yard sale stuff when they get it, I think, lol.  

Bored Blogs

I guess blogs with pics are just bored (or boring.)  Maybe there are some who like to read, but I prefer to SEE something.  But, I don't have a whole lot of pics to share.  Like how many times can I post a pic of Bub... who is mainly my only companion.  He follows me from room to room  and around the yard by smell.  Sometimes it takes him ten minutes to realize I am not out side so he comes to the door and hollers.  Sometimes, he hollers, and by the time I get to the door he is walking away looking for me somewhere else.  I can't get him to come back cuz he can't hear me.  

We have been curiously watching activity north and west of us, over behind the hill just below Aumillers, where people used to drive up into there to dump garbage.  They have made quite a nice road, and put up a gate that locks.  DH and groupies drove around today trying to find out what they are doing.  Looks, like a pond, some RV s parked, other oddities.  We will be looking forward to solving this mystery.  They truck stuff in and out daily and even over the whole week end.  

I have been playing with the rocks around the yard again!  I am trying to make it easier to drive the riding lawn mower around the immediate yard.  Rocks are not so good on my mower blades, if you know what I mean, lol.  The improvements are nice.  A change is sometimes all it takes.  I sometimes think rocks are good therapy.  I remember my DAd watching me and DH move rocks around the yard every spring, wondering what was wrong with us that we were moving the rocks again.  We finally put most of them on the house and in the front rock garden, but that was after about a zillion other efforts of doing something fun with them.  

DH bought a box of sea shells at a yard sale last week end.  He went out and sprinkled them all around the rocks, so the car girls can have a "shell hunt" when they come up.  I guess the oldest car girl still collects shells?

 

We have another mystery too.  Every morning there are little poopies around the house and yard.  Smaller than the dog and cats type.  I don't know if it is squrrel, prairie dogs, snake, what else?  

Big trucks and crows have been waking me up in the early mornings.  Trucks are noisy, I would rather have the crows, at least they are natural, lol.  

The weather has been livable.  Typically, don't we get major thunder and rain storms around the 24th?  Wonder if that will happen this year?

EEEEEeeeeeeeeeKKK

Last evening as we finished dinner and was watch TV, just as it got dark, Bubba went bazerk!  He was all fuzzed up on his back like I have not seen him do like forever.  He jumped up from in front of the sofa, fuzzed up and started barking in the direction of the back door.  He finally ran over to the door and was raising such a fuss DH got up to let him out.  DH went outside with him as we thought perhaps a stray dog was about and we didn't want Bubs hurt since he can't hear or see.  Nothing out there that DH could see so he left Bubs out there barking and raising cain and sort of going farther and farther out towards the orchard area. I thought, "geez, he must of had a night mare or something."  He stayed out quite a while and finally come back.  Just as DH let him in the house, a car drove up to the front of the house and someone knocked on the door.  DH went to the door and someone greeted him as if they knew him.  He stepped outside to talk to them.  When he came back in he said it was two US Marshalls (or something like that.) They wanted to set up an observation station here as "they were looking for a bad man" (their words.)  DH told them to go ahead so they drove over to the edge of the hill towards McMullins and stayed there we don't know how long.  Bubs kept stirring and barking for sometime that evening.  The only thing I can think of is that he navigates and lives his life through his sense of smell, as I have noticed lately, and that he smelled something amiss.  I have to wonder if the bad man wasn't here, around the house and Bubs smelled him?  I guess we will never know, but it was/is an eeeerie feeling.  They say the bark of a dog is the best discouragement against in home crimes.  I have always felt very safe up here on this hill and I hope I hear on the radio soon that they captured whomever they were after.  

Just Another Saturday

This morning as a do my usual cup of tea and internet session, a young bird who is just trying to learn to fly keeps trying to land on the window bar.  I am relieved that the cat is in and can't catch it.  I am not sure what kind of bird it is, but hope it learns about windows soon.  

I look across the valley and see the little mountain we always called Flat Iron glowing white in sort of a gray partially cloudy day.  My father took me hiking on Flat Iron once when I was small and long before some company bought it to put towers on it.  We hunted for what Dad described as dinosaur eggs.  Round egg shaped rocks about five inches long and four inches around.  I think now they have decided they might be croc or alla gotor eggs as some fossils of such were found to the south and west of Flat Iron.  My parents used to have four or five of those eggs in a bowl shaped rock around the property.  I wonder what ever happened to them.  There were photos of them too.  

I planted some pennyroyal seeds in the cracks of the bricks I layed in the back for a small patio/step.  We discovered pennyroyal when we stayed at Turtle Rock.  It was in the grass and when you walked about, you could smell the most marvelous minty smell, thanks to the pennyroyal.  I hope it grows!  It is what is called a walkable herb.  

I am so excited-I signed up for an artist retreat in Los Vegas for next February.  Staying at Bally's.  The workshops will be in Ballys or the Paris.  I will be taking a sculpture class, a book binding class and a mixed media class... three days.  Something to look forward to!

Our garden plants are huge.  The tomatoes are just starting to make tomatoes.  We have had radishes, beet greens, squash, and turnip greens so far.  As usual, mother nature also planted.  We have several large squash looking plants growing in between where we planted.  We just let them grow to see what they are... hope it something we like, lol.

Well, I guess I better go see if I can help the dumb bird find a better perch than the window bars, lol.