T Stands for the Final Summer Play and Then Some

    Hi everyone. Happy Monday and happy new week to you. And hello to everyone who stops by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog  for our weekly T Day meet up.

     So what's new with me? Last week I continued with physical therapy and had something called Dry Needling done on my shoulder.  It's kind of like acupuncture but they also use a light electric current while doing it. It's supposed to be very good at breaking up knots in your muscles, and I have to say even though I was sore for about 24 hours afterwards, it has made my shoulder feel fantastic. 👍

    Otherwise I also went walking a couple of times and did some basement cleaning. The basement cleaning isn't very exciting except that I was able to get the new shelves my husband built (and that I mentioned last T day) organized. Now I can actually find things on the old shelves where everything had been crammed in and on the new shelves too. 😊 Those new shelves are actually pretty organized. 

     I also have a honey update. Thanks for all your comments on my Sunday honey post. I had read that since honey is more dense than honeycomb, if you let the comb sit for the honey to drip out, eventually the comb will rise up and  end up floating on the honey. That makes for easy removal. Well low and behold, it is doing that. 😊

      How cool is that? I'm sure by the time I come home from my road trip the comb and the honey should be completely separated.  👍

     A couple of weeks ago,  three of my friends and I had tickets for a play at the Ogunquit Playhouse in Ogunquit. Maine. It was our final play of a 3 show season pass we had bought back in the winter. This time the play was a  comedy called (as you can see in the first photo) The Producers. Since it was written by Mel Brooks (of Young Frankenstein and Blazing Saddles fame  as well as some other screwball comedy films you might be familiar with), it was full of laughs and crazy situations. That made it a fun production.  (And I think, although I have never seen it, this play is also a movie.)

   I'd actually seen this play maybe 20-25 years ago in Boston, but all I remembered was the crazy Springtime for Hitler in Germany part and laughing A LOT. The story of this play if you're not familiar with it is that a Broadway producer is told that if he puts on a flop he'll end up having more money and have to pay less taxes than if he produces a successful play. He joins up with his accountant, and they set out to make the worst play possible.

   That play is written by a former Nazi who is sad that the Nazi's didn't win the war, and the play is called Spingtime for Hitler in Germany. Even though everything sounds like it should be a one night bust, the play ends up being a hit.

   Again, no photos are allowed during the production, so here's a few  shots from the Playhouse's website.

  Since it's T day, I need to share a drink. Here's my glass of wine in my cup that I bought at the first show this season. If you save and bring back your cup, you don't have  to pay for another cup next time you are there. After this show I tucked my cup away in a cabinet for next year, because hopefully they'll be doing some good shows, and we'll be getting tickets again. 

   That's it for me this week. I'll also mention I won't be joining in for T next week as my husband, the dogs and myself will be on a road trip to Canada. We're heading back to Nova Scotia  for a few days and then we're driving to Prince Edward Island which will be a new province for us.  Since I'm not sure how my internet will be (and also how busy we might be), I might stop by blogs and I might not.

   Have a super T day and the next couple of weeks ahead everyone. 

The Art of Honey Collecting

   Hi everyone. I hope you've  having a nice weekend.  

   I'll also be joining Nicole for Sunday in the Art Room  and Gillena's for Sunday Smiles 

   The past week I had the first time experience of collecting honey from one of my bee hives.* I call it an experience because I learned a lot, and the biggest thing I learned was that I didn't really know much about collecting it. 😉 Grin.

   (*For those of you who haven't been reading my blog for awhile: I have 2 hives. The one that I started this year is keeping all its honey because basically this hive had to start from scratch this past May. The hive I'm collecting honey from is the one that is now just under 1 1/2 years old.)

   First I needed to get the honey super with the honey in it off of the hive. Our winters here in New Hampshire are too cold to leave  the third box on for the bees to enjoy the honey, even though they would probably love to have that honey to eat.  Because of the cold you really can't have more than 2 boxes on the hive during the winter. Bees need to be able to heat the inner hive by wiggling their bodies even on the coldest days, and the more space (3 boxes instead of 2), the more heat they need to make to keep the whole hive warm. 

   I'm also a little late getting the honey super off mainly because of my shoulder issue.  You can see the honey super in the photo below. Before I lifted the box, I took out the 2 empty frames on the bottom. I think this box weighed somewhere between 40-50 pounds (18- 23 kg), and being short with a rotator cuff issue meant I basically lifted and then let gravity help me bring it down onto the ground. The box was heavy, and I didn't want to injure my shoulder any more either.

     You might also remember that I left out a couple of frames last spring because the bees had already started to build honeycomb upward  when I went to put the super on. Isn't that a cool pattern they made? You can actually see the honey there too.

    It ended up not being a honey collecting issue though as you'll read further on in this post.

   And you can also see the honey on this one side of this frame. All the frames I left in the have  honey like this on both sides.

   There was no way I could carry this box very far, so I put the honey frames into a couple of garbage bags and then brought those  bags into my basement. It's cold enough in my basement and obviously not full of sugar loving insects so it was a good place to store the frames for a few days.

    I finally got my honey spinner  assembled so then I was ready to spin out the honey. (And please ignore the mess on the shelves of my laundry area. Eeek. Another day I did get them cleaned out now that I have some new basement shelves, but that was after my honey collecting adventure.)

    

    I now learned the most about collecting honey.  The biggest thing, and the most important when spinning it, is that you want the honey to be warm. OK, so I messed that one up having kept the honey frames in my nice cool basement. But I couldn't put them outside either, which I'll explain in the next paragraph. 

   The other thing I learned is that it would have been nice to do this in an area where I could have put a table. That is because you need to slice off the beeswax that is over the honey, so when you spin it the honey can come out.  I could have put a table outside, and I could have spun it outside, but then the smell would have attracted all kinds of 6 legged and potentially hungry visitors. 😩 This year spinning would be in the basement. With cold honey.  😰🍯

   Or I should say this year spinning would  collect hardly any of the cold honey. The honey was too viscous to come off the frames. It ended up being better to slice off the comb and  then put those slices into some large plastic food storage containers. Then, to warm up the honey, I put those food storage containers  on my kitchen counter near the sunny window. The warmth made the honey drip out of the comb. 

   I have 3 containers like this one. And it's a slow process. This could take up to 2 or 3 weeks for all the honey to drip out. Part of the slowness is that honey only  drips when it's warm, and at this time of year, other than for part of the day when my kitchen counter gets the light from the window, it isn't exactly hot. That's OK though since it's not like I must have the honey right this second. Besides, I'm also leaving later this week for an 11 day road trip, so I wouldn't even be home for it anyhow.

  I also have a few ideas  for keeping the honey warm too, but since I have yet to try them, I'll keep my ideas for another post.

   After that dripping finishes, I'll need to filter the honey before it is ready to use.  If I could have spun it out, I could have filtered it quicker and it probably would have needed less filtering.  I should also add, I did get some honey in the spinner, but that may end up being just a few spoonfuls.🥄

   This process left me with some still sticky hive frames. I could have washed them with soap and water right away, but I decided to give the residual honey back to the various bees. I took the frames and put them outside, leaning them up against a garden wall.

  And you can see the honey bees  and others really enjoyed the treat. ❤

  I'll have more of this adventure to share with you once the honey has dripped and I go to filter it.

  Have a super rest of your weekend and start to the new week also.

   

  

    

    

   

Fall Art and More Little Wildlife

    Hi everyone. Happy Friday.  This week has flown by; I think even faster than normal mainly because Monday (which was the Labor Day holiday) felt like Sunday to me, so because of that it seems like we somehow skipped a day. and today should be Thursday. 😏

   I also want to mention  just in case it hasn't been updated by Google and just in case I haven't visited your blog for a day or two, but now my reading list is stuck in Monday mode. If I haven't been by your blog, it's because my reading list hasn't been updated, and I don't know if there were newer posts.  😧

    I have lots of faces today for Nicole's   Friday Face Off  and also for Gillena's  Friday Lunch Break.  

  

  I'm going to start today's post with this journal page (that also has a face) for Sharon's Hello Autumn challenge  over at Art Journal Journey.

    I used one of my less busy Gelli print backgrounds for this page. For the leaves I used a leaf stencil and a green paint pen. The woman has an orange face because I was trying to get an image transfer on my Gelli plate. The image transfer didn't work, and the woman was covered in orange paint, but I still like her. I trimmed away the  excess and used her anyhow.

     Then I cleaned off some  pieces laying on my work table and used them on this page. The gears are chipboard I colored black. The envelope made a good tag pocket, and the tag is just a tiny piece of scrap paper that I stenciled a few more leaves onto.  To finish the page I added a couple of felt sunflowers from a package I had in my stash. I also added some bronze colored glitter glue to their centers. You can just see the sheen in this photo. Finally I finished by using a quote from an autumn Creative Expressions set that I recently found on markdown. 

   And how about a few more faces to wrap  up this post? My yard has been a very busy place. Some of these might be creepy for you, but I'm saving the creepiest for the end.  

    Above, some type of fly (I couldn't find an ID on it), and below, a bumble bee.  

   This nursery web spider did not appreciate me watering my plants. He/she crawled out from under the leaves to stay dry.

    I have too many yellow jackets around my yard. When they are in the garden, they don't bother me, but I worry where the nest is. They nest in the ground, and if you happen to step in the nest, they get angry and are aggressive attackers. But they also help eat plant pests, so I guess they aren't all bad. 

   I spotted this Eastern Red Spotted Newt in the driveway one day.

    This pickerel frog didn't enjoy me watering either. He hopped out and waited for me to leave.

   But this  little tree frog didn't seem bothered by my watering. He was just sitting on the plant in this post.

OK, here are the  views some of you may not enjoy. If you don't like spiders, click off now.

    There were several of these little huntsmen on one of the dock boards at my mother-in-law's home. I'm guessing they were babies recently hatched.

    And on another dock board was a big web with this giant Mama hanging in it. 

   She's a fishing spider, and if you haven't ever seen any, they are quite large, usually 3-4 inches (6-9 cm)  across. And this lady (yes, it is a she) was hanging out in a web filled with recently hatched babies.

   I know some spider mothers become food for the babies, but I couldn't find that answer for this particular species. However, I do believe she dies after this season, but these babies hibernate over the winter until the next season.

   That's it for me today. Wishing everyone a great start to the upcoming weekend. 

Wednesday Art

    Hi everyone. Happy mid-week.  I hope everyone is having a  nice week so far. 

     I'm posting today with some art for a couple of challenges. First, I'm joining Sharon for her Hello Autumn challenge over at Art Journal Journey.  Besides pumpkins, colored leaves and cooler weather, autumn is also the season (here in the US) when football begins. 

   To make this page I started with some watercolor paper and some green acrylic paint (to represent the grass on the field). Then I used a white paint pen and a ruler to make the field markings. The football  and the helmet are very old Quick-kutz dies that I had back in my scrapbooking days. I stamped 3 little stars on the helmet and then added green clutter glue to them. They DON'T represent any particular team.

   The words are from a very old Technique Tuesday stamp. And finally, to finish the page, I added some felt football trim from my stash.

   And then I have a tag for this month's new challenge at Tag Along (and ATC's too). This month Lynn  is hosting, and her theme is Circles. 

    You can see I went circle crazy!

   I started with a 49 and Market die and some paper bag paper. Then I stamped The alphabet letters (no marking on the stamp) randomly on the background. I also stamped the dotted circles (Hero Arts). I used a 1 inch paper punch to punch out the paper circles, including those that were on a sheet of alphabet letters.  Then I added the small dot circles and larger scribbles circles (from the same Hero Arts set). After that I edged the tag with black ink. I also stamped the quote on some white paper (Cornish Heritage Farms). After cutting it out and gluing it down I outlined it with a black Sharpie.  I love how there are little circular dots on part of the quote words too. 

   That's it for me.  Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by. 

T Stands for the End of Summer

   Hi everyone. Happy new week to you, and hello to everyone who stops by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for our weekly T Day.

   Last week we had a lot of unsettled weather and days that looked unsettled but never rained.  My long  Labor Day weekend was great but not anything that exciting. The hubby and I had a Costco date, and we went mackerel fishing. (I caught 5 but I only take them home to eat ❤ if they don't survive in the wet well-otherwise they go back into the ocean.), and we did some chores around the house. As for my shoulder, physical therapy is helping, and it's gotten a lot better. I'm just trying not to overdue it until it is feeling 100%, or thereabouts. 

    As the post title says, today I'm looking back and celebrating what was a very good summer. I haven't traveled very far out of my regular area, but it's been a busy and fun season. Except for my shoulder, but  that has made me relax a bit more and enjoy the summer weather.  😃 

   And yes, I know astronomical summer isn't exactly over, but it is meteorological autumn.  Plus in my area Labor Day, Monday the 7th, marked the end of the usual summer tourist season. There's still tourists around, but now with all school back in session and the water temperature dropping off, it is definitely less crowded.

  For T today I thought I'd share a few wrapping up summer photos and drinks from the last couple of weeks. Let me start with the lake at my mother-in-law's house on  a beautiful day. I love the sun-ray coming through the trees.

 

   A few weeks back the hubby and one of his brother-in-laws  pulled out the swim raft. 

  Mr. Pete was probably sad the raft came  out because I think he's now the only one who actually uses it. Well the ducks use it, and Pete likes to climb up the swim ladder and  then roll in the duck poop. Meanwhile we all yell, "NO Pete." Not that it stops him. Grin. 😏 In reality we put it out there to keep boats from coming in too close to shore, but Pete does like to climb up on it (and roll in the poop too.)

   Actually besides rolling in duck poop, Pete likes to "disappear"and  hang out in the shade here.  

    It was a great gardening summer too. Well, maybe not exactly for this big garden in my yard. Once my shoulder was injured, I didn't get in it to do much work. I think from afar it looks good, but don't get too close or you'll see all the weeds. 😉

  One day I did attempt to go in and do some one handed weeding.  I managed to step into an invisible ant nest.  They were all over the place, including on my ankles and shoes. That was it for my weeding that day. I hosed down my shoes and ankles to de-ant myself. 😮

  But not all gardening was good this year. Here's my basil in early September. The seeds hardly grew this year. I'm wondering if I should have put them on my deck where it's warmer, as I know basil likes it warm.

   I had also bought a bag of giant dahlia bulbs that never did anything. 😟 😖😭

But my cukes, zucchini,  beans and tomatoes  did very well.  I've also picked 1 beet and (although small) some green sweet peppers.

I also dug up some mini potatoes too.

    After 2 wet basement events (1 minor and 1 major), my husband built some new narrow shelves to hold the things that were sitting on the floor. He just finished the project this past weekend, and now we are finally getting the garage picked up since during the bigger flood a lot of things got moved out there.

    All that work made me thirsty. Grin.  Actually this next photo is from an afternoon at one of my friend's house when she had her annual "we don't have to go back to school" party in late August. (She has this party for a bunch of retired teachers and other retired school staff annually since retirement). This year's theme was lemon, so I had this lemon flavored drink.

   There were also a few beautiful days boating on the ocean.

   And a lunch out with my daughter and my husband. That was a half sized pistachio mud-slide that I tried. It was delicious. Like an alcoholic milkshake.

   And finally, since this post is getting long, a pumpkin praline kiddie ice cream cone (and yes, it was kiddie sized this time) this past weekend.  

   It was the perfect way to wrap up the "summer" last holiday weekend.

   Wishing everyone  a happy T day and a nice week ahead.