May Is Winding Down

 Hi everyone. Happy Thursday.

   This week's been busy, and I've also been trying to get some final outside chores done (other than the dreaded never ending weeding), so if I haven't been by your blog and  you've commented on mine, let me apologize before I go on any further.

   As Saturday is the last day of May, I want to share my penultimate page for Neet's It Must Have Wings challenge at Art Journal Journey. Today's page is from my envelope journal which I've mentioned before.

     For this page I used several fussy cut or punched out images as well as some sewing machine stitching. I also used a metallic paper moon and some marker around it to represent it shining.  I stamped the quote, which I think is from the same Impression Obsession set as the lunar moth. I stamped the moth on clear acetate and cut it out. 

    This is my first week with 2 mornings of work at the boat ramp. Monday, being a holiday and finally being sunny was quite busy. The morning was mostly fishermen, and then locals who put in their boats for the season. There were also a few pleasure boaters too. 

I really loved the blue skies against the shadow and greens of the mountains.

     Over the long weekend my husband took the winter plastic panels off the screen porch. I washed down all the screen  doors (which make up the walls), and then he put those clean screen  doors up. I still had (and have) cleaning to do out on the porch  so I can use it.

     

     But I did get some flowers planted in the pots on my back deck.

    I needed a couple more bags of soil for my veggie planters, which I picked up yesterday, and I still have to put them in and plant the rest of my veggies. We have rain today, so that will chore will have to wait. Hopefully tomorrow I can get out and do some of these chores.

     Most of these plants in the greenhouse  are either veggies (still waiting to be planted) or flowers that went into the pots on my back deck. But on the left you can see the size of the potatoes I started, as well as parsley, beets and carrots. I need to move the rest of those pots outside too.

    That's all for me. I hope you had a wonderful day or rest of your day, depending what time it is that you stop by. 

T Stands for a Tough Week

Hi everyone. Happy first T day in June. I hope your month has started off well for you.

     Not to complain but just to mention, last week I had a tough week. Monday/Memorial Day I was up early to go work at the lake. I took a shower and then put on a load of towels to wash. After about an hour I went upstairs to brush my teeth and the water in the faucet was no more than a trickle. Luckily it was a holiday and my husband was home from work for the day. I hollered down to him with the situation. We both thought our well pump had gone, but he figured he'd check downstairs in the basement. Good thing he did because at a spot where a filter was tied into our water treatment system  there was a good sized leak. 

Perhaps leaking is too mild a word.

I snapped a quick photo (ignore our basement mess please!) while I was moving things out into the garage before I headed out to work. The poor hubby spent his day off vaccing up the water and fixing the leak. Sadly, that fix didn't quite work, so he took Tuesday off and replumb the system.

Luckily now the basement is dry, and there are no leaks. It's a good thing he is a handy guy. ❤  Tuesday was also a tough day for us in another way.

     A few months ago Maddie developed diabetes. Her glucose levels have been strange. The insulin has gotten her drinking and needing to go out for the bathroom under control, but it hasn't brought her blood sugar levels down.  Sadly, it is very easy for dogs to go blind with diabetes and high blood sugar, and Maddie is now blind. Poor Maddie. I can't imagine what it is like to have her whole world become a giant blur. We're afraid this might be the beginning of the end, because if we can't control her blood sugar, other things can start to go wrong.  😢

      Needless to say I've been in a pretty low mood this past week. I've been researching and trying to take on this blood glucose challenge. I don't think our vet has been the most helpful, but she has tried. One of the techs told me they don't deal with a lot of diabetic dogs. The specialist appointment I made isn't until early July (unless they get a cancellation-I can hope).  Maddie is smart though, and we're already in the process of training her with a new commands to walk around and do steps. She's doing well with that, but it is hard to watch her walk into things as she figures out how to move around. I hope we can all make this adjustment and have her in our lives for longer than we've been feeling lately.

      I don't want this post to be a total downer, because there were some things that made me happy. Here they are:

My irises are blooming, including some new white and dark purple bulbs I planted last fall.

My daughter came home Saturday to spend the night, and Sunday morning we went for a really nice long walk on a local rail trail.

She also found these cool scratch off maps in the Target dollar section. We had fun scratching off the states we had visited. Here's my map. (I've been to airports in a few of my no-scratched states, but we're only scratching  states if we'd visited with more that just an airport layover.)

My azalea is still blooming, and it, as well as some other flowers, are  attracting many various swallowtail  butterflies. At one time I counted 6 butterflies on this azalea at one time.

This black swallowtail seemed to like my ground phlox better.

 Mama and Papa bluebird have babies in the blue bird house. The other day I was working in the veggie garden, which is near their house, and they were both waiting and watching for me to leave so they could bring their babies some food. I'm looking forward to  seeing when the fledglings leave the nest.

I have also gotten my veggie garden set up too. Other than some tomatoes and green peppers in a different raised bed, I'm going very low key in my veggie garden this year.

  And lastly I need a drink for T day over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog this week. Since my yard and gardens are making me happy right now, I'm going to share this photo for this week's drink.

My honeybees love to get a drink of water at my birdbath. The reason you see some terracotta pieces in the birdbath (on the top of the photo) is so that the bees have extra places to land.

That's all for me this week. I hope you have a happy T day and week ahead.

   

T Stands for Spring Things

Hi everyone. Happy Tuesday (or Monday evening). I'm stopping by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for T day, and I'll be sharing my drink at the end of this post. 

     Last week we finally turned the corner and started having some late spring weather. Hurrah! It's good to finally have some warm up. (And this week we are supposed to really warm up!)

     This photo (that is looking out my window) says that we're getting into late May. You can see my husband has his boat out to clean, and secondly you can see my flats of flowers that I bought last week. Here in my area of New England they recommend not planting tender annuals until we get close to Memorial Day weekend (the last weekend and Monday in May) because of the chance of frost. But this week is going to be HOT so I started my planting in the last few days. ❤

     Last week for T I shared my screen porch mess. My other project this past week was to get that cleaned up. I haven't yet painted the floor, nor moved my indoor plants  out onto it, but I did get it cleaned and set up so I can use it.  It only takes me an afternoon to do it, and the longest part is waiting for the floor dry after I wash it. 

It doesn't look any different than it has for several years, which some of you might notice. 

My local botanical garden opened last week, and I visited one afternoon. I thought I'd share some spring views with you.

This plant in the next photo is Sweet Woodruff. I have a lot of it blooming in my yard right now also.

My peonies have small buds, but this one (above) looks almost ready to pop open.

 And since even small plants can be beautiful, don't forget to look down.

And finally at the garden, here's the bees, which many of you know I am quite fond of.

I went out to lunch twice last week, and both times forgot to take any photos 😟, so for my T day link  

let me share a cup of tea I made one evening.

     That's all for me this week. Wishing you a happy T day and week ahead. 

 

My Week's Adventures

Hi everyone. Happy Friday and happy almost weekend to you.

Whoever says staying home is boring doesn't know what they are talking about. I've had a lot of adventures this past week that didn't even involve getting into my car and driving. 

1) Home Chores: I've been hanging low this week trying not to go through a lot of gas. Mostly I've been busy with gardening and also unpacking a few craft supplies back into the just about finished art space. I've also stained and urethaned the trim boards which hopefully will go in tomorrow morning, and then, I can officially move everything back into place. Hurrah! 

Soon my lettuce, kale and spinach will be ready to pick out of my cold frame.

And my newest garden is coming along. I planted some dahlia bulbs and some zinnia seeds this week so I hope they grow.

2)  Nature: The other day I took a long  walk (thankful for wind to keep the bugs away), and that turned out to be  an adventure also.

The coltsfoot flowers (Tussilago farfara)  (Thanks David for mentioning this plant in a post so now I know what it is) may have passed, but I love these pom-poms left to spread their seeds.

And I also spied a lady slipper (Cypripedium acaule).

This fern looks like fabric. 

And  further on the way home, I heard a large crack. It didn't sound good, so I took a quick look around, and maybe 15 feet in front of me an old rotted tree came crashing down, bringing a branch off another tree down with it. I took this photo where I was standing right after the big fall.

Maddie was totally unimpressed, but it was a bit scary until I knew what exactly was being blown over. I called the town highway department to let them know they'd need someone to clean it up.

That same night, around 2 AM, the dogs started going NUTS. I totally missed this photo op  as I was more concerned about my bees and bird feeders than grabbing a camera, but once I snapped on the back light, standing in my yard was a big old black bear. He and I took a good look at each other through the window, and then I rapped on the glass and he ambled off into the woods. 

Of course bears are really smart, and what they do is only amble out of sight, figuring you'll turn off the light and go back to sleep (or most likely forget about them) so they can then come back. I waited about twenty minutes. Then I let the dogs out,  and I took my flashlight to go check on the bees (all OK) and to grab my hummingbird feeder, which was the only one still out. I didn't walk very far out into the yard though, because I don't want to come face to face with a bear.

All was good with the bees and feeder, but I did hear Mr. Bear running through the underbrush of the woods. He was loud as he ran over branches, snapping and cracking them, and also as he ran through brush. I could tell he was getting further and further away from the noise level. I knew then he was really gone. Maddie did some of her "Get Out of My Yard" barking and Pete ran around smelling the ground, followed by Maddie. Pete has chased a bear or two in the past, and I was glad he didn't decide to do that because the bear was far off and if he did go off after it, he'd be gone at least an hour.  Plus dogs can get hurt if a bear swipes at them with their claws. Most importantly, I wanted to go back to bed.

3)  My Art for Today: My journal page will probably be lost in this post, but since that's originally what  I planned on  sharing today, let me include it.

My inspiration for this page was this fun lady. She was on a birthday card I got from my aunt this past March. I didn't want to hang onto the card, but it came from my only aunt still left alive, so I thought I could recycle her onto a journal page. That way there I would always think of my aunt whenever I looked back to this page. It also explains why she has no feet because her legs ended at the  bottom of my card.

I started by inking half the page orange to match Myna's hair, and then I used gesso and stencil to make the design. I layered some paper scraps, some of which I added details too because they just looked too blah without any details.  I also added some washi tape with letters on it and some little paper scraps to make the ground.  And I also used markers and a pen to draw outlines not only around my page but also around the paper layered sections on the left.

I added my Myna, and then I found some silly punch out birds from an Art By Marlene punch out book. I also found the scooter image. I think Myna looks like a lady who would have fun and be on the go. I did color and add some details to both the birds and the motorbike.

I'm linking this art piece up to Art Journal Journey. This month Matilde is hosting and as you probably already know, the theme is birds.

I am also linking up to Gillena's Friday lunch break, and Nicole's Friday Face Off.

Have a great weekend. Thanks for visiting.

T Stands for The First Swim

Hi everyone.  Happy Tuesday and of course happy T day to you also.

Last week it became summer in New Hampshire. The leaves popped fully open. My peonies, azalea's and alliums started getting flower buds, and the temperatures bounced up to almost 90 degrees F/ or 32 degrees C at the start of the weekend.  Even though the high heat stalled some gardening I want to do, luckily my MIL's home is on the lake. My husband, one of his sisters and his mother were there Saturday as they had a meeting with a care service. They want  my MIL to have one more summer at her home, but she can't be left alone without someone doing a daily check in since she is not only physically declining, but mentally declining also.

I stayed home during their meeting, but I went up afterwards for lunch. It was hot enough that my husband decided to put the dock in, seeing you have to get wet to do that. Since my SIL and I were the only ones around to help him, guess what we did?

I am often in the lake over Memorial Day (the last weekend in May) but never this early. Surprisingly the water wasn't even that cold. Of course with the air so warm the water felt good, and I am sure if I wasn't as hot and sweaty because the air temperature was cooler, the water would be freezing.  

After we finished the dock frame, I figured I was half wet so I might as well get fully wet.

(And in this first photo we had finished the frame but my husband had yet to put on all the top pieces.)

It made Pete happy as he loves swimming with someone. You can see his head near mine. I must admit the water did feel really cold on my arms, but I'm still glad I got wet.

And since it is T day again, it is time to  share our drink related photos over at Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

I will share my beer. After the dock frame was in and I took my dip in the lake, I came out, dried off a bit and then warmed up (quickly) in the sun. I had a beer and read a bit.

I thought I'd also mention that the floor is done in the spare bedroom/studio project, and other than waiting until next weekend for the  trim to get finished, I have been able to do a little  bit of setting up. 

Hurrah! 

And you might also remember from last week that I mentioned how I couldn't see my daughter over Mother's Day as she had covid. This past weekend we managed to have a brief meet up in a parking lot (which is a long story I'll spare you), but I wanted to share this pop up flower bouquet card she gave me. . I haven't seen a pop-up card this complex before.

It 's so pretty I put it on my  fireplace mantel. It can even stay there for the summer.

And lastly, my bees arrived. For those of you who mentioned last week you liked reading about them, here's my post from  Saturday for those who may not have seen it but want to view it : The Bees Arrived!.  I know not everyone likes bees.

That's it for me. Have a wonderful T day and week ahead. Thanks also for visiting.

T Stands for Another Week Around the House

Time for T again which must mean it is Tuesday.

Hope everyone had a great week. Mine was busy but typical of these times of the virus, not exactly wildly adventurous.

I ended up doing a project last week I wasn't planning doing. My screen porch has a painted floor, and I decided to touch up the scratches in with some left over paint.  (I had painted the floor last spring.) Well for some reason, even though I both shook and stirred up the leftover paint, it dried much lighter than the floor. Hmm. I don't get why the floor had darkened so much, but I couldn't live with all the patches so I decided  to repaint the whole floor again. Luckily I had enough paint and all the rollers, etc., so I didn't have to go get any any supplies to do it.

So I moved the furniture over to one side and painted that, and then the next day I moved the furniture back to the opposite side and painted that. All I had left to do was run into the house and get my tiny brush to do the very edge of the floor that abuts some unpainted wood.

I think I should have brought Pete in with me because when I went back outside, who was in the screen porch and had walked right through the wet paint?

And who walked paint out onto the deck when he left? I rained that night and the wet deck really shows off his steps.

But I was able to finally finish setting my screen porch up.

 And I moved my "office" out there, along with my office mascots too.

Just behind the computer is my stay cold drink container with some ice tea in it. Tha's my drink for T this week.

I guess the days lecture/class was a little boring for the pups. I hope the kids weren't falling asleep as they zoomed in either.

And I made a journal so I can scrapbook some of my memories from my 35 years at my last teaching job.

I took the pages out of an old book that I liked the size of, and then created some signatures for the inner pages.

I painted the cover the school covers and added this sticker I found when I cleaned out my desk.

I did splurge and buy the gaffer tape on Amazon so it would match the colors I painted the covers.

I brought home a whole bunch of "items" when I cleaned out my room that I can use in my book. I'm going to start filling it in this week while my ideas are still fresh in my head.
But most exciting this week is that today, June 9th, I am now done. After 35 years at my job, I am moving on to new things.

Be sure to stop by Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog and see what the T gang  has been up to. Or better yet, join us for T.

Thanks for visiting.