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.

T Stands for Dead Batteries

   Hi everyone. Happy new week to you. And hello to all of you who stop by Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog for T Day this week.

  What's new with me?  My physical therapy is going well. I have some exercises to do to relax my neck muscles and to strengthen my back and chest muscles. They aren't hard and seem to be helping. 👍  I even vacuumed the other day with no pain, and although vacuuming is not the most exciting thing, 2 weeks ago even that simple task hurt a lot. 

  For T today let me start by showing you this view from the back of my husband's truck. There are 2 gas cans of gas for his boat, 2 boat batteries and a cooler full of drinks. Sadly when we tried to go out fishing last Thursday, both batteries were dead. One is just a backup, and who knows how long it had been out of juice. The other one, which was the one we'd been using when we went out in the boat, was also dead. It had been 2 weeks since we last used the boat, but none of the power draining switches had been left on. Whatever the reason  that the battery had no charge, it meant we could not go out on the boat that day.  (And FYI, the batteries normally stay in the boat. They are only here in the truck because we were taking them home to see if they could be charged.)

  BUT, I must add, better to find them dead when we arrived and hadn't put the boat in the water  than to be dead  while out on the water.👍

   My husband was very bummed out. As was I, but not as much as he was. 

  Since we couldn't be on the water, we might as well enjoy some time near the water. At the marina there is a little seasonal restaurant (not run by the marina but rented out) called Lexi's Landing. Lexi's is a small local chain in our area that specializes in burgers, fish sandwiches, tacos, grilled cheese, etc.  We like to eat there, but hadn't been there this year, so I suggested we go have some lunch. That's what we did.

   You can see my drink which is a bottle of water, and you can see the boats that pay a huge fee to have a slip and keep their boats in the water. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of lunch. 😟

   After lunch we ran a few errands, and then, when we were almost home, I suggested we get an ice cream. There is an ice cream stand about 5 minutes away from my house. We hadn't gone for an ice cream in several weeks, and if there is any good reason to get an ice cream, today's disappointment was one.   How can you not be cheered up when eating ice cream?

  This place has 3 sizes. Kiddie, Small and Large. I ordered a kiddie in a cup. I ordered 2 flavors, cold brew chip and peanut butter pie.

   I think the girl who took my order misunderstood me. 😕 I didn't want 2 kiddies on top of each other. I just wanted 1 kiddie with 2 ice creams. (And she only charged me for 1.) Holy cow!!!! That was a whole lot of ice cream. It was humid and as you can see, there was some melt going on.

   Good thing it was later in the day because I didn't need dinner after that. 😏 But I have no complaints about having an occasional ice cream dinner. 

  That's it for me today. Wishing everyone a great start to September, a happy T day, and a super week ahead.

  

How About These Faces?

  Hi everyone. Another week has flown by, at least it has for me. My husband's favorite thing is to say in the summer is that there is only one month that goes faster than July, and that's August. It certainly seems to be true this year. 😉 (Unfortunately too. They're predicting a tough winter ahead...😞)

  Today I am joining Nicole for Friday Face Off and Gillena for her  Friday Lunch Break. Here's some assorted random summer faces I've recently come across.

    I took this photo (above) because I really liked how this table was made from an old workbench. Then I noticed there are a few faces on it too.  

     The next 2 photos are a couple of other yard ornament faces from this same little shop.

   I took this beach photo when we were out cruising on the boat one day. I was actually going for the umbrellas because I loved all the colors, but with all the people, there are lots of faces too. 

  Here's one day's worth of mackerel that we caught when out fishing. They are swimming around in the boat's wet-well. The faces are a little blurry, but you can see them.

And here's a cormorant flying by.

     Next I have a couple of views of a metal flying raven that I splurged on and bought for my garden this summer. (Actually it was on mark down and not all that expensive.)  I don't know if he's easier to make out in the first or second photo.

Next, a metal mosquito sculpture at my local botanical garden. I'm so glad the real ones aren't as big as this one.

And here's a carved wooden dog face also found at my local botanical garden.

   And finally, ha-ha, the other day I came across this oldie of me and my husband at someone's wedding or dress up event. I think this has to be back in the 1980's.  I can't  ID the people to the right of my husband, and I can't remember the event either. Hmmm.

   That's all for me today. Have a super Friday and start to your weekend. 

T Stands for Lake Days

   Hi everyone. Happy T day. I hope everyone is having a great start to the new week. And I want to also say hello to those of you who stop by for T day this week over at  Bleubeard's and Elizabeth's blog.

   What's new with me? First of all I'm still icing and using heat on my shoulder. I've called a few more physical therapy places, and everyone is saying they can't get me in until early September. What? And that's with a referral from the orthopedic doctor. I've decided I will just stick with my August 24th appointment (the first one I made) and continue with my self care until then. Hopefully since I'm on the cancellation list I'll get a call that they can take me sooner.

   I also received a happy mail package this past week from  CJ. We were the only 2 to sign up for the T Day anniversary swap, and we decided we'd do a swap just a little more leisurely than the actual anniversary date.

   Thank you CJ for this fun package! I love the little journal and the other playful items, especially the microscope stickers. ❤😊👍🔬

  Last week was busy as it was one of my husband's and my weeks having my mother-in-law's house. During the summer everyone gets 3 assigned weeks at the lake. Since my husband and his 2 sisters are all splitting the costs of the taxes, electricity, heat, etc., it's only fair everyone gets some time to use the lake as they like. We get along really well with one of my husband's sisters, and we always invite them over for a few days during our weeks and vice versa. The other sister-in-law doesn't play well in the sandbox (so to speak) so that doesn't happen during her weeks.

   Last week we had some hot and humid weather so it was great that it was our week at the lake. Mostly it was relaxing time (and I read too), but Saturday, my daughter came for the day with some of her  husband's family.  Her in-laws were also supposed to come, but her mother-in-law stepped in a yellow jacket nest earlier in the week and her foot was three times its normal size, so sadly they weren't able to join us.  Anyhow, my son-in-law's sister joined us, and we had a day full of laughs hanging out with the 30 something's.

   It's too bad none of us had a totally waterproof camera because we all had a great float in the lake to cool off. I took this photo of the "kids" before I hopped in myself.

    I like this (above) photo so I thought I'd include it. The colors of the watermelon really pop off the white table.  There is a story behind the watermelon too. It rolled out of my husband's truck, plopped onto the ground and then rolled down the hill until my son-in-law's foot stopped it. But luckily, it didn't break so we could enjoy it! 😁

    Here's my T day photo for the week. If you look carefully at our lunch you can see a water bottle  and a tall metal drinking cup with a straw (to the left of the paper towel roll). And on the far right you can see part of a canned drink just at the edge of the photo. The nice part about lunch is everyone chipped in with the work. My son-in-law did the grilling, I did some chopping, my daughter did the table cleaning, the son-in-law's sister did some carrying out. OK I lied a bit because I'm not sure what my husband did (which was maybe something because I had just finished a lake dip and was the last one to come up to the house once I dripped off a bit), but in his defense the neighbor, who he hasn't seen all summer, stopped by. 

   We did have one rainy day last week. That day I met a friend and we went to see the Odyssey. It was long but a very good film that I enjoyed. Other than that, that's all  for me this week. Have a great T day and week ahead. 

  

  

Friday This and That

    Hi everyone. It's already another Friday. This week, other than some rain on Monday, has been on the warmer side. But at least it's our week at my mother-in-law's lake house so I have gotten in some cooling water time. 😏

   Speaking of heat, I wanted to share this summer page for my challenge at Art Journal Journey. This month the theme is In The Good Old Summertime. I'm also sharing with Nicole's Friday Face Off and Gillena's Friday Lunch Break.

   Today's journal page is a mostly paper collage. I started by using this sheet of blue paper as my background. Then I painted in some sand and added some blue paper for water at the edge of the sand. However, I couldn't get the sand to look like I wanted it to, so eventually I dug through all my art supplies and pulled out this bottle of these sand looking paint chips  called Fragments. I spread some glue and then put them down. Next I fussy cut the 2 bathers (Ciao Bella emphera book) and then added a sailboat to give the page more depth (49 and Market). Finally I stamped some various words/phrases and colored in the story word. There is definitely some kind of story going on with those 2 people. You can decide what you'd like that story to be. 👍

   I also have a few other faces to share that I snapped around my yard recently.

Isn't the baffle supposed to keep the squirrels out of the bird feeder? 😏  

The bird bath is actually a bee bath in my yard.

I know there is nothing for scale in this photo, but a tiny little toad was hopping around the yard.

I got lucky and could get a photo of this dragonfly before he flew off.

A pickerel frog in the garden

Here's a diva dog who didn't want just dog food for breakfast one day. (When I put in a tiny bit of shredded cheese she ate it all in about 3 minutes. 😉)

Another dragonfly

and finally a couple of photos that aren't really faces.

The wild blackberries near my driveway have been ripening. Yum!

And a morning's pick from my garden. I've never grown or even seen an albino zucchini before.

        Have a super Friday and start to your weekend.