Tuesday Trifles...

 An interesting few days of weather around here. Sunday turned into a storming flood...we barely got back form the little Founders Day celebration we attended. The winds were hellacious and the rain was so thick and hard you could not see the end of the car hood. The roads were flooded and the creeks swollen...but we made it back, even though the 23 mile trip took us about 45 minutes.   It stormed for about 3 hours and watered everything nicely, but I was almost afraid to go out and check on my garden, worried that the tomatoes had taken a beating. They were fine. I think because I planted so many of them so close together they protected one another a bit.

  I love summer...

       I am taking a home day today. I had intentions of doing the same yesterday, but life reared up and it didn't happen. lol  The weather has done a 180...from broiling hot to beautifully pleasant... temps in the mid 80's and almost no humidity. I have turned off the A/C and flung open all the windows. I'm going to vacuum and straighten up a little, and cook a marvelous supper of grilled teriyaki chicken and roasted vegetables. I have some leftover jasmine rice that I'll gussy up a little with some fresh herbs from the garden and a little red and green peppers and we'll eat outside on the deck tonight, I think.  Although I just remembered that someone loaned us a copy of Avatar...maybe we'll eat in after all....time constraints being what they are. The Irishman doesn't get home until about 6:15 and tries to be in bed by 9:30...we'll see....high class problems I've got, as my old pal Art used to say.

I have a new best friend, the sole surviving kitten of the litter that I am bottle feeding and loving into his life, lol. He is with me all the time he's not asleep and climbs up to sit on the couch beside me every time I sit down. He curls up on my chest and plays with my chin with his tiny paws. 

  Okay--my son just pulled in the driveway...here to fish a bit I suspect. I'll go hug him and chat him up a bit before he heads down to the pond. Friday is his 39th birthday....yikes. Gonna try to talk them into coming for supper and birthday cake...we'll see....

  Have a blooming week!!

Namaste.

Saturday song

Blazing hot here today. I've been outside off and on...sweeping decks and burning papers and feeding chickens. But mostly I am inside. The heat index is horrific, like 105. I have done some housecleaning and pulled the stove out and cleaned it and behind and under it..one of those ugly jobs, since I rarely do it more than once a year. I am taking a break and cooling down after sweeping the front porch, and when I am done, I will take a shower.

  Did I say a COLD shower? Well, I meant to. The Irishman took the hot water plumbing apart yesterday to run hot water to the sink in the apartment and still has not finished it. Ran into problems (don't you always?) and had to leave it to go to my birthday celebration last night. This morning he was up and off to his usual Saturday regime and here we sit with still no hot water. At least there is running cold water....sigh....it will not get fixed tonight. We have to be somewhere at 5:30 and it's half an hour or more away. so by the time he gets back here and showers (in COLD water, complaining the whole time) it will be time to leave.

  I took some more garden pictures, just to compare. (lol)  I know you're all dying to see more (snicker) so here we go.  And (((Mary)))  I would love to exchange seeds with you. What do you have in mind???

  Cabbages mid May.

Cabbages late June

Peppers, mid May

Peppers, late June

Butternut Squash, mid May

Butternut squash, late June

  Okay, enough. You get the picture.   I'm off to the shower...brrrrr......lol

Namaste.

Hump Day

   

Ain't she a beaut ?  And now, there are light lavender colored bee balm flowers coming up in the midst of this red one too. It's stunning. Tomorrow I will try to remember to get out there and take some more pictures.

 The garden has exploded. The past week has been outrageously high temperatures and humidity...it's like a rainforest out there. Today the heat index hit 105.  2 days ago I was out weeding in the late afternoon and clearing things out a little, and there was still a semblance of rows between the green beans. Now it's a complete ocean of bushes, with no spaces in between. Same with the butternut squash.  Yowsa!  Tonight I went out at almost dark and weeded some flower beds.  I have some Siberian Irises to plant and also some bright yellow daylilies.  But it's been so dang hot I can't do it...15 minutes out there and I'm wringing wet and hot as a firecracker. Sweat running down my face and into my eyes. It's even been already thick at 7 Am...but, I will persevere and try to do a little at a time. Every day. Being especially conscious of how easy it is to get heat stroke in weather like this.

  Tonight I took my pump sprayer out there loaded with white vinegar and sprayed some spots to try to kill the weeds. Hopefully it'll knock some of it down.

  The tomatoes are loaded  and it looks to be a really good crop this year. I planted several Romas  for saucing and dicing, as well as all the regular big tomatoes. Skipped the yellow Brandywines this year...wasn't all that impressed with their performance last year. The edamame are growing great guns. Beautiful healthy big plants.  And the peppers...well, let's just say that I am in awe at the beautiful healthy plants this year. I should have more than enough to get through the winter and eat all summer as well. My mouth is watering at the thought of big red and yellow peppers stuffed with quinoa and chanterelles and garlic chives and chopped fresh parsley, Mmmmmm...

The Irishman went to Wisconsin to visit his family and got back Monday evening. He had a great time and said the weather was wonderful, and never got above 80 the whole time.  WHAT !?!?!?!?!  LOL     I had a pleasant 4 days home alone and spent a lot of it in deep thought.  *snork

  The remaining kitten is doing fine, only 1 out of 4 survived. Not sure what the problem was, but this one I have been feeding kitten replacement milk and the mother is starting to nurse him more. I've named him Jinga.  The Irishman wanted to name him Ralph. I win.  I said that if I am the one feeding him every 3 hours, I get to decide what his name is. (It's the law) The other 3 died abruptly...it was awful. They got listless, lost body heat and were gone within hours of one another. I'm baffled and bereft.

  Been a long day and I'm hoping to hit the hay early tonight.  I baked bread, did laundry, and worked in the yard some. Baked brownies as I was supposed to meet a girl for lunch wand then hit a meeting...Monday was her 5th anniversary and nobody got her a cake, so I thought
I'd surprise her at the mtg w/ a little treat.   She called about 10 and had to cancel.  We had brownies for dessert, after a lovely supper of chicken and black bean burritos with skillet roasted red and green peppers and onion. Coupled with a nice tossed salad. Yum.

  Kinda quiet on the blogging front this week.  Summer???

  Namaste.
 
 

Mid-week.

  I have laundry going, a turkey breast in the roaster and have been making and fielding phone calls. Haven't showered or dressed yet, and just got word that the PT job I was hoping for fell through. Okay...I don't know what God has in store for me, but it apparently wasn't that one...shoot. I was hoping for a break, lol.

  I have my yard sale stuff ready to go I think and will start tomorrow. My plan originally was for Monday, but it has done nothing but rain and storm this week, so I took my time putting it together.  The garden, on the other hand, has loved this weather...

 It's been a curious week so far...I just feel off center and weird. Oh well..this too shall pass, I guess.  I posted a long whiney post  a few days ago...full of fear and self pity and philosphy (lol)  and the computer ate the whole thing and I couldn't recover it, even using Lazarus. I got the hint.  So I just stayed away for a couple of days until now. Never let it be said that I am THICK.

.

  I have a very sick little kitten...born with intestinal problems of some sort, I think.  I am trying to decide what else to do..It's the runt of the litter and I have mixed up a magic formula that I am syringe feeding it every few hours. If nothing else maybe it will keep her from being dehydrated...she's very thin and cannot seem to nurse well. The mother isn't cooperating much either, and maybe she knows best. It wouldn't take much to put her out of her misery....but I shall attempt a few things first and see what happens. It's a sweet little thing...

 Read of the apparent suicide of novelist David Foster Wallace with  great sadness. He was one of our [relatively] local boys, growing up about a hundred miles from here. I am always met with a mixed bag of emotions at the word of suicide...a feeling of grief that someone felt that was their only option  and relief that their struggle is finally over. It is what it is...and the world has lost a wonderful writer.

Off to the recovery center today, even though I really cannot afford the gas to make the trip. I didn't go last week and maybe this is what I need to get my brains sorted out.

  Sounds like the dryer has stopped, so I will fold clothes and dry more and make like a good little hausfrau...Just For Today (*Mary)... Then I'll walk out to the garden....

Namaste.

A beautiful Saturday...

  Today I woke up to a brilliantly sunny day, a husband kissing me and saying Happy Anniversary, sweetheart, and kittens yowling and howling and wanting their breakfast. Spoiled little buggers...

 On June 10, 1990 I had the last drink of my career. There's always a question of how us crazy alcoholics count these birthdays, but where I got sober, the emphasis was on celebrating the last drink you will ever have to take. And that's the way I do it.  I am grateful to know that I have a life that is possible only because I got willing to go to any lengths to stay sober.  And I continue to live that way and to always remember.  If they had told me to stand on my head on a streetcorner and spit nickels, I would have figured out a way, lol.

  So, today I celebrate 20 years of continuous sobriety.  20 years of doing a few simple things, one day at a time. 20 years of trusting that God has a plan for my life, whether I can see it or not.  20 years of learning to do everything a different way,  from cooking a turkey on Thanksgiving to calling a total stranger and talking about my fears.  From learning how to be honest with myself, to learning how to be honest with you.  From learning how to trust to learning how to be trusted.

  It's been a miraculous journey, for a woman who could not quit drinking on her own. I am grateful and humbled by the whole thing...the people in my family usually just drink until they die. I am the first to break the chain, and find a new way to live.  As a result of that, I have a son with 10 years of sobriety, because he watched his hopeless drunk of a mom find this new life in Alcoholics Anonymous.  And the miracle continues...

  Today we had a small celebration bbq at the home of a friend. Then we watched as friends renewed their wedding vows. Now we are home and settled in for the evening. Tomorrow is another birthday to celebrate, a very kind and wonderful man celebrating 36 years of recovery. Then another bbq at a friends house.  A full weekend here on the Prairie.

  Feeling really blessed tonight...

Namaste.

Mystical Magical World

Tuesday Schmoozeday...

My favorite coffee cup...holds over a quart of coffee....lol


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 A productive Tuesday.  However I am realizing the mistake I've made giving away all the kittens but 2.  Now I am the only toy they have. These two, Scooter and Baboo, follow me around like puppies and climb the backs of my legs and bite at my skirts and chase and chew me all day long. They have the energy of 10 cats, all rolled up into two.

  I shampooed carpets today, in spite of the storms and high humidity. The temps were not too high, and the windows are all open and fans are going. The carpets look great and are actually dry. I moved a little of the furniture around too. Not a lot of possibilities, things being as they are, but I moved out one etagere and shifted a couple of things.  Then I made a nice dinner of sauerktaut and pork ribs with mashed potatoes and peas. 

  Watched a great movie tonight called Feast of Love, starring Morgan Freeman and Greg Kinnear.  Had a wonderful cast, including two of my favorite obscure actors, Fred Ward and Billy Burke. 

  I am also reading Marianne Williamson's Everyday Grace.  It is a magnificent book and is touching me in all the right places.   Sometimes I feel so inept, so helpless against the things going on in the world. Only because I forget some of the truths that I know...about love and about grace.  And mostly about living in the present moment, where the things that are real surround me and are right at my fingertips.

  I have a little swarm of these mini-gnats in here for some reason...driving me nutz.  That'll teach me to throw open the house....lol

  I ate a cup of wild black raspberries with cream this morning...oh my goodness....what a treat!  They are so sweet this year,  I picked cherries last night too and will be filling the dehydrator with cherries and bananas tomorrow morning.  Aldi's had bananas for a mere 39 cents a pound, so I bought a couple of packages. Lovin' me some dried bananas....

  Okay---I'm off to bed....tomorrow is Wednesday and I am off to the recovery house to have a meeting and work with a couple of my girls....Have a dream filled night....

Namaste.

 

Monday...in a room full of kittens

 Coleus

Today is supposed to be the day when the kittens go to the farm.  We'll see if the courier flakes out on me again. (It's her cousin's farm). I haven't heard anything from her yet.  I'm feeling a little ambivalent, of course, but it has to be... I am debating on keeping one of my favorites, because the little thing does not want to use the litter box, and I am so done with cleaning up after cats on my carpet...I adore Little Bit, but in a barn, he'll not have to worry about where he goes. He is actually catching up to the others in size now too, and that was one of my reasons for keeping him in the first place-he was much smaller than the others.  He is very affectionate and adorable...well, we'll see.

[This my sweet Baboo...he's definitely staying....]

  Yesterday was my family reunion at the lake. We had a great time. The weather cooperated beautifully. It never got above about 83 degrees and was breezy and bright and sunny. Humidity was minimal. A perfect day for sitting around and chatting and eating and reminiscing. We had a visitor--a very old man who was best friends with my youngest uncle for all his life. He came over and said--you don't remember me, I bet--and told me stories about when I was a little girl and he would be at my grandmas house and give me nickels and pennies when I was there.  He said "You were the prettiest little thing..."  It was kinda neat/creepy.  lol  He and my aunts all sat around telling stories about when they were kids and the things they did and got in trouble for, lol.   The aunts enjoyed themselves tremendously.  My nieces and nephews and cousins kids all brought all their kids. It was pretty cool.  We got home around 7 PM and it was a long and tiring day, and I was asleep by midnight.  

  I am meeting someone at a noon meeting hopefully and then taking someone else to a meeting tonight. It will be a busy day for me, all around.  I have cherries to pick, wild raspberries to pick and much housecleaning to do. I won't get it done today probably, but I will stay home all day tomorrow and get it done.  Grateful that the yuckies have pretty much passed.  And I can be a productive person again, taking care of things in my little world, instead of just spinning around aimlessly.  That feeling reminds me of the days when I was so restless, irritable and discontent that I was almost paralyzed with anger and fear. I couldn't accomplish any tasks at hand, couldn't stand to be in my own skin, couldn't bear to stay in any one place.  Ugh.

  OKay--time to get on with the day.  Make a call, get some clothes on and sashay out into the world of the living. lol

  Have a grand Monday, all y'all.  May you be blessed in all ways imaginable.

Namaste.

Still Saturday...

 This has been one long day.  (And not in a good way...lol)   It's getting near midnight and I just came back from driving to meet someone who is having to give a kitty back. She's heartbroken, and ALLERGIC.  I feel so bad for her, she had little Sookie long enough to get really attached to her. The reason it happened so late is that she got a call that her father has had another heart attack and she has to go out of state.  Sigh...it's the little calico, and she is scared witless to be back around this madding horde of cats after having been an only cat for a few weeks. Hopefully she'll adjust. 5 cats are leaving Monday to go to the farm. That will leave me with only 11...(ONLY!!!!!!!)  I am getting old...

   Tomorrow is my family reunion. I don't want to go, but since I am the coordinator, I don't have much choice. Once there, it'll be great...I have been a mess all day, and I don't know why. On the verge of tears,  depressed...feeling like I am having a hormonal meltdown.  It's been awful. I stayed home this morning and started mowing ...the humidity was horrific and by the time I had 3/4 of it done I was ready to collapse. Luckily, that was about the same time the Irishman came back from his streams and river cleanup, so he took over and finished it. I didn't eat well. I didn't drink enough water. I felt the effects of it all day.

  (Just went out to check, and she's running and  playing with the other kittens like she never left. )

  I made a lovely pasta salad to take tomorrow--full of sun dried tomatoes and fire roasted red peppers, basil, chives and parsley from my garden.Garlic vinegar and olive oil as a dressing. Some cracked black pepper and sea salt and garlic. I was gonna do some other stuff too, but I just couldn't make myself do it.

 The dark brown hair color turned my hair--you guessed it!! BLACK.  Criminey.  Several people said it looked good, but I'm sure they were just trying to make me feel better.  My sponsor said it really brings out my eyes. lol  Hopefully it will tone down a little after it's been shampooed a few times.  It's pretty close to my natural color, actually, but  that actual color looked a lot better 30 years and 80 pounds ago.  Right now I get a shock every time I look in a mirror.

  The prodigal one has moved all her stuff out of my studio apartment today too. She came, (thinking I'd be gone, I suspect) without calling first, so I was surprised to see her pull up.  Now I can get in there and clean it up. It's not too bad, at least at first look.

  A week from today is my 20th anniversary of being sober and my 18th anniversary of life with that man.  I'm having a hard time getting excited about any of it. Maybe I'll feel better tomorrow. I sure hope so...

 Guess I'd better go to bed because I have to get up early for the 2 and a half hour car ride down to Rend Lake.  We have to stop and pick up my sister too, as her beloved one is being an ass and refusing to bring her. He's a world class Jerk. She's disabled and can't drive. 

  Hopefully tomorrow I'll be back to my usual Pollyanna self, running around with rainbows shooting out my butt.  This down in the dumps stuff is for the birds.   :)   

Have a good night, all....

 Namaste

Cabbages and Kings...

 This is one of the Stonehead cabbages from my garden.   Someone is nibbling away at the outer leaves of all of them (I have about 8).  Guess I have to do something about that.

  My son and grandson were here this morning, one to fish awhile and one to sit in the house with his granny and watch 2 movies back to back (The Mummy and Return of the Mummy) while she made him waffles because he was "Soooo hungry".  lol  They finally left so that I could get on with things that need doing...a little weeding in the garden,  getting my Mexican potluck dish ready for tonights potluck, and some lunch for me.  I'm debating on whether or not to color my hair, or wait until tomorrow.  I'm going one shade darker this time, to a dark brown. It's my natural color, but I wasn't sure what the grey was going to do, so I went with medium brown the first time. 

  Went out and took some pictures of my garden.  Over the weekend, I got the edamame planted and we finished up putting mulch everywhere and one last cilantro plant. Whew.  Glad it's all finally done.  Here are a few pictures of the progress so far....

Red Pontiac potatoes (and horseradish)

Impromptu herb patch, overseen by my pal Frank...Green beans behind him...

Sweet basil... have about 7 gorgeous plants...

 The wild black raspberries are starting to ripen, and I ate a handful  walking around the yard. They are a little small, but incredibly sweet.

  The lilies are blooming too, we've had so much rain...things are getting nice out there.  The cherry tree has cherries in various stages of ripening that I'm planning to dry this year, and the peach trees are so loaded with fruit that we will have to thin them or they'll break the boughs.  I hate that...it kills me to have to throw away good fruit...lol

  Here is a quick look at some of the flowers...

  Okay...break time is over. I have some friends coming down to go to the potluck with me and I need to be ready when they arrive.

  I am grateful today to have the time and the presence of mind to do things like garden and cook and be accountable.  Living my life in recovery has given me these gifts...and so many more...

  Until next time...

Namaste.