“Glass Art in Gallery”

“Glass Art in Gallery 1” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Glass Art in Gallery 2” – Paul Militaru Photography

Amber’s New Discoveries – June 30, 2017

Earlier I told you it has been raining hard here.

My husband took Amber out first thing this morning and she took care of business when the rain was just starting. But, we’ve learned the hard way that she really needs to go out TWICE in the early morning to avoid problems on the porch. When he came in from the second time, he said, “Waste of time.”

When I visited her after we got the kitchen cleaned up and coffee made, the rain was coming down hard, but pretty much straight down. When I went out just a few minutes ago, it was obvious that the rain had changed direction, blown in onto the porch, leaving puddles everywhere. It was raining less, so I went ahead and took her out again to see if I could get her to take care of business again.  We were successful!

While we were out, she went over to the kiddie pool. She walked around the outside of the pool, drinking. Then she stopped abruptly when she heard the water coming down the downspout at the corner of the house. She crept up to it   s – l – o – w – l – y, never taking her eye off of it. When she was almost to it, she stopped again, leaped up in the air, and turned so that when she hit the ground again, she was running in the opposite direction. I laughed, and THAT caused a flurry of running as fast as she could to the end of the retractable leash, getting stopped abruptly, then rushing back in the other direction to the end of the run, over and over until she wound down. Since it was still raining pretty hard, I was glad she wound down relatively quickly. She did not want to go near the downspout again.

When we got back onto the porch, there was so much water on the floor I wanted to squeegee it. I didn’t want to put her on the deck leash because she would get even more wet. So I tried to squeegee while she was there with me. WHAT FUN! Amber thinks the squeegee is the best toy ever! She jumps up in the air to leap on it. She tries to bite it, but it’s moving, so she can’t. AWWWWW. We did this over and over. I discovered that my yelling, “NO!” in a stern voice was completely ineffective. I did the best I could and then tried to use a towel to dry her off a bit. Same problem. She LOVES to try to bite the towel, turning around as fast as possible to play the new game.

I gave up, using the towel to try to wipe off the table as well as possible with Amber still trying to bite it. I discovered that the ceiling was dripping onto the table. :0(

SO – we BOTH made discoveries this morning. I think mine will be more expensive…

 

Lunch Bunch

Reddit

I love this picture. This isn’t Kay, Linda, and me, but it MIGHT be. And the picture should show my husband, an honorary member of “Lunch Bunch.”

The three of us – with others coming and going – have been sharing lunch every Friday possible for some 30 years now. We’ve shared our lives,with their ups and downs, triumphs and pain.

Today is one of the happy times. It’s Linda’s birthday. (Actually, her birthday was yesterday, but we’re celebrating her today.)  We’ll eat, have the pleasure of watching Linda open presents, share what’s been happening the past week, discuss possibilities for the future, share laughs and hugs.

I’m happy to know these ladies. May we have many more happy times together.

Most of the Time…

Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero

Paintings of Animals – Take 3

Linda Scott More

 

 

Pinterest – Artist Unknown

 

 

Pinterest – Artist Unknown

 

 

Racoon – Pinterest – Can’t read the signature. Sorry.

–

Good, Rainy Morning!

Richard Parker via Daily Mail

It’s a gloriously rainy morning here in Greenwood, Arkansas! It has been really hot lately, so today is a welcomed reprieve from what may be a record summer. The forecast is for storms off and on all day and into the evening, with some of them being possibly severe. I can do without the ‘severe,’ but welcome the water and the cooler temperatures.

This will be a good test of the solidity of our new greenhouse, too. We couldn’t figure out a way to really protect it from gusty winds. It has nice, heavy corner posts with the foundation boards screwed into their angle iron. The ribs of the greenhouse have two clamp thingies screwed into the foundation board on each end. The greenhouse cover ends are rolled up with lengths of board screwed into the foundation – but no guy wires, nothing really from end to end. If the winds are robust and gusty enough, my beautiful greenhouse will be history. :0(

I’m amazed we still have Internet right now. The skies are really dark. I just visited Amber on the porch and the rain is really coming down hard. I sat with her for several minutes while she fought with her squeaky purple and pink pig, running around, trying to shake it and break its neck. The fact that she wasn’t even phasing it didn’t seem to bother her. :0)  I’m happy that she doesn’t seem to mind storms, and am hoping she’ll react the same way with the coming fireworks. We’re planning to sit on the deck and enjoy the show that our valley neighbors put on each year.

I hope you’re enjoying the weather where you are today.

 

 

Life is Simple

Zen to Zany

Embracing

Elizabeth Gilbert via Corliss Barnes Darnell

I’ve decided to stop feeling guilty.

• Guilty about eating too much
• guilty about eating things not on my diet
• guilty about not losing weight
• guilty about not doing yoga and my elliptical
• guilty about not getting a much done each day as I want….

The list goes on and on and to be honest, I’m sick of it.

I can come up with endless excuses – in fact, I could teach a course on it. I’m very creative, too; coming up with more and more as the time allows, rather than putting my head down and doing better.

But I’m sick of coming up with excuses, too.

Right now “doing the best I can with the energy I have and the willpower I haven’t” will have to be good enough. Life is too short to agonize over every bite I put in my mouth, or how my to-do list is getting longer, rather than shorter. So what!

I’m going to TRY to ’embrace the glorious mess that I am’ and give myself a BREAK.

That’s not to say that once I incorporate the new labor-intensive focus of raising our lab to be a polite member of our family into my lifestyle that I won’t TRY to do better – but for right now, what I can do is ENOUGH.

More Additions to the Lewis Family

My sweet Black Moor Goldfish, Boo, died a couple of days ago. She wasn’t all wiggly as usual and went downhill from there. I have no clue what the problem was, but I liked her a lot and it made me sad to lose her.

We got two more fish yesterday and have all appendages crossed that they’ll be healthy, happy with each other, and happy with the accommodations. One is another black Moor goldfish I’ve named, “Soot.”  The spotted one I got because my husband said she was the ugliest fish he’d ever seen. I immediately fell in love with her. I’ve named her, “Freckles.”

Freckles is a lot more active than Soot. I’m not sure what that means. I know they’re compatible because they came out of the same aquarium at the store. Time will tell, but I’m hopeful.

The New Gate is a Lifesaver

The 2nd Carlson Walk-Thru Pet Gate is saving our lives.

Poor Molly is still freaked out by Amber, mainly due to the fact that Amber is larger than Molly now and outweighs her by some 15 lbs or so, and has a habit of launching herself into Molly’s face over and over. We’ve had quite a logistics problem with trying to give Amber more inside time, control the interaction of the dogs and the cats, and live to tell the tale.

We put up the 1st walk-thru pet gate at the suggestion of my good friend, Cathy. We didn’t know such a thing existed. The installation of the walk-thru gate across the doorway to the porch probably saved one or both of us from falling on our heads trying to scramble over the one we had that had to be low-enough-she couldn’t-get-under-it and high-enough-she-couldn’t-get-over-it. We had to try to hold onto the brick beside the door while trying to balance and get our leg high enough and over the gate, and then down onto the floor without stepping on bouncing Amber. Quite a feat for old folks like us. We will never be able to thank Cathy enough for giving us the link to this and explaining what I didn’t see at first – the fact that people can walk through the middle of it without causing disruption of the installation of the gate. HEAVEN!

We put the 2nd gate up a couple of days ago now, across the opening to our office. Now all the animals can be inside the house at the same time and not have to be in each other’s faces or tearing around the house like madmen with the high drama that accompanies that. I had Amber in the office with me for a lot of the morning today. Molly went in and out of the house as she wanted without being dive-bombed more than once, and we are still sane. Hooray!

Dealing with a labrador pup is quite an adventure. She is almost NEVER still. She smiles – even while barking or yiping – (which she is doing much less now, thank goodness) – and her tail is like a metronome, always wagging happily. She hardly ever WALKS, always bounding from one place to another with joy, mouth open, tongue lolling, and sharp baby teeth right there.  She DOES love to lie down in the shade – particularly to chomp on a delicious stick – but only stays 30 seconds or less. She leaps headlong into the kiddie pool several times a day, walking around and around, slurping water and splashing. We walk and walk (a good thing for us to do) to try to give her time and space to take care of business, to give her exercise, and to show her the perimeters of the civilized part of our property.

Our animals’ needs are the focus of our days right now. We barely get started with something and need to take a break to get someone in or out, walk Amber, etc. It makes for really busy, happy days.

 

Paintings of Animals – Take 2

“Bubba” – Carolee Clark

 

 

Cat Leonard Art

 

 

Leslie Harrison

“A Rose is a (Gorgeous) Rose”

“A Bouquet of Roses for You – Forgive Me” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Orange Rose in Light and Shadow” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Red, White, Lacy Rose” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“Romantic, Red-Burgundy Rose” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

 

“You’re a Rose – Forgive Me” – Paul Militaru Photography

“Sittin’ on the Dock of A Bay” Video

YouTube

“Sittin’ on the Dock of A Bay” Video

http://www.sharetap.it/6948/amazing-musician-brings-listeners-from-all-over-the-world/?utm_source=emot&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_campaign=main&src=emot

Paintings of Animals – Take 1

Akiko Watanabe – “Tatiana”

 

 

Ang.O Art

 

 

“Watchful” – Atelier Arends – DeviantArt

Swing

Doe Zantamata via Zen to Zany via Cathy Ruggiero

Blue and White

“Forget-Me-Not” – Paul Militaru Photography

 

“Chamomile 1” – Paul Militaru Photography

Destructo-Dog

Amber – 3 mos old

How can you look at this face and believe my husband calls Amber “Destructo-Dog?”  She looks sweet and innocent, doesn’t she. And she IS sweet – just not innocent.

She hasn’t destroyed anything today – yet. And she SEEMS to be finding her toys as we’re in the office, rather than moving from one no-no to another… Part of this could be because we’re spraying things heavily with Bitter Apple spray. Part of this could be that we have gotten her some rawhide bones to chew on. Part of it may be due to the fact that both my husband and I are ‘armed’ with flyswatters…

Living with a labrador retriever puppy ain’t for sissies – to paraphrase Bette Davis’ wonderful quote about getting old.  In a lot of ways this is just what we needed. We’re still grieving over the loss of Bambi, our almost 14 year old pit bull. Trying to meet Amber’s 24/7 needs forces us to live in the NOW. We tend to be sedentary, and walking her at least 8 times a day for varying lengths of time and distance gives us good exercise we could probably otherwise avoid. Our problem-solving skills are being taxed, trying to find interesting things for Amber to play with/chew on, new games, keeping her from destroying everything in the house, etc. is straining our less-than-nimble brains. Our attention to detail is being exercised, keeping track of what she’s doing, where she is, making sure we have treats in our pockets, flyswatters at the ready, and are foreseeing possible difficulties, as when we let Molly in the house a few minutes ago. (All went very well. Molly was on the far side of the new office gate. Amber was on the near side and didn’t launch herself at the gate.)

We’re so busy that the only time we have to grieve is late at night, and then we’re so tired we’re falling asleep before our heads hit the pillow. We aren’t having any trouble getting to/or staying asleep – unless we’re hurting or having to go to the bathroom. We used to prowl around at all hours, reading until we got sleepy again.

Sometimes I wonder what we’ve gotten ourselves into – particularly when it seems that she’s really trying to get on my last nerve. Then she wags her tail and demands love and the doubts evaporate.  Amber is going to be a wonderful addition to our family.

Do Your Little Bit

Desmond Tutu via Lisa Bearnes Richey

Molly and the New Gate

After a lot of effort today, we got the 2nd Carlson Walk-Thru Pet Gate from Chewy.com installed across the office doorway. I don’t know if the product description wasn’t clear or I read it wrong, but we had a hard time getting this one to fit, even though we had extensions.

Since Amber was either slithering under the gate my husband made years ago, or leaping over it, we gave up using that one. Now she can’t get over or under it, and it’s securely attached to the doorway, so even if she jumps up and puts her paws on it, she can’t get out.

I invited Molly to come into the office. She has a bed under my computer counter, plus another one to the right of the picture above. She was afraid to me through the doorway.

 

I kept trying to get her to come in, but she would just look at me from the doorway. I finally enticed her with one of Amber’s treats, and she was over the problem.

I just put Amber out on the porch because she was driving me nuts. I invited Molly in, and she readily came in and settled into her bed under the computer counter with one of Amber’s new rawhide bones. My husband points out that Molly doesn’t NEED one, because she isn’t teething, as Amber is. I pointed out that it was the BALANCE of the thing – that Amber shouldn’t get all the toys or treats, and that Molly wanted one. He acquiesced.

Today seemed like a long day, with errands first thing, then our friend helping with the rotator for the ham radio tower, then getting Amber excited about the rawhide bones, fixing her dog run attachment piece, putting up the 2nd dog gate, taking Amber out several times, planting stuff in the garden, weeding, dinner prep, etc.

We’re ready for a nice relaxing evening. I only have a bit of prep left on dinner, which is in the oven. If we don’t have a rented movie, we’ll either watch one from our collection, or we are both in the middle of good books. We’ll bring Amber into the living room and see if we can get her to calm down enough to stay awhile. :0)

When it’s dark we need to go out to the shop and weigh the ham radio tower antenna. (My husband tried to do it earlier, but he couldn’t see the readout on the scales in the sun.)

I hope you’ve had a fun, productive day.

 

 

“Window Open to Another World”

“Window Open to Another World” – Paul Militaru Photography

Some Progress

Wild Ammo

This tired big cat looks a lot better than I do right now.

I just came in from

• planting three celery plants and a head lettuce bottom,
• weeding the raised square foot garden beds
• spraying weed killer on the weeds under the raised beds of the garden.

My hair is completely wet – plastered to my head; my face is red; and I’m still breathing hard -BUT I have a large glass of water with ice and I’m in the a/c, sitting comfortably at my computer, feeling nicely spoiled. :0)

My friend Laufrain looked up growing celery while we were bowling last night and discovered that I should be watering my celery more. Mine is greener and a little tough compared to what you find at the store. We also discovered that I should be tying the stalks together. I have some tomato vine tying tape that I think will work well for that.  I also think I’ll harvest the stalks when they’re smaller and younger. If I keep trying this, I may actually be successful!

I discovered the probable reason why celery isn’t included in the square foot gardening book. The online article said that celery was one of the most difficult veggies to grow. So I’m patting myself on the head a bit, having even a small amount of success. :0)

 

This is the new style thermometer my husband put up in the greenhouse yesterday. As you can see, it’s WAAAY too hot to stay out there long, or to plant much at this point. It’s better first thing in the morning or just before sunset in the evening, but it’s still too hot to try to get seedlings to grow. It may be that I need to take the summer off, have things planned and ready to start around beginning of September for the fall garden. I’ll do a lot of reading about greenhouses, as well as when I should be starting the plants I want to grow for the fall. I have a lot of homework to do.

Our friend Dave came over this morning to help my husband figure out how to make the rotor for the ham radio tower antenna to work properly.  My husband had worked and worked on it, and was at a loss. Dave took it apart, put it back together again, and it miraculously worked. The closed it up and declared victory. Dave says he thinks a special tool he has will get the tower up without our having to hire someone with a crane. They’re planning to assemble the whole thing, including the antenna, on the ground. They’ll test the rotor to make sure it’s working correctly. We’ll already have the guy wire rods in the ground and the guy wires on the tower. They’ll, in effect, winch the tower up into place and hold it steady while cables are plugged in, guy wires attached, etc. The first step, though, is drilling the hole, putting the pipe into the hole, and putting the cement into the hole.

Amber chewed through the rope that attached her to the dog run yesterday. Happily, my husband was watching her and saw what she had done, and so caught up with her and put her on the porch. This morning we got some cable, cable ends, and a new attachment piece. My husband made a new line to attach to the run and we tested it. Probably, since she can’t chew through the cable this time, she’ll pull the whole Martin house that the run is attached to, down…

And so it goes at the Lewises.

If I can cool off, I’m going out to prune the trio of brick flower planters that go between our front yard and the driveway. This, as well as several other things, have been on my list for so many days now they’re beginning to get on my nerves, so I’m determined to make some progress on each of them today.

Happy Tuesday!

 

Magic

Alice Hoffman via Title Wave for Books via Cathy Ruggiero

I’ve started book # 19 in the “In Death” series by Nora Roberts. There are 45 books – so far – in the series, so I feel as if I’m in Heaven, right in the middle of people I respect in complicated situations. Eve Dallas is a homicide police lieutenant. She is an extremely strong, dedicated cop who sees the worst society has to offer on a regular basis, some of which takes her back to an aggressively abusive childhood she has tried to put behind her.

I love the fact that she’s complicated. She has a very interesting husband who is sharing a completely different lifestyle than she’s ever know. I’m intrigued by her co-workers and friends.  The stories are typically Nora Roberts, with well thought out plots I cannot figure out before the end of the book. You feel as if you KNOW all the characters and appreciate their quirks, vulnerabilities, and interesting interactions. You care about them.

So many authors who do series have a lot of repetition in them. Not so here, and I like that a lot.

I avoided this series for years, thinking that I liked Nora’s writing and subjects so well that I couldn’t imagine enjoying reading about death. I’m delighted that my friend, Marsha, got me started, buying the 1st book used on Amazon. I found an “order of the books” online and am ordering 6 at a time. I now have 26 in the series. What a lucky woman I am to have found another side of a favorite author! She has introduced me to a whole new world.

“Fountain in the Middle of the Lake”

“Fountain in the Middle of the Lake” – Paul Militaru Photography

Ready

For Reading Addicts via Cathy Ruggiero

Beans & Seeds Art – Take 3

Rachel Uffner Gallery – Trisha Baga

 

 

Retro Handmade Owl and Mushroom Seed Art Wall Hanging

 

 

River Trading Post

 

 

Rooster – Pinterest.com

 

 

 

Rooster Wallace by The Opulent Nest, on Etsy

OOAK Hand-Painted “Freedom” Basket

 

“Freedom” Hand-Painted Basket by Linda Lewis

This is a one-of-a-kind hand-painted wooden basket by Linda Lewis.

The oval basket is 11″ long x 9.5″ wide x 7 ” tall. (The basket is about 13.5″ tall with the handle extended straight up.) The dimensions of the inner basket at the base are approximately 8″ x 6″. The “squares” created by the weaving of the basket have been painted red, white, and blue, with the red overlaid with red glitter paint. Red, white and blue 3-D accents are applied around the rim and on the handle. Metallic copper is used around the basket to give a burnished appearance.

One side says, “Let freedom never perish in your hands.” by Joseph Addison. The other side says, “Freedom is the oxygen of the soul.” by Moshe Dayan.  F

REE SHIPPING within the contiguous United States.

*Please order right away in order to receive it in time for use on July 4th.

Link above is to my ArtFire shop. You can order directly from there.

 

Tomato Feast!

Today’s harvest.

At lunch we enjoyed two of the tomatoes, some of the celery I grew that I showed you a couple of days ago, and some radishes I grew. We had carrots from the store and a hard-boiled egg. Nice, crunchy good-for-us lunch!

My husband put the different style thermometer in the greenhouse for me this morning. I got seed packets from the store and will read up on when I’m supposed to plant each of them for a fall garden.

 

We’re trying to have Amber inside with us more and more during the day. My husband took her for a long walk and then we brought her inside while we ate lunch. She dive-bombed Molly, of course, so I put Molly out while we concentrate on Amber for the moment. (She’s asleep beside my feet now as I type this.) Later I’ll bring Molly in and hold her in my lap while Amber cavorts around, wheeling, spinning, and wagging her tail, and see if we can make progress on melding the various members of the family…

Have a wonderful Sunday!

Good Morning!

Source Unknown

I found this a long time ago and neglected to get the source. There is a signature across the the image between the leaf and the butterfly on the right, but I can’t make it out. Sorry. I think this is really, really nice.

I hope you’re having a good morning, too.

The ham radio operators are having the 2nd day of their annual field day today in Bell Park, Greenwood, Arkansas. Sometime yesterday a 24-hour contest began to see who could get the most contacts in a 24 hour period at a certain bandwidth. Last year there were about six different bandwidths represented. This contest is across the WORLD. Each operator uses his ham radio call sign, making contact with someone. They exchange call signs, recording them to be verified later. There is no ‘prize’ as such, but the winners are announced and bragging rights will never end. :0)  When we were watching and listening a couple of years ago, one man was talking to someone in Uruguay!

The work on my husband’s new-to-him antenna. He’s having a good friend come over and help him make the rotor work as it should this coming week. Meanwhile, he’s built the base it will sit on and is working on the complex 4-plex antenna that will sit on the top.  When we were talking about it yesterday, I suggested we assemble the whole thing on the ground and then hire probably the smallest crane there is to come help the two guys pull the whole thing up and hold it while things are tightened, guy wires are hooked up, wiring is finished, etc. My husband thought about it for a bit and then said, “You know, that’s actually a good idea!” (I ignored the fact that he sounded surprised :0/)

I’m going to put my different style thermometer up in the greenhouse today, and plan to start some spaghetti squash seeds to see if they’ll make. I’m also planning to attack weed trees with a vengence – if the temperatures will stay at some reasonable level. If not, I’ll see what I can do this evening.

I hope you have a wonderful day, too.

3D Paper Sculpture – Take 4

Calvin Nicholls

These Extraordinary 3D Animal Sculptures Are Made From Carefully Cut Layers Of Paper by Calvin Nicholls.

By Emily Davis, Trendingly

 

Calvin Nicholls

“Canadian artist Calvin Nicholls has been a full-time paper sculpture artist since the mid 80s. He creates these amazing 3D animal sculptures from multiple layers of paper, with each piece taking anywhere from 4 weeks to 2 years to complete.”

 

Calvin Nicholls

 

 

Calvin Nicholls

 

 

Calvin Nicholls

 

 

Garage Sale Treasures

My husband went to get the mail this afternoon, then came back with a huge roll of about 1,000 feet of Cat5 cable and some vice grips. He said, “There’s a garage sale down the road. Maybe you can find a vase.”

We jumped into the truck and went to the same house that hosted a garage sale some months back. They greeted my husband, and he said “He had gone back for higher authority.” :0)

 

This looks like painted wicker, but it’s metal. I’m going to use it in my art room. It reminds me of a secretary desk with all the small drawers, slots, and even hidden places….

 

I HAD to have this wonderful basket! I put it in our guest room – at least for the moment, while Amber chews everything.

 

A Willow resin piece – this one is “Healing.”

 

This cute thing is several resin snow people hinged together. This is the ‘front.’

 

This is the ‘back.’

 

This is it spread out. I love snow people. I can’t wait to display this in winter!

Yum!

“Bread Oven” – Paul Militaru Photography