Nicky Litchfield 2

Pascal

Yorkie

Can I Come, Too?

Hound Dog

Nicky Litchfield

Reassurance

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Garden Love 2 – Veggie Planters 4-30-2023

hayneedle.com

Thankfully, the veggie garden box plants are doing well, too. I have lettuce and spinach planted so far. If my husband feels up to it tomorrow, we may go look for something else interesting to plant.

You can see a few small weeds in the spaces around the plants, but it shouldn’t take long to take care of that.

I will also do another harvest in the next day or two. We haven’t finished eating what I gathered the first time yet. :0) I harvest the outer leaves of each of the lettuce plants for harvests, leaving the center leaves to form around the ‘head’.

The spinach is looking good, although ‘something’ is eating holes in some of the leaves. I love the fact that we can eat the leaves fresh from the garden in salads. I can also saute the leaves in olive oil, adding bacon bits for additional flavor. And, finally, I can freeze what we can’t eat right away.

If things continue as they are now, I’ll be able to take fresh lettuce and spinach to my friends soon. Such a FUN thing to be able to do.

Garden Love 1 – 4-30-2023 – Tomatoes

Little Pine Learners

The tomatoes seem to be doing fine. We have this square planter with 4 plants and then a 2nd, 8-foot-long brick planter of tomatoes this year.

This is the same planter as above, farther away so you can see how much taller the plants are than the last pics I took.

This is the 8 foot planter. There are 6 plants in this one.

This close up shows we have some blossoms on one plant!

Sunday Thoughts 4-30-2023

Smit Creation.com

This last day of April here is sunny and bright – something we have had little of, so it’s really welcome. It finally was dry enough – and my husband was feeling well enough – for him to mow around the house for the first time this season. He has a nice riding mower and he did a great job, so we look reasonably civilized right now :0)

We will have to drive slowly down the driveway soon, stopping for me to hold, and my husband to clip/cut/saw branches that are now hanging down in the driveway on both sides, making it almost like a tunnel to go down or come up. It looks kind of pretty, if you don’t have to worry about the branches scratching your vehicle…

Yesterday was a “2-Star” day because I

• Didn’t eat anything in-between meals or add salt to anything, and
• Did a 45 minute session of very careful yoga stretches. It’s been awhile since I’ve done my practice, and I was really stiff and sore. (It took over a minute for my back to stop hurting when I just lay down flat on the floor, for example). I find that I’m a hard-head and slow to learn on some things. I’m proving to myself – yet again – how much I need a daily session of stretching and relaxing to feel my best.

I just came in from checking the garden boxes and the tomato plants. All are looking good, and I’ll share pics in another post today.

I hope that this last day of April is a good one for you.

Your Smirk for the Day 4-29-2023

sent to me by my friend, Marsha

It’s In the Stars

Clipart Library

I’m going back to an ‘old faithful’ for me – rewarding myself with a sparkly star on my desk calendar when I achieve one of my goals.

• I’ve been stress eating and I’m really trying to stop that.
• I’ve been liberally sprinkling salt on everything, plus eating salty snacks
• I’ve been making excuses for not doing my daily yoga session

Otherwise, I’m a reasonably nice person… :0)

SO

I started yesterday (DAY 1) in a serious effort to mend my ways. I got one star for not eating in-between meals and not putting any extra salt on anything. I made an excuse for not doing my yoga, so I only got one star yesterday, but put that silver sparkly star on my calendar a couple of minutes ago.

Today I’m trying for 2.

Nicky Litchfield Art

Adele

Clara

Phileas

Nicky Litchfield

The Gift of David Zinn

David Zinn Chalk Art

Another Soggy Day 4-29-2023

Many Pets

The rain continues. It started in again yesterday and rained pretty much all day and evening, so I didn’t go check on the garden plants. I’m hoping that it will clear up this afternoon so I can at least see that things are still going okay out there.

The Paducah Sun

We saw our first pair of hummingbirds at the feeder yesterday! I would have missed them if I hadn’t been in the kitchen refilling my coffee cup. We’ve had the feeder out for a week or so because my brother-in-law sent my husband a video of several hummingbirds at their feeder and we were feeling quite envious. It’s early here for them, as we usually don’t see them until May, but we were hopeful. I saw one try to stop at the feeder and the second one dive-bomb the first and then they were gone.

The Cozy Cook

Since it’s been cool and rainy with intermittent severe weather threats, I made us a comfort food dinner of beef stew in the crock pot. We had a nice bowl of it and had enough to freeze for a couple more meals.

My husband is finally starting to feel a bit better. We went to a couple of places in town yesterday and he was completely exhausted afterwards, taking a long nap in his chair when we got back. He slept well, though, last night and said he thinks ‘a couple more days’ and he’ll feel like himself again. I predict a little more recovery time than that, but I’m SO glad he’s on the mend. :0)

Have a wonderful Saturday!

Saturday 4-29-2023

“Dorky Dogs” – BoredPanda.com – Liucija Adomaite and Justinas Keturka

This wonderful picture reminds me of a story my dad used to tell of one of several rare ‘camping’ trips he and several friends shared. These men were city guys from way back. They knew what a sleeping bag was, and the only camping skills they had were the ones they learned by sharing duties as part of their participation in the Boy Scouts when their boys were young.

He said that they had figured out a place to camp reasonably close to the river where they had been traveling down it in flat bottomed boats. They were all tired and sunburned, so ‘dinner’ was snacking food and beer. They finally called it a night and settled down.

Part of this was some laborious digging. They had learned to alter the ground so they could sleep more comfortably. They dug out the dirt so they could feel ‘part of the ground’ with it supporting their backs and their butts in a carefully dug hole, with ‘fittings’ as the holes were dug and shaped.

They climbed into their sleeping bags feeling reasonable full and a bit buzzed on beer. Suddenly, one of my dad’s friends was furiously cursing. When asked what the problem was, the guy said, “I just realized I sleep on my stomach.”

My dad would laugh helplessly trying to tell this story. This was the same poor guy who earlier, when they were trying to get ready for bed in the dark, let out a stream of profanity because he discovered he was trying to brush his teeth with Unguentine….

The Gang was All There!

The core bunch for Lunch Bunch was there today for the first time in awhile. I commemorated the occasion by taking a couple of pics quickly. This is Patty, Linda, Kay and Bud.

And the gentleman at the far end of the table is my husband, Harvey.

It was good to catch up on things. Patty and her husband will celebrate their 40th anniversary with a trip to Greece soon! I told her that they ‘had a good start now.’ :0) I think that Kay and Bud have been married about as long as we have (54 years in June), and Linda lost her husband, Dick, several years ago now.

We went to the library book sale right after Lunch Bunch and saw another long time good friend, Martha. She was helping her daughter run the sale. I hugged her neck. We agreed that trying to age gracefully was sometimes more of a challenge than either of us could handle, but that the effort was probably character-building.

After a quick trip to Walmart, we’re home for the day. The trip was a bit too long for my husband. He’s resting now and will probably take a nap after he finishes looking at the new magazines he got in the mail.

Beef stew tonight for dinner, a check of the garden stuff, a yoga session, and that’s our day.

I hope you’re having a good one.

Lighten Up

More Wonderful Sketches

GiveAmasterpiece.com

Google Play

Grant Fuller-Start-Sketching-and-Drawing-Now-Artists Network

myDaVinci.com

It’s Friday! 4-28-2023

ebaum’s world

It’s not actively raining right now. We’re supposed to get more tonight and tomorrow. I wonder if I start singing, “Here Comes the Sun” the weather will improve or Mother Nature will send me a tornado to protest.

NatGeo

My husband is feeling enough better this morning and he’s going to come to Lunch Bunch with me for the first time in 3 weeks! Hooray! I’m not sure if we’ll go to the grocery after that or not yet. We’ll play it by ear, depending on how he’s doing.

When we get back, if it’s not raining I’ll get out and check on my veggie boxes and tomato planters to see how the sweet plants are. I’ll try to take some pics to share.

Gfycat.gif

Nothing big planned for today, but it’s celebration mode that my husband is feeling a bit better. :0)

Civilized

Sent to me by my friend, Marsha.

Now THIS, in my opinion, is the way protest should be done. Maybe she might be a bit more specific about WHAT she is a little upset, but I love this.

Beautiful Sketches

GiveAMasterpiece.com

Pixabay

muhammad-zakky-muhammad-hanafi-Pxfuel

Your Hug for a Thursday

HuffPost UK

I Love David Zinn Chalk Art

“David Zinn has been creating original artwork in and around Ann Arbor, Michigan since 1987. For more than twenty years, he freelanced for a wide variety of commercial clients while simultaneously sneaking “pointless” art into the world at large.”

David Zinn Chalk Art

Sigh

Weather Station Advisor

Mother Nature has her rain song on loop replay this week. The rain is supposed to be harder today, with thunderstorms.

We’re in Greenwood, just southeast of Fort Smith, the name almost hidden by the green blobs on this radar image. Those are to be replaced by some yellow blobs later today, but hopefully, NOT the orange or red ones.

We haven’t gotten any more hail. I’m hoping that my tomato plants and veggie plants in my garden boxes are doing okay. We arranged for a lot of drainage, so hopefully they’ll be all right.

All this rain makes me lazy (as if I needed any excuse :0) ) I’ve just been concentrating on taking care of my husband and staying warm and dry.

We’ve been force-ably reminded yet again that we are back in a previous century with our tastes. We’ve been members of Netflix for a long time. We opted for the DVDs since our rural Internet wasn’t up to the task of streaming. They again gave us that option, and though we are able now to stream, we still prefer the DVDs. Now they’ve taken that option away, discontinuing the DVD service, so we HAVE to go for the streaming option or simply stop the service.

Yesterday we spent half the day trying to make the switchover. They added insult to injury telling us how ‘easy’ it was to make the switch. My husband had cancelled our previous service in a huff over them stopping the DVD shipments, so it made the process less than ‘easy.’ He also got confused about them sending code. I finally took over most of the process, getting it to show on his computer. We needed to also have it on our TV, and that was a whole ‘nother’ process, but my husband was finally able to enter our password in the living room and actually watch a movie last night. So, we continue kicking, screaming and dragging our feet into the new century.

I hope YOU don’t need to kick and scream to enjoy your day. Stay warm and dry.

Celia Allen Sculpture 2

Celia Allen’s Studio

The thing I love about Celia Allen’s work is that she doesn’t just sculpt a ‘dog,’ she captures the love of ‘dogdom,’ with playful poses and interactions between two pieces. It shows her love and understanding of dogs. It would be fun to be a dog at her house. :0)

Wednesday Thoughts 4-26-2023

“Dorky Dogs” – BoredPanda.com – Liucija Adomaite and Justinas Keturka

We’re having a quiet, wet day here, and apparently the off and on sogginess (is that a word?) will continue through tomorrow, at least. Sigh. It was raining fairly heavily when we got back from errands yesterday, so we just left the trash can at the road at the bottom of the driveway. The next time we go out we’ll see if we can get it re-tethered at the pole up the driveway a bit.

I wouldn’t describe myself as a “country-music-aholic,” but I’ve been listening to a lot of artists I’ve never heard before through the reaction channels on YouTube and I’ve found some incredibly moving songs and terrific voices. I’ve also discovered the kindness of some of the country singers that restores my faith in humanity. I get overwhelmed by ugliness in the world around us occasionally, and I’m turning to music more and more to show me there is a “good-bit-of-good” in the world yet. :0)

We just started April and it’s almost gone. It used to be that writing checks for bills kept me straight on the day of the week, month of the year, and which year we were in. Now that I pay almost everything electronically, I can’t get used to the month and I’m into the next. My hair blows with the time whizzing past.

Lately Amber, our yellow lab, celebrates our turning the TV off by going to the corner of the room where her toys lie in a basket and bringing out one at a time, presenting it to each of us, ACTING like she wants us to throw it, but ACTUALLY wanting to play tug-o-war. By the time the evening is over, ALL of the toys are strewn over the living room carpet. I’m getting a bit of exercise as I have to bend over to retrieve each one and take it to the basket. (Do you supposed she might be trying to send me a message?)

I hope that your Wednesday, April 26th, 2023 is a nice one.

Feeling Lethargic

“Dorky Dogs” – BoredPanda.com – Liucija Adomaite and Justinas Keturka

We’re leaving in a bit for my husband’s haircut. We may go for some supplies, but it’ll depend on how my husband is feeling after sitting for the haircut. His back is still an issue.

We’ll get our mail and re-tether our trash can to the pole up our steep driveway. We’re due for rain starting sometime this afternoon and continuing off and on through Thursday.

I hope that wherever you are, you’re safe from the wrath of Mother Nature, somewhere warm and dry and cozy.

Tuesday 4-25-2023

April 19, 1968 a tornado ripped through the town of Greenwood, Arkansas and pretty much leveled it, killing 13 people and injuring at least 200 others.

My husband and I moved here in 1987, but there is a definite “before the tornado” and “after the tornado” feeling here. There was a piece on the local news about the 55 year anniversary of that tornado yesterday.

It was an F4 tornado and came up in the middle of the afternoon when school was letting out. In 4 minutes, the town was leveled.

“GREENWOOD, Ark. — On April 19, 1968, one of the deadliest tornadoes to strike Arkansas tore through Greenwood, killing 13 people and injuring more than 200. The tornado was rated an F4. Around 3:15 p.m., the tornado touched down in the southern section of Greenwood for four minutes.”

The town was rebuilt and was totally intact when we moved here in 1987. The people here are resilient, hard-working, with a lot of heart. The square in the center of town was pretty much wiped off the map, but once again has a charm that drew me the minute I saw it. It reminds me of Nevada, Missouri, where my mom’s parents lived. I visited in the summers and could walk to the square and ‘shop,’ just like a real person, rather than having to wait on someone to take me somewhere. I could walk to the library, buy a cherry coke from the counter in the local drug store, window shop, and more. I have wonderful memories of that time.

KFSM

Think Positive

Sent to me by my friend, Marsha.

I Love These

Ronnie Gould

Peter Szilagyi-Westie Resting

Peter Szilagyi

A Perfect Morning?

“Dorky Dogs” – BoredPanda.com – Liucija Adomaite and Justinas Keturka

I feel that chewing on the edge of a table might help me deal with the frustration I’m feeling this morning.

Madeleine Jacobs

One of my pet peeves is medicine ‘protected’ by child-proof caps. I understand that this is necessary if you have young children, grandchildren, etc. who might gain access. I try to avoid this and get the ‘unsafe’ version when I can, but sometimes they don’t MAKE one.

This morning I was trying to open a new bottle of Miralax. The top says, “Push Down and Turn” with an arrow. I did that and DID that and it wouldn’t open. I gave the bottle to my husband, who did that and DID that and it wouldn’t open. He finally took his knife to it and got it open, demolishing the top, which you’re supposed to use as a measuring instrument. I tried to use the top that was left and the stuff dumped onto the dining area table. We ended up brushing off the table into the glass…. Oh, well.

My husband is having a more difficult day with his back hurting this morning. He is insisting he will help me gather the trash and take it down to the bottom of the driveway. “I” have a hard time on the gravel, trying to move the humongous trash can down from where we tether it down to the road where it is emptied tomorrow. I’m trying to figure out how to deal with my husband, with his injured back, not skidding on the gravel…

kazu91-Deviant art

Enough griping. The sun is shining. It’s 52 degrees with a lot of sunshine. We ate a ‘main meal salad’ last night made from the 1st harvest of our spring veggie garden with fresh head lettuce leaves and fresh spinach leaves in a chef-type salad. Delicious! :0)

ALS News

I got a notification on Twitter where I tweet about featured products from my Etsy site and my blog posts are posted, saying that they had placed a warning on my tweet due to ‘suggestive content,’ etc. They did that once before on a post titled, “Wet Wednesday.” This time they thought “Stuffing My Face” needed a warning. Hahahahahahahah. I told them it was about overeating, and suggested that they READ the post before slapping a warning on it.

Not sure what the day will hold, but it HAS to be better than it started.

Vivi K. Crandall Art 4

Pins Needles

Shady Lady

Winchester

Vivi K. Crandall

1st Harvest – Spring 2023!

Spinach

Head Lettuce Leaves

Full Harvest – I’ll fix a ‘main meal salad’ this evening. :0)

I finished weeding the veggie boxes this morning before the harvest. This shows you the huge amount of little bitty weeds that I’ve been working on.

There is an equal amount of spinach and head lettuce plants in the garden so far. The tomato plants are in two brick planters on the other side of the house.

I have four of the six planter boxes planted so far. I’m hoping to get more plants in the coming week. Not sure what will be available, but I’m looking forward to it.

Foxy

Bozhena Fuchs

Mephisto-Design-Society6

Red Fox-Elina Birzkalne-DukeJacobArt-Etsy

Tracey Earl Art

Olga Shvartsur

A Hug to Start a Sunday

I Can Has Cheezburger

Today is chilly, though beautiful, and we have rain chances Tuesday-Thursday this week. I’ll take it.

hayneedle.com

Yesterday I got three of the four planted veggie garden boxes weeded. I’m planning to finish today. It looks like I might be able to actually do my first spring harvest today!!!!

My husband’s back is a bit better. He got up before I did this morning and did some light, start-the-morning chores. He’s resting in his chair, reading now, and looks perkier today.

I told you awhile back that I’m enjoying ‘music-reaction’ videos on YouTube lately. People have started channels where they take suggestions on what they should listen and react to. The video shows both them and what they’re reacting to.

I have subscribed to ‘Sebs Duran’ where Sebs and his wife Ali are exploring country music together. He came from only listening to heavy metal type music and she has more eclectic tastes, though neither had much experience with the whole country genre. As they react to videos suggested by their subscribers, “I” am hearing several that are new to me, as well. I’m becoming much more of a country fan than I used to be. I’m amazed at the lyrics, the real expertise on the instruments, and the quality of voices I’m hearing. A delightful way to spend some time.

My favorite ‘reactor’ is The World Upside Right I don’t know his name, but I have subscribed and made sure that when he reacts to something, I’m notified so I don’t miss it. He has a really expressive face that lights up the room with joy. He also isn’t afraid to show that something really gets to him. His reactions are honest, real and raw. He takes the time to research, really wanting to know who he is listening to. Right now he and I (and probably several other people) are rooting for Iam Tongi to win the American Idol competition. :0) If you’re interested in this type of thing, you should check out his channel.

Enjoy your day!