A Good Full Day

Last week was our first week to meet at Barnes & Noble on Wednesday mornings now that Bible Study takes a vacation during the 100 days of summer.  We will be back with a new study in the Fall, but in the meantime, we ladies that can, sit around a table at our local B&N drink our coffee or tea and just chat.  We share our good times, good books, good TV, good movies, and also our not so good happenings that enter our life. We are there for each other with love and support. I feel truly blessed to have this group of women in my life.

Sue shared her latest artistry with us this morning. Every day, she sits with her husband, who has been quite ill for several years and colors "adult coloring books" with gel pens. And then she goes a step further by making origami cranes with her pages of beautiful colors. The Japanese Origami Cranes (according to Google) symbolize the hope for peace. We could all use more peace in our lives. Thanks, Sue for sharing your talents with us.

Our eldest member (93) of our "group" fell and broke her hip over the weekend, she has had surgery and already has been transferred to a re-hab center. In ICU one day, and the next out. Wow, it's frightening how quickly "they" get you out of the hospital these days.  Bonnie had a get-well card (Bonnie is always prepared with a card for whatever the occasion may be), so all signed with our messages of prayers and get well quickly.

After B&N 4 of us headed to our last book-club gathering until Fall.  This is the book group that "no reading required" except once a year. We choose one book to read over the summer months, this year we chose "Miller's Valley" by Anna Quindlen.  I do so enjoy her writing from her earlier days at Newsweek , with her bi-weekly back page to her novels of today. I was fortunate to hear her speak a couple of years ago and yes, she speaks as well as she writes.

Today's review (always presented by a member of our group) was a lovely little book entitled "Slowing Time" by Barbara Mahany.  Very short musings on life and how we need to slow down, observe, delight, and relish our time.  Our reviewer read several of the stories all tied to the different seasons of the year.  I am planning on buying this book, it touched me.

After a busy morning and afternoon, I returned home to find two hummingbirds drinking from the feeder....excitement!!  I grabbed LARGE lens and slowly walked into the back yard. Ofcourse, they would not return, but I did capture a couple of goodies.....a chipmunk with his mouth full of nest-making supplies and a new bird I have never seen before, the Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.

I identified this bird thru a really cool app for my I-Phone, the Merlin Bird ID.  It asks you a few short questions and then brings up a series of pictures of bird possibilities.  If you enjoy birds, I would definitely recommend the app. I can't remember if there is a charge, but if there is, it is minimal.

I will leave you with this from Flow Daily Moments (another app)

Tiny Pleasures List

*Learn Something New

*Listen to something beautiful

*Give away something that you're not using anymore

*Finish something successfully

*Have a tea break (or coffee, or wine... I added that)

Until next time.....

A Good Start

The first snips from the garden....Catmint and a new rose bush I planted right by the front door.  Well, technically I didn't plant it, my landscaper/grass taker-care of guy did, but I picked it out and paid for it.  I have been working in the garden over this past week and nothing beats the "hands in the dirt" feeling.  I still have some work to do in my back gardens, but it will happen, eventually.  Something happened to my huge area of monarda (bee balm), only the seedlings came up this year which is quite puzzling since monarda is a staple around here. So I have this rather large, rather empty space that I need to figure out what to plant in that empty spot.  Visiting the nurseries around here I'm finding, unfortunately, something in common....sadly prices keep going up up up.  Am I surprised, no. Do I like it, no.

I have two very distinct obsessions....books and flowers.  I guess if you are going to have an obsession, books and flowers are not by any means dreadful.  (Dreadful would probably fall into another category).   Perhaps dreadful on the pocketbook, but certainly not dreadful for the deep satisfaction I receive from both.  Sitting on the back porch, looking out at the garden and reading a good book is one of my life's greatest pleasures, along with vanilla ice cream with hot chocolate.

OK, switching to a totally different subject, this past Friday Bailey (granddaughter who is living with me) and I road-tripped up to the Milwaukee Zoo to meet up with Hilary and my great grand, Matilda Mae.  She is 20 months old (I know, how did that happen??) and is just a total delight. She had been to the zoo about a week prior with Hilary's Mom (aka grandmother) and loved it. It is a beautiful zoo, such a lovely setting, filled with just the right amount of animals but way too many peacocks.  I have no idea how many there are, but the males were definitely in the "mating mood".  Their mating call is definitely a turn-off, screechingly unacceptable. But I gotta admit they are stunning birds.

The animals were exceptionally active that day. Instead of the usual trying to spot them sleeping inside a cave we saw this....

A couple of "different" friends....

Matilda, did you enjoy the zoo??  And look, she has wisps of hair over her ears, won't be long until she has a pony tail.

Definitely a great start to the 100 days of summer.

"What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness."
                                                                                                                      ~John Steinbeck

Until next time.....

A Couple of Reasons...

Surprise, I'm still here, altho you wouldn't know it by this blog.  A couple of reasons I'm back.  My friend, Kelly, who is part of our collaborative team of women who write Focusing On Life, said something profound on her personal blog, to me, "although i have been somewhat hit or miss lately, I am so grateful for this space…my tiny little corner of the inter webs.  For a million reasons, but mostly because it helps me to focus on the good in my ordinary life.  the beautiful.  the magical.  the little things that bring me so much happiness.  and as always, i am profoundly and eternally grateful for letting me share it with you."   In reading that passage I thought to myself, wow, I have really wasted my tiny corner of the inter webs by not sharing my joys, my everyday ordinary life, even sometimes my sorrows.  This is my space so consider this my new focus. I know, you are probably saying, I think she's said that before.  Yes, I probably have said it more than once, you know the saying, try and try again.  Well, this is that "try again".  The 2nd reason is I seem to be motivated by a plan.  The last time I blogged on a regular basis was the countdown to my 73rd birthday, listing 73 things that made me happy.  So with that in mind, I think today is a good day for plan #2. There are 100 days to celebrate this amazing season of summer, It is my desire to blog during these 100 days, sharing my thoughts and to focus on all the good in my everyday life. 

So here goes....I treated myself to a new lens this past week, the Tamron 150-600mm. And oh baby, this is a dream for photographing critters and birds. I bought a "used" one, saving myself a scant $100 on Amazon's Bargain Shop. And yes, it is heavy, but it does have Vibration Compensation, aka shaky hand help.  I have only tried it in my backyard, but I am tickled pink with the results. Above I captured this image standing on my back porch (door open) with the birdbath at the back of the yard. (granted I don't have a huge backyard, but still....)  Mrs. Cora Cardinal comes daily to bathe. 

And then....this is a teeny tiny wren that lives around my backyard every summer.  She may be small, but she can belt out those tweets.... (couldn't help adding the verbage).  The texture is by Jai Johnson, she is amazing, check her out on YouTube, The Daily Texture. 

The Spring flowers have pretty much sprung....

The Bleeding Hearts are wilting.

My Weigelia Bush has lost all of it's blossoms.  I have had this bush for darn near 40 years, when Lisa was a teenager I took her prom pictures by this bush.  If I would dig deep in the bowels of the basement I could probably find one, but not today.

And how about those alums...they are so regal standing tall with their royal purple flowers.

I will miss you Spring, but we have 100 days of summer ahead. Hallelujah!!!

Until next time....