Oops - Forgot a Title!

I'm back into my regular work schedule again, and yesterday was my first day to sleep in - my Saturday.  Of course, the dogs took it upon themselves to give me a rousing bark alarm at about the same time I had to get up those five previous days.  Grrr.  This morning, though, the bark alarm didn't come until 10:30 AM!  Ahhh, bliss!

Last night was the first in WEEKS that it was cool enough (in the 60s) that I could actually sleep with a blanket, and I slept like a log as a result.  These last few weeks have been so hot and coupled with the fact that the net canopy over the bed kind of traps the heat in . . . that I haven't been able to sleep with anything more than a sheet pulled up . . . and, more often that not, that's even been intolerable.  So, a cool and long night of sleep last night was MUCH enjoyed!

I had bizarro dreams, though:  a bunch of friends from high school and I were participating in some sort of competition, and the winners (my group) got to have a vacation on the Island of Calabasas!  Ha - there is no Island of Calabasas - it's a town in California!  It was a pretty rustic place that time had forgotten and technology not yet touched, and the locals spoke nothing but Spanish, so my (very) rudimentary Spanglish got a workout.  Ahhhh, our dreams . . . what do they mean?


* * *


As a conscious change to my usual "Sigh, I didn't get a THING done today!", I asked myself, "Okay, what DID you get done today?" when I climbed into bed last night.  And, maybe that's why I slept so solidly:  I came up with 7 things that, once they were listed, sounded like a sucessful day!  In no particular order, they were:

1. Ate healthfully and well all day (which hasn't happened much this busy summer).
2. Did an hour or two of pro bono work for the local dairy.
3. Changed out the four tires on the Yaris.
4. Got some yard work done, pulling up some of the Evening Primrose*.
5. Completed 82 minutes of billable hours for work.
6. Got some much-needed vacuuming done.
7. Got a much-needed, information-intensive letter written and sent.

So, there ya have it.  I should try to do that every night once I climb into bed.  It's certainly more beneficial than the usual "ugh, I didn't get a damn thing done today" sentiments!


*  So, why the battle against Evening Primrose?  Especially since it's such a beneficial plant (you can use just about every single part of it from seeds to roots to leaves) AND pretty?  Well, once life quiets down (hardee har har), I may just try utilizing it . . . particularly since one of its benefits is to quiet down the effects of menopause.  BUT, until then, I pull the plants that are in the walking / mowing area of the yard.  Why?  Because, I've learned the hard way that the stalks are kind of like a jagged nail sticking up out of the ground once you've mowed over the plants.  Jagged and incredible hard in the sense that, if you wear Crocs for all outside activities in the warm months (like I do!), they pierce the soles and jam right up into the tender underbelly of your foot!  Too many ouches = pulling the plants.  And, they're easy to pull, too, with great results from little effort.  Instant gratification!  ;)

A final note about this plant:  although I've found no information to back up this theory, I don't wonder if the leaves were dried and used as tobacco at one time in history?  Because, when I burn them (which I usually do because they self-sow like crazy), the smoke smells WONDERFUL!  Hmmm, organic Swamp River Ridge Tobacco . . . ?!  (And, yes, I did just Google "how to dry tobacco"!)  I'll take a picture of this pretty plant today to post.


Ha!  Get out!  I just pulled up a picture of a tobacco plant, and the flower looks much like the . . . get ready for it . . . Evening Primrose!  I'm totally gonna try drying it!


Well, that certainly got me off on a tangent, didn't it?!  Getting back to posting, here are a few pictures:

Orange Sulfur (Colias Eurytheme) Butterfly

When I got to my folks' on Sunday to drop the dogs off for the day, I found this beautiful butterfly smooshed against the car's grill.  Isn't it gorgeous?!  The body is well mashed, but how amazing that the delicate wings were in perfect shape!

For whatever reason, I haven't been in the mood to crochet lately, so this is my current handwork project:  my first braided rag rug.  This was a fitted sheet that finally gave up the ghost - only the second time in my life that I've outlived a sheet!  I have about 35 feet braided so far.  Mom, did you happen to count the feet of braid that went into that rug you made this year?  I have no idea how large a rug this will make.  Of course, the braiding is the fun part.  Sewing it all together?  Ummm, I'm thinking not so fun.  Although, maybe the instant gratification of seeing the rug take shape and size will balance out the tedium of sewing?

How green is your valley?  I took this picture out the bedroom window, facing south, this morning.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see the river - quite narrow this time of year - in the far distance.

This is a perfect example of the creativity of Mama Pea.  I asked if I could pull some onions from her garden on Sunday.  Because I ended up working late, she did it for me and had these waiting . . . all cleaned and wrapped in dampened paper toweling and tied with a bow for me.  WHAT a way to make something entirely ordinary into something extraordinary and filled with love!

But, grasshopper has learned well from her master.  I took these ordinary brownies made with white chocolate chips to a BBQ last week . . . and something very common and boring was instantly turned into (looking like, anyway!) something special!  :)

And, with that, I'll sign off for today.  Gotta get on with it . . . and it's already past 1:00!  Aaagh!

A Gorgeous Day!

I couldn't have chosen a better day than yesterday for my Mental Health Day!  It was BEAUTIFUL and 59 degrees in the shade:  WOW!  I worked outside in nothing more than a threadbare sweatshirt all day (okay, and pants & mud boots).  I was pretty much exhausted last night and fell into bed just after 10:00.  But, as usual, it took me fo-EV-ah to fall asleep!  It seems that, when I lay down, my brain starts up.  Ugh.  It was all "in order to do this project, I need to get this figured out, and then I need to do this, and then, and then . . . ."  BUT, I guess it was worth it (going to bed at an early hour) 'cause I woke up about 5 minutes before the 6:45 alarms this morning:  AMAZE-BALLS!  ;)

Even though I didn't get my whole list done yesterday (see previous post), I got a LOT done and felt really good about my day.  I like the feeling of being physically worn out by the end of a day:  lets me know I was productive!

I just now remembered:  I saw the first skunk of the year on the winter driveway the other night.  I HOPE the dogs don't have a run-in with one this year!

There was SO much melting yesterday, and the yard in front of the garage is about 1/3 mud now instead of snow.  Once it is free of snow, I'll change the winter's snow tires for the regular ones.  The late snowstorm at the beginning of this past week was actually a good thing because I wouldn't have gotten that final layer of ice off the winter driveway as early if I hadn't needed to go out and plow.  As a result, that 4 1/2 mile stretch of road is free of snow now (at least, the narrow track that my car fits through is down to muddy dirt).

Check out this illustration of yesterday's melting.  These pictures were taken 8 hours apart:

11:30 AM - My lilac bush and a white pine just off the slate walking path leading from the side door.

7:30 PM - And, LOOK:  the first of the slate walk (to the right of the lilac bush) surfaced yesterday!!  Compare the two images of the white pine, in particular:  in the morning, the bottom boughs were still encased in snow!

Random:  while I'm uploading these pictures this morning, I'm also pulling ClipArt from the Web for signs advertising my Easter cards . . . and check this out:

Ummmm, yeah . . . this is EXACTLY what I think of when I think of Easter!  What the . . . ??!!

Here's the messy end of the kitchen (yesterday) waiting for me to clean it up and put away all the groceries that have been sitting around for well over a week.

Ahhhh, clean!  (At least this end of the kitchen is!)  And, everything is put away properly and in its place - not just shoved into the pantry.  (The door to the pantry is tucked between the upright freezer on the left and the glider rocker . . . which I'll have to recover at some point.  Warm pink is NOT my kitchen accent color!)

Do any of y'all have a comfy chair in your kitchen?  Honestly, I NEVER would have thought to introduce one to the space had it not been for a little house right down on the lake that my folks rented the summer we moved from the homestead and into town (before they'd rented the place in town).  (Clarification:  the rental is NOT the house / property they own now just outside of town.)  That was the summer before my senior year of high school.

This old, little ramshackled house had THE COMFIEST, most adorable (red gingham, if memory serves), tiny Lay-Z-Boy-esque upholstered chair nestled into a corner of the kitchen.  After we moved from there (and STILL, to this DAY!), Mom and I talked about breaking in to steal that chair!  (Actually, she did contact the owners to ask to buy the chair but they said, "Nope!")  Since that time (eek, 23 years ago!!!), I think both Mama Pea and I have always yearned for a kitchen large enough to accommodate a comfortable chair.  After all, WHERE does everyone congregate?  The kitchen!  And, every single time I've entertained here at the Swamp River Ridge house, there's always someone rocking away in that chair and chatting while I finish up meal preparations.  I hope Mom's planning on including a comfy chair in her new kitchen design (I'll bet she is)!

A couple of other seasonal "firsts" before I forget:  I saw the first pussy willows of the season yesterday (they bloomed a bit earlier down by the temperate big lake), and, this morning, I hear red-winged blackbirds!  Their trill is my FAVORITE summertime sound!

Another project on yesterday's list was clearing the big deck.  The weather has started to turn so lovely that I want to be able to sit out here before bug season starts (all too soon).  But, since the 4+ feet of ice and wet, wet snow was so heavy (and required chipping off with the ice chipper as I went), I cheated and just dug a path from the door off the sunroom to the place my wicker rocking chair sits by the railing.

A slightly distorted, but effective, view from the southwest end of the deck looking back at the sunroom.

After all that hard, sweaty work, I cracked a beer and sat down to survey my domain!  :)

We'll end here for today with a view of the (very!) snow-covered walkway between the large and small deck.  I think I'll let Ma Nature take her course with that . . . or, at least, wait until she's done most of the work!  ;)  This side of the house faces S/SW, and the windows are:  master bedroom (top left), master bath (top right), living room (bottom left), and dining room (bottom right).

Finally, some PHOTOS!

I know it's been an AGE since I've posted any photos, but I was waiting until I had the two new computers set up enough that I could upload to them instead of the old computers.  So, without further ado . . . .

Back in January, Baby Girl's mama called at the last minute to ask if there was any chance I could pick her up from daycare (remember the little boy asking if I was her GRANDMA?!).  I said that I'd love to but that I had a dinner date at Bundle of Joy's house.  I'd be tickled pink to pick her up and take her there for the evening if that was okay.  (It was.)  So, here they are, two of Bopee's sweeties.  They are exactly 1 year (and 24 hours) apart, so it was fun to see where Bundle of Joy will be, developmentally, in one short year.  I can't remember if they'd ever met each other before (I don't think so), but they hit it off like gangbusters!  :)

Here we are, reading Bundle of Joy's favorite book.

Bundle of Joy's mama was taking the pictures.

Then, completely spontaneously, Bundle of Joy reached over and gave Baby Girl a hug!  Oh, my gawd!  Adorable!!!

Moving on to when both vehicles were stuck at the end of the driveway during The Great Ice Melt.  The truck is, indeed, stuck in these pictures - the car is waiting for me to ash the hill (although it doesn't look like much of a hill in these shots!) so I can drive it all the way in the driveway.

Here we are, a week ago Sunday, when I was ferrying / coordinating / moving vehicles.  Here I'd moved the car and was walking back to the truck.  If you enlarge the picture, you can see two white roofs.  The one at the top left is the house roof, and the other, more hidden at the top center, is the garage.

The view looking to the left off the bridge pictured in the previous shot.

So, remember when I'd written about trying to drive the car in to work following The Great Melt & Re-Freeze?  When I'd gotten stopped on an incline of about 5 degrees?  Taken from the 1-ton, heavy enough to traverse the glare ice covered by light snow, here's a picture of that spot and my tracks, where I'd easily (accidentally) whipped a 180 to head back towards home.

And, lastly, I'll leave you with a poor representation of a beautiful sunset a week ago today.  :)

Updated Reviews

I've just updated the movie reviews (Thumbs Up or Thumbs Down?) and book reviews (Have You Read . . . ?) pages.  Click on the appropriate link above (below the header photo*).

I've not had time to watch movies lately, but I did take the time on the 1st of my days off yesterday to watch 'I Love You, Beth Cooper'.  I tried to watch the award-winning 'Adaptation' afterwards but kept falling asleep.  Besides, Nicholas Cage plays such ickie, gross, schlumpy guys (twins) in it that I wasn't riveted.

* I got home Sunday night (I think?) before it was dark outside (a real coup!) and enjoyed this gorgeous, wet sunset while I did chores.  This picture completely encompasses how I feel about my Swamp River Ridge:  there's NO PLACE I'd rather be in the world!

Wake Up Call

Good morning!  I have three unfinished posts sitting in Draft, this being the oldest - written a week ago Monday on January 25th.  So, it seemed like a good place to start catching up.  

We got another dumping of heavy, wet snow that weekend, and this is what I wrote last Monday morning: 

Not meaning to be boastful, but I wanted to share the view out the bedroom window this morning.

I put the camera right ON my pillow.  Not a bad wake-up call, is it?  So, complete with dead flies on the sill, here is the view to the left (south):

Next, looking straight out (westerly):

 

And, finally, to the right in a west-northwesterly direction: 

See why Swamp River Ridge is such a magical place to be?

 

#1501

Good morning! I just noticed that this is my 1,501st post! Cool!


Mother Nature and Jack Frost collaborated on the beautiful scene that dawn presented today. I took all these shots off the deck looking south and west. I can get a really nice vantage point of the valley from the upstairs window above my side of the bed, so I think I'm going to ask Tom to haul the big, cumbersome extension ladder around to that side of the house to climb up and pop that screen out for the winter. A bother, I know, but I think it will be worth it in the shots I'll get.


Can you see the white pine rising out of the fog? While you can't tell here, that tree isn't nearly as glorious as it once was . . . having been struck by lightning during that one big storm a couple of years ago (and now dead).


So, how do you relocate a porcupine? Easy, you just try to catch it! Even when that fails, the little guy or gal will be concerned enough that these new digs might not be the BEST ones . . . and moves on of his/her own free will! (Or so it would seem! I haven't seen our little friend since last Friday when I did try to git 'im.)


The holiday season stress has begun. I lay in bed last night trying to think if it would be the best plan of action (or not) to map out my days between now and Christmas, assigning a particular holiday-related job to each one. I think it's a good idea, in theory, but I'm not sure if it would just cause more stress, in practice. (By, inevitably, seeing some days pass and that particular day's duty go unfinished but yet still needing to be accomplished.) Each year I am determined to make the holiday season a more enjoyable one than the last because it IS my favorite season of the year, but already I'm worried. Do YOU have any tried-and-true methods that work? If I end up going this route, I'll post it and let you help keep me accountable and on track! (In theory.) ;)

You may have noticed the new live feed widget I installed here on the blog. I know it's a bit "busy", but I think it will help me keep up with posting. Oftentimes, I sit at my desk, looking at my blog (as though I'm looking to see if anyone, i.e. ME, has written anything new and interesting!) and wonder, "Is ANYONE reading this? Does anyone ever CHECK my blog?" But now . . . I know! YES, people ARE checking it out! And, if I wrote more frequently, they'd probably check even MORE often! So, I know it's all psychological, but I think it will help.

The Past Few Days in Pictures

I know I haven't posted much lately.
No particular reason - just haven't seem to have found the time!
So, here's a little catch up.

On Monday, September 7th, I nannied.
When Baby Girl was having her afternoon nap,
I was able to clean and cut green & wax beans for freezing.



On Wednesday, September 9th, Maisy (and Tucker)
and I nannied one of my other charges.


With the peanut's help, I also got the beans blanched, packed, and frozen.


On my way to deliver a special order of cottage cheese on Thursday, the 10th, I found two weary hikers sitting at the bottom of our driveway - the husband having twisted his 68-year old ankle - and drove them the 16 miles to our little general store on the highway where they planned to hitchhike (!) the next 60 miles or so to their car left in Finland, MN.


I also picked up our mail. We get so much and are able to pick it up so infrequently that, instead of using our physical post office box to file it in, they just throw it into one of these big bins!


On Sunday, the 13th, dear friends arrived for a full day of house cleaning for the girls and standing-dead tree felling for the guys.


(And it was a hot, miserable day to spend logging!)


Thank you, thank you, J & H!


That evening, two other mutual friends joined us for a good dinner and great company.


The waning moon was a tiny crescent in the sky as I waved Tom off to work last Monday morning.


On Wednesday evening, Tom loaded the truck up with wood when we were in town. A good friend put up a couple of cords in expectation of a pig roast that never happened, and we get to reap the benefits!


Before I headed back into town to meet visiting friends Thursday afternoon,
I unloaded the truck. This was the first of two loads we've gotten so far, and there's more yet to be had!


Another fun day with Baby Girl came on Saturday. She has the most beautifully colored blue eyes I've ever seen . . . they are the color of the acid-wash jeans that we wore in the 80s!


Finally, we finished off the week with a visit from new friends who came all the way from southeastern Minnesota and stayed at our little Håfweh Haus. They ventured "into the woods" to have dinner here at Swamp River Ridge last night and enjoyed the double bonus of following a moose for nearly 3 miles on their way home last night!

Now, what will this week bring?

Seems Like Fall's Arriving Early

We woke up to a lovely, 44 degree morning yesterday. Ahhhh, I love it!

These pictures are not great 'cause I had to take them through the window screen, but the river was displaying quite the gorgeous view for us from our bedroom window.

4 October 2007

The beleaguered Miss Kitty escapes the antics of the new kitten by taking a nap out on [the table on] the deck.

I took this second picture on the same day from the walkway that connects the two (south southwest-facing) decks. Most of those leaves and color are gone now - just a week later.