Hello Monday!!!

Hello friends and happy Monday. How was your weekend? Mine was actually very quiet. I had a lot of things planned and then I didn’t get to all of them. I did a grocery pickup on Saturday morning and ran a few errands in town. Then I spent most of the day Saturday puttering around doing small things.

I cleaned the spider webs from the sides of the house. The spider webs have been really bad this year. I plucked several Japanese Beetles from my rose bushes. I’m telling you it was exciting times over here. I cooked dinner both Saturday and Sunday, laundry, the usual.

On Saturday evening a terrible storm came through. August is the worst month for these late afternoon thunderstorms. The skies get black as night and the wind is terrible. It’s really scary sometimes. Anyway the power was knocked out at my nephew and his wife’s house. They live about fifteen minutes from us. My nephew called on Sunday morning and wanted to know if he could come and get our generator. They had already been without power for about fifteen or more hours. They came to get the generator and spent some time with us and just before they left they got power back at their house.

On Sunday morning I went outside to see if there was any storm damage. The sun was shining and there was a light fog over the lake. There is an Appalachian saying that the number of fogs that you have in August will be the number of snows you have throughout the winter. This was our first fog for August. But we shall see.

***You can see a very light fog. A beautiful morning after such bad storms were in the area.***

I decided to go over to my Father in law’s house. It is just through the woods from our house. He passed away several years ago but we have kept the house. I try to go over every week or so and check the house out and do any cleaning that needs to be done. I knew the spider webs were going to be really bad so I wore a hoodie. It is crazy how fast the trail has grown up. Last year we were walking the doggos every day through this path in the woods. The path is still there but I couldn’t believe how fast it had grown up.

***Look at this spider web!!!! I’m glad I saw it before I ran through it.***

You can barely see the trail it has gotten so overgrown.

***I had to be careful I knew there was a lot of poison Ivy here.***

The road I take to work is currently undergoing a huge renovation. There is a much needed turn lane being added. There have been a lot of car accidents on this stretch of highway. However being stopped for fifteen minutes at a time while trying to get to work is a bit annoying. That is exactly what happened to me this morning. After sitting in the traffic jam for about ten to fifteen minutes I decided to take a detour. Fortunately I was right near a road that I knew led closer to a road near my work. I took it and man am I glad I did. Look at the views I saw. I think I will take that road again. It was just beautiful.

Beautiful Countryside.

Did I happen to mention that the humidity here has been stifling. It’s like the minute you walk outside you instantly feel clammy. Or your glasses fog up terribly. Oh well changes are coming. There is already a different feel to the air. A slight shift in the morning air letting you know that fall will soon be coming. And as for me. I can’t wait. I don’t like to rush the seasons but I will be happy to see cooler temperatures. We have been really fortunate this year with a milder rainy summer. It has helped a bit with the heat. How is the weather where you are?

Have a wonderful week

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Tuesday Happenings

Hello friends and happy Tuesday. Yesterday we had terrible storms in the area. Schools let out early and everyone was on alert. Around 2:00 PM the skies turned an inky dark color. The wind was terrible and the storm started. It only lasted for about fifteen minutes but it felt like much longer. We lost power at work. We had to close early and because of the power outages in the area we remained closed today. So many people in our area are still without power today. Of course I still had to go in and help take care of some things so I didn’t get an extra day off. But that is o.k. We totally escaped any flooding or downed trees at our house and that is a miracle.

I feel like I am out of creative energy. I’m not sure why. Maybe my brain is working overtime on other things and it is not allowing the creative juices to flow as they should. That does happen from time to time. We are getting ready to do a trip out of the country for twelve days. I have been putting a lot of time and energy into getting ready for that. I am very excited for it but getting people in to be at the house with the kitties and watching the house for that many days is not an easy task. But, one that has to be taken care of.

I am also excited about doing a wedding cake for a sweet couple at work. They have been with us for a few years and the fact that they found romance at work is very special. They both mean a lot to me. They are on a very tight budget so I offered to do the wedding cake for them as a gift. But I told them if they found something else or someone else they would rather use then I would totally be fine with that. I told them I could only do a simple wedding cake and I couldn’t do anything too elaborate. They picked a beautiful cake and I think I can handle it fine. I used to do wedding cakes back in the day but I stopped because they were just so stressful. I am going to give myself plenty of time to do this one. The wedding is in the middle of September.

This is the cake they picked. We won’t put it on the wooden board because I have a cake stand that we are using.

My sister and I had a shopping trip to Knoxville on Saturday. We had so much fun. We spent the entire day out and about and it was just like old times. My sister is doing great after finishing her chemo treatments. She will have follow up visits with her doctor and we pray for continued great results.

I am STILL doing battle with the Japanese beetles on my rose bushes. I hate to use a pesticide with my kitties around. I tried a couple of safe, home made solutions and they haven’t worked very well. I am open to hear about anything that might work.

Speaking of kitties. Today is International Cat Day!!! I thought I would share a pic of all five of my kitties.

This is Gus, Allie (mama cat), Sadie, Kitty Kitty and Izzy.

I finished a couple of books. I finished Creep and have ordered the second book that follows it, Freak. I know it sounds bizarre but as I mentioned before anything by Jennifer Hillier is going to keep you glued to the pages, or the screen I should say, until you are finished.

I just started this one. I’m already hooked.

So what have you been up to? How do you get creative when you are feeling in a creative slump? Any suggestions?

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!!

Hello Monday, Goodbye July

Well here we are again at the end of another month. This month seemed to pass both fast and slow. My brother in law passed away on the 10th, my little mother in law fell and had to have 12 staples in her head, she also spent a couple of nights in the hospital. We did a quick overnight to Nashville for a doctors appointment for hubs. And then when you work in tourism, like I do, July is usually one of the busiest months of the year. I am a bit tired of this month and ready to say goodbye to it.

The weekend was just what I needed though. It was long and lazy. It was also really hot with some of the hottest days we have had all year. Temperatures reached well into the nineties and the humidity was terrible. This caused a few late afternoon thunder storms. We stayed safely in the house and watched the lightning show.

I decided to bring out some cross stitch that I hadn’t worked on in a while. This particular pattern is one I tried to finish last year for Halloween. But I had gotten a late start on it and didn’t finish in time. I got it out on Saturday and worked on it for awhile. Maybe I will have it finished and framed by Halloween this year. I have also been working on a crocheted afghan. Don’t ask me what I will do with it. I have plenty but I just love making them. And I love giving them to people so maybe that is what I will do.

***I am loving the colors in this afghan. I am using a few different rolls of self striping yarn. Who know what it will turn out to look like. That’s part of the fun I guess.***

I am itching to start a knitting project. I still have those socks to finish and I know I shouldn’t start anything else until I finish them but you know I will.

I also started a new book by Jennifer Hillier. This is the third book by her that I have read in the last couple of months. I started “Creep” on Sunday when it became available on my Libby App. I should have known I wouldn’t get anything done that day. When you start one of her books you just can’t put it down. Be prepared to settle in and take the time it takes to finish. Her books are grisly I am telling you the truth. But there is always such a great story and there’s always a mystery. I read an interview she had given and she told the interviewer her husband asked how she could come up with such gruesome stories? I never read these books at night I always switch to lighter reading before bedtime.

We noticed a couple of weeks ago that something had gotten into our tomato plant. It had eaten a good chunk out of a couple of tomatoes. I thought maybe it could have been a deer, or possum or some other critter like that. Then I noticed these strange droppings around the plant they almost looked like tiny green grenades. But not that tiny. I told a friend at work and we googled different kinds of critter poop. Sometimes we need a little break from the craziness at work and I was really wanting to know what had been in my tomatoes. Well it turns out it wasn’t a critter at all well it sort of was. It was a horn worm. Of course if you are familiar with growing tomatoes I am sure this was not news to you. I would never have thought a worm could leave something like that behind. I think my tomatoes are pretty much finished for this year. We did get quite a few off of this one plant.

I found a couple of things from the Old Farmers Almanac that I thought was interesting. The first is how to tell a good watermelon when you see one

And the other thing: Have you ever said Rabbit Rabbit first thing in the morning on the first day of the month? It has to be the first thing you say, first thing in the morning. This is supposed to bring good luck for the month. Is this an English tradition? southern? southern Appalachian? Northern? I’m not sure just where it originated. I’ve heard a lot of tales of people who say this first thing in the morning on the first day of every month. I only heard about this a few years ago. I sometimes say it and sometimes I forget. It’s all in fun I don’t believe that saying anything like this one way or the other will bring good luck but I think it is a funny little tradition. And tomorrow is the first day of the month.

And I must leave you with a picture of my precious boy Gus. He was looking at me with this sweet face this morning, making it very hard to leave him and go to work.

So what was your month like? I for one am looking forward to cooler temps in the upcoming months. Of course this is East Tennessee and it has been over 100 degrees F in October so that is nothing you can count on. Have a wonderful week.

Always remember

Love your day your way!!!

Happy Tuesday & A Quick Trip to Nashville

Hello friends and happy Tuesday. I didn’t post anything yesterday my husband and I had an overnight In Nashville. I may have mentioned a few times that since having the kidney transplant several years ago, my husband has to return to Vanderbillt Medical Center three times a year. This is so that he can visit with his nephrologist and get blood work and make sure everything is still going well with the kidney. It is about a four hour drive each way for us. However traffic in the mornings going into downtown Nashville has become unbearable. Last time we had the visit it took over five hours to get there. We almost missed the appointment. We have spent the night in Nashville a few times but with all the kitty and dog babies it was hard getting them farmed out and taken care of. Sadly we no longer have our doggos and you know cats require little care for just the twenty four hours we are gone.

After the last fiasco we said never again. We were in the road for over nine hours that day and we were exhausted. We decided to do the overnight again. My husband was so set on not doing the entire drive in one day that he made all the arrangements himself!!! What? We have stayed at this hotel before. It is only about five minutes from the hospital. It is also the hotel we stayed in many years ago with some of our family after the transplant. So lots of good memories. It was a little pricey for an overnight but totally worth it.

We drove over yesterday after I had worked half a day. We arrived around 5:00 PM central time which is 6:00 PM for us. Traffic was not bad at all. We checked in, had some dinner at a nearby restaurant that also featured live music every night. It was so nice not having to worry about getting up at 3:00 AM and driving over. We always prefer early morning appointments even when we drive over. That way we get back home at a decent hour. Also we have found that the later in the day we schedule the appointment the longer it seems to take getting seen by the doctor and getting blood work.

***Vanderbilt Stadium, if you look closely you can see Vanderbilt hospital just beyond the stadium. We were probably within walking distance.***

***A great view from the balcony. We were on the 14th floor.***

***The band was good. Local song writers are featured every night. I love to hear the lyrics this is quite a talent all it’s own.***

***And on the way home we always stop at DQ and get an ice cream. After a great check up we feel the need to have a little treat. Or a big treat***.

Last week we received a large dish garden at my brother in law’s funeral. I took it home and proceeded to take all the different plants out of it. This one had about seven different species of plants. You can’t keep them all together because they all require different things to grow and thrive. So I took this apart and repotted all the individual plants. Then before I placed them in the house I checked to see if they were kitty friendly. They were not. Well one of them was ok to have around the kitties. I have been given some additional office space at work and one of the rooms has two large windows. I hauled all of those plants to work with me and they look great!! Now I can have my plants around me at work. I will have to stick to the orchids at home. They are safe for the babies. I think that may also mean I am ready for another orchid. Yes I definitely think that sounds like a great idea.

I had so much fun repotting all of those plants. And the large pot they were in I will keep for something else. It is absolutely beautiful. I think it will look great for something “fallish”