Thankful Sunday--October 11, 2015

I am thankful for the entertainment that animals provide both inside and outside our house.

This and That

If you read here very often, you may have noticed that my blog has been a bit anemic recently--meaning my posting has decreased to just Second Looks and Thankful Sundays. There are several reasons for this, but in a general way, it is because I have been feeling overwhelmed. Some of that comes from chronic stressors I have and some of it comes from a busier than usual schedule the last few months. But it has all left me too tired to do much thinking when I have time to sit down at the computer.

Here is where I think my perfectionism is getting in the way. In my mind, there is a certain quality I want my posts to have that I haven't had the energy to figure out recently.  I have started a couple that need more research before they're ready to go and I'm ending up with nothing in the meantime. So I'm going to try to just post. I'm not sure what about, but you'll hear from me. I miss hearing from you on a more regular basis in the comments. But you don't have any place to comment if you don't have anything to read.

Here it goes. My brain dump about nothing in particular except what I see around me. :)

This morning as Ward was going out the door, he noticed a water stain on the ceiling. Never something that you want to see. The stain is below the corner of the garage roof and I hope that it is the result of hard rains and winds and not a fatal flaw in the roof. New roofs are too expensive to contemplate right now. Or ever, but are a very necessary part of home maintenance. It is supposed to rain this afternoon and evening, but clear up over the weekend. Hopefully, we can assess the situation then.

The freshly painted shed.

However, this week we did get our shed fixed up by Beto and Beto--friends of Carlos and Carlos who took down a couple of trees for us recently. (Yes, there are two teams of men working together with the same first name.) There were several places of rotten wood and squirrel gnawings on the shed that needed attention as well as painting. Ward had fully intended to do this project this month, but he really didn't have time. He has work for his regular job most every weekend as well as helping his dad prepare for his annual pig roast next weekend. Last weekend we were there helping with the planning and this weekend we plan to go to help with some preparty cleanup.

Lucy on one of her good days
sleeping in a basket of dirty clothes.

But for now, it time for me to do some errands--mostly picking up medicine for Lucy, my cat, and meeting some friends for some walking and talking--one of the ways I'm trying to take care of myself so maybe I won't be so tired.

Until next time....

A Second Look--October 7, 2015

I'm a little late with this week's Second Look because I've been busy. Today was the first chance that I had to make it outside when it wasn't raining or dark. In the meantime, while there is not much color from the trees except the dogwoods, leaves are starting to litter the ground. The squirrels are still busy, hiding nuts and some of the ones I saw "hidden" last week have been moved. Also, I saw my first wooly bear of the season, so I know that fall is really here.

Here are somethings I saw this week 

during a Second Look.

These marigolds have been the workhorse of the flowers this year. They are still going strong (even though I haven't done much deadheading recently.)

This lone violet decided to bloom in the fall instead of the spring.

This wooly bear was maybe the biggest one I've seen. It was at least two inches long. As an added bonus, do you see the worm below it?

The recent rain has surfaced a lot of ant hills.

Another Black-eyed Susan bloomed this week. Right now they are on the one-at-a-time schedule.

See the little bee in the base of the balloon flower?

And speaking of little bees, this blanket flower had one all curled up in one of its petals. I wasn't sure if it was alive or not, so I gave it a little poke. It crawled out and went into the cup of another petal. I left it alone after that so it could get a good night's rest.

I'm not sure if this granddaddy long legs was going to have the other bug for a meal or not.

The dogwoods are the reddest trees in the yard right now. If you look carefully, you can see mostly green leaves from holly, oak, and maple trees behind it.

Can you find the squirrel's nest in the walnut tree?

Thankful Sunday--October 4, 2015

I am thankful for 
clean gutters.

While we have several trees around, this oak fills up
the gutters faster than any of the others.
(See the gloomy skies. The rain is still lingering.)

We have been more fortunate than some because Hurricane Joaquin decided to go out to sea before it had much of an impact on us. However, we still have had very heavy rains for the last few days from another system. Because of this, one day last week at daybreak, Ward got on the roof and cleaned all of the gutters. Consequently, we had no water in the basement from the heavy rains. And for Ward and a dry basement, I am very thankful.

(Ward is researching gutter helmets as we speak.)

A Second Look--September 30, 2015

Things have been very busy around here for the last couple of months (you may have noticed I haven't been posting as much), and that has made me kind of stressed. But my walk around the yard for a Second Look yesterday worked its magic. For a little while, I was focused on the outdoors and the stress I was feeling melted. Nature can do it every time for me.

Here are a few things I saw this week

 during a Second Look.

Monarch butterfly. Even though we have milkweed (the monarch host plant) and I've seen monarch caterpillars, this is the first time I've seen a monarch butterfly in several years. This one was hanging onto a twig and only opening its wings when the breeze got strong.

Geranium, Roxanne. The rain we had last week brought out a few blooms on summer flowers that were just about done for the season. 

One more Black-eyed Susan

Sedum, Autumn Joy. The sedum is a fall flower and is in full bloom now.

Blanket flower

Verbena. This annual looked dead most of the summer, however, the cooler temperatures seemed to have revived it. It's supposed to happy in warm weather, so I'm not sure what was going on.

Another "hidden" walnut.

The leaves are just starting to turn and fall. It will be leaf raking time soon.