Brief

 The first night of the week is generally a tough one, it wasn't too bad today though.  Somehow I was able to fall into a rhythm and it stuck with me.  Not bad considering the amount of sleep I didn't get.  Other happy things for today:

• On the drive to work the crescent moon was rising over a dark field with stars speckled around.  It was lovely but I didn't stop to take a picture.
• Around 5:30 AM there is a break at work and parts of the sky were painted orange.  

The moon was still out!

• I had a brief but pleasant visit with my protege after work.  She came by for my signature and stayed to visit a little.  

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.


Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Happy Monday!

The weekend trip makes me happy that I don't work on Mondays. Most of my day was spent relaxing in my pajamas. That said, I realized that I needed to get up and move late enough that I was typing this on my phone while walking to get my steps in. Other happy things for today are:

• Yesterday I forgot to do Duo Lingo until after midnight. A search on the app showed that the last time I missed a day and had to use their streak freeze option was about 11 months ago. I made up for that today by doing more Spanish practice than I usually do in a week.
• Another thing I did while trying to do nothing was to pay my mortgage and set up automatic payments for my phone. Yay adulting!
• When I finally got out to walk the first time, the puppy was being, well, a puppy. He did not want to walk with me. The second time Keziah dropped us off somewhere and we had a much better time.

Aesop, not wanting to move in front of the house.

• My steps were still not complete so I am walking and typing. Yay multitasking!

☮

Currently reading: Backpacking: A Hedonist’s Guide, by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Home Again!

 It was another long day in the car and we are all back safe to our respective homes.  We chose a more winding route home that added about 45 minutes to the trip, but it avoided the construction (and most likely traffic) that we had on the way there.  Other happy things for today include:

• All the mountains.  The drive home had some twists, turns, ups and downs as we passed through at least the Allegheny and Green Mountains.

• As we drove along a rocky stream a large bird dove into the water to come up with a fish.  It all happened too fast for a picture.  If I had to guess, I would say it was a hawk.  
• Aesop, the dog, was very excited to see me when I got home.  Nanni, the cat is stretched out beside me as I write.  I'm not sure where the other cat, Winston, is now, but he seemed happy to see me too.
• Gideon was indisposed when I got home.  I sat next to him to watch Star Trek Voyager and waved hello.  It was funny because he wasn't sure why I was waving.  When I reminded him that I had been away all weekend I got a big hug and kiss.

☮

Currently reading: Backpacking: A Hedonist’s Guide, by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn.


Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Pennsic without Pennsic

This morning we were extremely happy to find that our trip was not needed. We drove to Pennsylvania to check the contents of our storage trailer that we haven’t seen since 2019, before the pandemic. There appeared to be no bee or wasp nests attached to the outside. Even the spider invasion was small and mostly at the door areas. It appeared that during transport very little had moved. We had concerns for the new shower that it may not have been dry enough or that it was not packed well and that it may have broken in some way. This did not seem to be the case. It wasn’t perfect, but it was real close. I’m happy that we took this trip as it puts my mind at ease. Other happy things for today:

• Seeing the areas where we used to camp every year and the memories that the trip brought forth.

Creek in the campground.

Road by the creek in the campground.

Trailers!

There is a moon in this picture.

'Cathedral' that we camp near.

Pennsic castle.

• After the pleasant and easy checking in of the trailer we went back to the hotel and had plenty of time to do other things.  Two of us went for a hike on a local to the hotel mountain bike trail.  So many twists and turns!  It was great to spend some time outside.  Tomorrow we are back in the truck driving home.

Map.

Fallen tree.

This is a bike jump.

• There is a huge plaza of outlet stores that the hotel is near.  We visited and did some shopping late in the afternoon and followed that up with dinner which we brought back to the hotel room.   Good food, great company!  Also, clouds...

I think this one resembles North America just a little.

☮

Currently reading: Backpacking: A Hedonist’s Guide, by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

On the Road

This weekend I am traveling with two friends. Today we drove to Pennsylvania and made it safely to our hotel. Other than traffic, we didn't have any big problems. Since my time to write is generally at bedtime and I don't want to keep my friends awake, this might be short. Happy things other than safely getting to our destination are:

• It wasn't until I got out of the car to meet my friends that I became really excited and believed that this trip was happening.  With the pandemic, anything could have changed our plans.  Yay!
• We are traveling in a truck belonging to one of the friends and she let me drive part of the time. It is a good sized Dodge Ram, I think. It drives beautifully. She and I have gone on long trips before and this is the first time I've been able to drive it.

• We had many laughs along the way.

• There were also some lovely views, I was even able to photograph a few.

Somewhere in Massachusetts.

Somewhere in New York, I think.

Pennsylvania at a rest stop.

☮

Currently reading: Backpacking: A Hedonist’s Guide, by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Thistle

 Work this morning was a little stressful.  When they asked if people wanted to volunteer to go home, I jumped at the chance.  I had hoped to get laundry done and pack for the weekend.  I leave Friday morning with two friends for Pennsylvania.  I will be packing in the morning because I needed to do laundry.  I also wanted to mow some of the yard.  It was a very hot day and I didn't mow until late afternoon.  I'll get up early in the morning to get ready.  Happy things for today include:

• Binge watching New Girl on Netflix this morning until the rest of the household woke up.  After breakfast I had a nice nap.
• Running errands with Keziah and helping to choose new toys for the pets.

• Eventually I made it outside to mow some of the yard and to make my way as best I could to the wildlife camera.  I mowed as much of a path to the wildlife camera as I could.  Zed came out and used the weedwacker the remaining way to the camera.  There is so much growth the camera isn't catching as much any more.

It has been a while since I mowed.

After I mowed and cleaned it up a bit.

• I looked closer at the jewelweed today and it is huge.  I'm pretty certain that it has stretched over eight feet to grow taller than the Japanese knotweed and staghorn sumac that are crowding it out.

• There is a milk thistle that is threatening and beautiful all at once.

Thistle.

Thistle seeds.

Milk thistle

More seeds.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.


Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

National Park Service Founders Day

 As stated occasionally in a previous post, I don't like coming up with titles.  However, in looking for an idea today I came across National Park Service Founders Day.  After reading this article about the holiday and the parks, I am reminded why visiting them all is not a goal, there are just too many.  Too many for me to visit time and money-wise.  I'd love if even more parks and protected areas existed.  This date is now added to my Google Calendar to repeat forever to remind me.  Other happy things for today:

• I remembered to water plants.  I have been very bad about this since getting a job.  I'm happy to write that the geraniums that are still in the cellar are still alive.  They seem to be doing better with the artificial light than the ones outside.  Still no flowers, maybe next year.

• The jewelweed is blooming and the bees are busy visiting it as well as the Japanese knotweed that is threatening to push out the jewelweed.  

Jewelweed flower close-up.

Bee on the Japanese knotweed.

• Yesterday I got a reasonable amount of sleep which made my time at work so much better!  Here is hoping I get to sleep today too.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Sleep?

 My hope of getting at least five hours of sleep last night was squashed when an email from work came just as I was settling in.  Someone at work has Covid.  It is not someone that I worked with apparently because I was informed with the group notification and not privately.  I'm thankful that I am vaccinated (athough that there are variations now is kind of scary) and that the company insisted that we all wear masks during this uptick in cases.  The bright side is that it is highly unlikely that I have covid.  Other happy things for today:

• The friend that is staying here temporarily was in Roman garb when I got home.  She is making it for an event.  It was beautiful and she looked beautiful in it.  Sorry, no picture.
• Another sorry, no picture, is the moon this morning at work.  It is still mostly full and its round orb glowed through the clouds as if breaking through.  "Take that, Henri!" the moon seemed to say to the dissipating former hurricane.  We actually ended up with no major weather from the storm.  It rained, but the wind had calmed a bit before getting here.
• I'm trying to turn in early so I will be fresh and feeling well when I go to work in the morning.  

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Another Tiny Harvest

 It was hard to wake up and every time I sat down today for too long I drifted off.  Now I am preparing to sleep so I can get up in a few hours to go to work.  I had a leisurely day.  I walked the dog-twice, did a load of dishes, and thought about going through a box in my room.  Afternoon, I realized how little I had done and decided that I needed at least one happy thing and I remembered the marigold that is very large and blooming near the strawberry and blueberry plants.  I have been surprised at how big it is and now it is covered in blooms.  

Crawling by to get to the blueberries
 I knocked off a branch.
The branch is now in the house in water.

Other happy things for today:

• When I went for the picture of the marigold the strawberries that I saw coming in a week or so ago were ripe.  

• There were a few blueberries too.

• One of the things that I enjoy about working nights and having a weird eating pattern is the ability to have ice cream after my meal at midday and call it dessert.
• One of the rose bushes has another bloom too.  

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Boxes

It must have been a long day because I don't remember much about what happened.  A good part of the day I was going through boxes in my room.  During Lent, I went through a box a day and tried to get rid of things.  Unfortunately, I never finished going through all the boxes, Lent ended and I found other things to do.  Here is a picture of the mess that my room had become.

We have a guest in what has become Keziah's studio and the boxes I've been storing in there will be in the way.  So the ones in my room were rearranged to make some space.  

There is a floor!

I'm happy that I finally took some time to get through some of this stuff.  Other happy things:

• There was a box that said "Needs thought."  I was going to just restack it and move on.  Instead I went through it and more than half of the contents are now ready to be donated.  There are more like that, but I was only able to get through one of them.
• Aesop, the dog, and I had a good walk today.  Sometimes he chews on the leash and pulls a lot.  
• This happy thing is a repeat-clean sheets to crawl into bed after a long hot day moving things.  I am hoping that that comfort will mean a good night's sleep.  

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead Seasonal Planner, by Ann Larkin Hansen.

    -Time to read the Late Summer chapter.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

More Stamping

 It has been a long day with Gideon not feeling well in the end.  He had a fever.  Keziah had a home Covid test and he tested negative.  Anxiety is high though.  Gideon and I had a nice walk with Aesop, the dog, this morning while he was still feeling alright.  Our second walk is when he started to not feel well.  Here are some happy things from today:

• It is hard to make out from the picture, but there is a layer of fog becoming cloud over the river.  It was very beautiful.

• Some of the wild sweet William is still blooming so the bees can do their collecting.

• More masks were stamped!  I think we totaled 450.  There are white and black ones for different types of check in.  I don't like to reveal what a site token will look like for security reasons, but part of it has the Baronial device.

Keziah carved all the stamps
(which has another name that isn't coming to me).

The ink is rolled on.

Then the stamp
with the ink is pressed onto the fabric.
This is a medieval craft that we used modern materials to do.

• Keziah and I got some pre-hurricane cleaning up of the yard done this afternoon.  Most likely, Henri will be a tropical storm by the time it reaches us, but winds could still be over 40 MPH and we had stuff that needed to come in.

☮

Currently reading: Backpacking: A Hedonist’s Guide, by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn.


Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.

Color

 "She found it interesting that she only saw the man with the german shepherd when she walked late at night around a full moon."  That is it... the first line of a story that has yet to be written.  Probably the only line... no, I just started a Google doc and there are now three lines, probably the only three.  🤣 

 Anyhow, I went on a late night walk by myself to reach my 10,000 step goal for the day.  I left our dog, Aesop, at home and I am glad I did because of the man in the shadows with a big dog.  Other happy things from this day include:

• Friends came by and we worked on using some ink and the stamps that Keziah carved to print on masks.  They will be the site token for the upcoming event.

We have 300 drying.

• There was a lovely sunset.  The sky brought color before the sun set and color was removed.

• Today my youngest turned 27 and we got to have a short family phone call.

☮

Currently reading: Backpacking: A Hedonist’s Guide, by Rick Greenspan and Hal Kahn.

Thank you for being part of my happy things. Stay safe.