More Roses

 If I have the year right, today is the 65th anniversary of when my parents were married.  I just needed to put that out there into the universe.  Thanks, reader, for being part of that universe.

It has been a long day and I should be sleeping by now.  I will try for a short list of my happy things:

• Yesterday I blogged about having two roses on the bush in the front of the house. Today I found another! I'm not sure how I missed it yesterday.

A rose by the snow shovel.

• Over the weekend I planted some flowers in what I call the triangle. I only cleared and planted in a small area. Today I took a small amount of time to tear up some more of the weeds there. It wasn't much, but if I do it a little at a time, hopefully I won't feel so overwhelmed.

I uncovered parts of the driveway...

• We live on about fourteen acres and, not surprisingly, most of it doesn't get attention. One of the places that I don't tend to get to very often may be surprising, the front yard. It is neglected. Even when I get there to mow, there is a hill that I have a hard time taking care of and I let it go this summer. I decided to walk around front and check out the plants there. I was thrilled to find the butterfly plant with seed pods open and looking beautiful. I collected some seeds to plant… somewhere, later.

The butterfly plant and milkweed are part of the same family.

☮

Currently reading:  Mount Washington A Guide and Short History, by Peter E. Randall.

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

Happy August

 It has been a long couple of days learning about the new dog, Aesop.  This is only the beginning.  Everyone is fine.  While I was outside mowing the lawn and Keziah and Zed were off helping some friends, Aesop bit Gideon.  There doesn't seem to be much skin broken and we don't think it happened through animosity.  Our current consensus is that Gideon is being perceived as a pack sibling rather than a leader.  Needless to say, there was a fair amount of anxiety for a bit.  Super happy that Gideon is fine.  We still want Aesop.  Happy things for today:

• August is Simplify Your Life Month.  Not sure if there is anything specific I will do for this, but I want to make more steps in downsizing.  It is like a second chance to get rid of stuff after not getting through all the stuff over Lent.
• We got Aesop into the car for a ride today.  He doesn't like cars and needs to be lifted in.  We did what we could to make it comfortable and he did much better as we traveled to our destination and even better on the ride home.  

Wind blowing those ears!

He almost fell asleep on the way home.

• I stopped mowing to watch a monarch butterfly flutter around the milkweed that I refuse to remove from the yard.  :) 

• I didn't quite get the artsy look I was hoping for with this picture, but I loved the three pinecones in various forms by each other.

There is a drop of sap clinging to the middle one.

• The mowing didn't get finished.  Maybe it will be dry tomorrow and I will get out there again.  It got so high when the mower was broken and then we had all the rain.  I'm happy to have less tall grass to walk through.

☮

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

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

Blinds

 Since starting my new job with a different sleep schedule I have been writing this blog in the afternoon, before I go to sleep.  I found that I can schedule when I want the blog to post and have been using this feature so it posts later in the evening.  If something wonderful happens I can edit this until the scheduled time.  I have yet to remember to edit anything when I get up, I just get ready for work.  After writing and before going to sleep last night I made a wonderful discovery.  Perhaps discovery is a bit strong, I knew but had forgotten.  Anyhow, I've been having trouble falling asleep because my room is too light.  I have dark grey/black blinds that are closed, but light still peeks through.  When getting ready to hang a piece of fabric over them I started to take down a 'thing' because I might be able to hang the fabric on what was holding that 'thing'.  That thing is a window shade!  Duh!  I wondered when I moved into this room why anyone would need both blinds and shades, now I know.  They are only on two of the windows, so far that is enough.  I slept way better yesterday with just one of the shades down.  Other happy things for today: 

• One of the guilty pleasures that I sometimes do in the afternoon is to watch "Grace and Frankie" on Netflix.  Keziah watches with me sometimes but I have moved ahead of her in episodes.  Today I got to bite my tongue as something happened with the characters that she was upset about.  It was a little thing that happened, then for comedy a different character came in and fixed for comedic value.  It was grand to watch Keziah, knowing what was going to happen.  
• The milkweed seed pods are looking big and getting ready to burst.  I'm hoping to cut them down before that happens and put them way in the back of the property.  I still need to check to see if there is a butterfly chrysalis on there too.  

• The lily of the valley plants are also going to seed.  There are so many that I hope to thin them out in the fall.  For now I am happy that they are there and that there are less weeds where they grow.

☮

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


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

Food

 Since getting this job of picking things up and putting them down in a warehouse, eating well has become a challenge.  I just crave salt and carbs.  My healthy breakfast included a good cereal choice with blueberries.  Lunch was Taco Bell and Cinnabon though.  Taco Bell was okay.  Cinnabon was delicious!  I love cinnamon.  Other happy things for today:

• Keziah dropped me off at the mall so I could walk while she did some other errands.  I thought it was going to rain all day which made the mall a good choice.  It rained off and on and the mall meant Cinnabon.
• It was nice spending one on one time with Keziah.  We also got to briefly see her sister-in-law, who works at the mall.
• I took time this morning to make choices for retirement and arranged for some of my pay to go into a 401K.  I was procrastinating, but now it is done.  Yay!

The milkweed is entering the next stage
 as the flowers will become seeds.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

    Learning about making cheese.  

Thanks for being part of my happy things.  Stay safe.

So Very Tired

 On work days, I was trying to write this blog early in the day and publish it at night before going to work.  Last night I forgot to publish.  Oops.  I'll try to do better in the future.  The last few days I have been exhausted with my muscles in a heightened level of achiness.  The discomfort is less than I have had with another job and less than climbing Mount Washington.  Other things I am happy for today:

• The moon was mostly full and lit things up when I stepped outside to go to work.

• I've missed the garden.  There is still so much to do there.  Before dinner I mowed and wacked away some of the weeds so that in the morning, I can work there a bit.
• I'm not sure what it is, but I find the milkweed blooming to be very pretty. 

Milkweed and some lilies,
probably tiger lilies.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.

Juneteenth

 The preparations I have been trying to do for starting the new job have not been going as well as I had hoped.  I know it will all be fine, but I also know I should have tried harder to sleep today.  Most of the day was very restful, and that was good.  I just didn't sleep.  Other things I am happy for today:

• Getting out for a walk with my friend, Amy.  She has been off visiting her daughter's family in Virginia.  
• There were two woodchucks in the garden today.  The happy part of this is that I learned more places that the fence needs to be more fortified.  Where this little critter is, did not seem to be one of them.

Woodchuck/groundhog.

• Lens helped me identify a butterfly on the vetch.

Silver-spotted Skipper.

• The milkweed that I let grow in the yard (shh, don't tell the lawn/weed police) is blooming.  This, as well as the butterfly weed in the front of the house, are supposed to attract monarch butterflies.  

Common milkweed.

☮

Currently reading: The Backyard Homestead, by Carleen Madigan.

Thank you for reading, stay safe.