Sunday Sunrise

Glorious Sunday morning sunrise.
Early morning before the sun is up and the sky is painted in beautiful colors.
Grand and glorious.
I love it.
Good start to another week.

Little Lamb Hydrangea

I bought this huge 'little lamb' hydrangea last year for my birthday.
It's a container pot and I kept it that way.It survived the winter without planting it in the ground.
It bloomed again this year and due to the dry weather we've been having, and the shorter days, the flower heads are beginning to dry.
I have many other varieties of hydrangeas that are planted directly in the ground but for some reason this one did really good in it's very huge pot.
I so enjoy it as it begins to take on the fall colors, turning from bright white, to duller white and eventually a fall sort of color.
I want to enjoy these waning days of summer, with cooler evenings and mornings.
It is hard to adjust, once again to shorter days, with it getting darker in the evenings.
But fall is coming and the seasons are changing.
Yesterday and today feel like fall, as it has been gloomy and grey due to the two consecutive days we've had with rain. Very unusual, as it has been very dry with little rain the past two months.

Cookies and the kitchen

A busy day in the kitchen.
See the tomatoes ripening on the windowsill and of course more peaches in the bowl.
But I decided while I was making messes to do two batches of cookies instead of one.
Once the momentum is going and the messes exist it doesn't seem to take that much longer to make two batches.
I started with my usual: oatmeal milk chocolate walnut cookies and when those were baking I mixed up the second batch: walnut white chocolate macadamia nut cookies.
And the two batches made a lot of cookies.
So I parceled them out into my glass jars and other storage containers.
To keep some, to give some to friends and then to put some of each kind in the freezer to have 'on hand' should a situation arise where I need a quick gift to give to someone.

Contemplating Life

This is Bailey last night as we were contemplating the finish to another day.
It was a busy day and now the morning is here and I am looking forward to an unplanned day.
Doesn't mean I won't do a lot, it just means I have no previous commitments.
I sometimes do better with my chores when I have an unplanned day now and then.
So I am looking foward to the day.
So we had some rain, and maybe the grass will turn from places slighty brown to green again , and some of my plants will stop the dying they were headed to.
Time to do some painting today and a couple of homekeeping tasks, the biggest one being cleaning out the pantry.

Building a porch

This is view of the front of the house and part of the front porch. This picture just shows a portion.
It is only 6 feet wide and 35 feet long.
We will be putting a similar porch on the back, but it will be 8 feet wide and 35 feet long, and have similar posts like this one. Although in the back it will be look different as the tiny back yard slopes.
We want to be true to the style of this mid century 1968-year-it-was built house.
Because the construction will involve roof trusses and also demolition of a back deck, under which is a fallout shelter/root cellar, there will be a bit of demolition.
So I will take pictures of the before so at the end of the project I can post before/afters together.
Well the construction will begin soon and the mess and dirt and noise won't be fun, but the end result sure will be.

More peaches and more sweet corn

I talked last week about local produce and peaches and corn and tomatoes.
Now the farmer called me to see if I want another 5-6 dozen ears of corn to freeze.
So today it's more corn.
And I have more peaches ripe and these will also be frozen.
We will be turning into peaches soon if we don't stop eating them.
So they are being sliced and frozen individually and then packed in 1 qt freezer bags to use in the winter for smoothies, or with yoghurt or in pies.
It is fun, but I am ready to stop freezing produce.
So I am going to enjoy another day with more local goodies.
What do you have planned for today?

Reflecting and Wondering

The summer started with us thinking we'd be going back overseas for about a year.
Then plans were abruptly changed and my husband is doing a short term project in India over a 4 month period.
We started the summer wondering where we'd be living. Then we started readjusting our thinking and started planning and scheming about being here and continuing to work on our fixer upper(kind of) house.
We did outside work and landscaping and the heat of the first part of the summer overtook us at times.
Now as the days are shortening and the coolness of the fall is starting to seep into our days and nights, we are readjusting and planning and scheming again of projects around here.
Right now a builder is drawing up plans for our back porch, so that hopefully soon that building project can be started.
We decided to put off our window replacements until after the back porch is completed, in order to be more precise and careful and not have to redo anything.
So plans are cooking away, and we are reflecting over the summer months and wondering what the fall will bring.

Time to Paint

I have enjoyed my 3 Adirondack chairs made 20 years ago by a local craftsman.
I have power washed them many times, and painted them many times too.
Always white.
Somehow last year with unpacking our things from storage,
and doing a myriad other things around here, the painting of the adirondacks didn't get very high on my priorty list.
But looking at the weathered wood, and the unpainted look they are taking on, I decided yesterday time to get out my sprayer and get a nice can of outdoor white paint and get to work.
So that is only one of my many projects to do this week.
Plus this beautiful weather makes it easier to think about doing these outdoor projects.
Today though it's a trip to Dulles to take D. to the airport bound for India again.
And most likely it will be reading, naptime and watching closing ceremony of the olympics.
But I can't wait to get started on the chairs.

Crazy beautiful and early

For any of you walkers,or just plain early birds, if you can, make yourself get up 1/2 hour or so before sunrise.Check the sunrise times in your area and set the alarm clock on purpose for an early start.
By the time the sun comes up the light has filtered down the beautiful colors of the sky.
This morning the sky was this crazy beautiful color and it was just a feast for my eyes.
I will say 5:45 am feels very early, but once I am outside I can't stop snapping pictures, as well as walking my dog.
But the air is crisp and very cool, and the colors are much different even 15 minutes later.
Try it and see if it doesn't motivate you to walk even further.
So rejuvenating.

Buying local peaches, corn, tomatoes and more

This is my kitchen table and it is pretty much the way it has looked the last several days.
I keep going to the local orchard and buying a half bushel of peaches, coming home, and making peach crisp, peach jam, freezing sliced peaches, keeping sliced peaches in the fridge and primarily allowing them to ripen on the counter.
Oh the sweet sweet smell of fresh peaches, grown locally, and ripening naturally under my fingers.
It's really a pleasure and delight of August. But the problem is I keep going back and getting another bushel or half bushel. And $15 a bushel is what I've been paying. Compare that to the several lbs of peaches you buy in the grocery. It's simply amazing.
Right now on my back deck I have a bushel of sweet corn waiting to be husked, blanched and frozen. I went with my dad early this morning, right after sunrise, and I bought the corn from the farmer who had just pulled it off the stalk. Amazing.
Soon it will be in my freezer.
I have a large bag of apples sitting in my garage waiting to be made into applesauce to go in the freezer.
I also have been buying my tomatoes down the road at a roadside stand of another local farmer. It's wonderful and intoxicating. I am not wanting this gardening weather to end, because then I know the taste of tomatoes fresh off of the vine, will only be a memory of summer.
It's wonderful to live close to people who garden and have orchards. I love it.

Windows Open and Shut

Yes some windows around here are open and some are shut, so to speak.
So I've been missing in action and intend to get back more regularly real soon.
A bit busy and a bit discombobulated around this place.
So hopefully I won't be MIA so much. I have been able to check in on a few of my favorite blogs, and hope to do that more faithfully soon.
Until then, hope you are enjoying the slowing days of summer, as I am.
Have had some amazing cooler evenings and amazing sunsets.
Hope to see more of you real soon.

Summer is flying by

Somehow summetime is flying by.
Where is it going. Whoa, slow down.
I love summertime and some days the heat wears me down. Then there has been the last 5 days of wonderful lower temps and low humidity and it feels like it will soon be fall.
This is what is so lovely about the seasons.
Anticipating the change, and enjoying what season we are in currently.
Both contrasts I love.
Somehow all the gardening plans of March and April are giving way to the drier temperatures and the slowing of the growth season.
My husband is home for a week from his first month away in India.
Soon he goes back for another long stint.
Labor day is around the corner, and we haven't had a summer vacation.
Somehow in the middle of all this craziness of his work travel, and house projects, we have to plan a get away for a week or two.
It's been almost a year since a vacation, and that is much too long to not take a break from the routine of life.
Just checking in with all of you to say hello, and sorry I've been missing but life has been busy and full.

I love catmint

I love this catmint( Faassen Nepeta). No it's not catnip. This has tiny blue flower and blooms almost all summer.Grows easily in dry or clay type soil. Tiny little butterflies love it.
I use it combined with lavender in my landscaping, as it seems to survive with little watering, and it seems to like anywhere I plant it.

I've had to be outside watering everything like crazy.
Because it's been so dry all of July here in Virginia, I lost two of my new large hydrangeas. That has never happened to me. I've been growing them for years but not sure what happened.
Also trying to resuscitate some cornflowers and a few other perennials.
There just hasn't been enough moisture in the soil.
About now the lawn mowing comes to a halt, and the grass gets wispy beneath our feet.

Today actually it felt like the 90+ heat wave broke and I don't have the ac on and the windows all are open. And the breezes are blowing.
It was actually in the 50's when I went out very early to get the papers.

I have no doubt it will be hot as blazes soon, but the respite this weekend is just lovely.
I made my Saturday batch of cookies, cleaned the house, made a run(drive) to the farm stand down the road for flowers, cantaloupe,green beans and sweet corn.
Yesterday I got 1/2 bushel of Red Haven peaches at a local orchard and plan to freeze the peaches tomorrow.
They are just not quite ripe enough today.

So for the rest of this low humidity cooler temperature Saturday I'm going to drink my iced tea and enjoy the breezes, and hopefully fall asleep soon to a Saturday afternoon nap.

Whatever happened to me

Yeah this is me.
And I am wondering whatever happened to me?
Well I mean the younger me.
I used to be quite project oriented.
Meaning gardening profusely,landscaping, mowing, refinishing furniture, quilting, needlework, decorating, painting, yardsaling,had a small antique and collectibles business,sewing and crafting things out of nothing.
This along with a 30yr. career in mental health, raising a family,entertaining, socializing, throwing any sort of party, having my husband's colleagues over for dinners,etc.,etc.
What got me thinking was my son's emailing me and asking me what I am in Myers-BriggsTI.
Well I emailed back that I used to be ENFJ but in the past years I've tested INFJ.Basically merging from an extrovert to an mild introvert.You can Google Myers- Briggs if you aren't familiar with it.

I was discussing this with another friend and we decided we like our cocooning and down time as we are aging some.
Not sure when it happened, or why, but I do know for sure I enjoy time alone to read, watch movies, nap or speculate on nothing in particular.
I am still interested in many of the above mentioned domestic skills. I do cook a lot. I do not entertain guests as much.
I am quite happy meeting someone for a cappuccino at a local coffee shop.
Or chatting by email or phone.
Don't know if any of you have experienced this, but for me I believe it happened somewhere along the time my kids left home for university and I realized that for 23years or more when I had kids in the house, my life was busy, full, exciting and crazy.
Now I can truly say I am enjoying time to just be.

Lazy hazy hot Wednesday

It's a lazy hazy very hot Wednesday and the plants and flowers and grass all seem to be withering.
The heat has been relentless for days, and little to no rain.
I feel withered and listless myself.
I put all my projects on hold as I feel no motivation.
It feels like afternoon naps, and lazy days with newspapers and books.
The weeds want to rule my flower beds and it is hard not to let them.
The sky started out cloudy, and a few drops of rain on the windows, but no, nothing more.
Then it became hazy, and calm, too calm.
Soon after the winds started, thankfully.
However the sun is now blazing hot, and no wind or rain.
So I know these hot August days will soon be over, so for now I will
enjoy the laziness and lack of motivation I feel.
How about you, how are you coping with the heat and the lazy days of summer?

A corner of my living room

A teak cabinet from Indonesia found at an apartment sale in Singapore.
A piece I treasure.
I love the mottled gold paint on the teak wood, and the wavy panes of glass.
I like imagining the countries it's been in, or the things it's been used for or the different rooms it was housed in.
Fun to imagine it's previous life which I know nothing about.
I have used it as a cupboard for dishes,
and now am using it for books and collectibles in my living room.
I walk by it a many times a day.
I enjoy it a lot.

Another One

Here is another one from yesterday.
My family will probably put on my tombstone 'she loved sunsets.'
But you know that isn't such an awful thing is it.
I get my love of the weather and the time of sunrise and sunsets from my dad.
He is going on 89 and still calls me and informs me of the weather and the time of sunrise and sunsets.
He doesn't use the Internet so this information he gleans from newspapers and watching the weather channel.
Although he and my mom now live in a small apartment in a retirement community, he has a little spot on the grounds behind the complex where he gardens.
He just yesterday shared tomatoes and zinnias from that space.
Growing up in the Midwest, in corn country where it was very flat, and we could see for miles, the topography was much different than here in the mountains.
But the interest in weather, and geography, and the seasons and love of the outdoors and gardening and plants, I learned it all from my dad.

Birthday bouquet

Yes it's true today is my birthday.
Lots of celebrating with friends has been going on at different events all week.
Last night my son took me to the new Kevin Costner movie,'Swing Vote' and to dinner.
It was a pleasant surprise; parts of his alcoholic character weren't fun to watch, but overall I thought is was much better than anticipated.

Today will be breakfast with my parents at their retirement complex.
Then I will enjoy the day with my errands of farmer's market, library, bank and maybe another movie or a visit to B and N to buy a book I've been wanting.

So the day is starting out cooler and somewhat stormy with thunder, and the anticaption that we might get rain.
This means I might get to do some baking I've been wanting to do, but haven't wanted to turn on my oven for weeks due to the 90+ temps.
Some neighbors of mine are asking(begging) for my walnut chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, so today just might be the day to do that.
I am looking forward to a very good day.

Creatures in the neighborhood?

So I've talked about the wonderful views from my house and property.
Truth be told we don't have as many trees as we wish we did in the summer to help us in protecting our house from the sun.
But we've noticed this year a lot of squirrels running around. On our back porch, scampering many times a day across the front porch too.Are they looking for food or water or shelter?

So several days ago I went outside to go somewhere in my van. We keep it outside and don't put it in the garage. We keep our car in the garage and the garage is a double car garage but it's a tight squeeze for two cars.
So my van sits outside.

My van didn't start so I had AAA come and jump it. It didn't start. So they towed it to the garage where I get our cars inspected,etc.
Yesterday when they called from the garage that my van was ready, it turns out it was an electrical problem. A squirrel(rat?) had chewed the wires going to the starter.
The owner of the garage told me this is the third one she's fixed this week with the same diagnosis. To the tune of $210. To me this is bizarre, but then I don't know that much about car repairs, or about squirrels chewing wires on cars.

So that's my squirrel(or rat?) story of my poor little van.
And my poor little pocketbook on such a bizarre car problem.