Walking The Dog

Any minute now.  G is taking a class all day today.  I had wanted the entire day to myself.  Baking cookies, reading a book, ordering gifts by phone.  The house is so cool that the sticks of butter I set out before breakfast are still cold to the touch.  I did manage to make the apricot filling for kolachke.

Thursday I tripped and fell at work.  Knocked the wind out of me and the adrenaline rush left me feeling faint.  My employer wanted to know if I needed to go to the hospital to get checked out. I didn't.  No bruising and no aches or pains.  I must be too heavily "padded" to get hurt falling face down on cement. My doctor would use that as another club to beat me up regarding my weight.

This is my fifth day of eating a Banana, Rice, Applesauce diet.  Had to skip the T (toast) as I am finding that I have an allergy to wheat flour.  Not the bran. Not gluten.  Just the wheat flour--the white stuff in nearly everything.  I know this is true because I made packaged au gratin potatoes and about 30 minutes after eating them with some delicious ham and steamed broccoli---my face started to itch.

I can eat yogurt with bran buds.  I can eat TJ's Bran Flakes.  I can eat steamed brown rice.  I can eat roasted butternut squash.  I think the vanilla ice cream was okay as it was "homemade" style.  Nothing much added to the cream.  I can eat corn chips, but not too many.

I feel better.  The itching and red scaling skin near my hairline was difficult.  None of the medicines would work.  Like 6 Benadryl a day.  Zyrtec.  Also my eyes have stopped watering.  And the lack of watering means a lack of burning skin around my eyes as well.

Wheat flour is hidden in almost all processed foods.  So "do it yourself" food is going to be my best choice going forward.  I am interested in finding out if the vermicelli flour in pasta is the wheat flour I am allergic to because, it's only a matter of time before I feel the "need" to eat pasta. I find it interesting that the bran doesn't bother me.

I am going to have to make soup.  Not that it's cold here in Maine.  Our weather guy makes up a monthly calendar--blue days are below average and orange days above average.  So, far, in December, we have had one blue day.  All the rest are orange.  And, this week, all the days will be very orange as today is supposed to be 55 degrees plus.

Time for the walk.  A large black dog is giving me the lethal X-ray stare.

I Actually Bought My Christmas Tree---Early

Each year I find it more and more difficult to actually buy my tree.  And I work in a greenhouse with a tree yard outside.  With a wide selection of trees.

I like the wild trees.  Not the shaped and manicured ones.  The ones with large spaces between branches.  I have a GREAT many ornaments.  And I like to place the bigger, heavier ones deep inside next to the stem.  The tiny ones are on the very tips of the branches.  Last year's tree, purchased very late, even had room for the big plastic (vintage) Santa and sleigh.

My tree will have as many ornaments (or more) as the one pictured above.  I just WISH the surrounding could be as austere and cleanly white as those in the picture. I long for austere and live in clutter.

Work was good this week.  Lots of good music from a wonderful collection on an iPhone with a speaker.  Lots of very good laughter.  Oh, a good few minutes of laughter soothes the soul. The only sticking point was--so much customer stuff going on--no time to have lunch together.  But business is good.  And that is a very good thing.

Thirteen or 14 more days of work, at work, before the annual furlough begins.  Then I get to start working HERE at home.  But I also get to sleep and not be up at 6am.  I do not go easily into the morning.

I am beginning to think my rash (yes, it's back but only on the left side of my face, near the hairline) is eczema.  My brother had it.  Caused by food allergies.  I think it gets worse when I eat too much wheat.  And I do eat a lot of wheat based foods.  Or it could just be winter dry skin.  In either event, I am tired of taking Benadryl all the time.

Today, I am baking cookies.  Snickerdoodles.  Chocolate chip.  Perhaps some with dried apricots. I'm not fond of sugar cookies or spritz cookies.  Lebkuchen looks too intense and I don't have the oblaten to bake them on.  I do love them--especially coated in chocolate.  Cinnamon (Zimt) Stars are very good as well and don't have any wheat flour in them.   I once had a basic butter cookie dough that could be used to make a variety of cookies.  Coconut batons with one end dipped in chocolate.  I think the recipe was vintage Bon Appetite.  I made four varieties from the large recipe and carried them on a plane with me to Florida one winter.  That was when one could carry things in a box onto a plane.  All the cookies were eaten the first day in Florida.  Six couples.  I don't think any of the ladies had any.

I have plenty of flour and sugar.  Might need some additional vanilla.

Ready.  Set.  Bake.

Get Decorated

Pick up a plain wreath (or make one) and start decorating.  It's like playing dress up.  Keep trying things out, see what makes you say "wow", then wire it onto the wreath, or hot glue it, or pick it.

I was at the fabric store that shares my name today.   Long, long line of disgruntled customers.  One cashier, as usual.  I was looking for 60% off Christmas picks for wreaths.  Not much to see.  And since I do best buying things in threes---not many things in threes.

But I am loving this wreath at the top of the post.  I would guess the ornaments have been hot glued in place.  Hard to wire them as the little hanger thing at the top can pop out.  I am also thinking of "using" the curly pipe cleaner things--sort of Dr Seuss.  We have real holly at work but it turns black in cold outside weather.  I tried to find some fake holly but--none.

Last year I glued a bunch of toys (Barbies, Hot Wheels, Lego etc) to a wreath.  It was very cute. And a co-worker made one with sock monkeys.  I love sock monkeys so would NEVER glue them to an outdoor wreath.  Barbie?  Yes.

Since the store shopping amounted to nothing--I am going attic shopping.  See what sort of stuff I have packed away.  Something up there has to be "wreath worthy".

Almost Time For Dinner

The turkey is roasting (breast side down), the stuffing, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole (the recipe with no mushroom soup), baked acorn squash, pan fried Brussels sprouts, and mashed potatoes are all  Prepped and waiting for that last 30 minutes of cooking.  Even the gravy stock is made and waiting.

I also made two recipes of cranberry sauce.  Both with brandy.  One with the vanilla the recipe asks for and the second minus the vanilla but adding orange juice and zest.  Boozy cranberries, oh, yes!!!

The Pumpkin Cream Pie is chilling on the sun porch (no sun here in Maine today) and I just have to whip up the brown sugar whipped cream and make some caramel sauce. I have never in my life made caramel sauce.  Or praline pecans.

Things went well in the kitchen.  The dining room---well, the table is still covered in clutter and I will have to clear it off and then give my daughter free use of the dish cupboard to set the table.

We finished watching Foyle's War last night and are now watching Jessica James.  Marvel comics. They said it had some resemblance to Orphan Black.  The only resemblance I see is that they both wear black and are both girls.

I made a table centerpiece at work yesterday from leftovers.  For my table.  Then a customer looked over the pieces on our counter and said "what about that one?".  So, she went home with my centerpiece and left the professional made ones behind.  I was "floral" all day.  Quite busy with deliveries.

Now it's Christmas 24/7.  And then it's furlough for the winter.  Yes, please.

Thanksgiving Week

While most are getting prepared for Thanksgiving, here, we are getting ready for G's birthday.  He was born on Thanksgiving---in time for supper his mother always said.  And instead of birthday cake--we serve birthday pie.

I saw these delightful pictures of pie crusts and am thinking of trying one of them.  I am an artist and drawing with a knife into pastry isn't that much different from drawing with a pencil on paper.  What to put under that crust is where I am having trouble.  Deciding.  Pumpkin pie doesn't require a top crust.  Neither does pumpkin cheesecake.  Two items we have in rotation for this particular birthday.

Perhaps it will have have to wait until Christmas.

My eye itch went away and then has tried to come creeping back.  I am being to think it's fungal. The cough remains as well.

At work I serve as "floral" several days a week.  I enjoy it.  Taking care of the floral coolers (fresh water and fresh stem cuts), remaking the market bouquets as they age, filling vases for delivery orders.  It's all new and fresh for me.  Something I think I could have done as a profession I think, with proper training.  I also enjoy the morning routine of watering the big greenhouse--filled with poinsettias, cyclamen, cactus (Christmas and desert), houseplants, orchids.  I like the odor of wet potting soil.  Other times of day, I make decorated evergreen wreaths.

My least favorite activity is cashier.  Mainly because I am not very good at it. In order to be good at it, I would have to do it all the time.  And that would crush my soul.  I am happier with the plants.

Last Saturday, I made meatballs and marinara, a chicken curry (too much curry and it's way too hot to eat and I must find a way to cool it down), and chicken soup for G.  I haven't been cooking and we have been eating sandwiches and potato chips for supper.  Not a good thing.  So, I wanted to have things in the fridge to eat this week--and things that could go into the freezer if not eaten before T-Day.

Today G wants to get the new iPhone for his birthday and give me the old one.  I think it's time for me to have a phone on my person.  Just in case troubling things happen to me.  We are thinking about service plans and how much data I might need.  I travel the internet far more than he does.  But being a thrifty person, I do not want to spend too much money.  I think the really good plans are a thing of the past.  A co-worker has unlimited everything for $60 a month.  But that plan is no longer offered.
I have to go along to choose my phone number.  Something I can remember.

Sigh.  I do not go easy into that dark night.

I'm Back

The "itchy" eye thing ended, as usual, suddenly.  One night my eyes itched so much that I went to bed looking like a big red puff head.  Woke up--looking like myself.  No red.  No puff.  No itch.

What did I do different?  I took a walk in the woods with G and Riley.  Period.

The cold stopped being the rib cracking wet cough and (oh, foolish me) I thought it was gone with the itchy eyes---but it's still here--only a dry cough now that makes it impossible to speak at times. Not much works-- so, I am just hoping another week and it will have worn itself (and me) out.

Monday afternoon G and I went to see the new James Bond.  Spectre.  It was dull, long and not all that interesting (and we were the only people in the theater).  Seemed like a long farewell.  I recorded Skyfall and we'll watch it sometime and enjoy it more than the new movie.  The previews were all duds as well---but the new Star Wars is coming.  I sat through the first one in 1978, twice or three times with my son.  He was 7.  Might as well see this one but wish it was with him.  And he was 7 again.

My photo at the top is another chair.  Love chairs, as you know.  This one I liked because of the fabric. Perhaps it's a rough woven linen.  I like wing chairs with a seat that tips back at the back.  Sort of like a recliner without the leg part.  So when you sit its like having your behind cupped.

Tomorrow grocery shopping for Thanksgiving.  I need to get a turkey and start thawing it.  I want to try Food52's dry brine method this year.  And I found a recipe for a Pumpkin Cream Pie that sounds like the one G liked at the 99 restaurant.  The usual suspects will round out the menu:  mashed potatoes, baked sweet potatoes, stuffing, green bean casserole, pan fried Brussels sprouts, and brandied cranberry sauce.  We're heavy on carbs @ Thanksgiving and the food lasts all weekend.

I have Thursday off.  But will be back at work on Friday with my stuffing sandwich and cranberry sauce.

Why?

I am holding tight to my safe (?) and secure routines.  Brutality seems to surround us.

An apple crisp in the oven baking.  The dog waiting for his daily walk (with orange vest so hunters don't shoot him).  G is vacuuming.  I am rubbing my poor itchy eyes.

Yesterday was Open House at work.  I ate four or five little round brownie bites.  They were delicious.  I spent most of the 8 hours repotting plants,  talking to customers (who are friends I only see at work) and re-arranging tables.  A long day........and no Christmas music.  It's something I appreciate during the Winter holidays.  Singing along with Bing Crosby (Let It Snow), Eartha Kit (Santa Baby) and Elvis (Blue Christmas).  Not so fond of Grandma being run over by a reindeer.

During my tending of the Christmas cactus table, I collected another pocketful of branches broken off various plants by customers rummaging looking for the best plant.  Today I need to set the branches (most quite small) into a sandy soil mix and let them make roots.  I hope one of them is the white variety.

I also need to collect pots and my amaryllis bulbs to take to work.  I usually like to repot them at work where it doesn't matter if I make a mess.  Here at home, making a potting mess in the kitchen is so "not a good thing".

A very good thing happened today.  An email from a friend I lost contact with many years ago.  We just moved off in different directions.  It was so nice to hear from her.

May something sweet and unexpected drop into your life today, also.

Working

Back to work.  Still coughing but not enough to make me dizzy.  Eyes still flaring up --the redness and itching is driving me slightly more crazy than usual.  And red swollen eyes are SO ATTRACTIVE on older women.

Today's lunch was a ham and cheese roll up (from low carb days) and roasted beets with olive oil and balsamic vinegar.  I had a banana and tea for mid morning.  My cold has subdued my interest in food.
My pants are looser.  I don't really care.

I'm off to make a cup of coffee and take a Benadryl as a preventive strike against the regular evening itch fest with my eyes.  I think I am allergic to the couch.

Guess Who Has A Bad Cold

No soup for me.  Not eating much of anything.  Tea and DayQuil.  Coughing.  Coughing.  My ribs are sore.  It started on Tuesday with a running nose.  Wednesday it moved to sneezing and coughing.  And stayed there.

Lucky me.  I had a scheduled doctor's appointment on Thursday morning.  Just a cold.

I have been sleeping when I am not coughing.  Dizzy most of the time.  A nice wheezing sound when I exhale.  G says it's a wet cough which is a good thing.

Keep thinking--each morning----that I'll be going to work that day.  Then I get up.  Then I sit back down and wait for the room to stop swirling.  I did have a nice hot shower yesterday and clean clothes.  Then I took a nap.

It's just a cold.  I think it's knocked me for a loop because I am so damned tired.

Perfect Fall Colors

Yesterday the skies were a clear blue.  A perfect counterpoint to all the oranges, reds and yellows of Fall here in Maine.  Later the clouds came and the bright colors turned sullen and unhappy.

Yesterday we went for a "ride" to Portland.  Takes 30 to 40 minutes.  We started at Trader Joe's loading up on Winter Food Stuffs like cereal (for me), dog treats (for Riley) and a dozen cans of Marinara (for G).   I also purchased some of Tj"s super white flour tortillas for Christmas Burritos.  Last year the only tortillas I could find were "not very good".

Our local grocery carried Tex's Tortillas for almost as long as we have lived here in Maine.  And they were (and I bet still are) excellent.  But not being sold here anymore.  Now we have the store brand-- and it's best not to comment on them.

So, I have a supply of excellent tortillas in the freezer.  I also purchased the most excellent focaccia that Whole Foods makes and G and I will be using it to make panini sandwiches for today's lunch or dinner.

And, best news of all.  I purchased a 5# bag of the tiniest clementines at TJ's and when I got them home, peeled and ate five.  Sweet, spicy, sharp.  Everything I remembered from that bag of tiny Persian clementines so many years ago.  Sort of easy to peel and no seeds.  G got himself a bag of green grapes.  So, I have clementines at last.  Five a day until they are gone unless I eat 10 a day and then beg someone who works in Portland to buy me another bag. (hint, hint)

I peeled and sliced the last of the peaches.  8 cups.  I didn't want to make more jam so I made a sort of peach deep dish cobbler.  Now I have apples to work with but they are out on the porch and still very hard--so I can wait a bit before tackling them.  Rescued (foraged) apples off an abandoned tree near my workplace.  I hate to see them go to waste.

Next up, in the coming weeks will be fig jam.  The fig tree is indoors and the figs are still green.  So, we wait.  A few fall off each day I add them to the bag in the fridge.  I had wild hopes of boxes of fresh figs at Trader Joe's--but no such luck.  Maybe next time.

The Costume I Want To Wear On Halloween

Have you seen this commercial?  The cartoon figure is a BOWEL.  And during the commercial he has a "sudden urge to go" and bends his cartoon knees, draws his lower parts in and up........ well, I just about laughed myself into a coughing fit.

We saw it once.

I'm wondering if it was taken off the air????

If I was into costume wearing I would be in the sewing room right now with yards of shiny pink material and lots of poly stuffing.  What a hoot.  Can you see kids asking me what I was?  What would be the best answer?

The weather here in Maine is very strange.  Moist.  Humid.  Warm.  And I am inside the greenhouse making Christmas boxes with dry-ish evergreens.  I feel like I'm in one of those "what's wrong with this picture" cartoons.

All G's work across the street was lost in the rain; wind driven pine needles now cover everything.  We even had lots of broken tree branches on the driveway and I had to stop the car, get down on hands and knees and pull a branch out from under the car.  I must have picked it up in the street. So, even before work, I was dirty.

Clementines

I especially like the tiny Persian ones.  So spicy!  I don't like the ones with seeds.  Now is the time to buy--when they are fresh and firm and not old and mushy.

I have bulbs, corms and tubers to collect, dry and store today.

I feel sort of like a squirrel.  Storing things away for winter.

My friend wants to make napkins for Christmas presents so I need to try my hand at making a napkin so I can help her with hers. (any hints?)  I don't think I've ever made a napkin but I could be wrong.  I remember making placemats to go into the basket my daughter's case manager workplace made for a family. It felt good to make them plus a few potholders.

My quilt chapter made dozens and dozens of potholders for the Elk's Christmas Baskets every year. That felt good, as well.  I think the winter holidays require some heartfelt gifting.

G  is off collecting leaves across the street. He says it will take the entire day.  Tomorrow the garage door company is coming to "check and overhaul" our doors.  Winter is hard on the equipment and it's difficult having one go "off the rails" when it's 15 below zero.

I found all the supplies for the little Santa Coat ornaments I made last Christmas. I wonder what I should make this year.  Have any of you seen anything really cute on Pinterest?

Cabbage (rose)- Beauty is in the eye of the beholder

I was wondering what to say tonight.  The days have been long and colder than I like, the nights and mornings darker, the stars bright.  Tomorrow is a day off.  I need one.

Christmas is starting.  We have decorated trees up.  The Holiday boxes are in the annual house with the bundles of balsam.  I am told I am to "crank out" boxes on Sunday when I work.  I am actually quite pleased to be making boxes.

Today Z worked his last day with us.  He leaves in a few days for the Air Force (which will someday pay for his college education).  He is apprehensive but knows he can't just stand in one place.  He needs to move forward--to wherever forward leads him.  I am reminded of how scary that feels.  I hugged him goodbye.  He's a good boy.

My co-worker read my aura today.  Bright red, bright orange and lemon yellow.  Good things.  Positive things overall.  I do have a fear of loss.  I have lost too many people, too soon. I don't like it.
I am an enthusiastic, energetic individual with unfinished projects-- what you see is what you get.

I had cold roasted beets (so dark earthy and sweet) with fresh mozzarella, olive oil and balsamic vinegar for lunch today.  The beets stained the white cheese a lovely rose pink.  I am lucky enough to have more roasted beets in the fridge for tomorrow's lunch as well.  I read about a roasted beet hummus but don't think I will make it.

I have two books to read.  Plants to get into the ground.  G has leaves to collect.  Winter is close. I can feel it.

First Killing Frost

What we deem important, has been covered, brought in or dug up.  The Amaryllis bulbs from last Christmas were planted into the vegetable garden in June/July and pulled up about a week to 10 days ago.  They grew SO MUCH!  Now the big juicy bulbs are drying out (resting) and will be potted up for a "later than Christmas" bloom time.  Valentines???

Bulbs need a resting period.  To sort themselves out and get prepared for the "big push" to make new flowers.

I think people need a resting time also.  The freezing weather took me upstairs to look for heavy corduroy pants and sweaters.  Nothing better than warm clothing, a down lap cover and a good book.

My eyes and the surrounding skin are burning up.  I look awful.  Dry cracking skin, swollen eyes, running nose, sneezing.  None of the allergy products have any effect.  Cold compresses help the eyes but dry out my skin.  Heat hurts but then feels better.

My new glasses are sliding off my nose--getting the trifocal lines all in the wrong places.  I am thinking the very fashionable-ness of them is a trade off to useful-ness. When I bend over at work-and doing repots--well, I am looking down an awful lot--the glasses swing away from my nose and just swing back and forth making me so dizzy I have nearly passed out.  Or puked.

Being Joanne this past few weeks has been a big itchy, dizzy, exhausted drudgery.  What am I allergic too????????  If it's the dog--then why not feel better at work?  I just would like to not have burning itchy eyes, a running nose and congestion in my chest.

Made two batches of fresh picked October peaches (that's Maine for you) with my friend.  She took one batch home, I kept the second.  Better canning weather in October.  Much.  Peach Jam. Still have peaches but we're both out of sugar.  (smile)

The Well Worn Path

When you own a dog (or have a dog who owns you), the well worn path has great meaning.  Riley walks the same 2 mile circle through the woods every day.  With G.  With me.  Or with both of us. He knows where he is going, can go off ahead, circle back around for a treat or just walk side by side.

These days, Riley and I have another path we walk together.  Out the front door.  At bedtime.  Last call for sniffing things, peeing in the bushes and barking to scare away deer.

Me?  I take the opportunity to stand still in the dark yard and look up at the stars.  So many layers of stars.  So many thoughts of what is out there, who we Earthings are and questions of how and why we exist.

Yes, that is what I think about each evening as I gaze up into the sky and look at all the stars.  Some evenings more than others.  I look and think and then Riley goes around the corner and the lights on the garage flood the yard and---no more stars.

I typed all of that with my eyes on the screen.  I am often amazed that I can do that.

I wore my new glasses (new prescription) today at work and the trifocal lines are in different places and I made myself dizzy and very motion sick while working with the shelved bulbs.  And when I looked at the floor or into the bags I was packing with transferred bulbs---my glasses hung down off my nose.  I'm guessing I need an adjustment.  But--the lines are great for computer work.

I will be having big bowl of beets tonight--for eye health.  Deeply colored vegetables are excellent for eye health.  I've already had dark chocolate caramels for Joanne health.

Rainbow Chard

Has been growing in the garden bed with the carrots and beets.  It's time to cut some and actually attempt the chard ricotta filling for tortelloni.

Normally....... as in forever.........the beet greens and chard greens have tasted like dirt to me.  My daughter says tasting dirt in greens is specific to a small portion of the human population.  But I think if I cook them--the dirt flavor may go away.  I have been tasting them uncooked. Dirt.

The chard grows so easily and looks so pretty that I always have it in the garden but never eat it.

I think I should make a little 10 by 10 fabric piece with brightly colored chard stems against the background of garden soil (brown) and blue summer skies.

Reading "the Paris Key" right now.  I got over half way during yesterday's football game.  But stopped reading to watch  The Great Bake on PBS.

It's funny about that baking show on PBS.  It starts out slow and kind of awkward but as the weeks go by I am emotionally connected to the people.  Sad when one has to go home, devastated when their bake takes terrible turn.  Perhaps because I bake.  Perhaps because they are so disarmingly honest. It's a mystery to me.  I am saddened by the fact that I missed the first three seasons and can't find them to view other than on Amazon and I just don't like Amazon.

Anyway.  Yesterday I made a huge pot of chili (with my onion, peppers and carrot from the garden) which will be lunches for the week for me.  Another large pot of marinara with meatballs for G.

I also got all the orchids watered, trimmed and settled into new pots (where necessary) and then had a monumental cleanup job in the kitchen sink area.  Repotting etc in the kitchen is such a MESS.  After I cleaned I sorted setting out the vegetables for the chili.  So another mess.  Then laundry of the towels used to clean the mess.

Today I am planting garlic.   Digging perennials out of the garden and replacing them with something I actually like.  The birds plant things.  And by the time I realize they are in the garden bed--they are quite big.  Herbsonne rudbeckia.  About 5 feet tall.  And it's everywhere.  So, now I am thinking it belongs out by the street behind the fire hydrant.

Beets

Remember last summer/fall when I was so saddened by the lack of germination in my beet seeds? Well, 2015 is the year I actually grew beets.

My daughter enjoyed pulling up about 3 or 4 pounds of them last Sunday.  The beets remained in the garden carry basket all week.  Out on the sun porch. I would look at them fondly as I dragged myself off to work.  Three days in a row of being the only one with a key to open the store.

One of those days I woke up at 7:20 and had time to brush my teeth, get my hair wet, dress and walk out the door.  I managed to open the store before 7:45.

And I was in a terrible mood. No coffee.  No cereal.  No lunch.  No reason to live.

Anyway, back to the beets.

I kept looking at them, wondering when I would have time to wash them, wrap them in foil and then bake them for a couple of hours.  Well, that time wasn't until this morning.  Saturday.

I just peeled and ate one.  Not as soft as I would like it to be but dark red and sweet.  Delicious.

And best of all.......home grown.

Still Seeing Pumpkins--Everywhere

These are made of burlap and twine.  And have an actual "real" stem.  The stems fall off all the time. This year I will try and save a few.  For crafts.

I am having soup for supper.  

I have Kale super Food Salad for lunch the past two days.  Alongside a few handfuls of cookies.
the kale salad took FOREVER to eat.  My jaw hurt.

My eyes itch.  My skin is dry and cracked.  I creak around like the old lady I actually am.
Not having the best October.  In fact, I think October might be my worst month in the calendar.  Year after year.

I have stumbled more than I will admit to, but I haven't fallen.  Yet.

A co-worker stumbled in the tub and now has 4 staples holding the skin over that back of her skull together.  Oh, I don't want that for myself.  She saw stars----- when she regained consciousness.

Pumpkin Time

At work.  At the bakery.  At the coffee shops.  Even at the smoothie shops.

Even at my house.  The second time making the Pumpkin Whoopee Pies will be tomorrow.  On my first of two back to back days off (yippie), I will be baking those delicious little pumpkin cakes and then frosting them and watching G eat his way through them.  I won't be eating them.

The tree work continues.  The front yard is still littered with debris and logs.  I will feel compelled to rake up the grass if I go out there.

We missed the boat on a very cool idea.  A gardening friend visited me at work and when I mentioned the pine trees being cut---she said she had seen the most amazing thing.  A rather large chunk of tree (as tall as it is wide) was chipped away into a "ball" shape with a chain saw.  The wood must be "wet" in order for this to work.

You cut and cut and roll and cut until the chunk resembles a ball.  Roundish.  Then let it sit and dry out.  Takes awhile.  While it dries it cracks.  And turns into something she says is "magnificent".

Now our tree trunk was larger than 7 feet around, so if we had know about this "crafty idea" earlier in the day, we could have had the makings for a few giant round objects.  The neighbors would have been impressed, huh?

We do have a few smaller chunks and G can make some in 12 inch diameter.

If he uses the chain saw, I'll have the tourniquet kit at the ready.

And Then It Stopped Raining

Temps in the low 60's but some sunshine.  The tree guys are here and the front yard looks like a tornado whipped through.  Two very fat, tall white pines are going down.  Two red pines.  And a set of oak "twins".  A few other, smaller trees were collateral "damage" to get at the two white pines safely.

The guy across the street said "I can see your house".

Exactly.

I think there will be enough chipped wood to mulch the woods (and the auxiliary road) on the side of the house.  I think it will be a vast improvement.  G thinks there might be "too much light".

The trees, perennials and the squirrels will just have to get used to a "new normal" as will G and I. It's been a long time in the shade of those huge trees.