Mid-Summer - July 15

The older I get, the faster time goes is cliche, but there is so much truth in that.  When the kids were younger, summer stretched out forever.  Even December seemed endless as I got out all the advent calendars and looked at 24 whole days!!  Now summer means getting "stuff" gone through and rid of.  Cleaning closets out and trying to read a few books.

July is also the month of trips and vacations, lots to look forward to, memories made.  Over the 11th and 12th, I travel to Lanesboro to spend time with my parents and youngest brother.  We have rooms right on Main St. with a porch/deck to sit out on.  This year my mother celebrated her 80th with a surprise party of her brothers and assorted relatives.  This coming weekend will be spent up north at my husbands sisters' cabin.  When I return, I have a day to clean, wash, shop, cook and pack before I head to my parents for a week.  And then it's August.  Precious time...........

July 4, 2013

So now I have already missed a day in my quest to post every day in July!  Classic. I was thinking yesterday that I would write about the near perfect weather we've had this past week.  The next few days look wonderful too, maybe some humidity creeping in this weekend.

We have a basswood growing in our front yard.  A few years ago we cut down an ash to make room for the basswood to grow properly, since they were really planted too close together.  A basswood is a very messy tree.  Any slight wind and the yard is full of sticks and twigs.  Squirrels drop endless bunches of leaves when they build nests.  The tree is fully seeded out and soon pale green slender leaves will drift to the ground attached to a seed that right now is flowering.  What a heavenly scent those flowers have.  Who would know that in a few days we will be cursing the tree for the unsightly mess the front yard will be for the rest of summer.  They take their own sweet time detaching from the tree and within minutes of mowing and picking them all up, the lawn is again littered.   Such is life.

July 2, 2013

I have this crazy idea to try and blog every day this month, and then slow down again.  I am inspired in the summer by creative pursuits.  I want to write.  I want to draw and paint.  I want to sew and knit and make all sorts of cute items.  I want to dig up and redesign my overgrown gardens.  But here's what gets in my way.........Paper.  I have piles of it all over.  Stuff to read, recipes to cook, scrapbooks to finish, it just goes on and on.  It bogs me down. 

I don't usually think of my husband as being creative.  He is an accountant and everything is pretty black and white with him.  That's why I was pleasantly surprised to see this stack of wood that he split with the log splitter.  It's the sense of order that makes it truly beautiful and pleasing to the eye.

July 1, 2013

Every year summer gets more precious.  It's the time when I have time.  The rest of the year goes by in a blur of getting up early, getting off to work, getting home from work, household chores, some reading or tv and to bed.  Weekends are catch up time, cooking and cleaning for the week to come.  I have had 3 weeks of vacation so far, and if you could see my notebook, every day was planned.  I'm ready for some unplanned time!  I am also hoping do a bit more blogging for me.  No one who I followed blogs anymore, so I don't think my little blog will pop up on anyone's radar.  This will be just for me.  My picture for the day is one I took in June on a county road in Swift Co. while visiting graveyards with my mother.

This picture has everything.  Color and content.  I couldn't resist snapping the pic.

Here is a picture of the beautiful fingerless mitts that my niece knit for me.  The perfect colors too!  I haven't posted in over half a year and I'm having trouble figuring out how to post this.   Where is my background?  Why is this continuing to underline when I've tried to turn it off?   I think I'll publish this and see what it looks like.  

Happy Mother's Day

Now blogger has gone and changed its layout, just like FB.  Argg....  Let's see if I can figure this out.  Anyways, if I could take 2 days and let them never end, I would choose these past 2 days.  Bob is gone fishing, Hans is working and I have spend two glorious days doing what I want.  The weather has hovered around 72 degrees, sunny skies, LOVELY!!  I have heard from my children with phone calls, cards and flowers.

I have called my mother, so my Mother's Day is complete.  Yesterday I ran errands without a timetable ticking in my ear, and the same today as I wandered in a couple greenhouses as I began my annual flower buying spree.  I ate when I was hungry, walked the dog during the afternoon, sat outside, pulled weeds, washed everything, including bedding, bathroom rugs and dog beds and hung them on the lines outside to dry.  This is all it takes to make me happy.  Now I hope I can figure out a new background, instead of the April rain, cut out the Sunday coupons, and settle in with some knitting to watch the Survivor Finale!  Paradise!

WeAreAllOne (Borrowing title from my sister)

Last week I encountered one of the most heartbreaking sights I've ever seen.  At an intersection that gets busy with morning traffic, I noticed at least a dozen wild turkeys, some in full plumage, standing as sentinels all along the curb on my left.  They were watching two toms in the road who were standing over a large feathered breast of a hen as far as I could tell. 

I thought to myself that that was a sorrowful sight, but it was made even more so when a head lifted slowly up from the supposed dead bird.  One of the toms immediately spread his wings around her and beat them as to either comfort, protect, or try to guide her off the concrete.  By this time my left turn signal went green and I had to go.  I could barely speak and I definitely could not stop the tears.  These large wild birds suffered a loss to their own kind and I felt it keenly in my own breast.

P.S.  After that emotional morning, I have seen the turkeys almost daily.  Many times they are simply standing on the grass, but just as often they are in the road.  At 6:30 a.m. the traffic is light and most cars slow down and go around.  I've tried honking but it does nothing.  I'm afraid that will not be the last wild turkey death in the neighborhood.