Oh Deer!

I never get tired of seeing deer in the yard.  I don't even mind sharing the mulberries and apples that they glean from our two trees.  But, stay out of the veggie garden, please! 

I have a row that I planted the front half with lima beans and the back half with wax beans.  I now have just wax beans and a bunch of lima bean stems.   Apparently deer prefer lima beans over wax beans.  Really??

AMDG

TToT(5) - I Love a Parade

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The town just south of us had their festival and parade this week.  I mentioned in a post a few years back that this is a very big deal here.  People mark their spots days in advance and no one messes with it, at all.

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We just showed up and got a great spot - on our church's front steps.  That is one of our Deacons behind us with his wife.

 

-3-

The kids all come prepared with bags for goodies that are tossed their way.  It was like trick or treating without the walking.  Some kind lady even thought to throw a couple of Tootsie Rolls our way.  Those were much appreciated since we hadn't eaten dinner.

 

 -4-

There were a lot of young people at the parade.  These teens hung by us for a while.  The young man in the black t-shirt was a hoot.  He had a broken arm and was making the best of it to attract the attention of some young ladies.  We enjoyed his company and were sad to see him wander off.

-5-

What's a parade without John Deer?  That just can't happen in these parts!

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We actually knew someone in the parade this year.  The gal in the VW bug with the sunglasses and facing backwards is Sarah.  She owns the new bakery in town and is a lovely, hardworking young women. We wanted to fix her up with my cousin, but, alas, she is engaged.

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There weren't many horses, but they were dressed up of the evening with painted "tattoos" and fancy ribbons and such.

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I was surprised just how many people seem to like boots.  There were many fun comments in last week's TToT.  When this fire truck went by I just had to smile and think of you all!

-9-

Shampoo!  Does anyone need shampoo?  The kids seemed to think dancing with a great big blue bottle of shampoo was great fun.  Watching them certainly was!

 

-10-

The weather for the parade couldn't have been nicer.  That was good since much of the subsequent fair was rained out in torrential and long lasting storms.

 

Check out more goodness at  A Fly on Our (Chicken Coop) Wall.

AMDG

Wonder Doubled: In Dependence Dei

We have a new post up at the USCCB website For Your Marriage.

We were interviewed for a video to be given to our friends, Socrates and Sophia, on their wedding day over a decade ago.  Married couples were asked what advice they would give to the soon-to-be newlyweds.  We later received a copy of the video and heard the responses of the many couples who were interviewed.  Most gave sincere wishes for happiness and the usual uncontroversial observations were offered.  Donna and I laughed when we saw our interview.

We sounded like helicopter parents preparing their kids to leave home for the first time. “Look both ways before you cross the altar.  Don’t be selfish, remember to share with the others.  Behave yourselves, someone is always watching.  Don’t be afraid, you’re not alone.”  What we really were saying was, marriage is hard.  It is a mature decision.  Donna often says marriage is the best and the hardest thing she has ever done.  I agree; it’s been very hard on her!  Look both ways before you cross the altar.

You can read the whole article here.

AMDG

TToT (4) - Disjointed-and-Hyphenated Edition

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The Cleveland Cavs gave us an exciting year in basketball.  Even with season ending injuries for two of their starters (a dislocated shoulder and a fractured kneecap) the remaining players toughed it out and were "All In".  Thanks for a great year!

-2-

It was oh-so-nice to have a weekend with no plans where we had to go somewhere.  Home is  where my heart is!

-3-

A few years ago I bought rubber garden boots while we were down in Amish country at Lehman's Hardware.  They hadn't gotten much use until this year.  With all the rain we've had, especially the gusher this week, they have come in mighty handy.  And they are fashionable, too!

 -4-

My friend Tracy came over on Saturday and helped me thin out some of my very overgrown flowers.  We filled a box with four different kinds of Sedum and it doesn't look like we even made a dent.  But, the bee balm is in a much better state.  Now if anyone needs large-leaf Hostas, Spiderwort, or cone flowers, they are yours for the taking.

-5-

Tracy brought cherry pie for dessert after lunch.  Yum!  Let's just say it was so good that it didn't last 24 hours!

-6-

I found a new source for cheap and/or free e-books.  Books are listed on BookBub for a limited time at a reduced price ($1 to $3) or for free.  I have discovered some great new-to-me authors.

-7-

A neighboring parish has a Sunday night, 5:30pm, Mass.  On days like today, when I just can't get my tired and achy yard-work-hurting body moving, it is very convenient.

- 8-

We stopped for burgers after Mass.  It was nice to sit and relax and enjoy a good not-made-by-me meal and even better company.

-9-

Five days.  Just five work days until vacation.  I can't wait.

-10-

This great news.  Please keep A and her growing family in your prayers.

 

 

Check out more goodness at  A Fly on Our (Chicken Coop) Wall.

AMDG

Quick Takes (32) - Sand Pails and Summer

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It's been fun to see all the summer bucket lists popping up on various blogs.  We started doing something similar a few years ago.  I didn't call it a bucket list, however, since that sounds so final to me - things you want to do before you kick the bucket.  So, in honor of summertime and beach activities, I called it the Sand Pail List.

-2-

I created our 2015 list a week or so ago, but I think it still needs a little refining.  Or maybe not.  It seems short, but it might be exactly the right size for a fun, but relaxing summer.  Can you think of anything I should add?

-3-

If the weather holds out, we'll be hitting the second item on the list tonight.  Every Friday night there are concerts in the nearby town.  It's a Janis Joplin cover band tonight.  We heard them last year and they were excellent.  My only hope is that they do more Joplin before the break and not leave all her stuff to the second half of the show.  I'm not a late night gal anymore!

-4-

The last two years, and this year too, I put try out a new winery on the list.  Perhaps I should add try a new brewery instead, or better yet, as well.  Know of any we should try?

-5-

Speaking of weather, we got pounded by the rain last night.  Our normally quiet little stream overflowed its banks and then some.  The bridge shown below is usually about 18-24 inches above the surface of the water as you can see here.  Just a few minutes after this picture was taken it was completely submerged.

-6-

I planted some iris along the stream Tuesday evening.  The force of the water pulled a couple of them out and carried them downstream.  A friend had a tree and a nine foot lilac uprooted so I consider myself lucky we only had traveling iris to replace.

-7-

"Let a man walk ten miles steadily on a hot summer's day along a dusty English road, and he will soon discover why beer was invented."

- All Things Considered by GK Chesterton

Don't forget to check out more Quick Takes at This Ain't The Lyceum.

Have a great weekend!

AMDG

I Think I Got My Money's Worth

Since we were talking about clothes (we were, weren't we?), here's another clothing item that I'm going to mourn its loss.  But, this time not for the memories, but for the comfort.  I had an old pair of "stretch denims" that had too many stains to be worn in public.  Oh boy did they make great gardening pants!  Comfy, stretchy and cool. 

 

I finally gave up on them when the hole got to be about fist sized.  Into the garage trash can they went before I was tempted to wear them again.

 

I think I got my money's worth out of them!

 

P.S. - If you went to the CWWN Ohio conference, you might recognize the t-shirt.

 

 

AMDG

Gone But Not Forgotten

I finally started going through my closet and dresser before Mass on Sunday.  It’s a chore I’ve known that was needed, and have avoided, for a long time.

Some (Himself) might say I’m a clothes hog.  It’s not that I buy that many new things each season.  After all, a girl’s wardrobes needs some refreshing.  It’s that I never get rid of anything.

Until about a year ago I had a sweater dress that I bought my freshman year of college.  That wouldn’t be so bad if I was thirty and had graduated less than ten years back.  But I graduated in ’87 and acquired the dress a few years prior to that!  The dress was thirty years old and looked it.

Then there’s the blue sweater I dug out of the back of the dresser.  It must have shrunk greatly because it is much shorter and more “snug” than I remember.

Neither the dress or the sweater has any great fashion significance.  What they both held are memories.

The dress was the first  real good article of clothing that I bought for myself.  Until then, most of my clothes were from discount stores like Gold Circle’s, Uncle Bill’s and Kresge’s. 

I remember needing a dress for a student government event at college, so I went to the local mall.  There was a Laura Ashley store in it and the dress caught my eye.  It was perfect, simple.  It could be dressed up with a scarf and heels or made to look more casual with a pair of leather boots (that I still have).  The problem was the price tag - $99.  That was an especially steep price for a college girl who working at McDonald’s. 

But, I bought it anyway and it served me well.  Throughout the years I wore it to all sorts of events – orchestra concerts, dinners out, Mass, Christmas celebrations, and more.  Then the wear and my changing size became apparent and it got pushed to the back of the closet.

The blue sweater doesn’t have quite a storied history.  It was a cheap purchase, I think at Sam’s Club.  But one of my favorite pictures of myself was taken while I was wearing it.  It was after we have moved to where we live now and Himself and I were enjoying some patio time after work.  I was sitting on a rock in the garden and he snapped a picture of me.  I was relaxed and content, and it showed.

Like the dress, the sweater is showing signs of better days and will go out with a pile of clothes making its way to the resale shop.

I am finding that I attach meaning to clothes that slows me down from getting rid of them when I should.  Just because the item is gone doesn’t mean the memory that went along with it is.

Perhaps by letting it go someone else can make a memory in it.  Or else they can have a pretty rag!

AMDG

TToT (3) - Garden Edition

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The vegetable garden is planted!

-2-

The vegetable garden is planted!

-3-

The vegetable garden is planted!

Can you tell I'm happy about that?  We're about two weeks behind getting it all in, but we didn't cripple ourselves doing it.  In the past we would do everything in one, maybe two, days.  And I would hurt.  A lot.  Pinched nerves.  Strained and pulled muscles.  Not this time.

-4-

If everything grows, we will be eating well.  Given how the early plantings are doing, it looks promising.  We have potatoes (3 kinds), tomatoes (6 kinds), peppers (3), onions, broccoli, cauliflower, beans (2), cucumbers (2), pumpkins, watermelon and popcorn.

-5-

Scarecrow is up and watching out for the critters.  He has a new addition.  Can you spot it?

-6-

It's raining.  It's been dry here for a while, so much so that we had to run a hose out to the garden and sprinkle several times already.  But, this is perfectly timed rain - I put the last plants in about an hour ago!

-7-

Now that the vegetables are done, I can concentrate on the flower gardens.  I have a lot of new things to go in and the prices was right for all of them - free!  Dad divided a bunch of his plants that were either getting too big or his eldest daughter just loved and had to have.  The iris below are just some of what he gave us. 

-8-

The strawberries are doing well and we have been able to enjoy quite a few this year.  We have even had enough to have some on homemade angel food cake.  Yum!

 

-9-

I have a mystery plant growing very well in the compost pile.  From the looks of the leaves, it is either a pumpkin or a butternut squash plant.  I'm hoping for squash, but either way, it's a bonus.

-10-

There is no mulch in the driveway.  Usually this time of year we get about five yards delivered.  And even with the best of intentions, it takes much longer to spread than I had planned.  This year we decided to forgo it. 

Check out more goodness at  A Fly on Our (Chicken Coop) Wall.

AMDG

The Company I Keep

They say you can tell a lot about a person by looking with whom they spend time.  I'm not sure what this says about me, but I've had some very lovely, but rather quiet friends around lately.

I've been weeding and planting the veggie garden and was surprised to find a beautiful lime green frog watching me.  The garden is about halfway between our stream and the neighbor's pond.  Perhaps he stopped to visit on his travels between?  

There have been a lot of toads in the garden, but that's to be expected.  This one was rather on the large size and was catching a few rays in the Saturday afternoon sunshine.  Hopefully he caught a few bugs, too!

Tonight the other neighbors' kitty, Baby Cat, didn't know whether to watch what I was doing or look for dinner in the stream.   I had more luck petting the toad than I did Baby Cat.  She's about as shy and skittish as they come. 

 

If you ever come by, it might look like I am talking to myself, but rest assured, I have company!

 

 

AMDG

Winner, Winner!

Sorry, no chicken dinner.  But, I do have two winners of the "What's Wrong With the World" giveaway.

In a totally nonrandom, random sort of way, I asked Himself to pick two numbers between one and five.  And, he chose one and five! 

Congratulations Catholic Mutt and Stephanie Z, you're our winners!  Please send me your snail mail and I'll get those right out.


AMDG

Wonder Doubled: Watch Your Language

We have a new post up at the USCCB website For Your Marriage.

The month of May traditionally heralds our warm weather entertaining season.  There is something rewarding about sharing our home that is disproportionate to the effort we make serving our guests.  We usually start the season with a Kentucky Derby party.  Mint juleps are on the menu in honor of the day and of the long tradition of Catholic social drinking celebrated by G.K. Chesterton and his alter-ego Hillaire Belloc.  Chesterton says, “We should thank God for beer and burgundy by not drinking too much of them.”  Chesterton’s cause for canonization currently is being considered.  For those who look to the saints as examples of how to fully appreciate creation, this quote alone has us shouting: “Santo Subito!”  Anyway, mint juleps require fresh mint.  So, this brings us to another event in May: Pentecost and the speaking in tongues.

You can read the whole article here.

AMDG

First Photo: June 2015

It is so easy to comment each month on how fast time, and this last month, has gone.  It's true but it's not.  Time goes as time goes, it's just up to us to live in it, embrace all that is going on and all that isn't.

The days are getting noticeably longer and the birds have been bringing in the morning earlier and earlier.  And my furry fiend, the hairy one, Jack, has been wanting his morning constitutional earlier and earlier as well.  It is not unusual to see us out walking at 5:30 or 6am.

The lilac tree, in the background next to the bench, was fabulous this year.  It's sweet perfume filled the air.  Unfortunately, the Persian Ironwood that sits among the Hostas, didn't make it through the winter.

Hmm?  I guess I had better just embrace both all that is and all that isn't.


AMDG