Sadie goes for a swim

I just found out how easy it is to put a video on my blog using Blogsy.

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Ah, summer

It's almost June. That is the month of relaxation. Yes, there are things that need to be done but chores often take a back seat to pleasure. It's time spent outside watering flowers that make you so cheery. It's walks along paths and creeks. It's lazy days on the porch swing with a good book. It's grilling out and family trips. Lounging with magazines. Ice cream cones. A perfect month.

 

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Busy day

As the weather grows warmer my computer time grows shorter. And well it should. These days are absolutely gorgeous and I want to make the most of them. Today after coffee I went to the eye doctor. I decided that I wanted contacts. Well, one contact that is. Just for my good eye. I wore contacts as mono vision when I was younger. My contact was in and I started wearing it today. 

   This afternoon was a hair appointment. Between times I got in a little reading. I just finished Patterson's Private LA and now am reading Field of Prey by Sandford. 

  So please forgive my short uninteresting posts. I've got some livin' to do. 

A video

Now I am trying to see if I can upload a video from vimeo. This is one I made a while ago when I took a class from Zanthe.

my ordinary day from Peg Karrasch on Vimeo.

An update on Top Gun. The last few weeks have been very stressful since we found out that Top Gun is diabetic. He has been sick and we wanted to do our best for him. But the level of care for this type of illness requires a large commitment of care. We first tried going the route of testing his blood every day by pricking his ear. Then we gave him pills which were not effective. We tried increasing his dose age which still did not help. The next step meant giving him injections twice a day. This was a real weighty decision. It meant that we would have to make sure that we were home every evening to do that. Luckily we have a fabulous pet sitter who agreed to do it if we went away. But still we wavered back and forth if we could actually take this on. In the end we decided tha Top Gun deserved the best from us. He is such an amazing and good cat. We are giving it a try. So far we are not seeing good results yet. I'm hoping in the next week that he will start to get better.

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Blogsy

I'm trying out a new way to blog using Blogsy. Please bear with me. See how this size works.

Let's see how this wraparound text works. I think it needs to be a little bit bigger. Maybe even bigger? This will take getting used to. This also lets me use a different font. Can you tell?

Now if I can figure out how to post it to my blog.

 

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Papa Bear visited last night

This morning Don saw that the bear had been down to the hummingbird feeders. He knocked one down and tipped the other up and drank all of it. We have a trail camera now and here is what we saw.

I can see clearly now

What a gorgeous week. Today I washed the windows in the sunroom I figure if I do a room a day eventually I'll get done without too much trouble. Then I'll go around and do all the outsides. The ones in the sunroom and two bedrooms are new and you can wash them from the inside. It's nice today to have the air conditioning going in the sunroom. I feel like I should be outside however. I've waited for these nice days for a long time. Sadie must have been hot. She sat up in the lion fountain. Then she proceeded to dig up my flower bed near the house. She once found a chipmunk there and has never forgotten it. Bad Sadie!  She dug up some of my stargazer lilies.  I hadn't gotten the little fence up in time. 

Ah, to be young.

My oldest grandson Dan is having the time of his life. He graduated from Penn Sata last year and has been living in Pittsburgh and working as an engineer. He and his girlfriend Gretchen are enjoying traveling all over. At Thanksgiving time they went to Prague and have been to Boston and many other cities. Currently they are out west. I think it is so great for them to be able to do this. 

Guess who's waiting for the pool to fill up

The pond is filling up. And Sadie is patiently waiting. She loves her own private swimming pool!

Working, working, working

We are so lucky to have our son chris visiting for the weekend. He has been helping us with some chores that are difficult for us now. Since Don has COPD he isn't able to lift and pull as he once did. Chris took out a small dead tree and spent most of the day rebuilding our pond. The waterfall stones had caved in and he put cement and stones in to keep it in place. Don helped clean out the pond which for the first time ever was full of polliwogs. They are now safely in their new home in the creek. 

  As a reward we had dinner at THr Nickle Inn. It's about forty miles from our house right out in the middle of no where but well worth the drive. The boys enjoyed prime rib while I had chicken parmigiana. Delicious. What a great day 

Oak Hill

Have you ever lived in a place for a long time and yet never seen it? Our town of Bradford is nestled among many hills and the valley space is taken up with the town. One hill in Bradford is Oak Hill where there is an old cemetery. I have seen it from the four lane highway many times but have never been to the top.
    Yesterday Chris and I took our cameras and explored. This is the view from the top.  You can see the four lane that leads into town in the background. In the middle is the refinery which takes up miles through the middle of the valley.  Bradford is a rather famous oil town. In the past there was a great oil boom and our town was very prosperous. 
At the top of the hill is this Fireman’s memorial statue.
I also captured some flower pictures there.

Spring/summer

While most people are usually headed toward summer for Memorial Day we are just getting leaves and flowers. The leaves are still not full on the trees yet. We can't plant annuals until the danger of frost is over but it looks like the next week will be summer weather. Not today though. It just reached sixty with cold winds. I did get most of my summer flowers today. Come on summer 

Who rules the house?

The little ones

The rain washes with a bright brush

The landscape just glowed this morning. It rained all night with thunder and lightening. Of course Sadie woke us up trembling and jumping on and off the bed in distress. The rain has really brought the leaves out. I took some pictures of our landscaping. We did it two years ago and I am so happy with it. 

Great news

Don had his heart cath this morning in Erie. He's still in recovery but the doctor found nothing wrong. The old stent was working perfectly. Such a relief!  

   Sadie got to visit with my friend Linda. She loves to go there because Linda's dad spoils her...and she gets to watch the chipmunks. 

Wild strawberries

When I recall my childhood I have so many wonderful memories. I grew up Ina small tow....and still live there. In the fifties kids were kids and we were allowed to be. We couldn't wait to be outside as much as possible no matter what the season. We wanted to be out with our friends not inside with our parents. And they were ok with us being out I our little friends gang. We only came in when we were called for dinner. 

  One of my sweetest memories was going up on the hill and picking wild strawberries. Those little strawberries were small but so very sweet. What enjoyment in such a simple thing. I wonder if kids today get to enjoy those simple pleasures that I did. Catching tadpoles in the creek with a cup. Hiking to the top of the hill to see the apple orchard. I always thought that Johnny Appleseed planted those trees. Playing baseball with the boys. Making hollyhock dolls and dandelion stem bracelets. Playing hide and seek after dark. Life was so simple back then. 

I NEEDED A LAUGH

A kindergarten pupil told his teacher he’d found a cat, but it was dead. “How do you know that the cat was dead?” she asked her pupil.
“Because I pissed in its ear and it didn’t move,” answered the child innocently.
“You did WHAT?! ?” the teacher exclaimed in surprise.
“You know,” explained the boy, “I leaned over and went ‘Pssst!’ and it didn’t move.

You Don't Need to Be a Weatherman...
It was two o'clock in the morning and a husband and wife were asleep, when suddenly the phone rang.
The husband picked up the phone and said, "Hello? ... How the heck do I know? What am I, the weather man?" -- and promptly slammed the phone down.
His wife rolls over and asks, "Who was that?"
The husband replies, I don’t know. Some guy who wanted to know if the coast was clear.

Thank goodness I don’t have to do this>>>>

How to give a cat a pill.
1. Pick up the cat and cradle it in the crook of your left arm as if holding a baby. Position right forefinger and thumb on either side of cat's mouth and gently apply pressure to cheeks while holding pill in right hand. As cat opens mouth pop pill into mouth. Allow cat to close mouth and swallow.
2. Retrieve pill from floor and cat from behind sofa. Cradle cat in left Arm and repeat process.
3. Take new pill from foil wrap, cradle cat in left arm, holding rear paws tightly with left hand. Force jaws open and push pill to back of mouth with right forefinger. Hold mouth shut for a count of ten.
4. Kneel on floor with cat wedged firmly between knees, hold front and rear paws, ignore growls emitted by cat. Get spouse to hold cat's head firmly with one hand while forcing wooden ruler into mouth. Drop pill down ruler and rub cat's throat vigorously.
5. Retrieve cat from curtain rail, get another pill from foil wrap. Make note to buy new ruler and repair curtains. Carefully sweep shattered figurines and vases from hearth and set to one side for gluing later.
6. Wrap cat in a large towel and get spouse to lie on cat with cat's head just visible from below armpit. Put pill in end of a drinking straw, force cat's mouth open with pencil and blow down straw.
7. Check label to make sure pill is not harmful to humans, drink a beer to take away the taste. Apply Band-Aid to spouse's forearm and remove blood from the carpet with soap and water.
8. Tie the little angel’s front paws to rear paws with garden twine and bind tightly to leg of the dining table. Find heavy pruning gloves from shed. Push pill into mouth followed by large piece of fillet steak. Be rough about it. Hold head vertical and pour 2 pints of water down cat's throat to wash down pill.
9. Consume remainder of scotch. Get spouse to drive you to the A&E, sit quietly while doctor stitches fingers and forearm and removes pill from your eye. Call furniture shop on way home to order a new table.
10. Arrange for RSPCA to collect the mutant cat from hell and ring local pet shop to see whether they have any hamsters.

A FEW MORE FLOWER PHOTOS

I certainly am enjoying the flowers this year. After our long winter and delayed spring it is so nice to see blooming flowers. Yesterday was cold and rained so we couldn’t work outside. I’m hoping today to get the river rocks around the Tatiana statue and some boxwoods planted in planters.  In Bradford we don’t have a lot of warm beautiful days so when it gets nice everyone spends most of their time doing projects. We have our back yard almost finished the way we want it so we can sit back, relax and enjoy it. 
   Tomorrow Don and I go to Erie for a doctor appointment and then on Tuesday he has his heart Cath. 
  Update on Top Gun.  It has been a struggle for me to prick his ear twice a day to draw blood.  He is excellent, it’s me who gets nervous. Sometimes I have to prick him two times.  His levels dropped but not down into the range where they should be.  We go to the vet on Thursday. I do hope that she will tell me he can go outside. He is missing laying out on the courtyard.