favorite pictures

Morning light

 

I love the way the morning sunlight is coming in the east window this morning.

The picture just doesn't do it justice. Our mornings now are very nippy and in the forties. It is time to get out sweaters and light jackets. It warms up to the sixties in the afternoon and is so lovely. Last night I was cool in bed so I think it is time to put on a heavier blanket. I really love this weather now. It won't be long before we have our first frost. Today I will pull out all my summer flowers and put away the pots. Also out summer table needs to be stored. We are in the buttoning up mode. I will leave the swing out as long as possible to sit out and enjoy these last lovely days.

Yesterday I drove to Erie to visit my friend in the hospital who has been through so much and has such struggles. It makes you realize how lucky we are if we can get out of bed in the morning and live a normal life. Afterwards I stopped to shop in a few stores but my heart wasn't in it. I missed shopping with my friend. I have found that lately I don't want to buy anything. This is such a change for me that I am amazed at my actions. I'm even thinking of doing my Christmas shopping online this year. I just want to be home and enjoy what I have without adding anything. Contentment would be the word. I would like one day when I wouldn't have something I had to get done. For a retired gal I sure am busy.

Speaking of busy I had my first Tai Chi class. I LOVED it! We just learned the first two movements out of sixteen. It wasn't as easy as it looked and I stretched muscles I didn't know I had. But it was so serene.

Tonight is the first meeting of my class reunion committee for our 55 th reunion. Since we did it up big five years ago this one ought to go more smoothly.

I am hoping that wherever you are when you are reading this that you enjoy the beautiful day that is in front of you. Every day is such a gift.

 

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Being alive and young

"To feel, and think, and learn...learn always. Surely that is being alive and young in the real sense. " Freda Stark

 

I admit it. I love learning. As an educator I always got a thrill when a light went off in my students' eye when they grasped a concept or realized a new idea. And I get the same thrill when I can achieve something new. Occasionally I take an Internet course, pursue an interest online, try a new hobby. Anything to keep my mind active.

So when I found out that the University of Pittsburgh at Bradford was offering a continuing education course in Tai Chi I was all in. Now I know very little about Tai Chi. I've seen it done in movies...notably Calendar Girls...one of my favorites by the way. It looked soothing, slow and deliberate. Right up my alley and maybe a good stress reliever. My first class is Monday night.

I am also taking an advanced photography class to enhance my skills. Everything I've learned about my camera has been online. I'd like to have some hands on instruction.

 

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Fun with family and friends

 

 

Isn't this metal horse magnificent? On Saturday my sister and I went over to the next town. She and her husband were in town for his fiftieth class reunion. Every time she comes to town it's a tradition to eat at a favorite restaurant The Beef and Barrell which is famous for roast beef sandwiches on kümmel wick rolls along with German potato salad and baked beans. We shopped a little first and then the guys met us for lunch. Afterwards we discovered a little antique store where I found the horse statue.

 

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Rise up

What is this? I’m sleeping in. That is so highly unusual that I had to comment on it. I have a sleep pattern. I need lots of sleep so I’m usually in bed by nine watching tv. My usual nighty night time is ten. I drift off comfortably at that time. If I go past it I find it hard to get to sleep. Then between six and seven I wake up refreshed and get up.

I drift into my morning easily usually checking my email, reading or watching a show I missed the night before. But lately I’ve been unable to get to sleep early, waking up during the night and can’t fall back to sleep or sleeping in way past my getting up time. I feel groggy and it’s  hard to get started in the morning.


When your body gets out of rhythm you look for reasons. So when I woke up with a stuffy nose I knew I had seasonal allergies. It is time to start some medicine. But in my heart I knew it was more than that. My best friend Kay had major surgery yesterday. We thought she was on her way to recovery in a specialty hospital in Erie when her bloodwork went haywire. She had a large hematoma on the wall of her intestine. After surgery she was given a 160% chance of death. But then yesterday a miracle happened. Her bloodwork came good, the sepsis was gone and she opened her eyes. She still isn’t out of the woods but she is holding. Kay is on her fifth life now. She has died four other times and been revived. She is a fighter. So when I can’t sleep I know that is the reason.

   This has been an extremely stressful time. With Don, Sadie and Kay I have used up five years worth of worry.

Crisp air

I woke to fog this morning. It was cool…not cool enough for a coat or sweater but cool as in refreshing. Even though September is a wonderfully warm month here in western Pennsylvania it begins and ends its days with coolness. We call it good sleeping weather.

 

I love when the pumpkins come out. Yes, there are still summer flowers blooming and I don’t have the heart to dump the pots yet. Let their blooms continue as long as they want. Soon we will have our first frost and they will be gone. But I couldn’t resist getting fall decorations out on the porch.

Our breezeway and courtyard look so nice since the boys did all the work on them.

Fall Tablescape 2016

 

Today I am linking up with Between Naps on the porch. You can find her blog on my sidebar. Please go to the site and enjoy all the lovely fall tablescapes.

 

 

A single conversation across the table with a wise person is worth a month’s study of books…Chinese Proverb

 

I’d rather have roses on my table than diamonds on my neck..Emma Goldman

“I drink to the general joy of the whole table”…William Shakespeare

“Traveling is all very well if you can get home at night. I would be willing to go around the world if I came back in time to light the candles and set the table for supper.I cannot conceivably influence the world's destiny, but I can make my own life more worthwhile. I can give some help to some people; that is not vital to all the world's problems and yet I think if everyone did just that, we might see quite a world in our time!”

Gladys Taber

Pattering softly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.”
― Sherwood Smith

 

 

Ah, blissful rain. After the long, hot summer the rain came blowing in. The leaves shook and shivered in anticipation welcoming the coming shower. The brown grass which has laid lifeless would soak up the raindrops like a hungry cat lapping milk. All the potted plants and landscape flowers were eager to have a drenching. Then it came, just gently but steady.
  

“Rain clouds come floating in, not to muddy my days ahead, but to make me calm, happy and hopeful.”
― rajuda

We stayed inside peering occasionally out the window to see if it would last. Gray clouds obscured the sun as we heard the patter of rain hitting the roof. The seasons seemed to change in just one day.

 

 

 

“Rainy days should be spent at home with a cup of tea and a good book.”
― Bill Watterson, The Calvin and Hobbes Tenth Anniversary Book

A change in the weather

The last week passed so quickly and so much was done is such a short time. Chris stayed till Monday and the boys worked so well together. They both have such good skills. They give their father credit for teaching them all the things that guys need to know to get along in the world. They can both do plumbing, electrical, and mechanical work. It was so helpful to have them here to do the things that we can no longer manage. I know this is just another stage in our lives and I remember helping out my parents when they were this age. We must learn to accept help now. Ryan was glad to spend a week up here getting things done. He also got to spend time with his brother which is rare. His best friend lives in town so they had a good time. Butch even came out and helped with the work on the courtyard.

All week the weather was perfect..in the seventies but today it was gloomy and rainy. Ryan went home early today and I just took it easy.

On the way home from Erie last week I came through Allegany State Park and took a few pictures.

Update on Sadie....she did not tolerate the Lyme disease medicine and threw it up. She stopped eating and is in a lot of pain. We changed her meds but the vet wanted us to rest her stomach for a few days. And give her Pepto .bismol tablets. We are unable to get them in her. She is so wary about taking pills after years of having medications that she refuses to swallow them no matter how I hide them. Even in the pockets. She barely is eating people food she always lived before..ham and chicken. We get her to drink milk but not water. We will start the new meds tomorrow but call the vet Monday to see if we can get some more appetite stimulating pills. She can Hardly get up or walk. I carry her outside. It is so hard to see her in this shape.

 

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Nothing like man power

I took advantage of both the boys being here on the weekend. They cut down another smaller dead maple tree from the back yard. They split the wood and piled it up for me too.

Another job was repairing a crack in the stamped concrete. When the kitchen was being remodeled we had to use the French doors to go in and out. Since it was January I was constantly shoveling till finally the ice build up was too hard to move. Then I used salt to melt it. I didn’t realize that salt and concrete do not mix. A huge crack developed. So the boys cut out the crack, used a special tool to excise the extra material from the center, colored the cement and filled up the crack. Even Don got in the act. This morning Ryan laughingly called me outside to look at the crack….there was a bear print in it! He had left the back gate open. Whoops.

There are no accidents

Both of my boys are home and how I needed them. They wanted me to make a list of things to get done. This wasn’t on my list.

Overnight a storm knocked down a dead pine tree. It fell right over the fence and into the blueberry patch.

I am so thankful that the boys were here to take care of it. I don’t know what we would have done without them.

It was not an accident that they came up this week. I am so grateful.