Sadie

Scott took this magnificent portrait of Sadie. She is holding her own which is to say that other than the fact that she only walks a few steps to go to the bathroom she is healthy. We are still carrying her from place to place. Sh3 enjoys it so when she can go for a walk in her stroller. 

THE STORY OF THE BIRDS

Do you see the arborvitae to the left of the lion fountain? This spring a pair of slate colored juncos have made a nest in it. For weeks I have watched them fly in and out first taking building materials for their nest and lately bringing bugs in to their babies. They have gotten used to me sitting outside on the swing and have quizzically looked at me while landing almost at my feet and flying around the courtyard. It didn’t disturb them much unless I happened too close to the tree where their babies were hidden. But last night we decided to eat alfresco and while we were sitting at the outdoor table we heard a commotion around the planter only to discover that a baby bird had fallen or jumped out of the nest. He was quite a good size and ready for the big adventure of the world but didn’t quite know what to do surrounded by brick and stone. He flopped around trying to fly but his wings weren’t strong enough yet. Meanwhile mommy and daddy were quite anxious flying quickly back and forth with encouraging cries. We tried to stay away and let their natural instincts solve the problem and eventually mommy lured baby across the breezeway by holding a bug in her beak and into the safety of the yard.  All this made for a delightful comedy for us. 

   This had followed another bird incident earlier yesterday. A pair of robins have made a nest in the climbing hydrangea that covers the garage wall. Mom has come back to the same nest for four years now because it is protected from the rain by the overhand and gutters. We’ve been watching her fly in and out and after finding a half of a blue broken egg on the ground knew that she was now feeding her babies. She didn’t mind us being out either but really squawked and fly away whenever I walked near her nest. But yesterday when I was near it must have frightened the two baby robins who jumped and flew out of the nest along with the mom. They were large enough to flop along the ground and quickly they disappeared behind the house. 

     I loved watching this spring ritual and finding peace in the simplicity of nature. I will miss them now that they are off on their own. Usually Mrs. Robin comes back later to the nest for another round of babies so I will be looking forward to that. 

Picnic at Allegany State Park

What a beautiful day with temperature in the seventies. A perfect day to go to Allegany State Park which is only miles from our house in New York State. It is the largest of the New York State parks with two large lakes. We went to the Redhouse side to have our picnic. 

Even Sadie went along and loved being included. She spends a lot of time at home looking out the window, but Chris is her favorite person and he insisted that she come along too. 

After we ate we went to a local attraction in the park Thunder Rocks. 

Thunder Rocks is in a secluded area of the park, with a long, dirt road leading into it. It features several immense, climbable rocks that leave visitors in awe. The rocks can be climbed on, climbed through, jumped over and enjoyed by visitors young and old.

One of the beliefs on how Thunder Rocks, got their name, came from a local Seneca Indian belief that all things in nature have guardian spirits. Legend has it, that the guardian spirits of the rocks, decided to hold a competition. The challenge was to see which spirit could throw the biggest rock to the top of the mountain. Each time a boulder was thrown, a roaring, thunderous sound could be heard throughout the area. This clamor caused concern & distress amongst the tribe living nearest to the mountain. When dawn broke the next morning, members of the tribe set out to determine what caused this mighty uproar the previous night. To their surprise, they found these gigantic boulders strewn atop the mountain. Hence, they named this area, "THUNDER ROCKS" after the awful commotion that they heard the night before. 

Early morning

I love early morning when the air is fresh and the dew is on the grass. A new clean day is beginning. I am back home again and the suitcase is put away till another trip. On the way home I stopped at a lovely nursery and bought more flowers to plant and a lovely hanging basket of million bells. The bank has been mulched but is in much need of perennials (Becky, this is where I could use your advice.) All the fountains are working. When we set up the lion fountain there was a little problem with no water coming through the tube in the lion’s snout. We quickly discovered that a bee had made a nest there (last year we forgot to plug it up with a cork) so we had to use a drain unplugger to clean out all this yellow stuff. I put up the lights around the top of the house and on the breezeway. The fire pit is ready and we have lots of wood. (And I have all the fixings for s’mores). This weekend Craig is coming down and Chris and Scott are coming home too. It will be so nice to have family around. Are you having a picnic for Memorial Day?

All we do is eat?

From these pictures you may think all we do is eat when we are together. No, we do other things too but when we sit down to a nice dinner is the only time we stop to take a picture. 

Monday night we ate at Bravo and last night at Sedona Tap House where Linda and I had Kobe beef sliders..mine with squash couscous. Diane had crab cakes. We have a lot of fun together visiting our favorite stores. More of the same tomorrow.  Yesterday afternoon we took time to go to the movies to see The Book Club which was outrageously funny. The cast was superb. So much fun and laughing out loud. 

Oh and did I mentioned we shared a salted caramel cheesecake for dessert?

Off on an adventure

This is the time of the year when I am torn. I love to be home when the weather starts turning warm and the flowers are blooming. I like nothing better than to sit on my porch swing and read while listening to the pond waterfall. But because the bad snowy weather prevents me from traveling much of the winter it is the time when I want to get away too. So tomorrow I am off for a “sister fix”. I will meet my two sisters in Fredericksburg for a week of fun. I will try to blog sometime but forgive me if I miss a day or two now and then.

Opening up the doors

You know summer is coming for sure when I open up the French doors in the sunroom. First Don has to attach the screens to keep out those pesky flies. How do they always find their way in?  I love having both doors open full to let in the air. 

My peace lily had to move to a different spot over by the window.  

I don’t have a lot of indoor plants and I keep this one for sentimental reasons. It was from my father’s funeral. Last year I took it outside and cut it in half but it has grown back to its original size already. 

GETTING READY FOR SUMMER

Little by little more and more summer things come out. The swing...the table..the chairs.

The fountain is out but still needs cleaned but I had to start it up to hear it bubbling. 

I found a little picket fence to put at the top of the garden. Next we will work on getting the pond running and the mulch down. Today looks cold and rainy so this will be a day to stay in. 

I just finished this book and recommend it. She also wrote I Found You which I read recently. I’ve been on a reading spree for the last few weeks. Next I’m reading The Tuscan Child.

All ready to plant

These hot days make me think that we may not be getting our late May frost. I always put off planting until June but it has been so warm. I planted some day lilies in the picket fence garden corner. I’m looking for a shrub to replace the barberry which was removed.  

These geraniums are waiting to be planted. 

Yesterday afternoon we made a trip to Erie. Don enjoys getting to a bigger city where we can enjoy a nice lunch. This time it was the Red Lobster. I found the Clark’s sandals that I had been searching for. I’m very fussy about my shoes. It’s all about comfort now. 

THE HERB GARDEN

I’ve always loved this little planting area right outside my kitchen door. 

For many years I have used it as an herb garden. 

This year is no exception. There are a few things that come up faithfully year after year...thyme, chives, oregano, and lavender (no, it’s not an herb but lends a nice color and fragrance to the garden. 

I added basil and rosemary this year along with a few purple flowers for color. These little copper plant stakes are darling. 

I’ve had that cement acorn for so many years now. Some things become a permanent fixture in the herb garden. 

I will try to find some pineapple sage...I just love the smell...and my garden will be complete. 

The Office

Yesterday I spent quite a long time cleaning up the office and sorting through files. It’s kinda amazing how much you can actually throw away when you put your mind to it. This space has had many incarnations. When the house was first built in the fifties this small brick walled space was actually outside the house and was used as a small porch. Dr. Fannin and his wife lived here. She owned a wedding dress shop and came to my wedding to arrange my train before I walked down the aisle. When we looked at this house for the first time this room was used as a small tv room. After we moved in we put a player piano in the room and spent many hours pumping away and singing along. Later we got a hot tub and it made a great place to sit and relax. In 2006 we decided to add on to the house in the back making a sunroom. Now this room was inside the middle of the house and the hot tub was out of place so we sold it and turned it into an office. It is the perfect place for my big computer and filing cabinet. I don’t know if you have ever put together Sauder furniture before. It comes in a million pieces and is difficult to assemble. Only Don could have done it and he did it well. There were so many different screws and little pieces that I took Dixie cups and labeled all the individual screws so we wouldn’t get mixed up. It took hours and it is very heavy but in the long run it was worth it. 

On the other side of the room is a filing cabinet and a chest of drawers that I painted which holds decorations, paper napkins and plates, ribbons, and chargers. It is a pass through from the sunroom to the living room. Ever present is Don’s oxygen machine. (In case you are wondering what the blue machine is). I’m really happy how this room has metamorphosed. 

Carpe diem

Seize the day! Despite our rainy forecast the clouds cleared and the sun came out and gave us a beautiful afternoon yesterday. I took advantage of that and took a walk around Marilla  reservoir (sadly without out Sadie since her buggy still has a missing wheel). It is exactly a mile around the lake and the path meanders through the woods. 

It is a popular spot and I passed walkers with dogs and/or children. 

There are two different bridges to cross and as I walked along all I could hear was the babbling of the creek which fed into the lake and birds singing their soft sounds in the woods. I think it is a blessing that there is no cell reception in that area. It enabled me to find peace in nature instead of being hooked to my iPhone and listening to podcasts. 

Winter winds, snow and rains can be hard on trees. There were many toppled trunks down and broken limbs. There were also trees that had been cut laying all over which really detracted from the beauty around the lake. 

Occasionally I would pass a fisherman or a family with children fishing for trout in this peaceful setting. The walk is not hard with only gradual slopes to navigate. 

It is one of my favorite walks and I must do it more often. 

READY AND WAITING

Do you see that bag of garden soil over there? 

And that one too? They are sitting there just waiting for better weather. I have some holes to fill in where the barberry bushes were.  And I want to build up some of my flower beds. Mulching will come later. It looks like the tulips have disappeared in the small flower garden maybe crowded out by all the grape hyacinths. I definitely need to thin those out this year and move some of them elsewhere. 

I bought a few plants to put in pots and in the herb garden and they sit waiting as well. 

Each year I say I won’t buy as much but after a long white and gray winter I welcome all the color. 

Our new pump for the pond arrived in two days (Hail Amazon Prime!) so we will be completing the cleaning of the pond and get it ready for the season. Don had to replace a leaky hose. 

Geraniums seem to be one of my favorite flowers lately and I can get them to last all summer. I can’t wait to visit the garden center and pick out more. The recent rains have made the grass grow so fast. I hope that we have some dry days between the fifteen day forecast of cloudy and rainy. 

Today I am off to the Giggle Girls to play games. It is so good for our souls to laugh like that. I see the sun coming out. I tried to take Sadie for a short walk in the cemetery today but one of the wheels fell off the buggy. I hope that Don can fix it because Sadie loves her walks. 

New Ride

Nope, not mine. This is Chris’ latest. Chris is my car guy. He loves working on old cars and when he bought his new house had a six car garage built. I think right now he has a Ferrari, a Firebird, two vans, and some others I don’t know the names of. But he just bought this Saturn Sky. After his divorce I think he deserves it.

Blinking lights

I hesitate to write this for I don’t want you to think I’m a whack job. I thoroughly believe in ghosts. In fact, I know for sure that I have been contacted many times from the other side. It began when my sister’s husband passed away from brain cancer. There were so many unusual happenings right after that and I couldn’t explain them....my car radio coming on loudly all by itself, a hanging spoon which kept swinging for over fifteen minutes, books jumping off shelves. Then after my father passed we had the episode where he opened the bottle of wine for us. 

Do you believe that the dead can communicate with the living? I always thought so but now I am absolutely convinced by what happened this week at my house. My two sisters were visiting from Virginia. We always have a great time and that includes a little wine drinking (without me, of course, since I’m allergic to wine). Linda brought one of her last two bottles of wine that our father had made. He passed away a few years ago and we talk about him often. We were contemplating opening a bottle. I remarked that I had only one bottle left but I was saving it for a special occasion. My sister said, “If not now, when. If not us, who? If not here, where?” We were sitting outside at a small table on the breezeway and heard a crash from inside the house. We all looked at each other since we knew no one was in the house except Sadie whom we could see laying in front of the French doors. I said, “What was that?” I went in to look and called to the girls that they had to see this. My last bottle of wine was in the wine rack where it had been sitting for over 3 years. But the cork was unpopped and the bottle pushed back on the rack to save the wine. We all were amazed that the wine would open at just that moment when we were talking about it. And just that quickly we knew. Dad had opened his bottle of wine for us. The implied message was….this is a special occasion…drink it now! We couldn’t believe that it had happened and were just dumbfounded! If anyone could contact us from the other place, it would be my dad! I know now that he is ok and we have hope for after we die too. It gives me such a warm feeling to know that dad and mom still see us and know what we are doing. Thanks, dad for showing us that miracle!

I went to a local medium and was totally amazed when she said my mother’s middle name (Blanche), my father-in-law’s name and how he died, that I recently just got back from Canada, a relative’s granddaughter’s name whom we had just visited the day before, and several other significant facts. There was no way anyone could have known those things. It just confirmed for me that somehow people on the other side can communicate and have a voice. (If you have seen Long Island Medium on tv you know what I am talking about).

One of the ways I have been contacted is by blinking lights on and off. It has happened so many times to me that I am sure that it is a way of them getting my attention. I’m talking about lights that blink on and off for no reason (believe me I’ve checked that it isn’t a faulty wire). It has happened when my sisters and I are together, when my family sat in my son’s living room, when I am looking in the mirror in the bathroom. But yesterday ...well, it’s stunning. 

I was cleaning out the basement and as I sometimes do I was talking to my best friend who passed away over three years ago. I was telling her that I wanted her to contact me. I assured her I know she could do it. In fact I said out loud, “turn the light off, you can do it”. I said this several times and of course the light didn’t go off as I expected. So I forgot about it and went on with my chores in the part of the basement where my washer and dryer are. I turned on the radio (to detract me from the idea that it was a lot of work to sort through all that unused cookware that clutters the bins). I was working away when the three fluorescent lights in the other part of the basement started blinking on and off rapidly. I know when Don is upstairs and he wants my attention if I get a phone call and I can’t hear hi m call because of the radio he stands at the top of the steps and flicks the light switch on and off rapidly. So I hollered to see what he wanted as the lights continued to blink off, on. I thought he didn’t hear me so I walked over to that side of the basement when he appeared at the top of the steps wanted to know what I wanted. Weird. As he appeared the lights stopped and he walked down the stairs and the lights blinked off and on quickly for a second or two and then stopped. It wasn’t him turning them on and he was witness to the lights blinking. Then I knew....Yrsa had heard me. 

So I know that someday when I pass I will see my loved ones once more so I am not afraid of dying. I’m not ready to die yet for I feel I have a lot of living to do but when I go I want those left behind to know that I will be around watching their lives unfold and trying with all my might to contact them. 

So....have you been contacted? Do you believe?

My town

I just had to share these wonderful photos by Nate Bottorf of our Main Street. He has enhanced them of course but they show the gorgeous Bradford pear trees in full bloom. 

A lot of people living here don’t appreciate our town and complain of the lack of shopping and good restaurants.  But we have so much great about our little town. It is quiet and peaceful with low crime.  We have the University of Pittsburgh, a good hospital, some major industries and a fantastic school system. Our Creative and Performing arts group brings in good entertainment and we have a local theater group. And it is a wonderful area for outdoor activities such as fishing, hunting, skiing, snowmobiling, boating and hiking. We are only a few miles from the largest New York State Park with lots of camping. Nestled in a valley our town is full of friendly warm hearted people. It is a place where you can walk into a restaurant and the waitress brings your drink without having to ask what you’d like. I’ve visited a lot of cities and love to shop and eat at nice places but when I want peace I come home. 

A touch of color

I swore I wouldn’t buy flowers yet but I couldn’t resist these beauties. I have peppermint phlox growing in the garden but have never seen them in blue. I am partial to blue flowers for some reason. Even though we are not safe to plant till after Memorial Day it is time to begin gathering flowers. 

 I also worked hard getting summer things out of the shed and basement. It is a big chore but once things are out we get to enjoy them all season.  The fountains are ready and we are working on the pond.