Ok, totally psychedelic! I took this self portrait of myself last year and edited it in PSP7.
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Aug4
Aug3
Time for green beans!
I went out after dinner and it was still really warm. I feel like I had somewhat of a workout bending and picking and mostly doing so with my left hand as I have my right hand wrapped up. These are almost perfect, no blemishes-I’d say about 2 or more pounds. I only planted 4 very short rows. 
The only thing now we are having a hot, dry spell. I just think all that rain earlier in the summer is giving us a good harvest so far. Not sure how things will fare in the next few weeks. Bri planted cucumbers and they are coming along slowly. The yard long beans I planted a few weeks ago seem to be growing and attaching to the fence. I also picked some more tomatoes and 1 MORE SQUASH for those keeping count. I’m waiting on the next round for those. I only planted about 9 squash plants but they are huge.
I’m playing with my blog theme as you can see. Do you like this one or prefer the one I’ve had for a while?
Aug3
A new local prank
About 12:15 last night, I was finishing up on the computer and it was getting warm in here. Bri’s good at turning the air up to about 78 before he goes to bed. So I was walking past the front window to adjust the air and I saw a car parked in front of our trash bin! I turned the front light on and then I saw it drive away, but I heard wheels moving, the bin’s wheels! Sure enough, the bin was gone and I had to get Bri out of bed to go look for it. First he went up the yard in the wrong direction and I told him they went the other way. He found it all dumped out (and it was a full load this week) in our next door neighbor’s driveway and their mailbox had been knocked down! I decided to call the police, if just for the neighbor’s sake of needing a new mailbox. The officers came here to file a report.
Today I called our neighbor and she says this is a ‘new thing’ with the kids or whatever pranksters are doing it. They use to come along and smash our mailboxes. Most of us got wise and got plastic mailboxes or put a metal halo around them. It was nice to chat with our neighbor as I haven’t done so for a while. They are older and kind of stay to themselves.
I am suffering either from a sprained right thumb or carpel tunnel syndrome. I am left-handed, but my thumb started bothering me big time yesterday afternoon and throughout the night. I have a special support glove somewhere, but right now I am icing it and am wearing a glove you wear to bed (to moisturize it). It helps. I think I hurt it lifting the pots of roses. I’ve had hand problems before, but usually my left hand. Also trying to ‘stitch in hand’ without a hoop seemed to bother it. I guess I better lay off the cross stitching for a few days.
Sean did fine at the dentist yesterday, but he did feel odd and out of sorts, so I’m glad I went with him. He had three fillings done. I drove through Wendy’s for lunch. He tried to drink his Frosty float through a straw when he got home, but his lips were too numb and it went all over his face.
Have a great weekend. Hopefully some rain will break the heat here. I have green beans to pick, not sure if I can do it myself.
3 weeks from today we head up to University Park! Time surely flew by this year!
Update, so I don’t have to write a new post-I just added a 4th phone line to our TMobile account. I had called for a special offer on a phone, but it only applied to an existing phone line. I am giving my old phone to Bri’s dad and getting a cool Motorola flip phone in magenta. If pops can’t get the hang of my old phone, TMobile has a ton of phone deals to chose from. Mine is a $159.00 model and will be free after their discount and a mail in rebate. Can’t beat that. And each additional phone line is only $10 a month. Peace of mind for everyone to know they have a way to communicate.
I have my hand in an Ace bandage and it seems to help a bit.
My thoughts and prayers go out to families of the people who died in the bridge collapse in Minnesota. What a horrible thing! To think a bridge separates us from my brother and his family is still a scary thing to me.
Aug2
Hey I’m a Rockin’ Girl Blogger!
Thanks to Barbara for tagging me and leaving me such kind comments. She is definitely at the top of my list, but can she get ‘double dipped’ to rock twice as much? ☺ Barbara is a friend who has lived a pretty cool life first in Maine and now in the Netherlands. But she is moving back to Maine one of these years. She’s smart, a brilliant writer, a caring wife, mom and daughter. Her stitching is amazing for someone who just started stitching within the last decade. My jaw dropped when I saw she had listed over 125 projects on Cyberstitchers.com (where we met). I can’t wait to meet her twins due in December!
I crown Zoey at Perennial Passion secondly. When I was a new blogger, she came to visit and left comment after comment. She’s an amazing gardener and has inspired me in my own gardens. Don’t get me started on her quilting-she’s gifted to the core.
Carole/Pea at Pea’s Corner is a doll. We have a lot in common, height, all brothers, my middle name is Carol, but she would be the bestest next door neighbor and someone to go on daytrips with. She always shows us her adventures, even in movies. Thanks for being a dear too.
Nancy over at Cross stitches and Kitty Kisses rocks big time! Well they broke the mold when Nancy came along. She and I share the same maiden name of Knowles, so we swear we are related. I’ve known her a long time too. She’s been through a lot with her health and eyes, but her dead pan humor surfaces all the time. She loves kitties and cross stitching. And she’s a wonderful grandmom too.
And I’d like to combine all the wonderful ladies who I met on the Neighborhood Round Robin project-Annemarie, Rachael, Carol, Su and Veronica (and Helen too). I’m so glad to have met all of you and stitch on your projects and get to enjoy your blogs too. All are very giving people. I have a feeling we will be pals for a long time. Thanks everyone and you’re all tagged!!!!
By the way, all the above mentioned bloggers are pretty good with the camera too. I appreciate good photos and I’m always in awe of the shots of their yards and homelands and of course kiddos and kitties, etc.!
Aug1
Say hello to my little friend
The few times I ventured out today I was scolded by a catbird. Now I know they are usually very friendly birds and I have had a few sing to me as I rested in the chaise lounge, putting on a fine show and making me smile. So I figured there may be a young one around somewhere, but where?
After dinner I promised the kitty I’d take him out and he did ‘his usual’- walking, scratching, eating grass and sniffing. We neared a little spirea bush and I felt eyes on me. Sure enough, there was this little fella watching us while mom kept scolding us nearby. I was completely startled for some reason.
After tying Cos up, I ran in to get the camera and Sean followed me out. I took about 5 photos, probably dazed the poor little thing! I then got it in my head that he was way too close to the ground in this bush (like a few feet up) and that the neighborhood cat or some other critter would eat him as a snack. So I found a stick, hoping he would perch on it, but he just flapped his wings and hopped across the yard to the forsythia along the road. Cos was watching all this and went as far as he could on his harness, creeping along very low to the ground. Birdie must have found his roost as it was quiet once again.
Earlier, Bri came out and planted my three $2 (or so) rose bushes from the Kmart sale. He thinks they are too close together. By the time he planted, I tapped down the soil, found the rose food and watered them, I was pretty sticky. Bri went in the garden to weed around his ‘$15 peppers’ (that’s what I call them as that’s how much they cost) and he was just drenched to the skin. I think we are finally finished planting things! Now we’ll get a heat wave and dry weather so it will be harder on the new plants.
Sean goes for his first fillings ever tomorrow morning and wants me to come along. I hope my post nasal drip and itchy throat will be better by then. Major annoyance the last few days. My eyes have been red too. I was also a little grossed out by boneless turkey breast I had for dinner, it’s rather sticky, but I followed a recipe on the package and it was good! You dip the turkey in a soy sauce and lemon juice mixture. You are suppose to use scallions for the center of the roll-up, but all I had were chives. Stick them on wooden skewers and broil them for 6 minutes on each side.
I hope for a cooking break tomorrow, but I’m not counting on it.
Aug1
Comparsion of a garden
Here’s my herb/flower/veggie bed in May:
Here’s the same space in June:
And at the end of July (where did my birdhouse go?):
Here’s what’s going on-I lost some of the bright pink Nicotiana that were doing so well, also a Lavender plant. Another Lavender is holding on by a thread. I’ve gotten some Roma Tomatoes, a green pepper and one green eggplant with two white ones almost ready to harvest. Herb wise the Basil is doing well as is the Italian parsley and Rosemary. I think I still have Dill. The Marigolds and Salvia really like this spot. The other plants in this well packed garden (made mainly to hide the ugly wore metal basement doors and for me to run out and snip herbs for cooking) are: Autumn Joy sedum, Sweet peas, a big pot of mostly petunias, some milkweed (and I am starting to see some happy Monarch butterflies who eat it) and a pretty perennial with a pink pom pom like flower-will look for it again!
Jul31
Run around
Not much new here. Sean had to get his license renewed early as he won’t be home in October when his actual birthday rolls around. We headed 15 miles down to Oxford and now Sean has an official ‘legal’ license instead of a junior’s license as he’s almost 21. We took a drive through the town to see if we wanted to stop anywhere and passed Brian on the road who had just had his last day in that office. Bri turned around and followed us to a grocery store parking lot and we chatted a little and then took off, Bri to Kennett and us to Jennersville where we hit both Blockbuster and Dairy Queen. I told Sean he and his pals should be hanging out at that DQ because of all the young ladies there. He bought the second Pirates of the Carribean movie and the Illusionist at BB.
For dinner I made a few ham steaks, fresh green beans and Parmesan couscous, the left over squash souffle and biscuits (that had been frozen). It was a quick dinner, the best kind.
After dinner I did some mail art for the ATC cards I’ll send to three of my friends. The ATCs are calling cards. I like the way they turned out! The mailart (the envelopes) were decorated with images, places and wording from a Brandywine Valley tourist book from 2000. The envelopes are in my flickr album if you want to see!
I went through my cross stitch stash and want to do a Christmas ornament for the blog I joined and haven’t followed along with- getting an ornament a month made (I think that’s it!) I settled on a The Prairie Schooler design of two cardinals in a evergreen tree. I want to do a few more cardinals that I have in my stash anyway. I did get to the post office (thanks again to Sean) and mailed off Veronica’s NRR to her daughter Helen for safe keeping. The mail clerk handed me a rather small mailer and said that’s what they are using for Global priority now. I told Helen she may want to open it and give it a nice press for her mum. The clerk was a little grumpy and I asked her if she wanted squash and she took two of them.
Don’t forget to play the ‘guess the squash’ game! I will make you a special prize if you win! I am hoping to have more than two comments when the harvest is done. I don’t know if it’s my blogs name, what I talk about or what, but I just don’t get a bunch of comments and never have. I do have a handful of special pals (thanks so much) that drop by to read my ramblings. If I had anything about just stitching, cooking or photography in my title, I’d probably get more hits, but that’s not my main intention. I have this as an informational blog for myself too. Also a place to add my photos and anything special I want to read about in the future. I will have my three year blog anniversary soon. Can’t believe it!
Jul31
Tom Snyder
Tom Snyder passed away at the age of 71 on July 29th. Back in the late 60s- 70s, he was a newsanchor at the Philly station where my brother is presently employed as an electronic technician (yeah, Dave got all the ‘math brains’ in the family).
Back in 1968 as a Philly newsman
I do remember Tom back then (as I fondly remember Jessica Savitch), but I remember watching his late night show when all the other shows were long over (I’m still a night owl). I recently watched him do an interview with James Taylor and his siblings back in the late 70s that was uploaded on Youtube.com. I can’t help but think back on Dan Akyroyd’s (when he was on Saturday Night Live) take on him…sitting there spewing out questions with a cigarette in one hand.
Good television.
Jul30
Yellow squash invasion
I was just cruising recipe sites (this is bad as I own so many cookbooks but wasn’t in the mood to thumb through them today). About.com has several tempting recipes, but I was missing an ingredient or two, like sour cream for many of them or I didn’t feel like grating them. I settled on a Squash souffle-oui oui! It takes a little prep time, but I’m sure it will go fine with the shrimp I plan to have with it.
Chocolate squash bread is next!
Yum! It tasted like the creamed spinach (but with yellow squash) that Boston Market sells. Even the cat liked it!
My eyes are bothering me big time today when looking at a distance without my glasses. They felt grainy, so something is in the environment that is disturbing them or maybe I have eye strain. That may be why they look so puffy in the photo below.
I am thankful for the following foods (all frozen!): frozen biscuits, so good; Boston Market frozen entrees-we use to have one around here but it’s gone (I had the turkey medallions and mashed potatoes for lunch) and for Sean-Dippin’ Dots that are frozen treats. What are Dippin’ Dots (or similar name in the supermarket brand)?? They are pellets of ice cream in one little container. They can mix banana, strawberry, vanilla and chocolate ‘dots’ and you get-Banana split flavor! Those Dippin’ Dots places are big at the beach resorts and malls around here.
Look who else likes them!!!
So back to the squash, I see about 6 more ready to pick tonight! I better start freezing them! And if you are interested, I will share recipes and if you lived near me, I’d give you some! We have about 50+ green tomatoes, so you know what that means-yep, they’ll all get ripe at once! My green beans got pushed over by the heavy rains, but I do see little beans forming. To think I was leaving the veggies up to Brian. Dang.
Update-Look what I picked tonight-it’s a big bowl! I’m not telling you how many, but it was almost twice as much as the first time. I’m going to start a game-‘Guess the number of yellow squash from Dianne’s garden’. Really. Until the last one is harvested. And if you are the closest, you win a little prize from me. Woo hoo! Watch for a banner in my side bar.
Also picked were some green peppers, one Early Girl and several Roma tomatoes.
Jul29
Getting taller than me
I’m pushing 5’3″ and so are most of my flowers in this bed! Well the sunflowers are taller than me now. I look a little beat in this photo from the past few days of emotional turmoil. Mom apologized today and I said we should have followed our plans for Tuesday and stayed out of the stores. Mom was out yesterday with Jim her boarder to get the rest of her stuff she left behind on Wednesday. She brought her camera and took photos of my gardens and flowers. I was flattered.
Here are my flower shares for the day:
I’m surrounded by Cosmos, zinnias (out of shot) and sunflowers. Bri took this photo.
This is a Fantasy lily that the previous owners planted out back so they’ve been there over 20 years.
The Mexican Sunflowers (torch flowers) are blooming too! I am raising these from seed too.
By the way, everyone is talking about their bargains and I got 5 rose plants (two trees!) for under $15 at Kmart last night. They were getting rid of their plants at a buy 1 get 1 free special. I tried to pick the nicest ones as they were really neglected. When I got them home, I snipped off the dead branches and gave them a dose of Miracle Grow and bug killer (you never know what you’re bring home!). I have the rose trees across from the front door for now. One is like a fuchsia color and the other is a Peace rose.
Collages & Creative Goodness 