Sittin On A Porch

Sittin On A Porch
Our little back porch

Saturday, September 17, 2011

Sometimes life is almost perfect

It is getting routine going to the Y on Tuesday and Thursdays.  I do my workout, then chair yoga, finish any machines I didn't get done, take a break and then floor yoga for an hour.  I am making friends in my classes, and I really like the instructors and I can see the beginning of a change in my body.  I walk a little taller, sit a little straighter, I am able to balance a little longer.


Thursday night I went up to rehearsal and talked with the Director about the last scene.  I wore the dress I bought while we were on St. George.  She wants something more island, so with that information, I know which direction to go.  It seems a little strange not to participate in the rehearsals, but since I still have problems sleeping, I am not complaining.  I will start going to rehearsals on Tuesday.  In the mean time I am working on my lines.  I don't have that many, so hopefully this will not be that big of a deal.  I like everyone in the play, so this is wonderful.


Some of the cast of Sin, Sex and the CIA, the tiny one to my left is Barbie Nettles are Director


Friday was perfect in every way.  I woke up and had a leisurely breakfast, did a few things around the house and then headed into Tallahassee to meet the precious Ms Moon at Tallahassee Nursery.  I was ready to spend my retirement gift card.  I hoped to pick up blueberries and/or apple trees and/or pomegranate tree and/or persimmon tree.  But they did not have anything I wanted in those plants.  But I did get a Parson Brown orange, a Sumatra Orange and an olive tree.  I also picked up some fun plants for the veggie garden and a couple of flowering plants, one for the kitchen and one for the garden.  I also picked up 2 new begonias.  Ms Moon got me hooked on begonias, and it is always fun to see if they have a different color or leaf shape.  It is like walking around a lovely garden going to one of these big beautiful nurseries.  And of course, you can not go anywhere in Tallahassee without seeing someone Ms Moon knows.  This time it was Susan, a long time employee at Tallahassee Nursery, and it just so happens that I also know her from an almost disastrous kayak trip a couple of years ago.  We still talk about that trip whenever we see each other.


After buying more packets of seeds and plants then we really needed, we filled our cars with our emerald treasures and headed over to the Mockingbird Cafe for lunch.  Ms Moon stopped and picked up Hank who joined us and May was our waitress.  it was perfect, the food wonderful the service professional and friendly, I mean it was May after all.  And with the talented people in the kitchen, which now includes the sweet and wonderful Taylor, it was a relaxed and lovely lunch.  I had an eggplant sandwich with sweet potato fries and brought half home for my lunch today.  


After our successful walk around the nursery followed by the perfect lunch experience Mary and I headed over to Target so I could get a yoga mat.  I also found a couple of new bras with a sport back that I needed.  I grew up thinking that bra straps showing, going without a slip or having pantie lines would be viewed by head shaking and gasps from my mother and her friends.  Then the 60s and 70s came along and we gave up our undergarments.  So again, no bra straps showing and no pantie lines.  Of course we also did not wear slips, but our cotton skirts were long and full and we were hippies and it was a time of free love and breaking old rules.  Civil rights, drugs, women's rights, changes in the work place, people travelling through space, the beginning of the internet and the world started spinning faster and it has never been the same.  We still have so far to go with civil rights, equal rights and equal pay, but we have opened the door that can never be closed.   The young people of today wear under garments again, and now they are proud to let their bra straps show.  The boys wear their pants hitched below their bottom showing off their boxers and girls wear thongs, and the colors are bold, the straps lacy, and everyone can see.  I am still more comfortable when what I wear or don't wear under my clothes is my personal business, not public knowledge.


I bought a beginner yoga set with a mat, block, strap and 2 DVDs.  I will make a bag to carry my yoga mat and strap.  I don't think I will carry the block, but I will keep it here at the house in case I need to use it.  I finally feel like I am being serious about my workouts.  I know that this is important part of strengthening my body and hopefully adding productive years to my life.  I try to take time to remember that I am doing this, I asked for the opportunity and I am trying to make the most of it.


I ran by the bank, filled up the toy's tank and headed home with the top down.  It has been so long since Ms Moon and I took a trip to Tallahassee and it meant so much to me.  Just being around that sweet nurturing woman calms my soul and makes me feel loved.  Being around her children I feel  peace in the universe.  Lately I have pulled away from people and spent more time alone at home, I have dearly missed our trips to Tallahassee.  I haven't seen Ms Judy much either.  It was nice to have life get a little bit closer to normal and to be with a dear friend again.


At home I took the evening watching movies, emailing friends, but sleep was again elusive.  The day had been so perfect, by sleep just danced beyond my reach for most of the night.  


This morning I woke exhausted, but today is my day to get to have lunch with Bob at Panera.  His birthday is this week so I stopped by Publix and picked up a mini chocolate cake for him with a candle that sings happy birthday.  He brought me this very cool cottage industry made wisk broom when he was on vacation this summer.  It is beautifully braided with a sturdy but flexible brush.  The pride in the workmanship is evident.  He also brought me more tupelo honey.  Bob is such a considerate man.  He showed me an article in Air and Science, a Smithsonian Magazine from the 1970s with an article about a,  pilot and his airplane landing at the Moore Farm in Albion, NY.  That is Bob's family, and in the picture, you can see Bob's dad in the crowd and then in another picture as he was getting ready to spin the prop.  Bob always has something interesting to share.  We enjoyed our lunch together, I ate all my lunch, then regretted pushing myself with my stomach deciding to argue with me all the way home, sigh.  


But Happy Birthday Bob!  I had a wonderful time.  Bob and I have been friends since my first day with the Department. He is such a dear person, and I am so fortunate to have him as a friend.  We talked about so many things.  A lot of time was spent talking about retirement plans and how we both are trying to figure out how to put ourselves in our best position.


Today is the FSU/Oklahoma game and Tallahassee was overflowing with people in for the game, so I headed back out of town to my little place in Jefferson county as soon as we had finished our lunches.  My stomach required a little rest time, but as I felt better I got out front and started taking down the front porch gazebo. I am going to move the furniture which is not made for outside into the barn and move my lounge chair and table to the front porch along with an umbrella to shade the afternoon fall sun from the plants and me as I sit out there to read.  That front porch was one of the most magical places that made me fall in love with my little place here.  When I first moved up here I would go out there in the evenings with a glass of red wine, my dinner and a book and I would enjoy a quiet moment watching the sunset, have my dinner and unwind after a stressful day at work.  I was able to get about 1/3 of the gazebo down.  It already looks so much better.  


Four years ago, we put up a gazebo on the little front porch and it was nice for the first couple of years, but it was only meant to be a temporary fix until we could figure out how we wanted to enclose the front little porch.  I still haven't made up my mind, but it is time to remove the old and enjoy the little porch again.


I managed to catch the last quarter of the UF/Tennessee game, GO GATORS!!!!!  We won 33 - 23.  Oh yeah!  GO Gators!  And now I am watching the FSU/OK game, and it is the first quarter and one of the Seminoles took a huge hit as he was sandwiched in between two Sooners with high hits and he has not moved.  They have brought in a stretcher and are getting ready to move him off the field.  I hope he is ok.  He has not moved since he hit the ground.  They are taking every precaution with him.   The score is OK - 7, FSU - 3.  I think he had possession of the ball until he took the hit,  it was a hard hit.  They just announced that Kenny, the player who was hit has not been conscience enough for them to make a determination concerning his neck.  And The Sooners just intercepted the ball.  I don't think I can watch this whole game.  I am a Gator, but I can't help but root for FSU when it doesn't affect UF.


And I am tired, I think I will lay down and see if sleep will be friend me tonight and give me rest.  Tomorrow, I have no commitments.  My goal is to finish taking down the rest of the gazebo, and start clearing the yard so I can mow it.

Update on Kenny, he does have movement in all appendages, so that is great news, and I am so thankful for the good word about the young man.



I am looking forward to my Sunday.  I love Sundays.  The day of rest, the day of celebration of the week, whether looking back at the previous week or looking towards all the possibilities of the coming week.  Daddy will be coming up next week to stay with me for a couple of weeks.  We will go see The Sound of Music, and I am thinking about getting tickets to go see Annie Get Your Gun at the Quincy Music Theater.  Dad played Buffalo Bill when the Manatee Players did their production of the show, when I was a young girl.  I think he might enjoy seeing it.  It is just finding the time to get to see it.  


The other big news for today was the first day that my chickens were allowed out of their coop to scratch and peck around the pasture.  They are such good chickens, they stayed close to the coop, but they were so happy scratching and clucking.  I still got 2 eggs, including the giant Tiffany blue one.  It is so funny that both Ms Moon and I are both getting a giant Tiffany blue egg.  I am also certain that Brugmansia, a whitish Aracunda is laying it.  Mary's is one of the new chickens so it is mostly black.  Such wonders eggs are.


John C. Bennett and some of the girls on their first "field trip"

Out in the pasture

John C. Bennett and Magnolia, isn't he a lovely rooster, and so sweet!


I also have a couple of pictures of the dogs, Ednarose with her sturdy little self is quite a handful, and then at other times such a sweet affectionate little girl.  


Ednarose at 3 1/2 months

Harry and friends


Such a sweet life, such a life filled with such gifts and joy.  I need more sleep, and I need to be able to eat without my stomach turning on me, but with this gorgeous weather and perfect light, this last week of summer finds me happy to have moments to remember, and photos to look back at my "kids".   


You know, sometimes life is almost perfect.  

1 comment:

  1. It's so nice to read about a good time with a dear friend from the other perspective. I'm glad you enjoyed it, as I did too. Today we are going to work in the garden and try to get all of those things we bought planted. I put my ponytail palm in a pot on the kitchen porch and I am happy every time I see it. Which is about one hundred times a day- good investment! But why did we buy so many seeds?!
    I need to separate that begonia and get one of them to you.
    I love you, Kathleen. I do.

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