I was awaken at 3:00 am this morning with stomach issues. They continued until mid morning so I stayed home. I had plenty to do today and work I had brought home. And I thought it could not hurt to take it easier today then to fight against this stomach thing and then tomorrow I hit the road for the weekend south. The memorial service and then time with dad will take a lot to get through, so for once I was smart and did not push it.
sometimes I learn.
sometimes.
I did feel better late morning and stopped by Isabelle's for a quick visit and then drove into Tallahassee to pick up a couple of birthday presents. So errands run. I still need to wash and vacuum the car, but I think I will do that before I leave town tomorrow. This afternoon I got some chores done around the house. I got to see Ms Judy and Ms Denise. They were on a short vacation down to Disney earlier in the week and they brought me back a pin that is the Micky head and ears, with the head a peace sign. I love it!!!
Then I went out to the old airstream. I have two airstreams. One that went through Hurricane Charlie. It looks pretty bad, but airstreams are pretty darn amazing. It had trees piled up on it so that you could not see it, but it did not leak. Then I packed it with belongings and had it put up on a low boy and brought up here. Unfortunately when they were driving it off the low boy, the wooden ramps gave way, jack knifing the truck to the trailer and damaged the trailer pretty good then. But it is still fine for storage and has a lot of things that I have not gone through since I moved here. That is one of the things on my to do list after I retire. I still plan on using it for storage, but I would like to go through it and through out or donate a lot of the stuff in it, and then repack it in a better order. That way I can clear out boxes in the barn so that eventually the barn can be used as a shop. I quickly went through boxes and pulled bags and sleeves of photographs. I brought them into the house and went through them coming up with about 2 dozen photos to take down to the Memorial Service. More then enough, and Colleen and Linda and I will go through them and pick out the best. It was fun looking through all the pictures we took on all 3 trips to Alaska. And there were photos from our trip out west to Seattle and we ended up in Canada and went to Buchardt Gardens. Even the photos are amazing with how many flowers there were. I swear they have more flowers in that garden then anywhere else in the world. There were pictures in the redwood forest, the petrified forest, Nova Scotia, New Foundland and Prince Edward Island. Photos from Route 66, Honduras, Key West, the Bahamas. Larry and I drove in and through 49 states, somehow missing Vermont and Hawaii. And there are photos of mountains and valleys, waterfalls, rivers and lakes, flowers, trees, ferns, signs naming famous places and camping in quiet secluded forests. We did travel. And now I have some of the best pictures of Larry from that life to take to the Memorial Service. Linda thought it would be nice to have some photos on art boards so people could look and remember that Larry.
I have roses to give people who come tomorrow. I also have rose petals from my yard to throw out with the ashes. Larry loved sitting in the yard and I think it is fitting for some of the flowers that surrounded him here will go with him. I have my camera and plan to take pictures of the event and all our loved ones that will be able to come.
As I was looking through the photos I heard one of my chickens doing the egg song. Chickens sing this song when they lay an egg. It always makes me think of them saying, "look at me, look at me!" "see my beautiful egg?" "Attention, Attention" So I slipped out and followed the song and there in my brush pile deeply hidden in the branches with pine needles pushed here and there to make a perfect nest were about a dozen and a half eggs. I took the ones on top and left about half of them. The ones I left had obviously been there for some time in that they had brown pine needle stains. I hope that as long as they are allowed out that they continue to use the nest. But now that I have taken some of their eggs, I am not sure that they will use the nest again. I am going to start locking them up because they are making a mess in the barn, and digging up plants and when I am gone to Europe I do not want them loose. It will be easier for Denise and Judy to watch them if they are in their coop. And then I can open up the door in between the 2 coops and let the pecking order begin while I am still here and can intervene if it gets too rough. I am thrilled though to finally find the eggs. I placed the gathered eggs in a bowl of water, one almost sort of floated, not really, but it was not quite as heavy as the others, so the dogs got it. It was fine, and the dogs enjoyed it thoroughly. I have missed my fresh eggs. Later this summer I will have eggs coming out of my ears when the baby girls are old enough to start laying, but right now I have actually had to buy eggs. They are just not the same. I love my hens even when they are too old to lay any longer, but while they are, it is disappointing when I can't find them. And then I worry about predators finding the eggs and then going after my chickens.
But this was a very clever place to lay their eggs. I have been looking and looking and never saw it before this. And it was hard for me to get my hand in there, I have no idea how my big fat beautiful hens get in there. I love big fat chickens. I love big dogs, and fat cats. Harry is big, Bob is big for a dog, but not for a Lab. And none of my cats are fat. Really, even my Manx, Henry who could hold a little girth, is not fat.
Well, now to make a birthday present. This coming weekend is also a sweet lovely young woman who I love so dearly, and I can't say who she is or what I am making, but I need to get back to it. I hope she likes it.
And it is getting hot. Oh, yes, it is getting hot. And it is summer, so it is supposed to be hot. I need to water more, and I need to move some of my plants into the shade house so that they will get watered everyday even if I am not here until I can get them moved permanently into their new homes.
It was a good day. A day of accomplishments and rest. I got things done I needed to do, and that has taken a little stress off of me. And I look forward to retiring and taking up more of these things that feel like they have made their home on my to do list. It is spring, even though it feels like summer, and for many of us it stirs our DNA and says, "Spring cleaning" I see that Ms Moon over at Bless Our Hearts that she too feels the pull to clean out and make room. Does this go back to our roots as humans when we would move each summer season with the food. Packing up our belongings and following the herds, moving through the areas where fruits, berries and edible roots and veggies were gathered, eaten and preserved for the winter months. I don't know, but it is spring and I too feel that pull to let go of things.
Of course I have additional reasons to go through things now. I don't want to leave too much for my brothers to have to deal with. I am not foolish enough to think that I will not be leaving them with some things to deal with, but I would like to keep that to a minimum. And we have a wonderful thrift store for the humane society here and I will donate the best of that which I want to get rid of there. Mostly I want to go through my books. I have two addictions, books and plants. And some of my books I can give to the library for their book sale, but there are others, old friends that I miss. I want to visit again. When we lived on Pine Island I had book shelves everywhere. Running completely around the entire house about a foot and a half below the ceiling were book shelves. The bottom of the shelves resting on top of the windows and door frames. I can't do that here, and I don't have enough shelves to house all of my books, but I do have room for those old friends that I can not part with. The others, hopefully will raise a little money for the library and give people an opportunity to own a book they love.
So back to work, it has been a good day. My hair, seemed to fit a little better. The shock of the cut fading. My stomach is still fussing at me, but that is nothing knew. And honestly not that big of a deal as long as I am considerate of my body. Slowly I am changing. Slowly I am starting to understand that walking it off may not be the best idea all of the time. I am learning that I do not have to go out at dawn and work until sunset. Taking a two hour lunch sitting on my porch and reading a book is a good thing. Little lessons, just little thoughtful actions, sometimes makes such a difference in a happy day.
A happy day.
A good day.
A day of little lessons.
Yes, a good day.
And I found the eggs!!
sometimes I learn.
sometimes.
I did feel better late morning and stopped by Isabelle's for a quick visit and then drove into Tallahassee to pick up a couple of birthday presents. So errands run. I still need to wash and vacuum the car, but I think I will do that before I leave town tomorrow. This afternoon I got some chores done around the house. I got to see Ms Judy and Ms Denise. They were on a short vacation down to Disney earlier in the week and they brought me back a pin that is the Micky head and ears, with the head a peace sign. I love it!!!
Then I went out to the old airstream. I have two airstreams. One that went through Hurricane Charlie. It looks pretty bad, but airstreams are pretty darn amazing. It had trees piled up on it so that you could not see it, but it did not leak. Then I packed it with belongings and had it put up on a low boy and brought up here. Unfortunately when they were driving it off the low boy, the wooden ramps gave way, jack knifing the truck to the trailer and damaged the trailer pretty good then. But it is still fine for storage and has a lot of things that I have not gone through since I moved here. That is one of the things on my to do list after I retire. I still plan on using it for storage, but I would like to go through it and through out or donate a lot of the stuff in it, and then repack it in a better order. That way I can clear out boxes in the barn so that eventually the barn can be used as a shop. I quickly went through boxes and pulled bags and sleeves of photographs. I brought them into the house and went through them coming up with about 2 dozen photos to take down to the Memorial Service. More then enough, and Colleen and Linda and I will go through them and pick out the best. It was fun looking through all the pictures we took on all 3 trips to Alaska. And there were photos from our trip out west to Seattle and we ended up in Canada and went to Buchardt Gardens. Even the photos are amazing with how many flowers there were. I swear they have more flowers in that garden then anywhere else in the world. There were pictures in the redwood forest, the petrified forest, Nova Scotia, New Foundland and Prince Edward Island. Photos from Route 66, Honduras, Key West, the Bahamas. Larry and I drove in and through 49 states, somehow missing Vermont and Hawaii. And there are photos of mountains and valleys, waterfalls, rivers and lakes, flowers, trees, ferns, signs naming famous places and camping in quiet secluded forests. We did travel. And now I have some of the best pictures of Larry from that life to take to the Memorial Service. Linda thought it would be nice to have some photos on art boards so people could look and remember that Larry.
I have roses to give people who come tomorrow. I also have rose petals from my yard to throw out with the ashes. Larry loved sitting in the yard and I think it is fitting for some of the flowers that surrounded him here will go with him. I have my camera and plan to take pictures of the event and all our loved ones that will be able to come.
As I was looking through the photos I heard one of my chickens doing the egg song. Chickens sing this song when they lay an egg. It always makes me think of them saying, "look at me, look at me!" "see my beautiful egg?" "Attention, Attention" So I slipped out and followed the song and there in my brush pile deeply hidden in the branches with pine needles pushed here and there to make a perfect nest were about a dozen and a half eggs. I took the ones on top and left about half of them. The ones I left had obviously been there for some time in that they had brown pine needle stains. I hope that as long as they are allowed out that they continue to use the nest. But now that I have taken some of their eggs, I am not sure that they will use the nest again. I am going to start locking them up because they are making a mess in the barn, and digging up plants and when I am gone to Europe I do not want them loose. It will be easier for Denise and Judy to watch them if they are in their coop. And then I can open up the door in between the 2 coops and let the pecking order begin while I am still here and can intervene if it gets too rough. I am thrilled though to finally find the eggs. I placed the gathered eggs in a bowl of water, one almost sort of floated, not really, but it was not quite as heavy as the others, so the dogs got it. It was fine, and the dogs enjoyed it thoroughly. I have missed my fresh eggs. Later this summer I will have eggs coming out of my ears when the baby girls are old enough to start laying, but right now I have actually had to buy eggs. They are just not the same. I love my hens even when they are too old to lay any longer, but while they are, it is disappointing when I can't find them. And then I worry about predators finding the eggs and then going after my chickens.
But this was a very clever place to lay their eggs. I have been looking and looking and never saw it before this. And it was hard for me to get my hand in there, I have no idea how my big fat beautiful hens get in there. I love big fat chickens. I love big dogs, and fat cats. Harry is big, Bob is big for a dog, but not for a Lab. And none of my cats are fat. Really, even my Manx, Henry who could hold a little girth, is not fat.
Well, now to make a birthday present. This coming weekend is also a sweet lovely young woman who I love so dearly, and I can't say who she is or what I am making, but I need to get back to it. I hope she likes it.
And it is getting hot. Oh, yes, it is getting hot. And it is summer, so it is supposed to be hot. I need to water more, and I need to move some of my plants into the shade house so that they will get watered everyday even if I am not here until I can get them moved permanently into their new homes.
It was a good day. A day of accomplishments and rest. I got things done I needed to do, and that has taken a little stress off of me. And I look forward to retiring and taking up more of these things that feel like they have made their home on my to do list. It is spring, even though it feels like summer, and for many of us it stirs our DNA and says, "Spring cleaning" I see that Ms Moon over at Bless Our Hearts that she too feels the pull to clean out and make room. Does this go back to our roots as humans when we would move each summer season with the food. Packing up our belongings and following the herds, moving through the areas where fruits, berries and edible roots and veggies were gathered, eaten and preserved for the winter months. I don't know, but it is spring and I too feel that pull to let go of things.
Of course I have additional reasons to go through things now. I don't want to leave too much for my brothers to have to deal with. I am not foolish enough to think that I will not be leaving them with some things to deal with, but I would like to keep that to a minimum. And we have a wonderful thrift store for the humane society here and I will donate the best of that which I want to get rid of there. Mostly I want to go through my books. I have two addictions, books and plants. And some of my books I can give to the library for their book sale, but there are others, old friends that I miss. I want to visit again. When we lived on Pine Island I had book shelves everywhere. Running completely around the entire house about a foot and a half below the ceiling were book shelves. The bottom of the shelves resting on top of the windows and door frames. I can't do that here, and I don't have enough shelves to house all of my books, but I do have room for those old friends that I can not part with. The others, hopefully will raise a little money for the library and give people an opportunity to own a book they love.
So back to work, it has been a good day. My hair, seemed to fit a little better. The shock of the cut fading. My stomach is still fussing at me, but that is nothing knew. And honestly not that big of a deal as long as I am considerate of my body. Slowly I am changing. Slowly I am starting to understand that walking it off may not be the best idea all of the time. I am learning that I do not have to go out at dawn and work until sunset. Taking a two hour lunch sitting on my porch and reading a book is a good thing. Little lessons, just little thoughtful actions, sometimes makes such a difference in a happy day.
A happy day.
A good day.
A day of little lessons.
Yes, a good day.
And I found the eggs!!
When you were talking about the chickens 'attention attention' it reminded me of the geese in Aristocrats :) Glad you had a happy day :)
ReplyDeleteOh, Kathleen. I kept thinking of you yesterday as I was going through my busy day, wondering how you were doing but never picked up the phone and now I'm glad because I think you needed that peace. I'm so glad you found your eggs. I'm keeping my hens in the run and coop and they are laying in the hen house but they are not so happy. Well. It is what it is.
ReplyDeleteI hope your trip this weekend is a good one and not too hard on you.
I love you so.
Books....you must have gotten that from Aunt Edna - do you remember when I came to visit that summer and she bought me The Emerald City of Oz and she wrote inside it. How I loved her and you...Kisses and hugs
ReplyDeleteIt is getting hot here too. The nights are still not too bad but we have had some warm days. I don't have any chickens. I know that the predators would eat them out here on the farm. And we don't eat many eggs.
ReplyDelete