Arrrgh!!!

I'm pressed for time today. My sister, Nancy, and her family are coming to visit for the weekend. YEA!!! The house is clean, most of my weeding is done. I have some office work to finish and shopping to do before they arrive. Would it be too, too mean to have the scent of chocolate cupcakes wafting through the house as they walk in the door?? *G*

We have two silo type feeders hanging from a flower "crook" at the back door of the garage. I can see the feeders if I am at the kitchen sink, or if I'm working on laundry. These feeders carry the medium chipped sunflower hearts that just about all our visitors (feathered or furred!) like. This morning I saw two house finches at those feeders, and realized that the house finches have been missing for the better part of two months. Usually we are inundated with them, but they have been conspicuously absent. I wonder if they went further north to try to find a cooler, wetter habitat?

I have been piecing blocks for two Birds in the Air Quilts. There are pictures of the blocks in the late July archives. I started out making 70 blocks with red, green and a range of neutrals for what I hope will be a quilt I can use to decorate the couch this Christmas. True to form, I cut enough patches for probably three quilts, so I cut MORE patches, this time in a range of mid to dark blue, to make a lap quilt for the church bazaar. All the blocks (110 in all) are finished and ironed open. Now, I need to lay them out on the floor so that I can decide how to assemble the quilts. I may put my visitors to work on this. As soon as the larger top is done, I can send it off to be quilted. AND, I have the outer border and backing for the Halloween quilt, and I could finish the border and send that, too! I LOVE it when a plan comes together!

I've been reading about how to keep day lilies blooming. It seems that there are varieties, like "Stella d'Oro" that will bloom all season. The trick to keeping them blooming is to dead head every other day, and to clip off the spent stalks. This may work for some of my other day lilies, so I need to get out into the gardens again to do some pruning. I think the perennial salvia would re-bloom, too, so it's going to be snip, snip, snip!

I get to go out to lunch on Saturday with the ladies of my family, and again with my favorite CPA on Tuesday. When it rains, it pours (so you know how often I get to go out to lunch)!

Speaking of rain.....we SO need the rain! I know there are lots of places where you're praying for dry. Please send that rain our way. August is going to be hell if the drought keeps up like this. (You can check, but I think I've had the same complaint for the past three Augusts.)

Did I mention that we saw one of my nephews perform in "The Fantastiks?" I am SO impressed at what high school kids are doing these days. This was an amazingly polished performance. All nine actors (incoming Freshman thru incoming Senior) did a fine job, well above what I might have expected. This particular school is only four years old, and it has an exceptional theater department. We're lucky that my nephew lives in that school district. He has been in every single performance that has been staged since the school opened.

Sooooooooo....I need to do some accounting, clear off my desk, shop, and get those cupcakes in the oven. I hope all of you have a great weekend, doing whatever makes your heart happy!

This is just to remind you that Shelly at "This Eclectic Life" is looking for people to crochet 6" granny squares for afghans for kids going to cancer camp next summer. If you know how to crochet, or know someone who crochets, won't you please stitch a square and send it on?

There's a button somewhere on this page that says "Share a Square." Click on it, and it will take you to Shelly's blog for all the information you need.

Shelly, I have perhaps fifty more squares from my exercise group to send. I have to count them all. I'll try to get them into the mail on Monday morning.

And, I bought more yarn, so I'll be sending a few more of my own. Good luck with your project!

Too often, we get wrapped up in our lives, trying to deal with all the appointments, and chores and surprises that come our way, and I think we forget about the simple things in life.

Here are some of the simple things that have brightened my day, today.

There is a German-style bakery/restaurant in a small town in Indiana that is on the way to my sister's house. We feel compelled to stop there whether going to visit, or returning home. They have the most amazing loaf of cinnamon bread! The night shift baker must roll the bread out to paper thickness, about five feet long. Then he spreads it with this wonderful cinnamon-sugar mixture, and rolls it up to make a loaf that will eventually be six or seven inches high. Each bite of the bread is filled with that lovely cinnamon taste. Nan and her family brought us a loaf of that bread, and we finished it off this morning. What a lovely way to start the day!

Speaking of sisters, I suspect that she, or one of her family members, picked up the weeds for me. I was weeding the front beds last week, and got to the point of gathering them up when I ran out of steam, and time. So there they sat as my guests arrived. I tried to ignore them, hoping that Dear Husband would save me and take the weeds to the back. Uh-uh. As I left for exercise yesterday, I noticed the weeds and the wheelbarrow had disappeared! Someone......was VERY good to me. Thank you, Secret Santa!

It's been a pleasure to wake up to an overcast day, with the promise of more RAIN!! YEA!!! WE GOT RAIN!!! We seem to have broken the pattern of only one rainy day a month, at the very end of the month, and the plants are thrilled! I'm not good about hooking up the hoses and letting them run. We are only allowed to use sprinklers on even days, and I can never keep in mind when it's my turn. I can, and do, water with a hand-held hose and watering wand, to keep the gardens going until Mother Nature comes through. We really needed the kind of soaking rain that goes into the soil, rather than running off, and I think we've had at least two sessions like that in the past four days. We're hoping for more, today, so that the trees get the drink they need.

What simple things please you, today? A baby's kiss, a child's hug, help around the house, patient drivers? We just need to think about the simple things to brighten our days.

Almost all my family qualifies to be called "Clothes Horses." Most of them also qualify to be called "Fashionistas," too. My youngest niece, who will be 17 in just two months, may now be the leader of the pack!

This weekend the ladies of the family decided that they would do a little shopping. We all got ready and headed for the car, and I was amazed at what she chose to wear. I SO wish I had a picture, because she was beautiful, and trendy, while still having a very personal look.

Her astonishingly curly long hair was piled up on top of her head. She had boutique sun glasses that made quite a statement. She was wearing a plum ribbed knit skinny top, and stovepipe jeans that looked like they were painted on her size 2, five-foot nine or ten-inched frame. I think there was a fashion belt and a jacket, too, but I've forgotten what they looked like. She wore a long strand of turquoise beads with two tight wraps around her neck and one long drop of beads.

But what blew me away were the shoes. These shoes had high heels, perhaps three inches, spike heels, not the platform kind. The toes were pointed, and there was a little decorative strap-like piece across the opening over the top of her foot. And the shoes were turquoise to match the beads!

I have given up heels. Since Dear Husband is shorter than I am, it was a kindness at first to him that I gave them up. But, as time passed, it became a kindness to me that I no longer had to squeeze my feet into fashionable shoes and hobble around painfully. Yes, there are times when my outfit cries out for heels, but I no longer care. The ability to walk is more important than the need to be fashionable. So, when I looked at her feet, the first thing that came to mind was, "You're going SHOPPING in those shoes???"

She smiled at me, and acknowledged that it might hurt, but she really needed to have that pulled together look. Heck....she's not even 17 yet. She'll learn in time, and she'll enjoy herself along the way.

I can't wait to see what she's wearing the next time I see her! *G*

...we have rain!

It's been promised for several days, and never panned out. It was gray and the clouds promised rain this morning, but it didn't finally come until 1:30 or so. The air outside is COOL! I'd forgotten just how lovely air cooled by Mother Nature can feel. I'm tired of the need to be indoors most of the day just to deal with the heat. I'm ready for Fall!

Two-thirds of my house is disrupted. My absolute favorite contractor, our painter, was here today, to paint the kitchen and mudroom.

Last night I made a good dinner for Dear Husband and then dropped the bomb. "DH, you're going to have to help me move everything in the kitchen and mudroom. Of course we didn't move cabinets or such, but you'd be amazed at how much we had crammed into those two spaces. Pictures, wreaths, a microwave and a bread maker, my tea cup collection, books and magazines, mail, two occasional tables, wastebaskets, wine, detergent, and a collection of vases that has been growing for 18 years, were moved to into three other rooms We also had to move all of DH's "stuff" off the mudroom counter. He has a collection of plans, tools, a phone, and sailing caps that claim about half of the counter.

There were a few things that had to be moved this morning, but the lion's share was done last night, along with several loads of laundry. I'm going to leave everything just as it is, until Dear Husband returns from sailing, and then we will work together to put it back. One exception is washing all the vases. Since everything has been moved out, I've taken the opportunity to get a jump on my Fall cleaning. I'm going to sort through the vases, pitch some and wash some, and clean the top of the cabinet before we return what I plan to keep

My painter is SO GOOD that he even cleaned under the washer and drier for me, and believe me, they NEEDED it!

The rooms look bright, and I've always thought paint was a "clean" smell. I'm glad we were able to spruce things up.

He got the ball rolling right after dinner last night. I would have liked to sit a bit longer, but he knew that it was going to take until bedtime to get everything done.

Elegante Mother is recuperating from another bout of that dreadful cold. We've gone through this two or three times now. In May, she proclaimed that she had never felt so bad before, and I believed her. She got over whatever this upper respiratory gunk this is, only to get it again from one of my sisters.

She was coming along, slowly, when I decided it might be a good idea for the doc to see her. We try to avoid pneumonia at all costs. So, we made the appointment and visited with Doc. G.

He said that she was doing fine, but he wanted her to take two different inhalers. If the "cold" hadn't abated over the weekend, she was to consider having a prescription for antibiotics filled. She was very well last weekend, and then she had a little relapse on Monday. I finally had the antibiotic filled on Wednesday. EM had taken one, when the doc called to say that he wanted to change which antibiotic she was taking. So....back to the pharmacy.

EM was better right after she put the first pill in her mouth. You and I know it doesn't work that way (usually...) but she showed definite improvement. I don't know how to prove it, but I think that taking a pill, and knowing she had a follow-up appointment with the doctor was all she needed to be well. I think she did the hard work all on her own, but she was willing to give the credit to the drugs.

I'm keeping an eye on her, checking to see if she took her medication at the right time. It's also my job to be sure that she eats before she takes the antibiotic.

I'll be glad when we wind down this session and I can spend my time on other, equally important, things!

Finish center seam on Birds in the Air Quilt
Add borders to Halloween Quilt
Stitch the backing for those two quilts
Box up tops, batting and backing and send them to the machine quilters

Stretch and pin baste two lap quilts for the bazaar and quilt them

Make my bed, clear off the sewing table, file away hand quilting equipment

Wash vases and return them to mudroom storage
Put away kitchen decorations and spices.
Make Summer Salad for Brunch
Take EM to Empty Nester's Brunch

Finish two granny squares for Shelly (Share a Square)

Weed (but not today....it's raining)

Loaf a little.....watch a movie on TV, read a book....snooooooooooooze. It's a rainy day. What can I tell you??

Actually this post is not only about friendship, but Amish bread.

One of my friends from the Senior Exercise class came to class about ten days ago, carrying four plastic bags with what looked like tan gravy. I didn't get to join Senior Exercise without having been around for a while, and I knew what was coming. She shared with me a cup of starter for Amish bread.

I've been babying it for the past week and a half, "mushing" it for five days, adding ingredients and mushing for five more. Today was the day I was to add more ingredients and divide it up into four bags, plus starter for my own loaves. I had a clever plan. I was going to spring the bags on my Mother's Empty Nester group. I was sure I could find four women who would take them off my hands, if only to dispose of them! *S*

Unfortunately, my day went awry from the start, and the bags didn't get divided until this evening. I planned to bake my bread early tomorrow morning, until I realized that I need a box of instant vanilla pudding to complete the loaf. Drat! It's always something!

I know, I was going to talk about friendship, too. Isn't it amazing what we do for friends? Our children are in their thirties and forties. We don't have any school age kids right now. We have one three year old granddaughter, and another on the way, so we are in between the ages when kids need to sell things for school, Brownies, band....whatever fundraiser is front and center. My extended family and our friends know that we are an easy touch for their little salesmen. Say the words "Girl Scout Cookies," and we are on a mission to make that child the top seller in their council!

For the adults, we've done Pampered Chef, Longaberger Baskets, Southern Living at Home, makeup and all sorts of other parties. We purchase garbage can liners, and hoagies, geraniums, and theater tickets. The list is endless. So, it makes sense that we accept the starter for Amish bread. Think about it. We're receiving a gift. Yes, it takes a little effort, but we don't have to pay cash for anything, and you could keep all the starter to yourself, bake ten loaves of bread and freeze it, and have the jump on holiday gifts! (At least, YOU could....I have to wait until we replace the dead freezer in my garage. (sigh)).

It seems to be a little thing to do to maintain our community of friends. I'm sure there are those of you who are forthright, and announce, "I don't cook! Please don't ask me." That's okay. I bet you help out in other ways. I rather like the idea of each of us baking bread. I want to see all the variations that come, as each baker adds her own extra ingredients.

So, if you don't bake, be happy that you don't live near me. I have these four bags of starter just begging to visit my friend's houses!

If you DO bake.....come for lunch, and you can tell me how you plan to personalize your Amish bread.

....or, at least I will tomorrow. We're all fine, just busy. There hasn't been anything so earthshaking that it can't wait a few hours more.

I hope you've all been well while I've been away from the blog scene. I'll try to post and visit to see what you've all been up to.

Do you sense fall coming??

It's time to play Taps for the elm tree that resides off the southwest corner of our house. Last year it looked sickly, and it didn't make it through the incredibly harsh January weather. Now, when you look past our house toward the west, you see a crown of bare branches. I'll try to remember to take a picture to add to this post later.

The tree service will be here at 7:30 to do their magic. It's very difficult to come to the point where we have to admit we've lost a tree, but this one is a potential danger. Since it is SO large, I've hired the service, rather than waiting for Dear Husband to try his hand at bringing it down. It would take him all winter to cut this up by himself, and I'd be in fear for the new roof, and our skylights while he did it.

We've lived here close to eighteen years, and the changes to the trees and shrubs have been quite amazing to watch. The grove is a bit sparse now. I can see the outline of the neighbor's houses to the west. As trees have died out, shrubs have moved in to fill those spaces, so we still have a wall of green to the west of the house. Someone with an unlimited budget could make quite a showplace of our grounds. We prefer to leave them closer to natural, so that the wildlife has a home.

My job this morning is to weed, and listen to chain saws. I'm also taking bets. How long do you think it will be, before Dear Husband notices that the tree is gone???

If you haven't already divided your tall bearded iris by now, it's time to get it done. I live in USDA Zone 5, and my iris need the last of the warm season to get settled in to their new homes

Dig up the clump and separate the rhizomes by slicing them apart with a sharp knife. Disinfect the knife between cuts by dipping it into a 10% bleach solution (one part bleach, 9 parts water). Keep the rhizomes that are at least three inches long, have good roots and a fan of leaves. Cut the leaves back to about eight inches. Throw away any rhizomes that are shrunken, have holes or mushy parts. Dispose of the unwanted material in landfill rather than composting it, to avoid spreading disease.

Those rhizomes you choose to keep and replant should be briefly disinfected in the bleach solution and then left to air dry for a day. When you replant the iris, be sure that the top of the rhizome is just at the surface of the soil.

My iris tend to rise up out of the soil over the winter. I think the solution is to water well and press down around the rhizome to be sure there are no air pockets when you replant. If a rhizome still looks like it's riding a little high on the ground, I might side dress it with compost before winter sets in. Be sure not to bury the rhizomes in the compost.

Okay....we've had enough rain for a bit. I'd like for you Texans....and citizens of Kansas (Kansans??) to keep those storms to yourself!

Last week we had quite a bit of rain. Thursday brought storms with high winds and a few tornadoes were sighted in the Chicago area. Normally storms don't bother me, but these were quite aggressive. Our personal computer is on a trestle table next to a wall of windows, and I felt that it was prudent to turn off the computer and move to an area where there would be less chance of flying glass, should a tree decide to take flight.

I actually moved Elegante Mother into her bathroom temporarily, for the same reason. I'm not sure that I can get her down the stairs to the basement, and we certainly can't do it in a speedy manner. If the weather is sufficiently dangerous, we might attempt it, but I'd need enough warning to have the time to make it happen. Her bathroom was the next best choice, and my dressing room would be even better, if we added chairs.

At any rate, we have made it through, without loosing electricity or any other services. We don't have any standing water, and the plants and weeds are in hog heaven! I'm a bit superstitious about mentioning it, but the basement is dry. (I didn't say that......don't mind me, I'm just a little rain cloud passing by.)

We normally have about four inches of rain in August. We had four inches of rain on Thursday alone. The northern third of the Chicago area has been hit much harder than we have. They are not only coping with the results of Thursday's storms, they also have to deal with the flow of water out of Wisconsin that has brought streams and rivers to past the flood stage. And all this came at a time when schools were ready to open.

On my way to exercise on Friday, I had to cross an old bridge that is under reconstruction. The crews have taken out the two westbound lanes and moved all the traffic onto the two remaining lanes. After the bridge collapse in Minnesota, I've been a little wary of the bridge, but Friday I could see that the river was up almost to the road bed, which made the situation worse. As I drove across, I was trying to think what to do, should I find my car quickly sinking into the river, and maybe even being pushed downstream. Luckily, there was no problem.

It looks as though we have two dry days to start the week, and then Wednesday is supposed to be wet, again. Thank you, Mother Nature, for the blessing or rain. Now, could we stop before I grow webbed feet??

Have you been crocheting in your spare time?

I want you to keep in mind that Shelly, at This Eclectic Life, is still looking for 6" granny squares for afghans for kids attending cancer care camp next summer. This is a wonderful project that will let you use up your scraps of yarn. There is a button on my blog that will take you to Shelly's post about the program. Scroll down and click on the button that says "Share a Square" for more information.

Shelly, the Senior Exercise group came through with 39 more squares. I mailed them off on Saturday morning.

And......I have seven more ready to send.

Folks, Shelly is only about a third of the way to all the squares she needs. Please help her reach her goal!

I know that Bogie doesn't want to hear about this, but the signs are beginning to mount in the Chicago area........Fall is coming.

1 The goldfinches are eating the seeds from the heads of the purple coneflowers.

2. The bean fields are beginning to show some yellow areas. (A good time to do a little aerial photography.!

3. School is IN!

4. The cat keeps bringing in burrs on his fur.

5. Young maple trees have started to change color

6. The Thyme and Basil plants are flowering.

7. We've bought our first chrysanthemums for the year.

8. and I've felt the crisp air of Fall one day two weeks ago....a harbinger of the cool air to come!

I'm not pushing to get to winter, but these are all things we've seen at Casa Buffy. I don't do well in the heat, despite the fact that I love the growing season. Spring and Fall are more comfortable times of year for me. Besides.....like Bogie, I'm tired of watering the plants!