Summer Is Winding Down

 

Summer is winding down. The mornings are cool, even if the afternoons are not. I am glad we are coming into the last week of August. August is going to end here the way it started with temps from 101-110. I have stopped reading our local weather. Texas of course is in my prayers. Can you believe Labor Day is coming up? I am looking forward to Fall though. What a summer. Though, never as bad as last summer when they were putting in the road. All in all its been a nice summer.

 

I am really enjoying the D.L. Stevenson books I have found at the library. As Ron says, " You only like books where the people go around and talk to everyone." Its true. As the back of the book I was reading, Music in the Hills said," D.L. Stevenson writes about a tempest in a teacup." Just nice peaceful books in nice settings. I haven't turned on Netflix all summer. I just haven't had the patience. Or the inclination. I haven't even gone to the movies. Which is so weird because one of the summer time things I like to do is just that go out to dinner and then go to the movies.

 

I am still working on my embroidery stitch book.  I am working on page four. That has been so much fun for me to do. I really am glad I decided to do it. I really do enjoy hand embroidery and learning new stitches.
It nice to try different things. I am ignoring my pumpkins. I try not to give them too much attention. I am afraid I am going to jinx them. I sort of glace at them and I have seen a few pumpkins. I know I have one vine with a bunch of white Jill be Littles. I have some small orange pumpkins. But other than that, I am not looking. I want to be surprised. I know if I look too close, I might want to pick them. I am going to ignore them until the end of September and then I hope I am pleasantly surprised.

 One of the dogs next door continues to get out every day. He is a very dumb dog. Not a mean one, just a lumbering kind of dog. He is a mix breed of some kind and just gal-oops around. He is a puppy really. When you look at him you can see that he is missing not just one taco from the combination plate but the whole plate and the kitchen. I really don't want to complain any more to these people so I decided I would just ignore him. So when I am out walking he just runs ahead of me like he is my dog. Sasha stays in the yard. She gets so embarrassed when he comes up to ravage her, If she didn't have a furry face it would be beet red. She doesn't seem to mind not being out with me and staying behind. He doesn't seem to notice my chickens or cats. He did run after some doves that were eating and stood there looking puzzled when they flew off. 

There is so much going on in the world, that I really try to live at peace with all men as it lies with me. 

I would like to be nice all of the time. Sometimes I can. It just takes too much energy to be unhappy or upset. I just don't have that energy anymore. Last week, I was able to walk 14-16 thousand steps everyday. 

I finally hit that place where It feels so good to be getting that kind of exercise. I try to get 10,000 in the morning before nine. That helps my steps the rest of the day. It nice to see my progress. I got my badge for walking all of New Zealand. 900 Miles. 

Its time to go get my next dot. I hope you have  delightful day. I have already finished my work outside, so I will be inside today except for taking care of my poor hens. I lost one yesterday. It broke my heart. She laid her egg and then keeled over from the heat. She was one of my new little girls. I tried to save her by putting her feet in water and all of that but she just closed her eyes and was gone. Her name was Red. I know I am inventive right? So I will be spending lots more time outside with them during this next heat wave. I will never be good at loosing animals. Even if they are just chickens.

Bye for now, thank you for stopping by today. 

~Kim~

Life starts all over again When it gets crisp in the Fall.---F.Scott Fitzgerald.

Happy Eclipse Day!

Are you going to watch the eclipse today? I might walk outside but that is about it. Did you have a nice weekend? You know all summer, I have tried to be a nice blogger. I have tried to stay away from things that are well you know hard. I thought today as I am still upset the best way to get it out of my mind is to tell you about it. So here it goes!

In July, we got new neighbors. All people that are 21-19. Parties every weekend. One weekend one of the friend that stays there, did donuts in the gravel and did thousands of dollars of damage to three of our cars, and broke a window in Ron's shed and left rocks everywhere on our property. Big rocks. Rocks in the swimming pool. We called the sheriff and the kid who did it was drunk in the cab of the truck with no drivers license.  He didn't even get a ticket. So it has been one thing after another that I won't go into here right now. I want to tell you about this morning.

I have some new sunflowers and I wanted to take some pictures. I always water very early in the morning and that is when I do my walk. This morning I wanted to pick some tomatoes too. I had my camera in one hand and tomatoes in the other when the dogs that live next door, came running up to me while I stood there. Thankfully Sasha had not come outside with me this morning. No, I did not have my phone. There are two German Shepherds and a Rottweiler cross. The largest German Shepherd is almost as big as I am and the young one is the size of Sasha. The other one is a little bigger than Sasha. The big one ran up to me and was barking and growling. I just stood there. I kind of talked to him but he barked louder. I thought I can jump in my tomatoes if he gets any closer or goes to attack.

 

 All I could do was pray, " Help me Lord!" The little one decided to run off, and the big one followed. I was closest to my shed so I ran to there and I was shaking so hard I could hardly get the latch undone. I got in my shed and I was holding the door, and they saw me and ran to my shed and stood outside it. The big one was growling and barking again and I just stood there. I was praying that someone in that house would wake up and call off their dogs. Finally the little one ran up to Ron's shed and I took that moment to walk very fast down to the back gate. As I was going in the back gate, I heard someone call them. Then of course, I had to listen to that person beat those poor dogs. I wish I could go beat them!!
You can't blame dogs for acting like dogs! This has happened over and over again. Only this time I was afraid I was going to be attacked. I haven't complained because I just hate the dogs getting beat. They are turning them into mean dogs though and that makes me sad. I won't even tell you about the poor horse.

 

Just writing this down makes me feel all shaky and sick again. Ron said he would call the rental company and see if they will contact the owner to put in a fence. When the owner bought the place he took down the fence that was on his property. The only fence is our split rail fence which is mainly for looks. He told us he was going to put in another fence. Which he has not done in three years. So this

has been my summer. I really do try not to complain about it, but this morning was so scary to me. When I was kid, I got really bit bad by a German Shepherd. So to say I was so terrified would be an understatement.

I think I will take skunks!

Have a lovely day,
~Kim~

People don’t notice whether it’s winter or summer when they’re happy. ~Anton Chekhov

Mid Summer Brag Post

 

Its mid summer and my flowers are tired of the heat. School starts for some of the schools on Wednesday. The boys that still live at home go back to school next Monday. I can smell that smell of school starting when I walk outside. I always wonder what changes in the earth to make that smell. The light has changed into that golden soft light. The trees are tired and the leaves are starting to fall slowly now. I notice now in a way I don't think I did before I started blogging. The birds are beginning to migrate. It seems too early. This last week, I sat outside and tried to identity the bird songs that were new.

 

 I know that I am doing too much when I start doing silly things. Peter takes a thermos to work with coffee in it each morning. I always make the coffee for him when he gets in the shower. I made his coffee I thought and left and went outside as I was doing something. When I came back in he was pouring it out. " I said, Wait, don't do that! I just made it! He said, " Mom you forgot to put in the coffee!" He was very sweet about it, but I knew that I needed to slow down and not start going off in ten different directions. 

 

I walked out to the mailbox that same day and there was a Amazon package for me in the mail box.
I was walking back up the driveway, I was thinking to myself, "What have I ordered? I was going through my mind and for the life of me I couldn't remember ordering anything. I walked in the house and I opened the package and its a lovely surprise from Kessie.

Her first book in a series of cozy mysteries!! I have read up to chapter 4 and I am enjoying it and its cute and fun. Then Ron picked it up yesterday and he read it and finished it. ( He laughed and enjoyed it so much by the way.)  I will be able to finish it this week. I don't know how to describe what it feels like when I am standing in the kitchen with a book my daughter has written and she did the cover art too. I have no idea how in the world she does it. She has five kids who she home schools as well. Not to mention she cooks every thing from scratch. Her oldest is 10 and the baby is going to be two in November. She has her hands very full.

Yet, she always manages to write a little every day and draw. I think the thing that always gets to me, is while I was home schooling her and the others in the dark ages of home schooling. There wasn't a day in my 25 years of teaching that I didn't worry I was destroying their lives and would they be able to get along in society. When I opened that package, standing in my kitchen, its more than just a book which is lovely. Its what I find that is so important about teaching at home. The ability to be able to design a curriculum to fit the learning and teaching style of each child.  Kessie was always an artist and a writer. She just happened to take after her Dad who is very smart. It always goes back to God though. He is the designer and He is the one who deserves all of the glory. Because He was always faithful. I love this time of life. I get to see how each of them are living their lives. Each and every single one just keeps me in total amazement. It is beyond any thing I ever dreamed or thought. I just wanted them to know God personally. I knew He would never fail them. I knew I would. I am so glad He is faithful in the small things.

Well that's from my fence post for today. I hope you have a great week!

~Kim~

“At no other time (than autumn) does the earth let itself be inhaled in one smell, the ripe earth; in a smell that is in no way inferior to the smell of the sea, bitter where it borders on taste, and more honeysweet where you feel it touching the first sounds. Containing depth within itself, darkness, something of the grave almost.”
― Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters on Cézanne

Just Thinking

How are you today? Are you enjoying August? I realized why I don't look at the weather page in August because how many ways can you say hot and boring? We are at 45 days over 100 now. The record I found the other day was something like 1909 had 57 days over 100. They had no air conditioning! Here I complain.

 

The sun has already changed so much. In the morning it smells like school is getting ready to start. The leaves are beginning to fall from the trees. Slowly, but this has been such a hot summer, it seems earlier than in the past.
Grandma camp was a success. I didn't get a lot of walking steps as I was in the swimming pool. I have a nice suntan. They went home brown. They swim like little fish. They were even doing cannon balls off the diving board!

Yesterday all day long, there was a mockingbird outside my window. Scolding and scolding. My lazy cat was just asleep under the tree. I went out I don't know how many times looking around for a baby bird on the ground. Linx had such a smile on her face I expected to see bird feathers sticking out of her mouth. The mockingbird would get right up in her face and scold. It went on all day. Last night as it was getting dark, I thought I would walk around to the other side of the fence.

 

I found the tiny little baby bird.  I didn't take very many pictures as I didn't expect it to make it through the night. This morning the mockingbird is still scolding and to me calling attention to the fact there is a baby bird on the ground. Hopefully, it will be flying soon. You have to admire the frantic parents protecting their baby like that.

 

I hope you have a lovely day.  Thank you so much for stopping by.

~Kim~

"And hate the bright stillness of the noon
without wind, without motion.
the only other living thing
a hawk, hungry for prey, suspended
in the blinding, sunlit blue.

And yet how gentle it seems to someone
raised in a landscape short of rain—
the skyline of a hill broken by no more
trees than one can count, the grass,
the empty sky, the wish for water."
-  Dana Gioia, California Hills in August 

Thoughts on Thursday

 

I got your attention on that one didn't I? Well I am not having many thoughts. We have clouds and heat and humidity. I am a terrible wimp. I find myself whining to myself every time I have to go check on my hens. I have been actually praying someone else will go get the mail each afternoon. I have my trash cans at the road and I have still not made the trek out there. Heat, I can sort of live with. Humidity. Nope!!! Just not me. Even with the humidly and the clouds, its still over 100.

 

Grandma Camp starts tonight. It should be a busy weekend. I thought I would drop in here at the blog since I don't know how much computer time I will have for the next five days. I think there will be lots of swimming and I will have people to walk with in the mornings. I have been going through my head of books I would like to read out loud when it gets too hot to swim. It really does get too hot to swim sometimes. I have a list of cookies I am going to bake. It will be nice to feed snacks to people who will eat them(who is not me). Not to mention cooking hot dogs over the fire pit and roasting marshmallows and making smores. The boys are bringing their tent. Lots of fun and lots of things to do.

 

This tree is excited about the people who will be climbing in its branches again. I climbed it, Our kids climbed it and now the grand children will climb it. The man that lives behind me said his great aunts planted it and he is in his late 70s now. Its been here awhile.

I belong to a group on Face Book called Humble Work Embroidery. I haven't embroidered in a long time. We are working on a embroidery stitch book. I finished my first page today.

 

As you can see its for the Straight stitch. I drew out the design with my blue washable pen and spent the day listening to pod casts and stitching. It was like being on vacation. There are no rules and no guidelines except for the size. The next stitch is the stem stitch. I haven't done that in years and years so I have been watching you tube videos. I drew out a fun little design on my cloth. I can't wait to get started on that. Its been so hot I can't stand the rug on my lap. This is nice since its a small project and I can talk. I can't do that with counted cross stitch. Plus this is nice because it makes me remember sitting next to Mom as she taught me to embroider when I was about six.

Its so nice to learn new stitches. There is just something about sitting and sewing and thinking and it being cloudy outside. I was looking out my window, in my sewing room/office and out on the butterfly bush was a Swallowtail. I got some pictures of it. So graceful and pretty as it fluttered from flower to flower.

Lots of little moths were getting drinks too. In the last of my hydrangeas were tiny little green bees. They were all moving too fast and I couldn't get a picture. As I stood there with my camera, what should I see but a bumble bee flying into my willow chair that sits on the quiet porch. I guess there won't be much sitting in the willow chair on the quiet porch until the bumble bee moves on. It surprised me because it was an orange carpenter bee that built the nest and now there is a black bumble bee in it too. I will have to pay more attention and see just who is living there. I thought bumble bees were solitary.

I have three tiny pumpkins. Since it is August I hope I can leave them there for awhile longer.
Thank you so much for stopping by today. I am so thankful that it is Thursday. Have a lovely weekend.

~Kim~

 "All in all, it was a never to be forgotten summer — one of those summers which come seldom into any life, but leave a rich heritage of beautiful memories in their going — one of those summers which, in a fortunate combination of delightful weather, delightful friends and delightful doing, come as near to perfection as anything can come in this world." ( L.M. Montgomery---Anne's House of Dreams)

Only in August

Only in August do mushrooms greet me on my walk. Dew makes my shoes so wet. Everything changes just as I turn the page on my calendar from July to August. I was noticing that the light has changed as well. The light becomes more golden and not as intense. As I walked this morning I wanted you to see the changes I see.

 

We have clouds. We even have a chance of rain. If we even get a tiny bit it will break a record. We just don't get rain this early in August. When I was a kid, I remember riding my bike and it would be so humid and I would begin to ride through hot air and cold air. Now when I walk I notice the same thing.

 

The leaves are falling. We are on day 35 or something of over 100 degree temps with at least another week for sure, the trees are tired by August.

I try to keep my eyes open to changes that happen. I am noticing that my hens feathers are looking worn and tired too. The heat has been hard on them this summer. My flowerbeds next to the porch have just become the favorite dust bath holes. I have just looked the other way and I will clean my flowerbeds when it is finally cool again. The hens ate my rhubarb to the ground, and my comfrey is just a nub.

 

It seems like my zinnias are even tired. I hope to collect every single seed.

 

The finches are hard at work. The are so happy to have sunflowers to devour. I had one faithful finch that never left. I noticed that there are now three. I imagine by the time all of the sunflowers are ripe there will be a flock. No parrots have found them yet. The parrots are greedy and take the whole flower. The finches take one seed at a time.

 

My tomatoes are out of control and growing every which way. I can't believe how much has changed with them in just a week.

 

I finally got a Mexican sunflower. Tithonia. Its nice to see it growing in among my pumpkins.
My pumpkins are not doing good. The over hundred days have taken their toll. I didn't take their picture this morning because it makes me sad. I will be taking them and the cucumbers out soon. I am planning a fall garden so all is not lost.

 

 In August my hydrangeas. are tired and brown. These are the last of my blooms. The front tree that has protected them from the summer heat begins to loose its leaves. Each week after Ron mows the lawn, the leaves falling from that tree litter the ground almost immediately. That tree, as the kids have always said, " Is sad because we have to go back to school." As the first day of school nears, the faster the leaves fall.

 

 August is a time of reflection. A time of getting my fall cleaning done. Getting the flowerbeds cleaned one last time. Washing my very dusty windows. Getting my freezers and my pantries organized. I still love walking down the school aisles in the stores I visit. I love looking at the new lunch boxes, the backpacks. I love seeing the paper and the pencils and pens. I love that when I go outside in the morning, the smell of school starting is outside. Its a little sad too. One more summer to say good bye. I will start my new August to August day planner today.
As I greet you today August, I hope to enjoy you a bit. When I admit, I really like September and October better.

I hope your have a lovely first day of August my friends. Thank you so much for stopping by today.

~Kim~

“August rushes by like desert rainfall,
A flood of frenzied upheaval,
Expected,
But still catching me unprepared.
Like a matchflame
Bursting on the scene,
Heat and haze of crimson sunsets.
Like a dream
Of moon and dark barely recalled,
A moment,
Shadows caught in a blink.
Like a quick kiss;
One wishes for more
But it suddenly turns to leave,
Dragging summer away.”
–  Elizabeth MauaTaylor