A different look at life

Looking at recent post's titles, my outlook on life needs to be moving at a better pace than plodding. Of course, I wanted a more boring life than the one I was living in the last couple of years, but plodding? No! 

Maybe I need to find a more positive vocabulary to express the daily adventures I'm experiencing. But my attention to minutiae may not be everyone's cup of tea, even though it excites the shit out of me. For example, I was totally incensed that some critter ate the tomatoes from my plants I have been tending for months. I have not had much luck in the past few years growing veggies of any sort and this year seems promising that I might get some lovely tomatoes from my effort. Now that the deadly tree is gone, there is a bit more sunshine and we have had abundant rain. So, I stood in the rain and carefully arranged netting over the plants, hoping to discourage interlopers from my would be harvest. 

  On a sadder note, I found remnants of a tiny body of some sort near the pond. My heart sank as I did a rudimentary autopsy (with a stick) and realized that the smaller of the bullfrogs may have met an untimely end. Those darn raccoons!!! Probably the same ones who nabbed the tomatoes!! Grrrr...

  Such is my homebody existence. And I don't mind. I asked the powers that be for a dull and boring life. A drama free zone. That's what I have now. And I have stargazers to bring me joy.

Promised photo

Here's the roaring stick fire from last Saturday. That pile of sticks put off a LOT of heat.

Speaking of heat, summer is definitely here now. 

New quilt

As was the original intent of this blog, here's good news about fiber art! I am halfway done with a new bed quilt. Quite an undertaking, I must say. I haven't worked on anything this big in YEARS!
I made up a "modern" quilt pattern and used some of my precious Japanese and  Asian print fabrics that I have been hanging onto for too long. Of course, I barely made a dent in the stash.....
  The fabric that makes it "modern" is a small grey and blue dotty print. The hard part is at hand...the quilting! It's only full size, but I'm not looking forward to handling all that fabric under my home machine. I did it before with good results and need to quit stalling and DO IT!!!!

In the same vein of artiness (?) I need to push myself to catch up on my Artist Trading Cards. Especially now that I have a little free time, which won't last forever. Here is a photo I'm altering for this month's theme in one of my swap groups. They need to be in the mail tomorrow morning, so I'd better get to getting on this project.

my mama

The Summer Solstice was Saturday morning, and of course, there was fire involved. Photo of that at a later date. It's on my phone....

Still plodding along

Life has taken some very interesting turns in the last several months. I own a Ford F-150 pickup truck , a house in midtown, and all the responsibility that comes with such ownership. The utilities, cable, internet, and insurances payments are owed by me. I have to feed and clothe myself and my grandson.

  A few short weeks after getting the house in my name, I had an old, deader than dead tree cut down. A week later a smaller tree fell on a power line and had to be taken away. Huge expenses incurred for both those ventures. 

  Yet, even with all this heaped upon me, I feel okay. Maybe the control freak living inside me is happy now. Of course, so much of life is out of anyone's control, but I am slowly redoing the yard and house to my liking, with the intent of easier care and maintenance in the future. I cannot control the aging process. My digging days will be over soon enough. 

   I did do something kind of crazy and a little bit stupid on Sunday. There was a limb on the chestnut tree that was being very bothersome as I pulled in or out of the driveway. For the last few weeks, it was on my mental to do list. But the limb was too high up to trim from the ground and handy dandy chainsaw on a stick has mysteriously disappeared. Inspiration struck whilst trimming hedges and doing tree patrol in the front yard. I pulled the truck under the offending limb, set the ladder in the truck bed, and whacked it off with my new sharp handsaw. 

  Of course, the neighbors came by, walking their dogs and after thanking me for removing shrubbery branches from the sidewalk access, questioned my safety in the back of the truck, on a ladder with a saw, without a spotter. Buzz killers......

  Going out of the driveway this morning was much nicer without that branch slapping against the passenger side of my trusty vehicle. 

  Life is good.