and then June slipped away into the abyss

As all days run together, I managed to while away the hours of the entire month of June. As I've mentioned, every year about this time, I get the blahs. It begins with the heat creeping in and the A/C having to run 24/7.  The non-stop rain and flooding was added to it this year.  Although the rain doesn't bother me, and would not have, if it hadn't been for such serious floods we had around here. The ground has become so saturated that now if we get a storm pass over, there is standing water in a matter of minutes. The above photo was taken on one of the days before another storm hit.

 My personal schedule has been yoga on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Most days I came home and collapsed into a 2 hour nap. Tuesdays and Thursdays were taken up with Physical therapy exercises and at least one Dr. appt. every week. Some days my knees feel almost normal, other days I am hobbling around like an old granny.  I did tell the Dr. I saw yesterday, that I now have a full time job, just taking care of myself!

Its a very mundane life around here. I have longed to do some artwork, but just haven't had the energy to even clean off my messy work table.  I walk into the room, have a look about, then turn around and leave.  Even hubby has suggested that I might not feel so gloomy if I'd create something. Wow, could he be right?  I suppose/know so. I guess I feel if I don't have any artwork to share, I have nothing to write about.

One really positive thing that we have been doing for a few months, is juicing.  Here's the usual morning juice.  Kale, celery, cucumber, lemon, ginger, and 2 small apples. It's my job to get the veggies prepped, then from the time Hubby takes over, running them thru the juicer and cleaning the juicer, the time is less than 10 minutes. Hubby really turned his nose up at the idea of kale..but with the other ingredients, you can't even identify a kale taste, so it's worked out well.  As long as we don't run out of apples. 

 

Now that we are into July, I am going to try to get with the program and get some creative stuff done.  Hubby will be traveling a lot this month, so I will have a lot of alone time. That means I can spread art supplies out all over the place and not have to pick them up in time for dinner.

 

Buckets of Rain

We've had a lot of rain this past week-end.  I haven't read all the numbers in inches, but the reports have been anywhere from 6" to parts of town that got over 12".  We had around 8 inches in my part of town.  It started Saturday night and I heard it off and on all night, with thunder and the skies lit up with lightning.  Hubby was scheduled to work at the golf course on Sunday morning.  He was there a couple of hours taking photos then came home. Needless to say, the golf course had to close.  It rained all day, again last night and some today.  The last day of the Austin City Limits music festival had to be cancelled yesterday.  A lot of the concession tents collapsed and the roads into the festival area were flooded.
The golf course is about 5 miles from our house.  A couple of streets in our neighborhood are underwater as well.

                                                                Hole #1

                                                                          
                                                              Hole #1 Green        

                                                               Hole # 10

 

7th hole fairway

                                                                  
                                                                       16th hole

 
                                                           Pump house

 

construction area

 

 

Hubby took tons of photos, everyplace on the golf course was flooded.  Also a video,of the rushing water, I can't figure out how to upload it. We need the rain, because of the drought, and it raised the lake levels.  But the flooding is very inconvenient and causes a lot of damage.  The golf course has an obstacle course that runs around it's perimeter, and it is used for police and some military training. It had just had a great deal of work done on it the past two weeks, getting ready for some big events.  That is entirely ruined and will have to be started over.
Our 5 day forecast is for more rain.

Unpredictable April

What should I wear today?  Yesterday afternoon when I walked to the mailbox , it was 85 and humid.  Still warm last night and breezy.  This morning when I went outside it was 40 and very windy, and starting to rain. We are getting some of the arctic air that is sweeping down from Canada.  Parts of the country are getting ice and snow, we most likely will get rain which we always need, and maybe some hail, which we don't need. I have to run out later and do some errands.  I wish I had some of these...boots , I would wear them today. 

I was trying to grow succulents in the kitchen windows, but with the solar screens on, they weren't getting enough light.  So I removed the screens from a couple of the windows, and they seem to be much happier.  I like having the screen off, but am afraid I will need to cover my table with something to keep that end of it from fading from the sun. I cleaned the inside of the windows, but haven't made it to the outside yet. You can see that it is raining.

 

I was enjoying the view of the backyard while having coffee. With the solar screens on, when it rains hard it plasters the screens to the windows and you can't see out.  Taken through the not entirely clean window.  We have not done any spring clean-up in the back yard yet.

 

 

Last night Hubby was at a dinner meeting, so I was on my own and made this salad.  I had made us both the same thing on Monday night, except I added hard-boiled eggs.

 I don't usually buy bagged salad, but do sometimes buy the spinach when in a hurry.  I was all excited to see the new Fresh Express Spinach and Arugula, as I love arugula.  Well, as I was searching for where it was......I started counting them.   The bag had 6 tiny leaves of arugula!!! What a disappointment. Was I wrong to expect a few more? I don't think so, but yes, they can say, it did have arugula.  I went online to make a comment at their website, but they wanted the product code of the item, and I had already tossed the bag.  I think I will buy another bag today and see if the same holds true, then I will have the information when I write to them.  I've been thinking about growing a small kitchen garden outside the back door. But the way the squirrels have eaten my succulents, I don't know how much luck I'd have.

 

Well, I'm off to experience some April weather.

I feel Grey today

 

  For a variety of reasons, February can be a tough month for me. Almost half my family has birthdays in this month, and I don't get to see them as often as I would like.  Both Mom and Dad, and Mom was born on her father's birthday.  Tomorrow is Brother Bob's birthday, and he was born on our Grandmother's birthday.  It is also the birthday month of several people I have loved and lost.  Today has been a very grey day weather wise.  Hubby is out of town and is very busy, so we haven't been able to talk as much as we usually do. When I am blue, he can always make me laugh.   As busy as I have been today, I have felt the creeping in of the melancholy that I struggle with.   I've tried the usual remedies of music, candles, drinking tea, but I finally just gave in and went with it for awhile, then I moved on.

 

I ate an early dinner of Ramen noodles with green peas and green onions.  Not so healthy, but tasty, and I sometimes treat myself to them when Hubby is out of town.  I know I will suffer from all that salt intake, but I don't have them very often. 

 

I've been attempting to make a little something each day since I got all that Valentine stuff out.  Today I mailed this card to an Aunt whose birthday is on the 25th.  I sorted a few more boxes of ephemera, and cut images out of a few magazines. I discovered a file folder filled with butterfly images so will continue to make a few more cards and tags.  The Monarch postage stamps are nice to use on the envelopes, even though they are 64 cent ones. I like to match my postage to what's inside at least by theme or color.

 

 

One of my best friends birthday is tomorrow, same day as my brother's.  I won't be able to take her out for breakfast till the week-end.  HAPPY BIRTHDAY PAT!

 

Our weather forecast is for more rain and cold tonight, probably just in the 40s.  I think it will be early bedtime for me, with the window open and lots of blankets.

what's goin' on here?

I'm starting to feel like I live next door to a wildlife preserve and all the residents have escaped. Last night around 5:00 pm we were driving home along the same parkway where we saw the deer on Friday. Here's what we saw. It was raining, and there were several cars just stopped in the right lane, taking in this sight. There were a few neighbors from the development across the street who had walked over with their cameras. I was just coming from my eye appt. and my eyes were still so dilated I could hardly focus. I just rolled down the window and shot in their direction, hoping to capture something. At one point the two bulls were looking straight at me(well at all of us I guess) but I was so excited I got a very blurry photo.

Hub said later that I sounded like a little girl when I exclaimed, "I've never been this close to a real elk, the only ones I saw growing up, were the ones hanging upside down in my Daddy's garage." I grew up in a family of hunters, and it was a sight that always upset me. It led to a lifetime of family jokes of why I think they sent the wrong baby home from the hospital. I was the only one in the family who did not embrace hunting, and would never eat wild game.

But, I digress. Here are the beautiful live Elk that we saw.

It finally FEELS like Fall

I've been so envious of those of you who have written that you are experiencing fall like weather. Even though we've had tons of rain, it was a wee bit cool then got hot hot hot again. Yesterday was in the 90's and heat index up to 100. Felt really awful. We had a cool front trying to come in, but the heat hanging over us wouldn't allow it...according to my trusty meteorologist, MM. It rained in the night a lot, and when I got up this morning it was 55 degrees. OH YEAH! Dug out the woolie socks and boots and a long sleeved shirt, along with my shiny green raincoat and scarf. Went out with hubby for awhile, for a stroll through the neighborhood. Then we went to the mall(outdoors) with our umbrellas in hand and strolled some more and got a coffee. Cold and windy, and it felt so good. It is supposed to stay cool through the week-end. I won't ever complain about it finally feeling like fall. It feels like it could be a spicy tortilla soup kinda evening. Maybe I can even dig out my flannel jammies this week-end, along with the wool throws for the sofa and chairs. Oh boy! Can you tell I am really ready for cold weather?

Bundling up a wee bit



Pomegranate blossoms after the rain

No Art Work, Just Work

I haven't had a moment to spare the past few days, as it was time again for our neighborhood fall garage sale. I've been sorting and cleaning closets, trying to get rid of as much stuff as possible. Where did all this crap come from? YIKES. Trouble is, most of it is mine, and most of it is unused art supplies, or "possibilities" as I see them. Will it ever be possible that I will have enough time to use all this stuff? Unfortunately, most of it is not the kind of stuff you can sell at a garage sale, nor is it anything I want to part with. Anyhow, Saturday dawned and with the help of the Hubster, got it all out, and at least it didn't start raining until about 10:30, and what we had left we managed to get back into the garage and sit there until noon, drinking coffee and visiting with neighbors. With the heavy rains predicted, there was not much of a turn-out, but we did manage to sell several of the larger items we had been storing, and got rid of more than I had expected. The rest goes to donation.

It did wear me out though,and I hurt my shoulder and back moving stuff around. I just loafed the rest of the day, sorted some more art supplies, took a nap, nice rainy day activities. And rain it did, heavy and hard. The rest of the day, and again last night, and again this morning. It has been a nice restful week-end, Hubster and I have just relaxed for a change. Today we met some pals at Starbucks, and tried out their sampling of the new VIA instant coffee, read the Sunday paper, watched a little football, listened to Prairie Home Companion, took a nap, a little more football, and the man is going to cook us up some dinner here in a little while. Then maybe a movie this evening. I have to say, that will be about all the relaxing I will be able to handle. I am getting cabin fever just a little bit and anxious to get some artwork done. I have a couple of projects that need finishing that I will start on first thing tomorrow.