Mid October

 

Hi Folks ~ I hope you all are having an enjoyable day wherever you are. It is hard to believe the holidays are coming so quickly.  Have fun making plans and decorating, etc.

This past week or so has been busy for me.  My sis-in-law Sue, took me to a beauty store to check out Bare Essentials make up as I have been having a problem with adult acne.  Sue has used the BE make up for years. (I never had a problem with acne until after menopause, and it’s been worse since losing my Dear Husband. Stress and heat being big triggers.) Anyway, I had a nice young lady try some things on me and I ended up leaving there looking so much better and happier than when I went in. Also bought some items too. It has made a difference in how I feel when I go out. I watched some you tube videos too after I bought the Bye, Bye Redness by IT. That cream is really amazing I can tell you first hand. (I may do a post about this, before and after, but that remains to be seen). I never had to wear make up, only had a blemish once a month, so wearing make up is new to me. Sue and I had a good time, then we went out to lunch to Macaroni Grill, an Italian restaurant that has delicious food.

Next, I had the ladies group that I am part of and on the staff, ‘Bon Amis’ which means good friends in French, luncheon/meeting on Tues.  In November we are having a Thanksgiving potluck/meeting. Christmas we will be having a Christmas Tea. Our group of ladies supports Grandma’s Place by donating supplies and or $. We are going to be supporting a group that takes dogs from animal shelters, gives them to prisoners to be trained as helper dogs, which are then given to military Vets. I’ll tell you more about this organization as I find out about it. This past luncheon we had a 6 year breast cancer survivor speak to us, as it is breast cancer awareness month. We eat, of course, have a devotional, some uplifting readings, a game or two, pray and just have a good time together.

BSF Bible study was this past Wed. morning. Wed. evening I had a young man from church come fix my vents that let the a.c. air blow on you. He bi-passed a connection that was stuck so that just the defrost blower was working. Now I no longer have the defrost air, but I can carry a roll of paper towels with me for wiping windshield when needed, which hasn’t been very often down here. I now have a.c. blowing on me again while I drive and that’s more important.

Thurs and Fri I puttered around here, started and finished a heart for this young man and his wife, who just celebrated their first anniversary this month. I’m all for love and romance, so created this for them. It has seed beads, bugle beads and three fresh water pearls, plus the little silver hearts and silk ribbon roses.

We had a very nice, heavy rain yesterday that lasted a good while so everything got a good watering. It isn’t any cooler this morning though, it is still very warm and humid out.  A.C. feels great.

Here are some flower pictures for you.  I know a LOT of you are putting your gardens to sleep, mine never sleep.

The first is ‘Cat’s Whiskers’.

This is ‘Dotted Horsemint’, a newbie I bought in the spring.

And this is one I just love, a new addition to my cottage gardens.  It is ‘Ruby Hibiscus’ or ‘October Rose’ (Hibiscus Radiatus).  The flowers are lovely and last just a day. This plant must be 10 ft. tall.  I need to cut it back for more blooms.

Next are a couple or roses.

‘Louis Philippe’ or the ‘Florida Cracker’ rose.

Climbing ‘Maman Cochet’.  This rose has a lovely scent that fills the air.

Here are the latest photos of Miss Rosie.  I’m pretty sure she’s a she.

These first photos were taken yesterday morning. She was rolling all around my feet and ankles so that I couldn’t get a decent clear picture of her. I noticed that she has chocolate whiskers, never had a cat with those before. You can see a bit of the white hairs that she has.  They are under her front arms and there’s a bit on her tummy as well. Oh yea, the best part is she let me pick her up and I kissed her on top of her sweet little head.

This was taken this morning from inside. I don’t think she could see me, but she might have sensed me looking at her. I zoomed in on her.  She’s sitting on the bench in the secret garden.

Well, I need to get up and do some more ‘home-caring’ chores. I looked up FlyLady again this morning for inspiration.  Since losing my dear husband, I just don’t have much motivation to keep up with things.  It is very discouraging to say the least.

I took some photos of my craft space and will show before and after’s in a later post.

I hope to be participating in an indoor flea market during the next few months.  It is close to home. I will go through things here and see what I really can part with and make some $ while I’m at it. Hopefully.

That’s it for now.

Be thankful each and every day for all that God has blessed you with.

~ Happy Fall ~

FlowerLady

P.S.

I had to come back because I forgot to post this link to a cute video.

Cat’s Love Hugging

Rosie

Hi Folks ~ Hope all of you in Canada had a lovely Thanksgiving Day today.

Hard to believe how fast the holidays are sneaking up on us. Have fun with all of your plans and decorating.

I’m worn out from this morning, mowing and dealing with overgrown weeds, climbers etc. At least it was cooler and there was the occasional cool breeze.  I’ve still a ‘lot’ more to do, but at least I made forward progress and it felt good to do so.

Before mowing this morning I went out with camera in hand and little Rosie came running, even though I didn’t have any breakfast with me. What a sweetie.  I am falling for this little critter. He/She did not like walking in the wet grass  but came to me anyway.

I love this little stretch she was doing. (notice I’m calling it a she, even though I don’t have a clue yet as to what the sex is.)

She liked walking on the cement better. I noticed that she has a few white hairs on her chest.

Here is proof that she’s letting me pet her already. She even is starting to wrap herself around my feet as I walk. She purrs when I pet her and she’s definitely getting more lovey.

***

That’s it for now. Hope you all have a great week ~ FlowerLady

Joy, oh joy

 

Little Rosie Posie/Rose Buddy let me pet her/him, while she/he was eating today. Yippee. It is such a little dear. I don’t really ‘need’ this little critter, but could not say no to it’s pitiful cries when he first came around last week.

Today was my BSF meeting. I am so glad to be a part of this Bible study. I am meeting wonderful ladies of all ages, nationalities and denominations. Our focus is on Jesus, who is God Almighty, as we study the book of Revelation. I am enjoying getting to know the smaller group of ladies that I’m in and really look forward to getting to know them better in the coming weeks, as well as having my faith strengthened with this study.

Over the weekend I made yet another beaded heart. I took a shell fragment that spoke to me and got started. I’ve many shell fragments and whole ones too to work with.  DH and I picked them up whenever we would walk the beach.  It makes me feel like going to the beach to do just that once again. I would be out of my ‘comfort zone’ going by myself, but being near the ocean is healing in many ways.

I also used three fresh water pearls that I’d bought at Michael’s I think.  I love them and have several colors of them.

Here is a collage of the pins I’ve made so far. My sis-in-law has several ladies interested in seeing these and maybe purchasing, so I made up the collage for her to show them.

This past Sunday on my way home from lunch with a friend and her family, I stopped and picked up a small Christmas tree (curbside) that I’d passed on my way earlier. It was loaded with lights and I plugged them in when I got home and they didn’t work. I started to unwind the lights and realized it was going to be a miserable job, so I got some wire cutters and cut it into small sections.  It took me about 30 minutes or so to get them off and out of the tree. The tree was strangled by the lights, you could hardly unfold the branches.  I do believe it was a 100 lite strand. How they even wound them in the tree like they did is beyond me. 

The last tree I found was with my DH, our last ‘curbside shopping’ together in Sept of 2012. That tree I call my Charlie Brown tree. It is funky but I love it.

The latest, strangled with lights.

Set free.

***

Well, I’m starting to feel ready to get horizontal to read before sleep. 

Today was a good day and I am thankful.

I will close with a photo of a leaf I found in the driveway the other day. Heart shapes always catch my attention.

The caption I put on the leaf is from something I found online after losing my Dear Husband.

Life goes on, grief isn’t as raw, although it is still there. It is not something that will ever go away. It’s part of my life, part of who I am. But it will not break me, or hold me in a pit of dark despair. I know my husband is with his Creator and all is well.

Fall is coming!

 

Hi Folks ~ Well, I was outside sweating and working this morning, but there was this wonderful breeze from the northwest, I just stopped what I was doing and enjoyed for a couple of minutes. Fall is coming to Florida, it’s just not here yet.

I came in to get a drink of water and checked my email and I received a  lovely DaySpring card from an online friend that had me in tears but was very uplifting. I went back out with renewed hope and faith in God, thanking Him for all that He is doing in my life and for all of you who pray for me and say encouraging things, they are priceless gifts.

I took my camera out with me to try to get some pics of little Rosey. The critter is so skittish yet, but, coming closer and talks to me and also hisses. I can hardly get a clear picture because it moves so fast.

“Hissssss, I don’t trust you yet, where’s my food?”

“Peek-a-boo, I see you, do you see me?.”

“Will you please leave, I want to finish eating?”

I noticed that it has tabby markings in that blackness.  I looked that up on Google and found the following at Fanciers.

“Most solid colored cats are the result of a recessive gene that suppresses the tabby pattern. Sometimes the tabby pattern is not totally suppressed, so you might see indistinct "shadow" tabby markings in certain lights even on a solid black cat. If you look at a black leopard in a zoo, you might also see these shadow markings, because the black leopard has a similar spot-suppressing gene!”

I have another black cat that is the same way, Miss Toodie. Very interesting cat fact.

I did more weed wacking, trimming and raking this morning. Still have more to do, but I made more forward progress. Flowers are blooming, butterflies are flitting about.

I have to tell you a funny thing from last week.  I went to HD for something or other, I think it was the dawn-to-dusk light, and walked through the garden dept., of course.  Well, what did I spy but a whole section of plants with hardly any leaves, but quite a few caterpillars. I laughed, butterfly weed. I decided to buy three of them that had about 4-5 cats apiece. One plant had some leaves, the rest no leaves, no flowers, just stems and cats. Well, I looked today and there are new leaves, just like I knew would happen, nary a sign of the cats though. But I look forward to seeing butterflies from them flitting about soon. I’ve not had any butterflyweed since Hurricane Wilma, it used to grow just fine here until then.

Speaking of butterflies, here is a pic of our state butterfly, the Zebra Longwing.

I made avocado bread this week, 2 loaves from the recipe.  A nice moist bread, great with coffee in the mornings.

I made another beaded heart pin this week. I have 4 now to upload to my Etsy shop. I really enjoyed making this one.

Well, I guess that’s it from Plum Cottage.

Have a nice Friday and a great weekend.

FlowerLady

***

"Winter is an etching,

spring a watercolor,

summer an oil painting

and autumn a mosaic of them all."

Stanley Horowitz