Not in Michael’s path

Hello Friends ~ Miss Tork and I are fine here at Plum Cottage. I live on the s.e. coast of FL. Thank you for your concern. Had some rain yesterday and again this morning, it’s pretty breezy also. Right now the sun is shining and it is hot and humid. Does not feel like autumn at all. I do have a sister who lives about 180 miles east of Panama City, FL where landfall was predicted to happen. They have battened down the hatches and I pray they will be safe. The live in a mobile home on some acreage. (started this post yesterday, it is now Thursday morning and my sis and family are safe. Their little town has suffered high water damages though. They themselves live 1/2 mile from the Gulf and the river.  I’m glad they were spared. My heart and prayers go out for those who were in the path and havng to deal with the aftermath.)

I’ve been thinking about writing up a post and your inquiries as to our well-being because of Hurricane Michael, prompted me to get one written now so you won’t worry.

Let’s see, over the past month, I had a nerve wracking bee problem that was only growing larger so called some bee professionals in. The bees had moved into the tail of that large faux marlin fish that hung on the back fence. Lots of them were starting to visit my birdbath near my path to my wash house. I was afraid to use the lawnmower or the weedwacker by the fish for fear of making them angry and be in attack mode. The fish and bee problem are gone, although there were still LOTS of bees in the area for a day or two until they made a new home, hopefully not somewhere else here on the property.

I got new eye glasses. I encapsulated Moringa powder and will write up a post about that later.

This past Saturday I finally got off my behind and finished painting the living room. Yay!

This is the living room east wall. Had to paint most of the little wall connected to it also. Baseboards got a coat of fresh white paint also.  The wall paint color is ‘Bleached Linen’ by Behr.

 

West wall before – this is from 2011.

2017 – before getting new tv, old tv under mantle shelf and behind drape

Below is after getting rid of old TV, friends bought me the new one. I gave away the blond found book case on the right, moved the book case desk unit on the left to the bedroom. Mirror is now stacked in the bedroom. Since the book case was gone on the right, I hung a tablecloth in the space until dear Todd, bro-in-law, could fill it in.

This was an old doorway into bedroom from years and years ago. Old wallbaord cut out evenly from floor to ceiling. Vent hole in center of room also ceiled up.

Here’s Todd mudding over the archway into my little space where I hang out on my computer, or do my crafting. Several projects he has helped me with that my dear husband and I didn’t get to finish together. Plus, Todd has come to help with plumbing emergencies.  Thank you dear Todd from the bottom of my heart for all of your hard work and you taking time from your own life to give me a hand.

Two matching book cases will go on either side of the tv unit. There will be a mantle shelf between bookcases and over the tv. At least that’s my plan. That painting is there temporarily to fill the space.

Some of our rock collection.

Some blooms

Dwarf Poinciana tree.

Wild perinkles

Plumbago with hamelia paten

Bougainvillea

Bermuda’s Kathleen

‘Kathleen’

Last but not least here at Plum Cottage is my sweet indoor kitty, Miss Tork, doing what she does best. I had started folding clean laundry and she jumped up on the bed, and while I had breakfast, she made herself a sleeping spot. (I love the head & footboards to our double sized bed. DH and I found them dumped by the road while we were living in Spain. They are made of beech wood, so are really blond, but we like dark wood so I stained them out on our apt. balcony.)

I will be starting a 12 week session with Grief Share. Friends told me about this and said it really helped them when they lost their son. I wasn’t ready to handle this when I was a fresh widow, but am looking forward to this now. I’m rather shy so meeting new and hurting people will be a bit intimidating. But, we will all grow together, and I hope I can be a comfort to some new to grieving, since I’ve been on this road almost 6 years and have come quite a way since the beginning. Jesus has been my strength and seen me through every step of the way.

That’s it for now. I’ve things I’d like to stop proastinating about and just ‘do’ them, so I need to get up out of this chair and get moving.

Be thankful, love, pray for and help others, and God’s blessings on you.

FlowerLady

More thankfulness

Good Monday morning Folks ~ well, it’s that for me here in s.e. FL. It’s a little after 6 a.m. and I’ve been up since around 4. Just couldn’t fall back to sleep.

Last week was a week of unexpected things. First off, I went out Tuesday to go visit an elderly widow friend and my van was ‘dead’. I called my mechanic and he was able to come out later, used his tool to assess the problem, a dead battery, not the starter, which was a blessing. I am thankful I was home sweet home when this happened and not out somewhere. I was able to pay for it and van is up and running again.

Friday I got a text from my dear BIL, Todd, saying he could come the next morning to do baseboard in the living room. I texted back that it sounded good to me. He got here around 8:45 a.m. I thought he was going to do the west wall only, but he was ready to do the south and hallway also, jobs that hubby and I didn’t get finished before he left this planet. So, while he set up his saw in the driveway, I moved furniture away from the south wall, I had already cleared the west wall.

We were standing next to the south wall when I asked him if we could take the large oval mirror off the wall and I could paint behind it and we could hang it up before he left, then I could finish painting the wall later this week. He suggested we do it right then. I could roll and he would cut in. I started crying, relief and joy at the unexpected offer. I thanked him as we hugged and told him it was mine and DH’s 49th anniversary and this was a wonderful way to celebrate the day. He was glad and also said he doesn’t remember anyone else’s anniversary but his own. He said women were good at things like that. My second thing to be thankful for.

The painting and baseboard was done in a little over 2 hours. He had been able to fit the media stand they were giving me into his vehicle along with his tools. (When they moved they no longer wanted this or two matching bookcases, I said I’d like to have them since they were giving them away.) So, the next project was to set up the media stand and he said “Let’s hook up your TV and stereo equipment.” That all took longer than the painting and wallboard. I do need another ‘new’ cable or two to get my surround sound totally hooked up, but at least it’s partially giving me sound, just not the full realm of it. Getting this project done was another reason for thankfulness.

I love this stand and it holds my equipment nicely. I decided against setting up the VCR. I won’t watch those old movies, etc. so more decluttering, which feels GREAT.

This TV was bought and given to me by friends last year, which is what caused my room remodel. (I am thankful for their gift.)  I can hardly wait for the two matching bookcases to be on either side of this set up, with a mantle between over the TV.  I had told Todd I wanted a mantle over the TV, and he asked “What for?” I answered, “Stuff” and started laughing. He asked what I was laughing about and he said ‘my question’? I said yes. I said my women friends online would know the ‘why’. The doors in this media stand have beveled glass which makes it nice and I just love the color of this piece. DH and I have always loved the dark wood tones and I still do.

I just love the ‘bleached linen’ paint by Behr from Home Depot. To me it most definitely has a ‘hint of joy’ in the color. To Todd, it looked like a shade of white, which it is, but it’s not pure white by any means. The other two samples I had tried were in the blue range and seemed dull to me, when I had originally thought one of those would be my choice. Painting large samples on the wall and living with that for a few days helped make the right choice for me.

The color isn’t this dark on the wall, but you can see the difference between it’s color and the wall on the left/east, which I hope to paint this week and a little bit on the north wall to finish this room off. What a joy that will be!!! Another reason to be thankful.

Here is Miss Tork. She found a spot to rest amidst the chaos of the day. She was hiding until Todd left. The portable compressor and the air gun for the baseboard were too much for her. As soon as all was quiet again out she came. I am thankful for my dear little companion.

It’s starting to get light out, my stomach is telling me it’s time for some breakfast. After breakfast I want to get a whole chicken (minus the breasts which I’ll use for another recipe) in the crockpot. Laundry needs to be done also if it’s going to be a clear day. Then I want to caulk the baseboard, and paint it after caulking has dried.

Oh yea, another thing to be thankful for was I finally got to use my new electric lawnmower and it worked just great. It’s cute and I love the green color. I do have to clean the underbody after every use which is kind of a pain, but I did read that you can wipe it down with  vegetable oil to keep grass from sticking.

This view is looking north, I’m standing at the gate.

This is looking south. Gates need cleaning after all of the rain we’ve had.

This is the little patch of front lawn.

Below I’m standing in the back turn around area looking south.

This is looking toward where I was standing for picture above. You can see some high grass back at the end. I was pooped and needed to make sure there weren’t any pinecones or other debris from when the tree trimmers had been here so I quit. PLUS, bees have made a hive inside of the tail end of the fish hanging on the fence. Don’t know what I’m going to do about that.

This is where I park.

This is looking southwest, all in all, it takes about an hour for me to mow my property.

Ok, that’s it for now. Time for breakfast and then to commence with projects for the day.

Thank you all for your love, prayers and encouragement. It means a lot to me.

I am always thankful

that

“Love is Forever”.

FlowerLady

A wet Labor Day

Good morning Folks ~ For those in the US I hope you are enjoying this holiday.  Down here in s.e. FL we are having rain and more rain from Tropical Storm Gordon. At least it’s not a hurricane, although I did read ‘possible tornadoes’. This is the peak of hurricane season, I pray that we are spared this year.

A rainy day view out of the south living room window.

(Stained glass window made for me by Karen and Carl of ‘Quarry Gardens’ blog, after I lost my DH. Two hearts joined as one,  with a rose which is a symbol of love.

This morning before waking up I dreamed I was going to get to use my new electric lawn mower for the first time. HA! It was delivered via UPS last Wednesday and I’ve not been able to try it out because of wet grass. The grass will get even higher as rain is expected over the next few days.

This is my new lawn mower still in the box. I did get the handle in upright position and locked into place, then wheeled it to the shed, but that’s it so far. I haven’t even read the instruction booklet. Here is the Amazon link about it.

Last week a friend stopped by on her way home from work to drop off a beautiful orchid a client had given to her. She said she would kill it, and thought of giving it to me. It is sitting here in my space. It came with a plastic shot glass and a card saying to water it with a shot of water once a week. Hopefully I can keep it alive.

Saturday morning it was raining and I knew I wasn’t going to be mowing so I got the urge to do some more painting of living room walls. I am a ‘porcrastinator’ and being a widow and doing things for myself, sometimes by myself isn’t much of a motivation to get things done.

But, after my friend, Mary, was here delivering the orchid and we sat and chatted for awhile in my messy abode that is in the midst of remodeling work, I felt like painting more. I made forward progress on the north wall, still a 4’ section of wall to do, but I have to move a bookcase out of the way first. Hopefully, I’ll do that this week.

After painting, I decided, since the west wall was now finished except for the baseboard, to set up a temporary ‘look’ for that wall, to make it look ‘pretty’ in here. I moved the handmade piece of furniture from beside the loveseat to that wall, moved a painting from another wall to this one, moved some smalls around and am enjoying and being more motivated by the new look.  This won’t be how it ‘will be’, but at least it’s not the bare wall staring at me.

I really love the Behr ‘Bleached Linen’ paint color. I said before that it has a ‘hint of joy’ in it and it most certainly does, at least to me.

Dear Husband and I set up at a local flea market for around 15 years, over 25 years ago and the painting is one of my finds at this market. It was upside down leaning against the seller’s car. I asked how much and they said $2. I didn’t hesitate, didn’t quibble, just paid and hurriedly left the spot with prize in hand.

The clock has no guts, I’m thinking of putting a battery operated movement in it. I set the hands at the time of when my DH was welcomed by Jesus to the next part of his life. All is well. (Found these paintings online in 2014 and just love what they represent.)

This represents my ‘knight’ in blue jeans and a t-shirt, his clothing of choice.

Jesus welcoming Him to be with Him.

******

The two bronze deer pictured below, we bought most likely at this same market, but I don’t know. One of DH’s finds.

The children’s blocks were another find of my husbands, and I picked out these letters after he left this planet. The alphabet is not complete by any means so I was blessed to have found all of these for this special word.

We bought this handmade piece of furniture from DH’s brother, when we had our antique shop for 8 years, for $25, what he paid for it. We decided to not sell it but keep it and it is one of my favorite pieces here at Plum Cottage.  I recently bought some Pledge oil spray and polished this down with it and it now glows.

I decided this look needed a bit of light, so added the pink himalayan salt lamp. Nice ambience especially on a gloomy day.

Like I said, this look is only temporary. It will be changed to two matching bookcases, with a tv/media stand in the center, with a faux mantle shelf in between two bookcases over the tv.

While doing this little arrangement I went through more books and weeded some out, still more weeding to do, but at least I made a start.

I want to thank you all for your kind comments about my gardens. You say such wonderful things about them. What you don’t see is all that I see. I take selective shots showing only the best. I’ve much weeding, trimming, and now mowing to do yet. Not to mention ‘junk’ to be cleared from the property that I will never use.

Your kind words encourage me to keep working here. Gardening is good therapy for body, soul and spirit. Yesterday or the day before I unearthed from a stack of books a beautiful one sent to me by a blogging friend, Gina, in a care package right after I lost my husband. The book is “Sancturay ~ Gardening for the Soul”. I found a link for it on Amazon.

This book not only has beautiful photos but is wonderful reading material. I highly recommend it. Going through it again, inspired me to continue puttering in my gardens, doing what I can and enjoying it all. It’s the process/journey, more than the destination/finished garden look.

Leslie from ‘Spruce Pine Cottage’ has this latest post, ‘Habitat for the Soul’, which I think you will enjoy.

Now for some ‘selective’ garden photos from Plum Cottage gardens.

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‘Barnhouse’ roses

‘Prosperity’ roses

‘Alamandas’

Night blooming jasmine

4 O’clock blooms

Vine covered back shed

I received a devotional the other morning and in it was the verse about Jesus praying for Peter. I looked up the scripture reference and Jesus told Peter he was pleading for him that Peter’s faith should not fail. This was before Peter’s 3 time denial of knowing Jesus. But, Peter did repent after that, and became a great light of God’s love for the world.

Since Jesus prayed for Peter, it stands to reason, that He prays for us all to stand strong in our faith in Him. It’s not always easy, but He has promised to never leave or forsake us, and will be with us every step of our journey. When we believe in Jesus, the Creator of the universe comes to live within us. To think He prays on our behalf is wonderful. We go through and hopefully grow through struggles in our lives, to bring us closer to Him.

I looked up this scripture in my ‘Inspire’ Journaling Bible and added the following to the page where this verse is found, which is in Luke 22:32.

I will close with the following photo of a cross stitch needlework I did while we were newlyweds living in Spain while DH was in the US Navy. This was for my late MIL and I received it after she and my late FIL’s estate was settled.

Have a wonderful week.

FlowerLady