Hints & Happenings

 

Good afternoon Folks ~ Here is is Thursday and August is zipping right along. Remember my last post about ‘hint’s of autumn coming?  Well, I had two mornings of ‘hints’ right after that, now it’s back to ‘dog days’.

I’ve been working outside for 2-3 hours in the mornings, this morning I mowed, and after I write this post I’m going to take a nap.

Since around the 20th of July, my refrigerator has been making noises never made before. I’m very sensitive to noises, and when things don’t sound right I wonder why? and try to figure it out. Day before yesterday the noise got worse, so I decided to call my appliance repair guy. He came out later and I told him when he got here the noise had stopped right after I called him and hadn’t started up again. He listened for awhile and since there was still cold air in fridge and freezer and the noise wasn’t happening, maybe it was nothing after all. So we left it at that, and he said to call me if I needed him. I had asked questions about the fan and the compressor so that was that. That noise didn’t happen again. Well, the next morning I noticed a moderate light squeal, which came and went, and sometimes didn’t happen at all, so I went about my day.  Well, I went to the freezer to get something out for supper and noticed the meat wasn’t totally frozen. I called the repair guy and he said oh no, and that he’d be here shortly.  It was around 5ish. I hurriedly stuffed frozen items into the floor model freezer I have, then wiggled the fridge out of the space/cubbyhole and turned it so that the guy could get to it.

When he got here, he took the back off, and oh my the ‘dust’.  The fan was going, but when he touched the motor, it was very hot to the touch.  He said there’s your problem.  The squeal I had heard was no doubt the bearings. I got out the vac and he sucked out the dust, took old motor out, hoped he had fan motor in his van, he did, he put it in, it worked fine, I paid him and now I have a quiet running and cold/freezer/fridge once again.  This fridge is a Maytag and 18 years old.  I’m hoping it will last me many years yet.  It’s a simple, no frills fridge, white and small, just right! I was so thankful I didn’t have to buy a new fridge.

Outside right now it is 88 but feels like it’s 110.  Rain clouds are gathering and T-storms are predicted for later on this afternoon.  I will be so glad when cooler weather gets here.  I am ever thankful for air-conditioning.

Here are some blooms, statues, and critters from my tropical jungle gardens.

I’m wondering if this is not the ‘female’ of that bright green lizard from the other day.

Zebra longwing and hamelia paten blooms

Spicy Jatropha ~ Zebra longwings just love this.

Vanda ‘Miss Joachim’

Statues are getting quite the patina these days. I just love how they look old.

St. Francis

He’s wearing a ‘bagworm’ earring.

‘Prosperity’

I just love the colors and layers of these clouds the other evening. Rain came a little while later.

“When the sky is totally covered by the dark clouds,

be strong enough to see the bright stars beyond them!”

Mehmet Murat ildan

***

Enjoy the rest of your week ~ FlowerLady

Dog days of summer

 

Dog days

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The phrase dog days refers to the sultry days of summer. In the Northern Hemisphere, the dog days of summer are most commonly experienced in the months of July and August, which typically observe the hottest summer temperatures.

sul·try  ˈsəltrē/

adjective

adjective: sultry; comparative adjective: sultrier; superlative adjective: sultriest 

(of the air or weather) hot and humid

synonyms: humid, close, airless, stifling, oppressive, muggy, sticky, sweltering, tropical, heavy;

***

That is the weather down here in s.e. FL. September is usually more of the same.  We might get hints of fall coming then, but they are just that, ‘hints’. We’ve had partly cloudy skies for two days with no rain. I did mow last week, except for one little patch. I had a couple of piles of weeds and vines to be picked up in that area and was just too pooped to do that, so called it a day.  I am so thankful for air conditioning.

I went out this morning for a little walk around and spied a bright green critter on the wall of cottage. I came in for my camera and he was still in the same spot when I came back out. He’s a rather small one, we’ve had longer/fatter ones.  They are not native.

I went around the patio to the other side to get pictures from that angle. He’s on the bottom right below heart. (I found these two hearts right after my dear husband left this planet. They were a thrill to me, especially because they are hearts.)

Look at the ridge along his back. He’s quite bumpy all over on his little hide.

Now for some pretties from the gardens.

I made three more needlework pieces last week. I got more bead supplies and some silk thread too this past week, so am looking forward to creating more.

This heart has lace and freshwater pearls plus two kinds of seed beads.

I have orders for one of my pincushions, (I’ll stuff them fuller this time.) I gave this one away to a friend who embroiders and she loves it. She didn’t care that it wasn’t stuffed as full as it should be.

and someone else wants one of my little embroidered covered journals, that I’ve put uplifting scripture verses and photos from my garden in. I had to get more ink for my printer in order to print the scripture and photos for journals.

Below some of the journals made last year awaiting scripture and photos.

Now here are pictures from today.

The marble work surface is under there somewhere.

Me desk/work surface. I blog from here for myself and for Friends Needing Friends widows blog.

Here are the supplies I got this past week from two different places.

The bead mat is nice, three came to a pkg.. I got another pkg of 4 very thin big eye beading needles too.  They are really neat.  They are two needles soldered together at both ends so that there is a long split for threading which you separate. Much easier than trying to thread a smaller eyed needle. The long silver tool is a scoop for picking up beads to put back in containers and there are six of those little triangle scoop trays. They work great too.

These beads are size 15, very tiny, and I’m more comfortable with the size 11, but I’ll use these. As you can see, I started on another heart. I can’t help it.

I found this free pattern online yesterday.  Aren’t these cute? I need to embellish them, just not sure how yet. One is cream and the other is an ecru.

I’ve had this pattern a few years now.  I just found the free vintage angel print online yesterday and used the face. I’ve still more embellishing to do with her too.

I’ve got ideas for projects for inside my little cottage, for the workshop, etc. all running around in my mind. I’m really looking forward to cooler weather.

I’m listening to Spanish guitar music which I love. It touches my soul. We lived in Spain while DH was in the US Navy, and he bought an acoustic guitar and that was the beginning of his guitar playing. He played an electric guitar for many years too, plus the harmonica. (When he was a teen he played the drums and the base guitar.)

I hope to catch the super moon tonight.  I saw it this morning when I first opened the blinds in the bedroom, I thought WOW, not knowing about the super moon then read about it later online. Moonrise is at 7:54 EST.

I hope you all have a great week, at work, at home, whatever you do.

FlowerLady

Thank you all

Good Monday morning Folks ~ First of all, thank you for all of your kind and encouraging comments, and for your prayers for widows. I am blessed to have you all in my life.

I just noticed this morning that that last post got posted twice and I really don’t have a clue as to how that happened! I use Window’s Live Writer and have never had that happen before.  I apologize for that. I was somewhat distraught, so that might be the cause of my doing it twice.

Yesterday I sat here quietly embroidering while listening to books being read out loud on LibriVox. An artist friend of mine told me about this website, as she listens to it while she creates her porcelain pieces.  You can visit her blog The Cranes Nest and be inspired by her gardens and her artwork.

We had rain yesterday morning, then a reprieve, then a monster thunderstorm in the late afternoon, that hung around for quite sometime.  This little cottage shook and quaked from the thunder, lights flickered a few times, but the electricity stayed on.  I did have the a.c. and the computer turned off though.  Florida is known as the ‘Lightening Capitol’ of the U.S. You do NOT want to be outside when a storm happens.

At least, I am not having to water gardens, God is doing it for me. More rain is expected all of this week. That means everything is going to be growing even more rampant and I may just disappear under all of the growth. Below is one instance of ‘running rampant’.  This is almost blocking my path into potting area, which by the way is in sore need of being taken care of. I have ideas, but need cooler weather to work back here.

With all of the rain there is one fern that is extremely happy.  It is called ‘The Resurrection Fern’.  When we have no rain, the fern shrivels up and looks dead, then when it rains it comes back to life, hence the name. These are growing up the Norfolk pine, which we bought as a 3’ little tree to use for Christmas, many, many years ago.

I looked up into the tree and can see this spreading further on up.

Another palm frond is hanging by a thread, and will soon be crashing down, hopefully into the driveway in the picture below this one.

This is part of the driveway. If you look closely through the lattice gate, (which needs to be cleaned once the rains stop), you can see a car zipping by on the 5 lane road out front. This is my little oasis, overgrown and as weedy as it is,  in the hectic and crazy world that we live in.

Following the picket fence on around, which encloses the clothesline garden area, you see the caravan. (The tall tree on the left, is the Norfolk pine which the resurrection fern is growing on.)

This lovely heart shaped leafy plant was given to me by my dear husband’s two sisters and their husbands when my husband left this planet for his heavenly home.  They picked it out because of the heart shaped leaves.  It is in the little screened porch off the kitchen, which is my main entrance, and I see this every day.  I believe it is a Spathiphyllum of some kind. It gets watered by the a.c. water that collects in two buckets.

One word frees us of all the weight and pain of life:

That word is love

 Oedipus at Colonus

***

 Have a good week  & let’s not let the trolls in life get us down.

FlowerLady

Roses, real and ribbon, hurting widows and unkind words

 

Good evening Folks ~ It’s Saturday, right around 6:30 p.m. My heart is heavy, my eyes keep filling and overflowing. It’s that kind of day.  Thankfully these kind of days are not the norm.

My heart is burdened for widows that I’ve talked to in the last couple of days, who are missing their husbands dearly. One has been a widow for 5 years, one for almost three, one for around 7 I think, one for a little over a year.  There are other widows I know online and in real life that are going through the valley right now too   Our hearts ache with loneliness. There is an empty space in our lives where our husbands used to live. I don’t know what to say to ease their pain, I cry along with them and pray for them.  We do our best, taking each day as it comes trying to be brave, asking God to be our strength. We have decisions to make, we worry, we are growing through our pain. We will make it, it’s just that some days are harder than others.  Keep us in your prayers.

Here are some photos of the lovely rose ‘Granada’.

God’s beautiful creations help to soothe and to lighten hearts.

Here are two more ribbon embroidery roses.

I ordered more ribbon yesterday morning as I’m running low. I really enjoy making these. Using the alcohol ink markers is fun too for coloring the ribbon. These are around 3 inches high.

This morning I was looking at Pinterest and got inspired to keep creating and to get pieces into my little Etsy shop, hoping they will sell to help supplement my income.

Soon after, I checked Blogger for comments and there were 4 new ones left in my FlowerLady’s Creations blog. All by the same person, and all nasty and hurtful! I deleted them and don’t even remember what they said, except for part of one and I won’t repeat it here. Needless to say, I felt like I was punched in the gut. I don’t know this person,  I checked and they do not have a blog. May God forgive them and may I not let their negative words discourage me from doing something I love doing.

Our words can wound or they can heal. They can break or they can mend. They can discourage or encourage. They can anger or they can spread joy.

Let us watch our words, let us be kind one to another. This world can be cruel at times. Let us not be cruel back.

Love and hugs ~ FlowerLady