Yard Work Surprise

Finally it was warm and sunny today, so grass got mowed at both houses...yeah, that is NOT a perk of having 2 places!

Anyway, in the yard of the house we live in now, we have pine trees and I love the way the wind sounds in them...late at night and early in the morning...but, I didn't know they did this!

Yes, I know the pictures are not very good.  It was high up and I was trying to hold the branch down some and take the picture and then the little husband came to hold the branch down but the wind was blowing.

ANYWAY, it's RED and amazing, no?

And there was only the one on that tree.  I found 3 more on another tree....higher up still.

While we are in the red family have a look at part of my sweet Japanese maple....how lacy and delicate the leaves are....

...it drapes and flows like a giant bonsai.

Sweet bluets peeking through on this side of the driveway ... and taking over on the other side.

And the thing I love best about these sweet things is that they came all by themselves.  Don't you just love the serendipitousness of that?

I invented that word and the computer isn't happy.

It was a productive day and now I am tired and going to bed.

Knitting, Knitting, Knitting and Date Night!

Yesterday after tutoring I came home and just couldn't get warm.  It was only high 50's here and it has been windy and rainy (remember the poor bees?).  The house we live in now only gets some morning sun which is perfect in the summer, but not too swell for heating it up in this kind of weather.  So, I decided to go out to Shangri La Ti Da and sit in the sun and knit and watch the bees.  I just knew that if I stayed here I was going to go to bed at about 2:30pm!  With the mattress pad warmer doing its ever so wonderful thing.
Packed up the knitting, jumped in the car and drove the 3 miles La Ti Da.  Plenty of sunshine, but still not enough warm.  Ended up sitting in the car with the windows up in the sun and being quite toasty!  Ahhh.
I had my ipod with sermons by my favorite preacher (Patrick Mead - you can google him) and I sat, knitted, and got fed spiritually for about 2 hours.  That is one fine way to spend a chilly afternoon...and one of the things I love about being retired...afternoons!

My little husband showed up, invited me to dinner at our favorite little Deli and to a movie.  Dinner was good and because we are old we decided to watch a movie DVD on the computer instead of driving and hour or more to the nearest theater....and that's one of the things I love about getting older...movies in my jammies in my bed with my little husband and the mattress pad warmer!  Really.  Date night doesn't get much better than that.   And I got to keep knitting.

Wanna see how much I have gotten done?  There are a couple of 'places' but, for a first cardigan and only the second project, I am quite pleased and excited about getting it done...I can see the end!

So, it will have sleeves and it is supposed to be 

11' from the underarm to the hem...might make mine

a bit longer...might need another skein of yarn.

Can you see the arm seam thingy?  Front

and back?

And the button hole?

Makes me feel like a knitter, sort of.

I'm only doing the top 3 button holes.

I am quite sure that exactly as soon as I get it done the weather will turn unbearably balmy.  Not a problem.  I will visit someplace air conditioned!

**** 2 hours later....this is what happens when you lay your knitting down unattended!

Skippy Jo Lohr happy as can be.

The Ways We Feed

WARNING!!!! 

 Long post...be brave.

Yes, I know it has been awhile.  No reason other than living life and a nice quiet spell.
But, now let me get you caught up with some of my living...

The little husband and I always take an anniversary honeymoon.  This year we went to Cincinnati, OH for an international quilt show.  Yes, I know.  He's a keeper!  Here are a few of the quilts that spoke to me...but, I am not a quilter (yet?) so I was drawn to color and visual impact mostly.  It was fun to watch the real quilters getting their eyes as close as possible without touching to check out, oh, whatever it is real quilters check out on each other's work.  Me?  I was just enjoying walking around with my sweetie.

Then, we moved to the other side of the convention center...vendors!  It was interesting to me that I didn't see one wool appliqué quilt in the bunch, but there were plenty of wool vendors.  You may have noticed that most of the quilts I loved could pretty easily be done in wool/felt...at least I think they could.

Behold the oh so colorful and delicious fruits of my shopping venture.

(sorry for the blurries)

Can you tell what colors I like best right now?  Well, except for the blue - I don't like blue.  But, sometimes I have a commission that needs some blue, so I bought some.  Anyway, the rest of the colors are yummy, right?  And the little felt balls?

We also went to the Krohn Conservatory for my little husband's part of the trip.

Ah, this trip fed my creative spirit.
Oh, and it fed my "be nice even though you are not happy and a bit frustrated" spirit.  I booked a Marriott and it did not have micro wave or fridge (good thing we took the cooler), no free breakfast, no free internet, no free parking, no free newspaper!  And it wasn't cheap...but it was beautiful and conveniently located!  :-)

On Friday (last), my little husband had a little medical procedure or two.  Good news:  nothing showed up on either end.  Other news:  still don't know what is up with the liver.  Just keep ruling things out.  Waiting to know if/when we need a biopsy.

Ah, feeding my prayer life and trust in our God.

The following weekend (just past) I zoomed to Columbus for a Christian concert featuring Mandissa, Laura Story and Anita Renfroe who is so stinking funny you cry and maybe pee your pants just a little.
Ah, this trip fed me spiritually.  Good friends, good time.

This week it has been all about bees.  We have two top bar hives with two separate herds of bees with their own queens.  Set them up and the weather turned cold...insulated the hives with newspapers as best we could.  Most survived the first night.  The second cold night a bear came to tip over the hives....both of them!  Many bees died in the cold.  There was no brood or no honey for the bear to get so he didn't destroy much after he realized that.

So the next 2 days my little husband and I did rehabilitation of the hives and tackled another new skill...electric fencing!  That's kind of scary, huh?
Day one we set the hives back up, scooped up as many living bees as we could, covered some with newspaper for the night and started the fencing, but ran out of daytime, so we duct taped the bees in the hives and carried them into our new house...very sore arms, because you don't put the heavy and awkwardly big bee hives right next to the house, of course...they over nighted inside.

Day two we finished the fence after 6+ hours of working diligently pounding stakes, pulling wire (Have you noticed how wire has a mind of its own?), adding insulators, hanging the solar powered battery - the bees now have electric and we don't! -and carrying the heavy and awkwardly big hives back to their space.  I spent a lot of time rescuing the random bees and putting them back in the hive...more resuscitated in the sunshine yesterday afternoon.
I'm not sure that I am cut out to be a bee rancher....very high mortality rate...like handfuls!  I don't like it.
Day three...today...no bear got in last night, bees are flying in and out and even though the fence looks pretty ugly, I have decided that it isn't too bad for a couple of amateurs and it worked!

Ah, this experience fed my heart as I watched and helped my husband take care of these tiniest of creatures.  A good husband with a good heart...and quite a few handy skills!

Tonight we have a freeze warning so the hives are covered in blankets.  These poor bees have had a really rough start!

And what's one more picture in a blog this long?  Here's our sweet Mercy girl....staying clear of the bees and worrying about us.
This feeds my 'mother' heart!  Look at that face.

So much of our living is about feeding us, isn't it?  So many of life's events nurture and sustain us.

Thanks for sticking with me this long.  Maybe I should blog shorter more often, huh?  I will try.

Family

This is an idea that has been percolating for some time...family.

My heart has come to the conclusion that family is not about those who share a common blood, but more about those who share a common bond.

I am finding that the most powerful bond for me is a common faith...a love of God.

I have found family in my church and a small group that has formed and refused to let our little church die...the D Squareds...Devoted and Determined.

I have found family here in the land of blogging women...family as real and true as any I can imagine.  It is amazing to me that almost all of the blogs I follow and care about are authored by faith-full women with big hearts.

I have found family in the friends who have loved me.

I have found family, home, safety and peace with my little husband.

These are the people I will stand for, fight for, pray for and love.  These are the people who will stand for, fight for, pray for and love me....

This then, is my family.

I love you.