Tag Archives: Country Life

Books I Read in April 2023

Books & Reading, Country Life, Gardens, , , , ,
My view while reading this morning.

I have been remiss in posting my reading list for April. I thought I better get to it since May is almost over too. My only excuse is that I have been doing lots of gardening. The vegetable garden went in on Monday. The flower beds are in good shape for this time of year. I still have some more dahlia korms to plant and a few seedlings to transfer. And we are having a bit of a spring drought which means we must water, water, water! And so, at long last, here is the list.

1. Tiny beautiful things-Advice on love and life from Dear Sugar-Cheryl Strayed (Non-fiction)

And here I thought she just hiked the Pacific Crest Trail. Turns out Cheryl was also an advice columnist. And quite a good one. Her answers are essays that we can all learn something from. I was impressed.

2. Killer Cupid-Laurien Berenson

Melanie Travis can get involved in a murder investigation anywhere she goes. This time it’s on a romantic Valentine’s Day retreat with her husband. I always enjoy the books from this series.

3. Red Dog-Louis De Bernieres

This work of fiction is a take on the life of a real dog who was mostly Australian Kelpie. It takes place in Australia. Red is owned by no one and everyone. His was a short life full of adventure which is shared here.

4. We Are the Light-Matthew Quick

This story is told through letters from Lucas Goodgame to his psychologist. He is a survivor of a mass shooting that took the lives of 17, including his wife, at the local theater. The shooter’s younger brother, Eli, takes up residence in a tent in Lucas’ backyard. The two forge a bond and undertake a project that they hope will heal the survivors and young Eli. At first, I wasn’t going to read this book because it sounded depressing but it got good reviews, so I gave it a chance. The book turned out to be beautiful and uplifting! I highly recommend it.

5. Said No One Ever-Stephanie Eding

Ellie Reed takes a vacation to Montana by herself after breaking up with her fiancé and boyfriend of six years. Upon arrival, her host is taken away by ambulance, leaving her with several farm animals and a bulldog to care for. She becomes entwined in the lives of her elderly hostess Marilyn and Marilyn’s grumpy grandson. What a fun book this was!

6. The Stand-Stephen King

This book is on many “Best Books” lists so I decided to give it a read. I am reading other books while I read this one because it is 1,154 pages and I find it to be depressing. Especially since the Covid pandemic. In the story, an infectious respiratory illness wipes out 99.9% of the population. Those few who remain congregate and follow either 102 year old Mother Abigail or The Dark One-Randall Flagg. I completed the first 500 pages of this book in April.

If you only have time to read one book from this list, I recommend We Are the Light. It is more about love than it is about death. And we all need more love. Peace to you, my friends.

 

Magazines: Yankee, Country Living, Country Living the Complete Book of Fixer Uppers, Cooking Light Mediterranean Diet, Midwest Living, Horticulture, The English Garden

Spring Blooms & Planting

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Columbine

It’s really starting to feel like spring. Everywhere I look I notice something in bloom that wasn’t there the last time I looked. This columbine has been so successful that I would like to get another one in a different color. Who knows, maybe I’ll even put it in my fancy decorative urn. Until this one, I have only ever had the traditional pale pink columbine that re-seed prolifically. I’m a big fan of these fancy bi-color cultivars.

Irises

My bearded irises are starting to bloom. I love their faint grape-like scent. These used to grow in a bed beside the house, but they didn’t like it there. I moved them into the walled garden where they call be in a bed that provides sun for a portion of the day, and they seem much happier. They are spreading and give us many blooms. We also have Siberian irises that will bloom as the bearded ones start to fade. Gardening is a fine dance to be planned out step by step. Most perennials bloom for a set amount of time and you don’t want them all to bloom at once and then be done. You want to plan it, so they peak in phases with something beautiful to behold at all times.

Clematis

The clematis are just getting started with their blooms for the year. When this one peaks, it has over 50 blossoms at a time. I have another smaller plant that I grew from a shoot off this one after I separated it last year. We also have a burgundy clematis that gives us beautiful blooms, but it is nowhere near the monster that the purple one is. This one also provides a second, if smaller, round of blooms later in the summer.

Have you noticed that I have a penchant for purple flowers? I also like pinks and apricots. Really any pastel flower. But then I think about the reds and the orange and yellow variegated ones and I love them too. I guess I like them all.

Lilies

This lily reminds me of popcorn because of its colors. I don’t know what kind of lily it is. My mother-in-law asked me if I wanted starts from the ones that she had and of course I said yes. I have these growing in several places. I always enjoy plants given to me by others the most. I get to be reminded of the thoughtful person that gave them to me in addition to the lovely plants.

Ferns

These ferns were growing as weeds along the edge of our driveway. I transplanted several of them to the shady corner of my rose garden and am quite happy with their performance. They had spread so much over the past few years that I had to dig some up and move them as they were beginning to encroach on other plants. I love ferns in general. They are so lush and green. They also provide greenery throughout much of the year when other plants are dormant.

We purchased the rhododendron and the St. John’s Wort in this garden bed. All the other plants have been transplanted from off shoots or re-seedings from plants that we already had. Astilbe, red coral bells, columbine, myrtle, and snapdragons are what grow here now.

Freshly mulched

My rose bed is ready to go for the season. It looks like a simple flower bed but I already have hours worth of work invested in it. All the roses needed to be trimmed back from their winter burns. I have weeded this bed two times already. I also grow most of my gladioi in this bed because it is the sunniest one we have and in my experience, the more sun glads have, the bigger they get and the more they flower. I spent two afternoons planting glad bulbs and mulching after that. Yesterday afternoon I did the fertilizing. It will be worth it. All the rose bushes are loaded with lots of blooms. I sprung for the good fertilizer for my roses. I get the stuff that has nutrients, and prevents Japanese beetles, and black spot. It prevents a lot of heartache.

Last summer I was dubbing myself the Japanese beetle queen. I suppose Japanese beetle slayer would have been closer to the truth. I have never seen as many of these beetles as we had last year. They were on most every plant we had. I would make the rounds with my jar of soapy water, knocking beetles in as I went. I probably got 100 with each round. We even put milky spore in the yard which is supposed to kill the larvae. Fingers crossed that this year is better.

New flowers!

Does this photo look like lots of pretty flowers? It does to me too. It also looks like days worth of work which it also is. There are a few perennials for our ever growing collection. And there are annuals for the concrete planters on top of the garden wall, some for my hanging baskets, with enough left over for other urns and filling in empty spots that need a little something.

It all sounds like a lot of work, and it is. But the rewards are worth it. I find that if I put in extra work early in the season, it gives more free time to relax later in the summer. Prevent those weeds and seeds now, and it will pay off big time later. I try never to get so involved in the prepping and maintaining of the garden that I don’t take time to enjoy it. For each time I do some gardening, I also make a little time for a cool drink and reading on the patio. The dogs also hang out with me in the garden which makes it more fun for all of us. They are all trained to stay out of the flower beds and know where they can go. They think the fountain is the world’s largest dog bowl! And so, it is.

Spring Hiking & Gardening

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A section of the Buckeye Trail at West Branch State Park

We are still hiking but our days on the trail and mileage are down about 50% for the month. We just don’t have the heart to walk a lot of day since Baxter passed to the Rainbow Bridge early in the month. We miss the way he pranced back and forth with such joy, urging us to hurry! He also told us when it was time to go since we went everyday near the same time.

You can see that things are starting to green up out in the woods. The spring wildflowers are slow to arrive this year. The weather has been rather cold and rainy. I’m sure the flowers will arrive soon. We have seen violets along the path. This area is interesting. There are purple violets, white violets, and yellow violets. I have never seen the yellow ones anywhere else and there are not very many. Maybe I just don’t get out much.

We have discovered new sections of the Buckeye Trail at West Branch State Park to explore. I imagine the trail has been there for a long time, but some wonderful volunteers have been doing trail maintenance and painting blazes, so they are easily visible. I will report back after we have gone exploring.

I am also getting the licenses on our kayaks renewed! We haven’t taken them out in a few years. I discovered that if it’s been more than three years since you renewed the license, you have to go to an official boating agent for Ohio Department of Natural Resources to renew them. Luckily, we have one here in town. The kayaks have been stored in the basement of the workshop. I have the kayaking itch and hubby agrees it will be fun to use them this year. I’m sure we’ll start out at West Branch since it’s so close to home. Later, we hope to give Punderson a try, so look for updates on that later in the summer.

American plum trees

Things in our yard are starting to green up too. Hubby just mowed for the first time, and I think our yard looks like a park. The major things in bloom for us right now are fruit trees and bushes. We have American plums, a Methley plum, and another type of Japanese plum that I can’t recall the name of. We have learned that you need two types of Japanese plums for them to pollinate and bear fruit. You can’t for instance have only two Methley plum trees and have them fruit. They must be different types. The American plums may pollinate the Japanese plum trees, but only if they flower at the same type which is apparently not guaranteed. We also have two cherry trees. One we planted last summer. The other is an old tree that has been here longer than I have. All its cherries grow in the top canopy where only the birds can reach them. We also have five blueberry bushes. They performed well last year for being so young and we hope for a good crop this year. We also have random black raspberry bushes around the property. They reseed themselves so we never know just how many or where they will be.

Redbuds

Above is a group of three redbud trees. We planted them together several years ago until they grew bigger, thinking of the group as a tree nursery. Well, we never got around to moving them and now it’s too late. The trees seem happy though and we are happy with the arrangement too, so all is well. We find several redbud seedlings a year that have made a good start. A few we have transplanted to better locations. We happily give an occasional one away, free to a good home once they reach about a foot tall.

This is the time of year when we spend lots of time picking up sticks and pinecones, clearing off flowerbeds, and weeding. Soon will come mulching and planting. There will be a brief respite when we sit on the patio and enjoy it. And then will come the watering and the weeding. Followed by more watering and weeding. And so on.

Hiking Update

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, , ,
Icy reservior
Icy reservoir at West Branch State Park

Happy New Year, my friends! As you can see, we have been keeping up with the hiking. We missed three days when the temperature was below zero and there were high winds, plus a couple for rain. Other than that, we continued hiking every day right through the holiday season!

I love this picture of the frozen reservoir with the frozen ice mounds created where the waves crash into the shoreline. I like winter scenery. This photo amuses me because if you look closely, you can see that someone built a seat from some large rocks and big sticks that were detritus on the beach. The chair even has a stone back. It looks like a throne to me.

West Branch Dam House
Outlet control house at West Branch State Park Reservoir

For those of you who are not the winter afficionados that I am, here is a hike from a sunnier day last week. This is the opposite side of the reservoir from the first picture a few days later. Still no boaters. Believe it or not, we saw boaters out fishing just a couple days before the icy photo was taken. Apparently, this is where serious fishermen go! We sometimes see them unloading or loading their boats and they often say hello and comment on the five dogs we are walking. Yesterday, we walked past the boat ramp and saw someone unloading fishing supplies from their car. There was a cold wind blowing and he commented, “We’re both crazy,” and laughed. My husband and I told him, “Yes, we are!” We have walked just over 57 miles in the past 30 days, and we are happy with that.

We hike in the afternoons during the winter. My husband jokes that the bus leaves at 1:30 pm. The dogs know when it is nearing 1:30. They start milling around the living room where we are doing our after-lunch reading. They become peskier as the hand on the clock nears departure time. If we are late, they stand in front of us and stare. Or they may prance around to get our attention. Claire may lay on the floor and roll around on her back, snorting. She is the resident clown and hands down our happiest dog.

In the spring and fall when it is warm, we hike at 10:30 am before it gets too hot. Not only is it too hot for me by afternoon, but the pavement gets too hot for doggy feet on days we hike on pavement. Dogless walkers probably wonder what we are doing when we bend over to feel the asphalt with our hands for a few seconds. I’m sure other dog walkers know. At least I hope so.

The past couple of years we have not walked in the summertime because it is too hot by the time, we are ready. This summer we hope to do better. Our goal is to get up early leave by 7:30. We’ll see how that goes.

Zekie on the patio in warmer months.

It is always a tossup, what we do in the mornings around here. The nicest time to sit on the patio to relax is during the morning. Most of it is in shade until noon. But that is also the coolest time of day to work in the vegetable garden or do other outdoor chores and projects. Quite the dilemma. Maybe this summer we will walk in the mornings and enjoy the patio when we get back from our hikes. We’ll have to see how that plays out!

Books I Read in October 2022

Books & Reading, Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, , , , , , , , , ,
Home Library

Hello Readers! The typical fall flurry of activity has been keeping me busy. This is a transition season. Lots of clean-up chores from summer, that must be completed before winter hits. I dug up three paper grocery bags worth of gladioli bulbs. The bags are covered with bulbs one layer deep across the bottom. This is to prevent crowding and allow for proper air flow. If there are too many bulbs in one bag, they will rot from the moisture retention. I still have to dig up the begonia and dahlia corms. They were still blooming, so I let them go. It snowed the past two days, so I will dig them up during the next warm spell we get.

Most of our outdoor time the past few weeks has been spent raking and hauling leaves. Some of the leaves went into our new compost bin. My husband built us a large compost bin from lumber and chicken wire. We are composting leaves, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps. Our first batch should be ready to add to the garden next year. I’ll let you know.

I was here by myself for a week in October while my husband and daughter went on a trip to New York and Massachusetts. I took a trip to the library the day they left, so I would have lots of reading material. I stayed home with the dogs and managed to have another foster dog by the time they returned from their vacation. Foster Puppy! Bodhi, Part I We had a fine time here at home! So, here are the books I read…

  1. The Wind Through the Keyhole-Stephen King

This book is one from King’s gunslinger novels. It is the prequel to the original series. It is a tale that seems like a cross of a past land and a futuristic fantasy world. I am not a Stephen King fanatic, but I do like to read an occasional one of his works. I found myself becoming invested in the main characters and rooting for them. An enjoyable read.

2. Write for Your Life-Anna Quindlen (Non-fiction)

A book about the importance of seemingly common writing to our everyday lives, and to the world. Sometimes, common makes all the difference, and proves not to be common after all. Well worth the read.

3. Maggie Moves On-Lucy Score

House flipper & You Tuber Maggie Nichols takes on her next project in Kinship, Idaho. She discovers a landscaper with lots to offer and discovers that you can build a family with something besides blood bonds. The house they are working on has a history involving a stagecoach robbery and lost treasure. A fun read.

4. Growing Wonder, a Flower Farmer’s Guide to Roses-Felicia Alvarez (Non-fiction)

Good information on choosing, growing, and harvesting roses. There is always more information to be gleaned and I appreciated the info on pruning. Alvarez is a third-generation farmer and has a degree in agricultural science. Good information to be had. Living life on a beautiful flower and vegetable farm in California sounds like an idyllic life until I think about the amount of work involved.

5. English Country-Julie Fowler (Non-fiction)

An interior decorating book in the style of the English countryside. I enjoyed perusing the page and got a few ideas. Sit down with a good cup of tea while you read it.

6. Sugar and Salt-Susan Wiggs

Margot Salton started life as Margie Salinas. She made the change after suffering a rough start in life. She becomes a successful chef and has a new life, complete with a budding romance with Jerome Sugar who works in the bakery next door. Margot must deal with her past as it comes back to haunt her in her new life. Susan Wiggs books are always enjoyable.

7. The Secret Supper-Javier Sierra

The write up promises a historical thriller involving Leonardo da Vinci and the Catholic Church. After reading 125 pages, I decided to return this book to the library. It has too many details and little action, being told as a narrative by a friar years later. I cannot bring myself to contine reading.

8. Where Women Create-Jo Packham (Non-fiction)

I’ve had this book out of the library before and I love it! Has pictures of various women artists’ studios and creative spaces. I find it to be inspiring. I’m not sure how these artists pull off the creative, cluttered look and make it so appealing. My own area looks like someone just dumped a bunch of stuff and ran for it.

9. Hill House Living-Paula Sutton (Non-fiction)

This is a decorating and life style book. Hill House is in England. There are nice photographs and some cute ideas within.

Magazines-Cottages and Bungalows(2), Tuscan Home & Living, Forks Over Knives (2)

Dogs and the Country, Sex and the City, It’s Not!

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We’ve been watching the television series Sex and the City which neither my husband nor I had ever seen before. We just started Season six and I got to thinking how this program is the polar opposite of my life. It’s not much like any of my friends lives either. The show is based in New York City. I live in the countryside, outside a relatively small town, in a sparsely populated, mostly rural county.

The group of best friends from Sex and the City are all svelte and stylishly dressed. They wear well fitted and often skimpy, slinky clothing on their jaunts around town. They love their shoes. The main character, Carrie Bradshaw, even has a shoe obsession. She spends hundreds of dollars on her Manolo Blaniks and such. In one episode, the girls calculate that Carrie has spent approximately $40,000 on shoes and that is why she has no down payment to buy her apartment.

The ladies frequent night clubs, swank parties, and upscale restaurants. The women focus mostly on looking for the perfect man for relationship material or deciding whether they are content to go it alone in life. Sights of the city abound, from the normal New York City Street scenes to images of the majestic skyline at night.

My life is quite different. I am… well…not so svelte. I once was but that has been a couple decades ago. I don’t know how someone who subsists on fancy restaurant fare and takeout and works on a computer in her apartment, like Carrie, can maintain a size 2. I guess because it’s television. I hike two to three miles most days, work in vegetable and multiple flower gardens, rake mountains of leaves, etc. and am nowhere near a size 2, or even a size with a single digit.

And their shoes! Most of their shoes I would ruin on my way to the mailbox. That is why my shoe collection consists of sneakers, hiking boots, athletic sandals, and plastic clogs that I can rinse off with the hose after a day of gardening. On a bad day I’m may even be rinsing dog poo off my shoes.

On to clothing comparisons. No shiny, high maintenance fabrics here. In the summertime, I wear tank tops made of serviceable fabric, no silk or dry clean only items! And shorts or capri pants. In the cooler months, it’s sweaters and jeans. For “fancy” times out, it’s usually a Lands End slip on dress with sandals or boots. One of my main considerations when purchasing new clothing is, “What will happen when a dog jumps on this?” I also prefer no-snag fabrics that cat toenails are not going to shred. Priorities, people!

The Sex and the City girls may have their outings at exciting events and locations, but I have some worthy experiences too. I don’t often go out to eat in restaurants and rarely get takeout. Mostly, this is because we can cook far better at home than most of prepared foods we can find around here. That and the fact that there are no exciting restaurants in our town. In the summertime, I go into the garden, see what is ready to harvest, and use it to prepare dinner. That is the peak of freshness. We are decent cooks from years of practice and are usually happier with what we cook at home. We make Indian, Mexican, Italian, Greek, and other assorted cuisines in addition to good old American selections.

We don’t have New York landmarks or a city skyline to gaze upon, but we do have lakes and beautiful sunsets to watch from our porch. I have the satisfaction of sitting on my patio with my dogs and taking in wonderful sights and scents of flowers that I have grown with my own hands. It used to be that I spent little time on our patio because it was not fenced in. Now it is entirely fenced, and our five dogs can be with me whether I am working or relaxing there. The only hitch in this set up is when we have a foster dog that has not been trained to stay out of the flowerbeds. It is a little more work, but a leash solves that problem.

I’m not saying that the city is bad. It is not. It is just not for me. My priorities lead me in other directions. I have not lived “in town” in 35 years. Town is someplace I go when I have a specific task that must be completed. And my very favorite reason for going into town has never once been mentioned on Sex and the City. The library!!! I find this rather odd as Carrie makes her living as a writer. I never see her, or any of the characters, read. Granted her newspaper column is about sex and relationships. They must be too busy making experiences!

As this column comes to an end, it’s time for me to put on my raincoat and hat to take the dogs out in this heavy rain and pick up the soggy dog piles before coming in to dish up five bowls of kibble.

I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Morning Musings from the Patio

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, , , , ,
view from the patio garden
My view on the patio.

Good morning, readers! This is my view as I write from the patio. I usually work outside in the gardens during the mornings when it is cool, but today I am doing something different. The patio is shaded in the morning and gets sunny after noon when the sun crests. This makes it hot and much harder to find a shady spot. So, the dogs and I are taking advantage of the beautiful morning.

Not only are the flowers a beautiful sight, they smell good too. With the humidity, the air is heavy and in addition to the usual roses, I smell the gardenias! We have a full-size gardenia, and a button gardenia which gets lots of small flowers. Their scent is heady and divine!

Dog with flower.
Zekie being a good sport.

I rarely spend time on the patio without the dogs. Above,Zekie is patient with my attempts to get a photo op. As long as he can be my constant companion, he is content. His separation anxiety and behavior are improving with the aid of Prozac. I spend a lot of time outdoors gardening and sometimes it is just too hot for the dogs to be outside. I have begun leaving the dogs loose in the house when I go out to work, going in to check on them every half hour or so. Zekie is getting used to it and handling it well. He lays on the landing at the top of the steps and watches me out the back door. Sometimes, I go out of sight, but he seems to be doing ok with it. He is always at the door to greet me when I open it and gives me a sniffing over to determine what I have been up to.

Big smile on a happy dog on the patio.
Being outside gives Baxter a big smile.

Baxter doesn’t like to have his picture taken. If he knows you are taking it, he turns his head to the side. It works best to zoom in from a distance and snap the photo. He has a great smile, so it is well worth the effort. He loves the futons but sometimes they get too hot for him. His second favorite place in the patio garden is under the dawn redwood tree where the cool soil is exposed. This makes a fine napping spot for a 13 year old dog.

Smiling dog in the patio garden.
Claire pauses to give a smile.

Taking pictures of Claire is rather like photographing toddlers. You have to take a lot of pictures to get one that is usable. About half of them are blurry because she is moving. Many of the rest result in her looking anywhere besides at the camera. She just has a very short attention span and is constantly turning to watch a bird or bee or running after a chipmunk. I am convinced she wouldn’t hurt them. Yesterday, she walked up within two feet of a wren that was getting a caterpillar from the ground. She stood there and watched the wren until it flew to the top of the fence, smacked its caterpillar on the fence a few times and then flew to its nest box on the opposite fence and fed its young. Claire has a busy mind. This is why she’s not the most obedient dog. She has too many other things to think about.

Greyhound sleeping on a futon. Patio garden.
Cassius relaxing.

This is Cassius’ typical position when he is on the patio. He loves the futons. Greyhounds do like to relax. And who can blame them with those bony legs? Cassius comes to me for pets from time to time but mostly he lays around napping and watching life go by. Not a bad deal.

Napping sheltie in a patio garden.
Shelby having a nap.

And this brings us to the matriarch of our pack. Shelby often joins us on the patio. She almost never goes out to the pasture with the other dogs, but she will deign to join us when we sit on the patio. Shelby doesn’t like to hang out with dogs. She will join us when we retire to the patio because I am always there too. And spending time with mom is life’s goal for her. She is a good companion and a true working partner. I can always count on her for therapy dog work and public events with our dog club such as volunteering at the county fair. Reliable is her middle name. She is 12 years old and slowing down. Now I direct her with hand signals to assist with her failing hearing. She is happy to respond, and we continue our work with these minor adjustments. That’s what teamwork is all about.

As I write this post, on the patio surrounded by our five dogs and many flowers, listening to the morning sounds of birds, I realize that I am blessed. I wish blessings to you also, my friends.

Peace be with you.

Books I Read in June 2022

Books & Reading, Country Life, , , ,
Our patio

Hello Readers,

I hope you are enjoying your summer. Mercifully, the area I live in, northeast Ohio, has been spared many of the storms and wildfires that have been taking place in the rest of the country. Our weather has had some hot spells, but nothing like in the south and southwest. It has been dry, dry, dry though! We spend an hour and a half watering every other day. This includes the vegetable garden, various shrubs and flowers, hanging baskets, wall planters, and all the raised sandstone flowerbeds in our patio garden. Even with the various gardening chores and other commitments, I have made time to read. Mostly because I refuse to go outside when it is over 90 degrees! So, read on to see what my selections for June were.

  1. More Mediterranean-America’s Test Kitchen (Non-Fiction)

A cookbook to inspire eating for wellness. Many of the recipes look delicious. I finally decided I was never likely to prepare any of them because most require an ingredient or spice that I am never likely to have. Things like Za’atar, fenugreek, and fresh fennel. If you’re looking for a healthy challenge though, this may well be the book for you.

2. Death by Chocolate Chip Cupcake-Sarah Graves

Jake and Ellie are back in this series featuring a chocolate themed bakery located in Eastport, Maine. The murders they solve this time are based on an old theme, who can get out of the haunted mansion alive, when the pair caters the desserts for a dinner for the new owner, a fading movie star. Jake manages to survive more mishaps and wounds than you would think possible. This series has Maine, the ocean, chocolate, and good friends. How can you go wrong? I think this is my favorite book in this series so far. It is enjoyable and amusing.

3. Rule Your Day-Joel Osteen (Non-fiction)

This is an inspirational book from the pastor of Lakewood Church, America’s largest church. The author tells us how to be successful in our lives, citing Bible stories and applying them to current times. Oddly enough, many of the suggestions are things I’ve read from business articles. Such goodies as, don’t hang around with people who pull you down. Although I am a Christian and familiar with the Biblical references, I think this book would be beneficial for everyone. It provides useful advice that can be applied to your own life.

4. Our Country Friends-Gary Shteyngart

A group of friends gathers at a country house and its surrounding cottages in upstate New York to ride out the pandemic. They learn a lot about each other as they try to stay safe. They learn things about each other that they never expected. A group of three life long friends, an adopted Asian child, an arrogant actor, and others make up the cast who isolate to stay safe from the Covid pandemic. This book was not my cup of tea. I am ready to move on to a more cheerful read. I may have appreciated it more if the pandemic was a thing of the past.

5. With Love from London-Sarah Jio

Valentina Baker is jilted by her boyfriend and then learns that her estranged mother has died and left her a bookshop in London. She hasn’t seen her mother since she left when Valentina was 12 years old. The book tells Valentina’s story as well as her mother’s. Things are not always as they seem. This is a book of friendship that explores roads not taken. This is a fun, feel-good book and I highly recommend it.

Magazines: Country Living, Yankee

My Helper

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Zekie posing for the camera!

As much trouble as Zekie has been over the years, he is a great dog. Read about some of his antics at the following link. Zekie the Wonder Dog

His major problem is that he can’t stand to be away from me. At all. He starts to get worked up if I so much as go outside to get the mail. He is a little better since our vet put him on Prozac last year. Now when I go outside without him, he no longer jumps on the dining room table to watch me through the window. He just flings himself at me and jumps on me repeatedly upon my return, reveling in the joy of seeing me again. He is so ecstatic to see me that this often results in bruises for me, sometimes in the shape of a pawprint! It is hard to get too upset with him in the face of such adoration.

This brings me to today’s Zekie Tale. My husband has been hand digging a trench for a home maintenance project. He digs just a little each day and then goes on to another project. For the last week or so, the part he is digging crosses a corner of the dog pasture. The dogs are usually outside with my husband while he is digging. Hubby put up snow fence at my suggestion to keep the dogs, especially Cassius, a crazy greyhound prone to getting the zoomies, out of the construction site. I feared that in one of Cassius’ loops sprinting at top speed around the perimeter of the pasture, he would fall in the two-foot-deep trench and break a leg. Hence, the snow fence went up to prevent this. The dogs can still get to the trench area but have to go around the fence and past the piles of fill dirt to get there.

This portion of the project is nearing its end. I went outside today to help my husband with the last ten-foot section crossing the pasture. I was down in the trench, first doing a little shoveling of loose dirt out of the trench, and then just for fun, I tried picking with the mattock for a while to see what it was like. A lot of work, that’s what it was like!

The dogs have shown no interest in the project the entire time my husband has been out there working. Today, since I was out in the trench, things changed. Zekie watched me for a while. He got down in the end of the trench about 30 feet ahead of me. He looked around and then got out of the trench. A little while later Cassius came over to check out the trench. He looked at me a bit, hopped in the trench and soon jumped back out. Hubby and I looked up a bit later to see Zekie lying beside the trench with his head down in it. Shortly thereafter I checked on Zekie again. He was down in the trench, and he was using his front paws to dig. His efforts were making the trench longer. He looked up and saw us watching, so he kept digging. It was obvious he was helping us!

I told my husband, “Zekie is a people person”. My husband asserted that Zekie is not a person. I don’t think Zekie is aware of this. His mama was working on a project, so he joined right in. He wants to be a part of everything I do. If I could explain to him that if he kept control of himself, he could go more places with me, his would be a happier life. I have not given up hope. Zekie is eight years old now. That is the age my wonderful dog Duncan was when he went from being referred to as the sheltie from hell to my best friend.

Zekie gazing at is mama.

Metamorphosis of a Garden

Country Life, Dogs & Other Animals, Gardens, , , , , , , ,
2013 vs. 2022

Hard work pays off! When I moved here in 2003, our current patio area was nothing but a side yard of grass. Shortly thereafter, my brother built me a small pond with a liner, some nice stones around the edge, and stocked it with goldfish. It was lovely. May you be blessed with such a brother. Some frogs moved in, and a blue heron occasionally stopped for a snack of goldfish (not the crackers!) before we could chase him off.

Fast forward 10 years. My husband changed the pond to photo number one above. It went through a few iterations before it got to this stage. At first, we had the fountain/pool, but it was not chlorinated. The water was a little green which the frogs were fine with. I would get in to cool off even with the frogs. We don’t have air conditioning and the frogs were willing to share. There was even one frog who became tame. He would sit on my shoulder as I walked around in the water. There were other frogs who would sit in my hand. I loved my frogs. I know, I’m a dang weirdo.

As the area was transitioning from grass to enclosed patio, my husband decided to start chlorinating the water, so it would be more hospitable to guests. Apparently, not everyone enjoys swimming with frogs. Any frogs that were left that spring were transitioned to our neighbor’s pond and our fountain/pool became a more maintained setting.

Baxter enjoying patio time this afternoon.

After the footers were poured, every year a new section of flagstone was installed by my husband to increase the patio area. New sandstone flowerbeds beds were added one by one. Sections of wall and fence went in over the years. I started spending significantly more time there the year the section of fence was added that made the enclosure complete. This meant that the dogs could join us and no longer had to stay in the house or their pasture. It’s true, everything’s better with dogs!

The pergola went up a few years ago, thanks to you know who. Thanks hubby! We are growing grapes on it in an attempt to provide some shade near the pool. People ask me whether this is a fountain or a pool or exactly what it is. I never know how to respond. It is a fountain. The centerpiece (designed, poured, and installed by my husband) splashes, mixes the water, prevents mosquitoes (which won’t hatch unless the water has been still for two weeks), and makes a nice noise. It is also a pool. The water is four feet deep. We get in and out via a ladder that we put in and take out when not in use. We swim. We have pool lounge chairs that we float around on. I drink iced tea and read books while I float around. I guess the only answer is, it is all of those things. It only depends what purpose we are using it for in the moment.

Last but not least, I will share a few flower photos that I took today when I was done swimming. Admittedly, I wasn’t actually swimming. I was standing the water while reading a book and cooling off. This was our first time in the water this year. I was so hot from running the mini tiller to weed the vegetable garden that I couldn’t resist. The water temperature was 75 degrees and it felt so refreshing after hauling the tiller around the garden.

Our patio and gardens have undergone a metamorphosis over the years as you can see from the two photos taken nine years apart. It is a labor of love, requiring dedication and hard work. We hope to be able to share it with more people as Covid slows down. It was an oasis for us during those rough times. I hope it can be an oasis for others as well.

White mandevilla
First hibiscus bloom of the year!
Two drift roses with lavendar in front.
Urn with verbena and zinnia.