Day of solitude...

I hold this to be the highest task for a bond between two people: that each protects the solitude of the other”


Rainer Maria Rilke



...today I enjoyed a self-imposed day of solitude.  Even though the hubs was home all day and that in itself flies in the face of solitude, I am blessed, that he wholly and fully understands my need to be alone with my thoughts.  My need to sort things out and to come to terms with my so-called life,  (remember that show) this incredibly difficult and confusing journey that I am on.
 
That is not to say that I am unhappy, or ungrateful, or unapologetic as all of those "un's" have entered my mind today.  It is to say that yesterday's post was more about cleaning house than anything else.
 
Yesterday, we went into town and spent a couple of hours at one of my favorite places:
 

 
I found a few things that I couldn't live without and will probably end up putting them in my sweet little Etsy shoppe before long.  (did you know I have an Etsy shoppe??  it's currently closed so that I can re-stock, but I will let you know when it's open again).

 

 

After we were done there we grabbed a coffee and went over to the Puyallup Valley Watershed area to take a little walk hike along the river.  It was a good thing that we kept moving as it was cool and breezy, about 50degrees.  Yeah, "F" is in the air, leaves are turning red and falling to the ground as are my hopes for an extended summer.  There was little flora and no fauna and we quite possibly came upon the last ripe blackberry of summer.  Didn't pick it though...it was about a 4ft drop into the river from where we were standing.

 

 
There really is no excuse, well um, except for the weather, to not get outside and get some exercise around here.  We are just a few miles from the watershed, there is a river walk in town, and across the street from me runs a 29mile rails to trails paved bike and walking trail.  I love to walk over there when the "F" comes as the scenery is so beautiful with the change of season.
 
There are signs everywhere that the Fair is coming soon but that is not the "F" that I am referring to.  It is Fall, undoubtedly my most favorite time of year but not yet, I just am not ready to give up on summer yet.  We waited so long here, until the end of July before we had a day over 70degrees, and since then we've only had four days over 85+, and now we are back to the 50's.  Do you know what that does to a vegetable garden and bedding plants??  I know, you've all had a horrendous summer so I won't deny you cooler temps but next year I will not be so generous!  Take care peeps and enjoy your solitude where ever you may find it.

just wastin' time...

A Mind Is A Terrible Thing To Waste...


and I do believe that mine has gone to h.e.double hockey-sticks in a hand-basket. (What in the world does that mean anyway?) So, lets take a little peek inside and you'll see what I mean. It's chaos I tell ya...chaos.

will someone please write a book, as soon as possible, titled "What to expect when the economy collapses for Dummies."

can I hire someone to dust my house and help me put my shoes on?

'P' is for pain.

why won't my mother-in-law fix me a casserole or some brownies when I am sick but if my husband sneezes she is over here with a 5-course meal?

how does the dog know where to "go" when she is up to her knees in leaves? (yes, we already have leaves falling here)

pain is a four-lettered word.

should I sell my car?

can I be considered an interior designer after watching 3845 hours of HGTV?

are my eyes fuzzy or is that dust on the t.v. screen?

just how much is one person supposed to give before it is enough?

I could go on and on but what would be the point...I mean really???


so...how was your weekend??

signed; mama pajama (remember her?)

Dishes equal l.o.v.e...

...a few months ago, over at Brenda's place, I won a CSN stores give-away!  It was quite a large gift certificate ($70) and I didn't waste any time browsing and calculating how much and what I could purchase.  In the end I settled on some beautiful silver candle sticks...quite substantial I must say but I can't show you as I have them put away for a gift.

Earlier in August I found myself window shopping here and hoping that I could score win another CSN prize or at least have a give-away for my blog.  After talking with  Eileen, Promotions Rep. extraordinaire, we decided a review would be the best way to start.  O.K., I was psyched and once again found myself shopping...this time in their dinnerware department.

I decided to try a set of dishes for four.  I was looking for something that would be suitable for outdoors or in.  I wanted to be able to use it during the summer season and into fall.  Oh, did I mention that I am a dish-a-holic?  Love me some dishes, oh yeah, and I like to use different sets for each of the seasons.  (Doesn't everyone?)  After looking around for a second I knew which set I wanted to try, and then I looked some more just to be sure.  Within the week they were here...

and oh.my.gosh do I love them.  Aren't they just the cutest thing?  So in now with the Rooster design, and the colors, wow.  I thought it would merely be stained on color but it looks as if you can see brush strokes, almost as though they were hand painted.  Sweet!  Look at the bowls~~they can hold a nice hearty soup with no problem at all.  The mugs are a great size too, and microwaveable for those people like me who heat-up the same cup of coffee all day long, over and over.

Don't hesitate to check out CSN stores, it's more than cookware, in fact it's just about anything you can think of.  And a huge Thank You to CSN for letting me review one of their products and for being so very supportive of the blogging community.  I can't wait to see what happens next!

White Saucers...

...across the street and down the road, over the river and through the woods, lives an old(er) couple with a huge dahlia garden.  (They obviously bought the correct bulbs!)  Rows and rows of wonderful dahlias...*sigh* dahlia love. 

They have built as small roadside stand and sell their flowers, a few vegetables and sometimes berries.  I stopped on my way home and found most everything sold out, except, this huge-flying-saucer-sized- dahlia.  There was one~~ .50cents.

Now it lives with me:

Happy White Wednesday, be sure to stop by Faded Charm and see all the other wonderful whites! 

The old switcheroo...

...remember that from the old "Get Smart" series??  gah, how old am I.  Anywho...

last winter in the midst of the season we call 'rain,' I was feeling a little blue wondering if the weather would ever improve.  This happens every year around February/March when it seems there is no end in sight.  (on a side note: the season of rain did not let up until July).  The hubs and I were in the Home Depot as I walked toward the garden area I spied bulbs.  Wonderful, beautiful, wondrous, easy-to-grow bulbs. 

I rarely buy bulbs other than Daffodils or Tulips but this year I decided to try Dahlias.  I l.o.v.e. Dahlias, and I had visions of beautiful, huge, plate-sized flowers adorning the garden outside my dining room window.  I bought two packages of five each, for $25.  Yeah, $25.  I have never spent money like that on bulbs before but the 'vision' I had was driving me forth to do so.

When all danger of frost had passed it was time to plant them I followed all the important directions, even checking my zone...I do believe we are zone 8.  The bulbs were planted on their sides, sprinkled with magic dust, and covered with warmish soil...now all there was to do was wait until July/August?/September to see all the lovely blooms.

I anxiously waited and waited and waited and what did grow looked less and less and less of a Dahlia.  There were no leaves, just reedy looking stems...no leaves, no buds, no flowers that resembled my beautiful Dahlias.

Here's what I did get:

Now, all you wonderful people out there. please tell me what this is.  I assume it is a Lily of some sort, it is quite delicate and the stems break very easily.  They have a soft, sweet scent.  Lily??

Now obviously the bags were mislabeled and I paid waaaay too much for these Lilly's, nevertheless, I rather enjoy them.  But, to ease my troubled mind I will be taking a trip at the end of the month to the Dahlia festival.  And if I get my way I will purchase some 'real' bulbs and get my fix next spring.

Heartfelt Friday...

...feeling the need to share this sweet verse today.  Echoes, good or bad, have many things to teach us.  If only we will listen.  Have a good weekend y'all...

image NASA...light echoes

our life is an echo

of our essence

as it is

caught between our yesterday

and our tomorrow.

it is the resounding reality

of who we are

as a result

of where we have been

and where we will be

for eternity.

mattie j.t. stepanek

journey through heartsongs


linking to Java @ Never Growing Old 

Riding the birthday train...

...29 ahem years ago today, at approximately 6:32am, I came face to face for the first time with this beautiful girl.  She is my first and only daughter, she is my last and only daughter.  And unlike the two boys before her, she made her opposition known to everyone in the delivery room, but I, I was ecstatic!

She is fiercely independent, strong, and creative.  She is too funny for words and has a huge heart, she is tender and loving with a passion for life, her family, her friends, and her cat!  She is beautiful in every way that counts.  She is my missing piece.  She made our family complete, and gave her only surviving brother a sibling to love.  Not only do I love her but I am completely in love with her and every time I see her I am in awe.  How could I have possibly had anything to do with this lovely person? 

I read once that when you give birth to a daughter you give birth to a connection unlike any other.  Being close to my boy, I didn't understand this statement but it is true.  She came into this world and I held her hand, and when I leave this world she will be holding mine.  She is my daughter.  She is my friend.  And today I wish her Happy Birthday  Lindsay~~with love.

It isn't you...well, yeah, it is...but not in that way...

...are you feeling a little rejected, disrepected, neglected?  Well, believe me when I tell you that it isn't you, it's me.  I've been happily drinking in all the wonderful summer sunshine while it lasts and, you know around here, that it won't last long.  Thus the lack of posts.

I read an article recently, really I shamelessly stole it from MPM, that I found very interesting with regards to gal pals.  I wanted to share part of it with you with the hopes that you will take a moment and share it with your favorite gal pals.

On this, my birthday, a huge hug and thank you to all my gal pals for holding me up, giving me strength, making me laugh, and getting me through to another birthday.  Love you all:

here we go:

She wrote............ I just finished taking an evening class at Stanford. The last lecture was on the mind-body connection--the relationship between stress and disease. The speaker (head of psychiatry at Stanford) said, among other things, that one of the best things that a man could do for his health is to be married to a woman whereas for a woman, one of the best things she could do for her health was to nurture her relationships with her girlfriends.
At first everyone laughed, but he was serious.
Women connect with each other differently and provide support systems that help each other to deal with stress and difficult life experiences. Physically this quality girlfriend time" helps us to create more serotonin--a neurotransmitter that helps combat depression and can create a general feeling of well being. Women share feelings whereas men often form relationships around activities. They rarely sit down with a buddy and talk about how they feel. Women do it all the time. We share from our souls with our sisters, and evidently that is very good for our health. He said that spending time with a friend is just as important to our general health as jogging or working out at a gym.

There's a tendency to think that when we are "exercising" we are doing something good for our bodies, but when we are hanging out with friends, we are wasting our time and should be more productively engaged--not true. In fact, he said that failure to create and maintain quality personal relationships with other humans is as dangerous to our physical health as smoking! So every time you hang out to schmooze with a gal pal, just pat yourself on the back and congratulate yourself for doing something good for your health!
We are indeed very very lucky.
So let's toast to our friendship with our girlfriends. Evidently it's very good for our health

flowers and lightning...

...a few weeks ago I decided to figure out what all the little icons are on my sweet little point and shoot camera.  Not that I have any problem with the pointing~shooting~picture  aspect, in fact, I love that it can be so simple to take a decent picture.  But, and there is always a but, I wanted to take better close-ups and after deciding that it wasn't the user but the equipment, I went on a search.

In all the information I found, the secret to a good close-up seemed to be directly related to the "flower" button.  Hmmm,  I searced high and low and the closest thing I could find was the "landscape" mode.  Really no help at all.  Then low and behold while sitting out on the deck playing with the settings I spied the elusive "flower" button.  Cool. 

Clearly, there is a learning curve!  Now if I can just figure out what the "lightning bolt" is for!