weekend is here...

fresh bread

This is what DH and I eat every morning for breakfast... a half slice of fresh made bread (No, I didn't make it). But a slice of warmed bread with butter and a cup of coffee make up our daily breakfast. 

Oh, on occasion (but very seldom) we will have eggs and bacon or biscuits or pancakes... but more than likely we have this type of breakfast for supper (especially at the end of the week when we've just about run out of groceries).

One of our favorite suppers is a dutch baby with lots of butter, lemon, powdered sugar... and a few slices of bacon!

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Not a lot going on here at the moment... well, birthdays abound! From August though December, we have have about 10 birthdays in our family. Two this year are fairly big ones... oldest grand daughter turned 18 and oldest grandson will be 21 in a few weeks. Don't know how these kids got so old so fast. Time sure flies. 
                                                                              
                                                         

Oldest grandson at younger age

oldest grandson now

oldest grand daughter at younger age

oldest grand daughter now

OK... closing this with a few pics of the progression of

Cheeky Chickens 2nd generation!

                                                                                   

These are slightly bigger than the first generation... and have added 3 dimensional wings instead of carved in... and may possibly be colorful shades of pink, blue, and purple (this is still a maybe?).
 

The round ball in the back is clay over a balloon which will be covered with tiny snakes and fired in the ground... (an experiment in the making).

And lastly I want to thank those of you who read my book (Time After Time by D'Arcy Regan Hart) and put a review on Amazon.  I may never have a ton of readers, but it makes me very happy that the few who have read it seemed to enjoy it. Thanks again.

Have a wonderful weekend and as always thanks so much for reading and sharing this time in my life with me.


Hugs,
Rian

a few unrelated things...

Tux sitting in sunlit window

Today's post is totally random... just a few pics taken recently that are unrelated. This one at the top I shot of Tux finding a little place in the sun while I worked on the computer.

box turtle on lawn

This one DH took of one of the larger box turtles walking across the lawn this morning.

Night Blooming Cereus

And this pic DH's brother sent us from Houston. His Night Bloomer actually had 17 -20 of these beauties blooming at the same time. This is my very favorite plant! We used to have one that bloomed (never that many at once)... and the aroma is heavenly.  

Even the cats would gather round it when it opened and released it's distinctive fragrance . It's especially wonderful because the plant itself is not that attractive. Most bloom only once a year, at night... and don't last very long. If you've never actually witnessed one of these bloom, it's amazing... (there are some time-lapse photography on google if interested). 

That's about it. Weather is gorgeous (sunny and 67 F), bought 2 new kitty beds (on sale for $6.99) for outside cats (since the weather will be getting cold soon), and made 2 rum cakes and a batch of whiskey balls to send to my son for his birthday next week!  So, yes, I'm feeling better...

Have a wonderful rest of the week!

(Oh, a funny story - although Ghost may not think it was funny.  Yesterday I sat on Ghost (poor baby). She is a dark gray and our sofa is a dark blue. Well, she's taken to sitting in my spot lately - and I walked into the den with my coffee without paying attention and sat! At first I thought I'd sat on one of the sofa pillows until she wiggled free. Poor baby, I apologized profusely and she is such a good cat that she doesn't hold a grudge (Tux does). Anyway, I gave up my spot to her... and she didn't hesitate to re-take it.)

This is a picture of Ghost when she was young...
 and sitting in the window next to our Night Blooming Cereus...

Hugs,

Rian

To give in or not to give in...

          Some of you suggested  that my melancholy could be due to SAD (seasonal affective disorder).  I thought I'd heard of this but googled it just the same. It says that SAD is a mood disorder that is characterized by depression and occurs at the same time each year... usually Fall or  Winter.

Apparently it's common... more so in areas where there is no sun.

But Texas has lots of sun!

However, I read that it could also be caused by the body producing less serotonin (for whatever reason)  or  possibly seasonal changes causing a drop in the production of melatonin.

Who knows the reason? - but the symptoms seem pretty obvious: oversleeping, no interest in activities, tiredness, easily agitated, social withdrawal... 

Yes to all of the above!

Maybe the back pain and shingles added to the change of seasons upped my anxiety level and brought this on???

All I know is that  I don't like it! It's not me!!

So what do I do?

Give in to it - stay home and lay low for awhile? Or get more active, start some new projects (maybe a new quilt for someone? more cheeky chickens?)

My instinct says not to give in to it... although I want to. Almost called in and dropped my pottery classes. May still do that.

Thursday: Decided to make myself go to class... and also to go with the girls to lunch (which I hardly ever do - since I don't eat lunch just drink my thermos of hot tea). But I did all this and found that I DID feel a bit better for it.

However, my agitation was just below the surface as when I couldn't get the top off of something at the studio, I had the urge to throw it across the room... (didn't though).

All in all, pushing through it turned out to be a good call.

Put my glazed turtle vase into the kiln. Also working on some little sea turtles to add to bowls, etc. 

So... life goes on.  Thanks to all of you who commented. I hadn't thought of SAD - and whether it is or isn't, it did get me to do something about how I felt.

Hugs,
Rian

a few cat pics...

It's Autumn... actually in the 60's here this morning. Can't believe it!  Thought I'd post this perfect Autumn picture of a cat in an Autumn window.... (not one of ours).

Now here are 2 of our lazy 3 staying warm by the Aga...

Don't have much to say today... which is a shame as it's a beautiful Fall day, but I'm feeling a bit melancholy and don't know why. 

This next picture was taken from Pinterest and I really do like it!

and lastly 

our 3 curled up together on the sofa

Thanks for dropping by. 

I really hope you have a good rest of the week!

Hugs,

Rian

What doesn't kill you makes you stronger...

OK... October is here. It is still hot in Texas. My back is better. However, now I have Shingles! Sorry about this beginning, but I had to get that off my chest. 

Thankful that it's a mild case (just 2 spots on my left upper arm and a low grade fever) - probably due to the fact that I did get the original Shingles vaccine 5 years ago. The rashes don't itch, but they do hurt. However, it's not the rash itself that hurts, it's deep inside my arm?? 

Anyhow, I'm on these huge anti-viral horse-pills 3X a day... and anyone who knows me knows I don't like/take pills (if I can get away without them). Not only do I tend to get reactions to medications, but I also have trouble swallowing anything bigger than a Tylenol caplet. My family physician knows this. I asked him if I could possibly get by without taking the anti-viral, and he told me that if I didn't, the Shingles would probably go chronic and I really really didn't want that. Well, that scared me, so I promised to take them. 

The Pharmacist was a very sweet woman who commiserated with me on their size and showed me how to break them in half. It is a 3X a day ordeal! I use buttermilk to help them go down... and usually it takes a few tries. But I haven't choked to death yet. DH says 'what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger..."  Maybe. I tell myself it's one of the prices we pay to get to this age. At least I've had no bad reaction. They do make me a little sleepy.

OK... enough of that.

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I've come across a few things on Pinterest lately that I may want to share.  Some move me. Some are inspiring. Some just make me laugh. And I really need to laugh these days... 

This one made me laugh...

and this next one also...

Well, that's it. Happy TGIF! Oh, have any of you ever seen this?

Peach Coke?

My grandson brought these home for me this week. He knows I am a Coke Person in the Coke vs Pepsi world. I had never seen Peach Coke before (I like Classic), but these were pretty good.

Hugs,
Rian   😏

Love this song!

Those of you who follow my blog know that I've had a couple of highs (Hawaii) and lows (hurt my back) lately.  

This back problem was new to me. I have never had anything happen to my back (sure lower back sore sometimes - but never where the pain/spasms inhibited my ability to walk - or even get up from a sitting position). This scared me. I really hoped that I hadn't done serious injury. But what we become more aware of as we age is that things can happen in the blink of an eye.

So I used rest, heat, cold, and Tylenol for about 4 days and sure enough, it seems to have healed on its own. Must have been a strain or a sprain?  I knew I could get a Rx for muscle relaxants, but didn't want them if Tylenol would do the trick. It's been almost a week and now I'm walking fine (carefully, but fine). 

Since in the process of healing, I was using my mother's cane to help me get around, I saw this as just another shout in my face "Face it! You're old!" (Other things recently that I haven't mentioned have pushed me to this conclusion too) And of course the truth is I AM OLD! 74 is old. I know that. But most of the time I don't think about it - until something like this happens. 

However, it brought back memories of an old detective show on British TV that DH and I used to enjoy. It was called "New Tricks" (actually it was a detective show about old detectives)... and the theme song was very catchy.  The song was "It's Alright" by Dennis Waterman.  I googled it yesterday and DH and I were both laughing and singing along with it most of the day. Click on the title and see what you think...

Anyway, thanks for reading. And just for those who might be interested, I have started the sequel to "Time After Time" by D'Arcy Regan Hart (my Pen name). Finished the first 2 chapters today. But it may take a while...  hopefully not as long as it did for me to publish the first one, but we'll see.


Hugs,
Rian

Oh, and we have the first batch of Fall kittens coming by with their mom. She is black and has one black and 3 black & white babies. They look about 6-8 weeks old. So cute.

Another feral cat watching one of the box turtles in the back yard

Now I've done it...

OK... I did something to my back yesterday. Since I've never had any 'real' back pain before...( yes, lower back is sore a lot, but nothing I can't handle)... but THIS is different. I can barely walk, hurts especially to try to stand up from sitting position  (it spasms, then subsides a bit). Right side is fine. Left side around my kidney and middle hurts like h... eck. 

What happened was I was driving to get my haircut... and upon reaching my destination went to get out of the car and OMG, the pain on my left side lower back and down the middle of my pelvis hit me and spasmed! I sat back down in the car... thinking WTF (excuse my french).  Actually sat there for a few minutes and tried again... no go. Couldn't understand it. Finally made myself get up, holding my back and very slowly walked in to get my haircut. 

Could not imagine why this happened. But... on my way home (and yes, I could sit and drive fine... just couldn't get up and walk from sitting position)... anyway, on my way home, I remembered something. When I was heading to my haircut, I came to an intersection where I needed to turn right... but couldn't see if cars were coming (can't turn my neck too far left), so I pulled my body forward and twisted my back to see. Bet that did it? I overstretched something.

Slept on the sofa sitting up last night (Tux stayed with me - sweet baby) with heat on my back... and am taking Tylenol. This morning it's a tiny bit better. Still spasming when I try to stand up, but not as bad or as long. It is still hard to walk (using my mother's old cane - feels like someone is reminding me of my age). I know a combination or rest and exercise is good. So I'm trying to do both. We'll see.

**DH made supper last night and brought me coffee this morning.** 

If anyone has any suggestions, I would love to hear them. My daughter wants me to go to a Chiropractor, but I think I should give it a few days to see how it goes.

Well, thanks for reading. I appreciate the ability to vent...

Hugs,
Rian




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