Turtle Alert! Gra Gra down!

tea at 3?

Here I am again... up at 3 AM... drinking tea and trying to get a million different thoughts from running around blindly in my head.  I picture them all flitting around bumping into each other in some sort of mad frenzy... each vying for my attention... while I try my best to make them go away or at least settle down so I can just regain that soft calm druggy feeling of relaxed sleep. 

But on these mornings, its no use, so I get up, make a cup of tea, and sit with the cats in the kitchen for a bit. Now I'm reading blogs and deciding if there are other more productive things I could be doing. 

Ongoing projects consist of creating mobile bird feeders - have 2 of these sitting on the shelf in the studio (still greenware), continue proofing a book a friend of mine is helping me self-publish, work on another that is in progress, shredding tons of old paperwork that has accumulated in closets and computer room, cleaning out the garage - which hasn't been able to fit a car into these last few years, and finding the time, money, and ability to buy tickets to Hawaii to visit our son - hopefully in the next few months.

Also DH and I were watching "Chernobyl" on Netflix or Hulu last night before bed - not exactly conducive to a restful night's sleep (interesting story though). We have Netflix, Hulu, Prime, and Acorn.  Acorn is our favorite... love all those shows based in the countryside of England, Ireland, Wales, New Zealand, etc. One of my favorites was a non-assuming little series that didn't have any murders or any real action-packed anything, yet I really enjoyed watching it. It was called "The Detectorists" and it was simply a little group of people in a small town that spent their days roaming the countryside using metal detectors and then sharing what they found. (I'd love to do that - but I'm sure some would say.... "boring!)

Which reminds me (since our 6 year old granddaughter was at the house yesterday evening - and says "boring" a lot). Our youngest son dropped her by for a few hours so he and his wife could go out to a quiet dinner alone for a change. No problem. She and I watched a new Christmas movie together (well, I watched, she chatted the whole time - sitting still is difficult for her). But I had been at the pottery studio all day and was tired, so watching a movie rather than running around playing with her was more my speed last night. But she seemed to be fascinated with the story and asked a million questions. And for a Christmas (Santa) story, it was interesting... different. It was called "The Christmas Chronicles" on Netflix.

That's about the news here. Yes, I know... "boring"!  Oh, there was another thing we did recently... went down to Terrell, Texas for our semi-annual visit to Ham's Peach Orchard! We bought fresh peaches, fresh peach ice-cream, peach cobbler, fresh picked pecans, and peach-pulled pork sandwiches.  All wonderful! They have the little store out front and then a pavilion out back with tables and rocking chairs. It's got to be a tradition with us to go every May and July, stock up on goodies, and sit out back in the rockers eating our ice-cream. There's always a cool breeze blowing - very calm and refreshing way to spend a morning. DH's brother and his wife come down from Houston and go with us in July. (They bring a huge ice-chest and stock up too)

some of our Ham's Orchard purchases (not the cat)

OK... that's it for today... almost 5 am. Maybe I'll go back to bed for a bit. Thanks for being there. 

Oh... I forgot to explain the title of this blog , "Turtle Alert! Gra Gra down!"   One of my sons sent me an Alert bracelet/pendant  (for Mother's Day) to wear that alerts any falls or scares, etc. by not using a monitoring system but by connecting to a app on one's iPhone where when the alert is set off, it sends a text message to any 3 people whose phone numbers you set up. (Yes, although I luckily haven't had a problem with 'falls' so far, I must be officially old now) Well, you have to put in the text message, so instead of putting in the familiar "I've fallen and I can't get up" message, I thought of myself as a turtle on my back and since youngest granddaughter calls me Gra Gra ... "Turtle Alert! Gra Gra down!"

Hugs,
Rian

August already...

This is the cup cabinet that I'm thinking of painting the back walls a light blue or a dark green...

I saw this (painting the back) done on Pinterest and liked it.  What do you think?











Hi there!  I'm back reading blogs this morning.  Haven't commented yet, but I will.  We had family in town this past week so I've gotten a little behind while entertaining.  DH's brother and wife came up here Wednesday night and spent 4 days with us... talking, visiting with our kids and grandkids, and eating... eating in and eating out!  It's really too hot to do much else... (104 today and supposedly 105 tomorrow)

We did go to Ham's Peach Orchard on Saturday. We all love that place.  So much fresh produce as well as pickled, bottled, baked, and frozen fruit and veggies! And best of all... home-made peach and strawberry ice-cream! We haven't been on a Saturday before and will not make this mistake again if we can help it.  It was packed! However it only opens from May 15th to August 15th... so we are in their last 2 weeks.  However, they had plenty of product - and plenty of help (they use college kids) - and lucky for them, tons of customers!

For what started years ago as a mom and pop operation (a little peach orchard), it has become a popular icon for the area.  Not only can you get great food stuffs, but you can sit around out back in rocking chairs in the shade and eat your ice-cream... and now you can even order a fresh made hamburger or bar-b-que sandwich too!

There's not much else to say. It's hot hot hot! Although I shouldn't complain.  It IS August.  But hopefully the triple digits won't last too many days.  Our upstairs AC already went out 2 hours before our company arrived last week.  We had to scramble around and get everyone settled in for the night on the ground floor, turn off and shut off the upstairs until we could get a repairman out the next day. We lucked out and he was able to fix what broke fairly quickly so everyone could return to the upstairs guest room the next night.