images that tell a story...

One of the reasons I love fiction:

Look at these images:

I love this cottage...

and this cottage garden...

and this window looking out...

Don't these 3 pictures summon up a story in your head?   If I wasn't in the middle of another one right now, I would find my mind wondering into this place... imagining the characters...  and there would have to be cats... yes, definitely cats (or maybe kittens)! And possibly a fat white pony??

I know there are people out there who only read non-fiction, but I find this so hard to comprehend. I read non-fiction on occasion, but truth be told, most non-fiction is a bit depressing. Yes, many times the main character overcomes Herculean obstacles and is admired, but it's still depressing (although possibly uplifting at the end). 

Whereas fiction makes use of the imagination and brings one into a world that he or she would love to be in...  to share... to enjoy. I love fiction!

country kittens?  These would do...

And what do you think about one of these ponies?

which pony do you think fits the bill?

(I took most of these pics off of Pinterest. This site gives me wonderful ideas... for all kinds of things.)

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OK, it's Sunday noon and I've spent the morning cleaning out the refrigerator. It really wasn't bad at all, but since we'll be having company in the next 2 weeks, I thought it a good idea to get it done. I also cleaned out the pantry, but our pantry isn't large so it didn't take too long. Now I'm taking a short break before starting on my office desk. It tends to pile up quickly.

Does anyone else get so much junk mail that it takes a whole morning or afternoon to sit down and go through it?  I try to do this once a week... sometimes more... but never seem to be able to keep up with it.

While I work, my kitties are taking the day off... (actually I think they take every day off...)

Tux cuddling with Aoife's bear

Julie saying.... "what?"

Oh, and one other thing... the new box turtle that showed up last week came by again. I took the opportunity to mark him with a red x, so we would know the next time that he's been here before (he makes about 5 that I've marked so far that return to our yard).

Have a great week!

pie and other inconsequential stuff...

Blueberry Custard Pie

Made DH a Blueberry Custard Pie yesterday afternoon. We had gone to walk at the Mall in the morning and stopped at the Apple Store to ask some questions about our iPhone 6. Usually we avoid this store as there's always so many people in it... but as it turned out, we didn't have to wait long and the man who helped us answered all our questions quite easily. 

This cup and saucer was given to me from a friend on my 50th Birthday!

Hard to believe that this was 50 years ago next month...

Went to my annual Oncologist appointment this week also. Had my exam, blood work, and chest x-ray taken.  All is well. Guess I'm good to go for another year. 

Don't remember if I mentioned it, but last month I saw my Eye Specialist and he informed me that I should start thinking about Cataract surgery. Apparently I have cataracts, but they aren't too bad. However, since I won't drive at night due to the glare from the streetlights, he felt that this 'affected my quality of life' and although there's no need to rush into it, I should start thinking about it. Since I also have narrow angles (which can lead to narrow angle glaucoma), cataract surgery would also take away this glaucoma threat. So-oo I am thinking about it.

Tux and me *thinking about it*

Rose isn't interested. Her "leave me out of it... face" 

Are any of you familiar with the Cashmire plant?

It's a bit invasive, but makes pretty colorful flowers. We took some cuttings home from DH's brother's house in Louisiana years ago. Now we are continuously cutting this plant down, but it comes back in droves.

Night blooming cereus

Now this is my all time favorite plant. It blooms at night and gives off the most wonderful aroma... even the cats will go lay by it when it gives off this fragrance. It's petals are soft like dove's feathers and the blossom only lives for a few hours... then closes and dies.

2 new toys...

Keurig 2.0

Guess what?  DH and I have 2 new toys (well, really 3)!  This past weekend (Father's Day) the kids were coming over Sunday for some White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake (and ice-cream of course)... so-oo I decided to unveil something we had bought a few months back. It was a Keurig 2.0 - the coffeemaker that can make a carafe as well as a cup. We had gotten it with online Keurig points back in March, but hadn't had a reason to use it. 

It took a little bit of playing around with to get it to work. Like everything else technical these days, it asks a bunch of questions... before actually getting it programmed to just make coffee. I mean... it has a *night light*, and asks what color light would you prefer.... blue, green, white, or yellow? Really? I WANT COFFEE! 

Anyway, once we got it figured out, it worked fine. But now since DH and I don't need to make a whole carafe for the 2 of us, I will put it away until it's needed again.

This one is mine. DH's is black.

Now... for the exciting toys!  As of today, DH and I are both the owners of iPhone 6's!  And we didn't plan this. It just happened. Being retired (and on that ominous limited income), we decided that we really weren't up to continuing to pay the almost $200/month for our 2 iPhone 4's. As much as I love my iPhone and use almost every app (except games), it was too expensive... and to be honest, we didn't use but 10% of all the minutes and data we had. So we decided to shop around starting today with Sprint. 

Now, we have been with Sprint before and the only reason we had left was because a few years back, the kids convinced us that we all needed iPhones... and at that time, Sprint didn't have iPhones... so we switched to AT&T.  But today Sprint was happy to give us 2 new iPhone 6's as well as cut our phone bill in half!  And the young man that assisted us was so helpful and knowledgeable that we were impressed. 

DH (who doesn't use half the apps) loves the "speak your text" part as his hands are large and texting with his fingers can be difficult. Personally I think I'm going to love the enhanced photography!!

Anyway, just thought I'd share this with you. I'll try to take some photos here and there and post them soon. There's supposed to be a slow motion video that should be fun....

Have a good week!

books.... and cats

just needs a cat...

I ordered a book from Barnes and Noble yesterday. It's called, "What is Relativity?" by Jeffrey Bennet. I don't know if I will buy it, but a friend recommended it, and B&N didn't have any in stock. Since I prefer to at least look through a book before purchase, I gave them the OK to order it in to the bookstore... no obligation. My friend got hers from the library and really thought it something I would like. She knows my interest in Science and my ineptitude in math... apparently Mr. Bennet explains relativity without math. Sounds interesting. We'll see.

DH and I saw "Theory of Everything" this past week. Enjoyed it. Find it hard to believe that Stephen Hawkings is still alive at 73...

I also like mysteries... nothing too gory or graphic. I'm reading a series now called "The Molly Murphy Series" by Rhys Bowen about a young Irish girl fleeing Ireland to live in America. Since a lot of my reading is done at bedtime, I don't want anything too nerve-racking that would keep me awake, so cozy mysteries work just fine.

Came across this next cartoon on Pinterest. Had to laugh as the last 2 panels are exactly what happened to us 10 years ago.

Yep! That's us...

and here's another one that I thought was pretty great:

great way to keep your cats sorted...

and lastly:

Happy Father's Day!!

tea and snickerdoodles...

tea and snickerdoodles

Sitting here this morning (with my tea and snickerdoodle) making a list of things that need doing... today and if not today - soon. 

Father's Day is this weekend and although I've not been up to making any big family dinners these days, I thought I'd get some of DH's favorites from Central Market and see if the kids want to come over Sunday afternoon or evening. 

When I mentioned this to Ghost (who doesn't care for company), this was her opinion.

"oh god..."

She will make herself scarce. But that's OK. Molly will be glad to give anyone and everyone a chance to pet her. And if they don't *choose* to, she will climb in their lap anyway.

coming up...

Molly is going on 22, but she can still jump on the sofa - although sometimes she misses. She is alert and bright eyed, and although she sleeps a lot... she still gets around to her food and litterbox... and never has accidents. She loves her cream, and lately she's taken to sleeping on my bed close to the window where the sun (when there is sun) comes in. 

Now the next pics I took as DH and I headed out of the house to Braums to get a hot fudge sundae. We don't do this often, but since Father's Day is around the corner, we decided it was an excellent idea. 

See the sunflowers? Actually there are about 5 or 6... all *gifts* from the bird feeder overhead!
And if you look real close... you can see our squirrel's little butt in the feeder...

single hot fudge sundae made with peanut butter cup ice-cream!

3 minutes of fame?

Well, a few blogs back ("Sunday morning layabouts"), I posted a pic of my cousin's cat, Kuchi, laying on the cat quilt I made for her. Well, it's time for Titan, another cousin's Yorkie, to get his 3 minutes of fame...

Titan on his doggie quilt

My cousin just sent this top pic to me. Isn't he adorable?  He's very small. I think I have another pic of him that shows his size better.

According to both cousins and a dear friend whose old dog was the first to get one of my doggie quilts, these sweet animals do seem to really like their quilts. I would be concerned that they are all just telling me this to be nice if it weren't for our own Tux (whom I also made a quilt) and who refuses to share it with the other house-hold cats. To be completely honest (although this is definitely not for Tux's ears), I made the quilt for all the cats to use and also to cover the tears in an old ottoman we have in the den. However, from the moment I put it down, Tux lay claim to it. If another cat lays on it, Tux will stand on the side of the ottoman and stare at the offending party until they finally gets the hint and leave... and then he reclaims it. 

"Mine!!"

and a few outside pics:

male and female cardinal at birdfeeder

huge turtle (10-12") making itself at home on back patio

And we finally saw one of our regular box turtles in the yard Saturday! We have about 5 or 6 that usually start showing up in May, so it seems they are running late this year. Maybe with all the rain, they decided to stay put... or if they were in or near the creek when the heavy rains came, I guess they could have got washed a long way down.

Well, got to go. Promised DH I'd make Snickerdoodles this afternoon.

Monday update...

broccoli - cauliflower casserole

Made this broccoli-cauliflower casserole last week. It has become one of my favorite recipes... only it makes much more than DH and I can eat. So I give part of it away and freeze the rest for us later. I'm not a big fan of freezing things... usually forget they're in there or wait too long and then don't want to use it. But I do freeze this casserole... as well as red beans and rice when DH makes it.

I also made some Chocolate Lava Cakes last week. They were good... but didn't have the *flowing chocolate lava* as intended. Guess I left them in the oven a bit too long (16-18mins?) but we still ate them. They used unsweetened dark chocolate which we both love.

Also spent a little time cleaning and hosing down our back patio Friday morning. It has a wrought iron table and chairs on it as well as a Grill and a huge iron bird cage. The feral cats use the table and chairs, we use the grill (sometimes on 4th of July), and no one uses the metal bird cage. I bought it years ago when I was thinking of raising Budgies again. But with the feral population using our yard and patio, the Budgies Project never had a chance. It's a nice cage though. I bought it on sale at a Bird Specialty shop. My daughter may have a use for it at her place. I took a pic and sent it to her (unless we ever enclose the patio... then I could have a pottery wheel and a cage full of Budgies  - something to think about).

Nothing special going on here. The rain has stopped... thank goodness. And the heat has arrived. We are having 90 - 93 degree days. 

ducks on campus

My pottery classes on campus have resumed. I made a few cups and small vases Saturday... and left some of my pieces that weren't finished from last semester to be fired. The project for the summer is going to be building a *paper kiln*. At least that's what I think she said. But more will be explained next week.

pillowcase fabric

Found this fabric the other day and thought it was too pretty to ignore so I bought some and made a pillowcase for my *horse-lover* grand daughter. I'm not much of a seamstress, but I felt I could handle a pillowcase.

and lastly American Pharaoh won the Triple Crown!! DH and I watched the race and were thrilled that there was another triple crown winner after all these years! 

picture in the Winner's Circle taken from the TV with my iPhone