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The back yard in Autumn

It’s been a lovely Autumn, even though we have had more rain than you can shake a rain stick at.  Today is Halloween and the scariest thing about Halloween is how much candy I eat!  I know, we get it for the kids.  But lets be real, we end up eating much of it ourselves.  You think I would have learned back when I was little.  There was one Halloween when I ate soooo much candy that I threw up in church the next day (All Souls day, gotta go to church), right in the pew in front of me, on some girls purse while she was up getting Communion.

But all joking aside this is the last Saturday in October when I should be getting stuff done around the house.  Like those leaves in the picture, I should be raking them. Or getting my husband to do it.  And not to mention cleaning out the pond, ’cause all those leaves fell right in there as well.  Although it is beautiful.

And not to mention the dog hair.  When you have a dog who sheds as much hair every week to equal a dog his own size, there is always sweeping and vacuuming to do.  But what a face and such a good boy!I am also putting off grocery shopping, laundry (and the dryer is still broke) and something else I had big plans on doing.  Well I’m just going to go look out the window at the falling leaves while I eat some candy.  

Having today off, thanks to the Labor Movement of the last century, there was some time to do nothing. So we took a long walk with the dog and I picked up some acorns.

acorns

And I walk around the yard and saw things turning. The blue hydrangea turning green, the white hydrangea turning white.

pee wee hydrangea

The mums are turning yellow, the roses turning into rose hips. The coneflowers turning into food for the Gold Finches. The dogwoods turning bronze and rusty. It was cloudy today or we might have taken a drive in the Mustang. But instead we stayed in and I made a new necklace.

recycled beer bottle bead necklace

I picked up the green beads at a bead show a few week ago. They were made by a very talented artist who uses recycled beer and wine bottles as her raw material. These beads are from Heineken bottles.

What I found on our walk today…

tiny apples

Three perfect little apples just laying on the sidewalk.

And I never checked the mail yesterday,  but when I opened the mailbox today I found that 2 of my cards had been published in Stampers’ Sampler/Catch Up Issue.  Page 70, on your news stands now!

Anna Rita

Anna Rita, my mother, born in 1917. And if she was alive today she would still be kickin’ ass. I love you mom, where ever you are.

It feels like a while since I’ve checked in and here is why…

Yes, Kenny put a pond in the back yard so we have been enjoying just sitting and listening to the water and watching the light reflect on the rocks.  It’s very peaceful and calming, a great place to think about nothing on a lazy summer day.  Right after it went in we had some days of heavy rain. The pond got all cloudy and muddy and I thought ‘what have we done, we just put a mud hole in our yard!’  But we cleaned the pump a few times and once we put all the water plants in place the water just got clear again.

The birds love it. We observed a young Robin walking all around the rocks, trying to figure out if he could get in and out of there.  And I’m hoping a toad finds his way to the pond, I put a makeshift toad house nearby just in case. Of course we’ve been luxuriating in the profusion of flowers all over the place as well…

Like the front door flower bed

And the side door garden

And the deck garden

So I guess what I’m saying is that if you need to find me this time of year, just look outside.

The new artmoney has arrived in Denmark and been uploaded to the Artmoney website. Take a walk in the Garden of Miracles…

Today is the unofficial start of Summer, and the weather is obliging. What’s in bloom? Poppy, peony, roses, mock orange, spider wort, rhododendron…

A day off

 It is fitting that we should have one day to remember our war heros so we can have the rest of the 364  days to remember our peace heros.

Each fallen petal

the name of a soldier

we’ll never know.

I had the great good fortune to see the Leonard  Cohen World Tour when it came to my area (thanks Bon!). This link takes you to  a version of his song “If It Be Your Will” sung by two of his back-up singers. It is a most moving and uplifting song, I think a whole new religion could be based on it. At least it could change your life.