A Time For Everything

 

By several years prior to2022, I mean at least ten. When I went looking for a picture of the earliest version of the bird feeder bed, I found it in a post from 2022... But by the small circumference of the mulch and the lack of much else, I know the pic was from a long, long time ago.

Fast forward to the early 2000s and this was the set up: 

I've been meaning to upgrade this squirrel feeder bed for a while now. A long while. As captioned, that picture was taken just over two years ago. But it's probably been since BC (you know, before COVID) that it was last improved.

But what with all the family and life events, not to mention my getting-out-of-debt endeavors, the full funding just hasn't been available. I had some cash stashed for this project, but it was nowhere near enough to accomplish all the plans I had. So when Darling Daughter asked what I wanted for Mother's Day this year I had to think for a mere handful of seconds and the answer was clear: retaining wall blocks and mulch!

That tree has grown (of course it has) over the years and the "thighs" of the trunk--the sections where the trunk branches into roots--have also crept a little higher out of the ground. So rather than the single layer of landscape edgers you see above, I wanted at least two layers of my "tree ring bricks" to help hold in the mulch. So fast forward to 2026 and this is my squirrel feeder bed. 

I moved all the bird feeders farther out into the yard (just out of sight, of the top left of this image) as I didn't want this area overgrown with bird seed that germinated. And I reused the edgers that were originally here to create that planter in the top right.

Here's a closeup of the planter and the day lily I bought for it...

I'm still working on the bird feeder bed, so pictures of that will be along at some point. But I'm pleased that the squirrel feeder setup is finally done.

Stay cool and I'll catch you up in August!

 

 

Image courtesy of Deposit Photos.

 

FIRST--If you can help the bee hives / farms in Florida and North Carolina devastated by the hurricane, please do so:

https://greatergood.org/help-save-bees-with-project-peril

GreaterGood.org is collecting money to send some sort of pollen substitute.

* * * * *

Since I postponed the previous post by a week, I thought I'd get back on track by posting this week. Not that it matters, really, lol. I just have stuff to share, so I decided to surprise y'all with back-to-back Monday postings.

Last post, I said I was going to bake and bake I did. I didn't make pup-cakes as I had been thinking I might. Instead, I tried a lemon poppy seed pound cake recipe that's on the back of my lemon extract box. I also wanted to experiment with it a little and make it pumpkin flavored rather than lemon.

Mini Lemon Poppy Seed Bundt Cake with Homemade Icing

And guess what? Both versions were tasty. I think the pumpkin version needs a bit more pumpkin flavor but otherwise, the experiment worked. I also saw a mini bundt pan while I was in Walmart, so I ended up impulse buying it. Now I need to test how much batter to put in it so that the end result isn't some over-puffed up bit of baked goods. A quick Google search said 2/3 to 3/4. Good to know for next time.

* * * * *

I've been tackling some backyard tasks in an effort to A) get the backyard tidied up and B) stay as active as possible each day. One of the projects I started last weekend (not this past weekend, but the one before that) was clearing out the pile of dead branches and limbs that we've just piled up anytime something fell. I got tired of looking at the untidiness of it and decided to get started.

The brush, limbs, and chunks of old tree trunks came out to where the green stuff curves. There's still more to go as you can see, but for several hours worth of effort, it looks waaaaay better than it did.

* * * * *

In between bouts of the above yard work two Saturdays ago, DD and I went shopping and, along with some cool Christmas yard decorations--images to come in December, I bought a carving pumpkin. I've opted for a Peanuts theme. Pictures of my Snoopy-o-lantern also to come!

* * * * *

And something really cool happened--I recently discovered that an audio book narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch that I'd downloaded from YouTube and converted for my iPod many moons ago and whose files I can no longer find is available from Audible! I hadn't thought to search for it but I just so happened to hear it as a preview after the end of some other book I listened to. I can't tell you how excited I was to hear it and also to be able to buy/download that sucker into a safe place (that being my Audible account) where I'll have it for years to come!!

* * * * *

And last, but not least--

I finally found and tried the new Coca-Cola flavored Oreos. I wasn't impressed.

* * * * *

Well have a super week. Catch you in two!

 

 

...into the future...

...or...

Life Returns to Normal

 

The road trip is in the rear view mirror.

My friend's visit came to an end.

Life returned to normal.

And now I have things I want to accomplish.

My desire to finish books has returned. It didn't come back in a rush because you long-time followers know that I wasn't sure it would come back at all or that I even cared if it did. But it has. The feeling have been simmering for a while and broke into a boil more recently, but being excited about my books and about writing and telling stories feels good.

My first project is a re-vamp of the first series, including new covers and some Amazon A+ Content graphics, for which I got an amazing deal from my cover artist.

The books were originally written in some weird second person, present tense which is prevalent in fan fiction but *not* in commercial fiction.

Why I did that, I have no idea, but I've been meaning to edit all those books into proper third person, past tense for years, but doing that until recently has been a tedious chore. The advent of AI platforms means I can make AI do the hard work. I still have to edit and tweak what it gets wrong (dialogue), but that's a much easier and less time-consuming endeavor.

I also want to finish book seven, which has been sitting un-done and un-touched for too many years, so I've been re-reading and percolating those heroes and that story, as well as brainstorm a plot and character ideas for books Eight and Nine. :0) I'm ambitious, aren't I?

* * * * *

Just a quick shout-out to my friend's visit because I haven't done that yet...

My friend Angela is a fellow writer and a fellow hockey fan, and we agreed that it would be fun to attend a hockey game together and, long story short, we made it happen.

She flew into Dallas to see her team play my team in my team's barn. Now, her team isn't so good right now and we both knew the chances of the Stars beating the Coyotes were high--which they did--but it was more about the experience. Surprisingly, she wasn't the only Coyotes fan in the crowd. We spotted a handful of them.

And we had fun, both visiting in general and watching hockey. Well, I enjoyed it. I shouldn't speak for her. ;0) She also got to meet a shared online friend that she'd never met before, so that was cool for her as well.

Here we are, post game:

* * * * *

So Q2 starts today, and I've been ruminating on what specific goals I want to work towards and accomplish over the course of the next three months. I also needed to update my Vision Board to keep those tasks / goals front and center.

So here are the things I'm working toward this quarter: a new cross stitch pattern for the online store; planting a Chinese wisteria in the bird feeder bed to a) provide shade for the birds / bird feeder and b) provide food for bees; read two non-fiction books (about money probably); get my eating habits back on track; and lose at least 5 pounds. I also want to finalize the converted text of the first two books I mentioned above.

* * * * *

I've also spent some time out in the yard -- HELLO SPRING -- cleaning out the squirrel buffet area of the yard. I churned up the old mulch and pulled the weeds. The weeds I tossed, but I relocated the funky mulch and dirt to a large low spot in my lawn (see that dark patch in the upper right edge of the image).

I also took down and tossed that white bench hanging off the tree at the top of the image. It was falling apart. I like it a lot, though, so I looked for another and happened to find them on sale at Hobby Lobby where I just so happened to have a gift card. I bought two since it was basically a two-for-one deal.

I'll buy some fresh mulch in a week or two, I'm thinking red this year for a pop of color, and fill in all the spaces around the rocks and fill up the bordered space to help my tree retain any moisture come the heat of summer.

* * * * *

And some good news--the Brown Eyed Girl and her soul mate *and* Sonshine are coming to visit. Sadly, not at the same time, but I'm not complaining. The Brown Eyed Girl will be in town over Mother's Day, and Sonshine will visit for my birthday. So YAY!

And that's about all I have to say for now.

Take care and see you in a couple of weeks.

 

 

National Sunflower Day is the first Saturday of August.

So it turns out that I've loved sunflowers for longer than I realized. The "bouquet" above, in that vase, has been a fixture in my bedroom since we lived in Nebraska. We moved to Texas in 1999... That's a long time.

I'm sure I don't have to explain why anyone is drawn to them...part of it is the name. Sun. I love the sun, and sunlight and vitamin D is vital to everyone's health and well being. Now I get that some of us love it more than others.

I read the "National Sunflower Day" write up, and I would encourage you to go read it for yourself, but here are a few amazing take aways:

• On average, one sunflower can produce up to 2,000 sunflower seeds per head.
• Some archaeologists believe sunflowers may have been cultivated by Native Americans before corn was.
• A sunflower head can be bigger than your own.

And here's an article directly from North Dakota's Tourism site

DD and I are thinking of planting sunflowers around the birdbath to help provide some natural shade for the birds as well to brighten up the yard. I'll have to research the best time to plant them, but my guess is spring...

Hope your week is going well so far. We're on the downhill slope.

Take care and have a great weekend.

 

Texas does not get a lot of ice, snow, or below freezing temperatures as a general rule. We certainly don't get any one of those things or more than a day or two and rarely if ever piled on top of one another. But here we are...

Despite the layer cake of weather phenomena...we still have the birds and the squirrels.

 

Most creatures down here are acclimated to what we do get, but what was amazing to see was that critters like the birds and the squirrels must have the ability to withstand this kind of weather written in their DNA. They may not have to utilize those strands very often in their lifetime--but when they need them, they work. :0)

Our standard cadre of squirrels has shown up every day. Our usual number is six, but we've seen up to eight. They come and eat until mid-to-late afternoon and then off they go to burrow into their nests for the night. I can see several nests in the surrounding treetops.

The birds, too, have shown up. Even some species we don't normally see in our yard...the grackles.

Anyhow, we survived weather-pocalypse and, by this afternoon/evening, our temps will rise above freezing and remain there for the foreseeable future.

Have a great warmer weekend. Take care now.

First--new WAY MORE self-check stations at my Walmart with large "counter space" for bagged groceries. Check it out. I'm very excited for this. At least there's a bright spot while the rest of my store is topsy turvy and I have to hunt down the new location of my groceries.

After umpteen years we have also finally gotten rid on non-running vehicles--gaining a little pocket cash as well as valuable space in our warehouse!

Before:

After:

Aaaand... I finished the birdfeeder bed. Almost. There are no flowering trees for sale at the Home Depot this time of year, so that will have to wait. But the rest got done.

Before:

During:

After:

Hope you had a good weekend. Here's to a productive week.

It's gorgeous and cool in the mornings now and I feel the draw to be outside and puttering in the yard.

SOON.

I'm still knee-deep in edits and they're going well. But there's still a long way to go and I can't take the mornings off to putter.

But IF the afternoons start being cooler, then one of these Sundays, I'm going to get the bird feeder / birdbath area fixed up like I've been wanting to since the deep heat of summer and it was tooooooo hot to work outside.

Here's the way it looks now:

There also used to be a weed growing to the right of the birdbath, offering it some shade, but it has since died off and chopped down.

Eventually, these...

 ...will get placed back around that area. I'd dug them up this summer, but that's as far as I got with the project. I have three bags of mulch to make it look neat and tidy, and I'm contemplating buying some sort of flowering tree (hibiscus, maybe?) to plant in there to provide shade and possibly draw humming birds next year.

I'm feeling a trip to Home Depot this weekend coming on... :0)

Have a great weekend.

 

 

The squirrels provide no end of amusement... Check out the critter lying in the picnic table--feet dangling over the edge. And the other one just sitting in the bowl snacking leisurely.

In other exciting news, our Dallas Stars won their game yesterday--a game they desperately needed to win. It was back and forth with the score throughout the who game. A nail-biting, barn burner for sixty minutes plus of game play!

Also, the heatwave has been slightly broken. It'll only be 93* today instead of 103*!! I'll take it.

Hope you had a great weekend...

I've got all these things I want to do, from yard and house projects to plain old housekeeping tasks, but the heat and humidity makes it a challenge to muster up the lasting energy levels to get anything done.

Of course, housework is done inside where it's a chilly (?) 72*... But who wants to do housework? I mean, I keep up with the general, daily stuff. Dishes and sweeping and whatnot. The problem is, I need to do the major cleaning--removing the cobwebs from the corners, dusting all the knick knacks, wiping off the baseboards, and then moving furniture to do a thorough sweeping and mopping. In every room. *sigh*

Time is also a factor because, on the weekends, I also want to do other stuff like cross stitch and read. But I've also got to get the general chores like laundry, cooking, and grocery shopping done too.

I'd also like to repaint a room or too. And finish off the garage as a home gym. (Remember that project?)

And...

And...

And...

Well. You get the picture.

And I still haven't finished the bird feeder bed... I was going to do it this past weekend until I looked at the weather. It hit at least 100* on Saturday and then we had no power on Sunday for seven hours.

We lost power again this morning, so no writing for two days in a row when I really need to get back on track.

But maybe the universe is trying to tell me something. I don't know.

Hope you had a lovely and cool weekend...

Since the advent of filling the bird feeder and making it available, we been visited by all kinds of birds.

Cardinals
Blue Jays
Woodpeckers
Mourning Doves
various finches
American Robin
Mockingbirds
various sparrows
the occasional chickadee
possibly a Starling

There are probably more species that I just can't identify, but we have a nice mix and it's a lot of fun to watch them come and go and to listen to them chittering and chirping of a Saturday morning.

The Jays and the Mockingbirds both like to chase the squirrels, but they occasional crack seed together as the squirrels are also fans of the birdseed.

Now DD and I have tried to get some squirrel corn, but the fates have worked against us so far as the two times we've gone to the local feed store, they'd closed a mere few minutes prior to our arrival. Walmart does not carry squirrel corn, hence our attempted trips to the feed store. Tomorrow!

Here are some not-so-great pictures...

Male cardinal in the grass...

 Male blue jay in the grass...

Female cardinal and some black bird that I can't positively identify...



Have a great weekend! Stay safe and take care.

It's spring in Texas, which mean you have to spend time outside while the weather is nice enough to do so. So I did.

I dragged the kitchen table, which is lightweight and on the small side, to the patio and sat out there for maybe an hour and made some progress on a cross stitch project I'd started last year. It was really pleasant and lovely.

And remember I mentioned that I used to feed the birds...? Well, DD asked me about it and asked me to check at WalMart during my weekly trip to see what they had. Well, they had 20lb. bags of wild bird seed for $7, so I bought some. :0)


So the bird feeder is back in place. I didn't see many birds yesterday, but it does sometimes take a day or two for the birds to realize it's there.

Now that pile of greenery behind it is a very large branch that broke off a very dead tree. It'll get chopped up soon and DH thinks he's going to get around to burning all the logs and branches and sticks we've got piled up around the yard--probably a summer long project...

In other news, the weekend was a productive success. I worked on my WIP early Saturday am as I'd planned and it was lovely! I had a Zoom chat with my writer besties and that was awesome too. And on Sunday, I spent some time working toward creating consistent types and looking files from book to book. Which meant some cleanup on aisles 5, 6, & 7! I didn't get far because of all the various things I found to tweak and then having to circle back to the books I worked on first to make sure they were they way I wanted them to be too.

Hope your weekend was relaxing or productive or whatever you were needing it to be.

Have a great week.

My head has big plans, but my body is saying, "whoa, girl, slow down!!"

This 100 Things Challenge has jump started my desire to fix things up. Not that I have the money or probably the long-term energy to do much, but it's there.

The back yard needs a good, thorough going over and that's probably the least expensive thing I can get away with doing. The old gray mare, aka, my back yard of old, ain't what she used to be.

Remember this:




Taking care of the yard is more elbow grease than cash or, at most, a couple of extra twenties to the lawn guy even though things won't look like ^^that^^ again.

The shed is another disaster area, and I can only do so much in there. Most of that stuff belongs to DH and he needs to decide what to do with it. For now, I can clean up...like get rid of the dead leaves and cull through some random other stuff.

As for my 100 Things Challenge, which I didn't post much about last week, and for which I'm a few weeks ahead on... I cleaned out an old dresser in the garage that had been relegated to random storage and cleaned out another half a dozen+ things. Those things include some strings of Christmas lights and a couple of Christmas garland swags, a couple of 8x10 picture frames, a random assortment of craft stuff, a bunch of old ink pads from back in my rubber stamping days, a dozen empty candle jars, sewing machines that I'm selling to a friend, and some random sewing projects.

That puts me at twenty-two things now. :0)

I even took the latest pile to the donation station.


Gas is under $2 in many places across North Texas. My local Quick Trip is at $1.95. It's funny that this happened because a mere week ago or so I was thinking that I'd never see gas under $2 again. Low and behold!




So DD and I watched the original Yours, Mine, and Ours yesterday. The oldest  child in the film looked but especially sounded so familiar to me, so I looked him up and it turned out to be a very young Tim Matheson.



Some might remember him from The Virginian, Bonanza, or Leave It To Beaver. Possible as the voice of Johnny Quest. Some might remember him from The West Wing, Burn Notice, or Hart of Dixie.

Anyway, once I figured out the voice, I couldn't help grinning every time young "Mike Beardsley" was on screen.


Also Saturn has been visible here in North Texas. I spotted it to the east both Saturday and Sunday mornings.

How was your weekend??

I don't have as exciting an excuse this time. I wanted to share an animated GIF for posterity, but could not, for the life of me, get a hold of the original file. It was taking too long and I had other pressing, work-related things to get done and so...it fell by the wayside.

I still don't have anything exciting to share, but life cycles on.

My patio chair began to unravel (the really thick and super-long ponytail holder-like elastic that connects the seating to the frame) and as a result, I *had* to purchase a new one. I sit on the patio just about every day, weather permitting, so... This is chair number three in close to ten years. The first one lasted a long time, that second one, not as much. Which, while I didn't want to have to buy a new one, the broken one wasn't my favorite. Not surprisingly, it was also the cheapest.

This new one has a foot rest--that I cannot use because I am TOO short-- and reclines back much farther than the last one (like the first one too) and has a shade thingy (also like the first one). The second one had a cup holder that I found useful a time or two, so I might try to get it off the broken one and onto the new one. :0)


I'm also thinking about dragging this one inside everyday to protect if from the elements. But that's a pain. On the other hand...it's a really nice new chair and I'd like to have it around for a good long while. Maybe just a cover?

I wrote some words this weekend Sunday which was quite exciting. Over 1500 words, which was really exciting. This morning on my way home from the gym, I tested dictating part of a scene. The result was 230-ish words (about a page worth). Not bad. I need to learn to add in the punctuation and possibly new paragraphs, but for the first test it wasn't horrible. Unfortunately, if you stop talking, the app stops recording, so you either have to say filler words or press record again when you want to continue after a spell of silence. Since the app is free, I'll just deal with it for now. If I get really proficient--many months down the road--I'll think about other better options. On the other hand, if I get more proficient, I may not pause to think quite as often, so... >>shrugs<<

I'm taking an online class as well as reading a writer-help book. The class is good so far, the book also good so far.

Hope you had a great weekend. Talk to you Wednesday. :0)

Yeah, me too. I kinda miss my yard. I haven't spent a lot of time outside recently, except to hang while the dog runs around. I usually sit and read while she sniffs and chases things and does her business.

I haven't worked on anything in the yard in years and you can definitely tell. It's not that I don't want a nice-looking yard, because I do, but I no longer have the inclination to do it myself. At least not right now. I'd rather pay someone to do the back-breaking labor and enjoy the fruits of their labor and my money. But that's a ways off...maybe months, depending on how the books sell come June, July, and August...or maybe longer.

The lawn gets mowed and weed-whacked but that's pretty much it. The trees need trimming, we have a huge brush pile behind the shed and any semblance of specialty areas are mostly over-grown with grass or covered in leaves.


What I'd really like to find is a "putzer"--someone who'll come putz in my yard once they're done in their own. Someone who likes to just putter and weed and water and trim and plant. Anyone know someone like that in my neck of the woods???


I also miss watching the squirrels and birds. Although that could be easily remedied  by filling the bird feeders and squirrel feeders again. Once I have some extra cash, I plan to. But you'd be surprised how not cheap bird food and squirrel mix is.

Hope you have a great weekend!!!

A few weeks ago, I mentioned the vinca I dug out of the patio a couple of years ago. It's been sitting in a small planter next to my lawn chair and for some reason I started taking pictures of it every day or two as spring turned into summer... After a random "pinch" last year because one of the plants was getting too tall, I realized that the pinch was good for the plant. So this year, I pinched a couple of them early on and something lovely happened... Both of the plants I pinched grew extensions and I've had record number of blooms all at once.

Last year, I'd enjoy two to four blooms at any given time...this year, I've gotten up to thirteen!!

Look!!

One of the first pics I took back in May, maybe?






And here are some others...










I'm pretty chuffed at seeing this thing still blooming and growing. It's a highlight of each day to go on the patio each day when I get home and see if there are any more blooms.

It's the small things...

The dead tree fell over. It's been dead for a few years now, being held in place by the cable that serves--served--as a clothes line. Luckily for us, it fell into our other tree.



The storm that blew through early Tuesday (and I mean early--like 1AM) brought down the large dead branch in the other tree...




Also, lucky for us, one of our new fireworks store workers owns a tree-trimming company, so we'll be having him come up and take care of our trees.

Hope y'all had an awesome 4th. I didn't have Internet to post, so...

But now it's time for life to return to normal.

I haven't had any this year. Usually by now I'm chomping at the bit to do some small project in my yard, but funds have been a little tight, so I didn't even plan anything beyond scrounging up the money to pay the yard guy who was due to start upkeep again after a months' long hiatus. Of course the spring rains have kept everything soggy, which is made worse when the grass is overgrown and the sun can't reach the ground as easily. But we finally had a few days' grace and Lawn Guy came buy yesterday afternoon.

Before:








And after:





There's still some work to do to get it looking like I want it to, but some of that's on me. We've still got large branches down and leaves in the corners. So between now and his next visit, I'm going to get out and enjoy what's left of spring.

Anyone doing any fun yard projects?