A Time For Everything

Tomorrow is National Squirrel Appreciation Day and if you've read my blog for any length of time, you'll know I love the squirrels. I take picture all the time and I've shared those over the years as well. We buy squirrel food and have a little squirrel station for food and water about a dozen feet from the house at the base of an oak tree.

My darling DD caught sight of these in Dollar Tree the other day and brought them home to me. They definitely brightened my day as well as my week, which didn't start off great. It's ending on a better note, thanks goodness, but I'm glad it's the weekend. (They're salt & pepper shakers, if you couldn't tell.)

I heard back from the online publisher to whom I submitted "the cookie book" I mentioned a few weeks ago. It wasn't a request for the full, so that really bummed me out. I'd had my own doubts about the opening chapter, which was all that I was allowed to submit for the query, but I wanted to get it off my plate and didn't listen to my gut. So while I'm not surprised or devastated at this point, it did sting a little on Monday.

The editor did invite me to revise and re-submit, giving me until the end of next week to get it back to her for possible inclusion in this year's anthology. So guess what I'll be working on this weekend and into next week? There's not a whole lot of work to do so I should be able to get the alterations done and a new query sent...

Anyway, hope you're well 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.

My first cup of Plantation / Perfectly Mint tea in almost two weeks was just as soothing and delicious as I hoped. The scent, the flavor, the comfort...perfect.

The book is done!! 

 Well, insofar as all the revisions were made. I've set it aside to get some distance from it and I'll read it again in a week or two. I'm still debating on finding a beta reader.

I finished Saturday, so as a reward I slept in on Sunday. Only for an hour however and then I was awake. Now that Book 4 is done (for the moment), it's time to turn my attention to Book 5 and so I've been working on building the characters. They've been percolating for a month or two, but now it's time to get things nailed down, make decisions about who they are, what they want, what they need, etc., etc., etc.... I've made progress on hero 1 mostly and I know a little about the other. These things take time and this is not one of my strong suits.

* * * * *

Fun with Dick, Jane, and Spot... 

These guys ventured forth while I was sitting outside on Saturday afternoon. I don't know if these are all the same squirrel or what. There were actually three of them nibbling and squabbling.

 Have a great week!

 

 

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...

That is all...


...but only on the inside. :)

Have a great weekend.

Along with not talking about the yard much, I haven't mentioned my backyard babies much either. I was pleased to discover that I in fact have a squirrel nest in one of my trees!


The grass up close to the patio and around the tree is also littered with small divots where they've been digging up their stash of acorns...




A couple of weeks ago, I was treated to this little guy right outside my home office window.


Anyway--have a great weekend!!!

My back yard! So what's going on with it these days?? Not much really. We had so much rain through April and May that it was all we could do to keep it mowed. There was no time or effort left over for much else. But June brought heat and things are drying out. I did trim up the azalea bush and weed one of the flower beds, so it's looking rather nice. Now if only the wisteria would bloom. I'll have to do a little research on that. The lemon slice super bells are blooming, though...


Now, my other flower bed was flooded by all the rain and gets regularly trampled on by the dog, so it's a lost cause. There's a flower bed kit at The Home Depot I'm saving up for though. And it'll go in this spot. It'll be raised up a bit and I'll probably invest in some decorative fencing to keep the dog out too.


I found this vinca growing up out of the spaces in the patio.


And I have a sunflower growing in the bird feeder bed...it's taller than me now. I can't wait till it blooms.


Have a great rest of the week!

Sorry I missed you Wednesday, just been super focused and the week got away from me! But it's the weekend and I'm gonna hang out with some writer peeps tomorrow to brainstorm some books.

I leave you with this:




Have a GREAT weekend!

Taking the easy way out with a meme...


See you on Friday!

So, yeah, I completely forgot about a Wednesday post... Sorry.

And today is Friday and it's time for another blog post as well as the weekend being upon us.

I haven't been feeling particularly inspired or chatty, so I think I'm going low key/minimal effort if that's all right with you. I'm thinking inspirational or motivational messages or funny graphics, maybe a song that tickles my fancy...

Not sure how long the drought is going to last, but we'll just carry on for a bit and see what happens.

With that in mind, I leave you with this...


Have a great weekend!

So it's Friday of a four-day work week. Wouldn't it be nice if every weekend were three days long and every week was four days long?

Some people do get to pull that off, but not me alas...

Anyway, this weekend will be all about the backyard. The squirrels have been raiding the acorns and, as a result, I have acorn pieces all over the back porch and patio.In addition, the lawn needs mowing again.


Hope you have a pleasant weekend and get to do whatever your little heart desires.

Well, the game Friday night was all right. The football team lost, but it was a high scoring, relatively close game. I suppose it was nice for the other team to win since it was their homecoming. Their band was huge and put us to shame in both size, playing skill, and behavior. Sonshine did not have such a great night and, subsequently, neither did I. He's hanging in there though, but thinking he needs to lower his expectations. We'll see how that plan goes.

But the rest of the weekend went well. Okay, well, I binged on junk and failed to exercise and have been struggling with making good food choices all week. One of those bad choices was chocolate milk and Pepperidge Farm Chessman cookies!

However, in the interest of every day being special, I did drink my chocolate milk out of a wine-type glass!



Now, for something a little more interesting and fun--I caught a picture of a lizard with a grub in his mouth! I stepped onto the back porch and caught the little guy scurrying across the grass, then up the side of the stoop. He took a little detour up my leg, then jumped onto the brick of the house.

Here he is with the grub...

Movie Monday is being postponed until next week. I had the movie watched and the post is all ready to go (I swear), but this weekend was so productive and I bought myself a new camera and got some awesome pics that I wanted to share!

So the new camera is a Canon Powershot SX160 IS with a really awesome zoom lens. Much much better than my previous little Kodak. It was a good little camera, but I've gotten to the point where I want closer pics of things that *I* can't get closer too. (pics to follow) And the battery would no longer charge properly. Yeah, sure, I could have bought a new battery, but...see reason above for buying a nicer new one. Got a good deal (I think so, anyway) at Office Depot.

So I finally finished edging the bird feeder bed:


 On Mother's Day I received three miniature rose bushes, one from each of the kids:



Eventually I lost (okay, killed) one of them, but have managed to nurture the other two along. One bloomed a few days ago and the other has a bud... I was very excited to see these.
Several weeks ago, I'd bought a cool hanging planter for them. They've been doing pretty good hanging on the side of the house, and I do mean hanging on the side of the house. Sonshine hung it from a small little plastic bracket right up under the eave holding the coax cable to the house. So the planter has been resting against the brick.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I happened to be in Albertson's and found another mini-rose bush. So I bought it with the intent to transplant it into the bottom pot of the planter. And then I got a bee in my bonnet yesterday to dress up one of my trees. So now I have this:



I poured ceder mulch around the three huge rocks there at the base of my oak tree, then bought a shepherd's crook to hang the planter on. The crook needs to be embedded into the ground better, but I didn't have the weight to get it all the way in, nor did I have a mallet to help me... The roses are shaded through the hottest part of the day and should do great right there. Plus, I can see them from my kitchen window and my office.

And now for the *really* cool pictures that I took yesterday afternoon:



Now, this here is our resident tree lizard. I've named him Handsome. He's been around a few years at least, and it's always fun to watch him scurry around the tree or across the yard.

And this here is Steffi, one of several squirrels that visit our yard. We're pretty sure she's the same one--none of the others seem to eat the squirrel corn. We'd been calling her Steve, but I finally realized she doesn't have boy parts.

And that, my friends, is that. I'll have a 4th of July update on Wednesday.