Outside & Inside

One more shot of my giant cosmos - this time with the two mums I just bought. I got the pair for only five dollars!! I expected to pay that much for each one.

The temperatures have come down significantly. I may even be able to wear my new IBOL sweatshirt for a whole day.

It's only a medium but it's a bit big on me. It will be lovely for those gray days when snuggling on the couch with a book is the order of the day. And it will bring back memories of the Iraqi Bundles of Love project which will make me smile. IBOL Guy counts 3, 442 bundles received so far and he thinks that's going to be the final total. Now he's trying to recruit manpower and supplies to distribute the loot.

This weekend I am going to be a part of the online studio tour sponsored by Cloth-Paper-Scissors magazine.

You can check out the details here. And then be sure to swing by here again Friday or Saturday or Sunday to see the mess I call my studio! (I'm not cleaning it up, not even for you!)

Playing in the Dirt

We are enjoying exquisite weather this weekend. A day or two ago one of my sons pulled a pair of overgrown bushes out of the ground for me and I created a new flower bed on that side of the deck off the back of our house. So far it only has my poor little white peony in it but I doubt that will be the case for long. It remains to be seen whether the peony even survives. When I dug it out of its' previous location I accidentally cut through two major roots. I'm hoping the organic compost I added to the soil will help it recover and establish itself before hard weather sets in.

Look what else I found when the shrubs were removed!

Actually, when I was prepping the flower bed I hit a boulder a couple of inches below the surface. It was too big for me to try to excavate by myself and no-one else was around to help at the time. I decided to leave it exposed so I wouldn't try to plant something in that spot in the future. The dragon and its' "eggs" seemed a good solution.

We also found this that we will have to remove when the weather turns cold. I can live with them until then.

And remember this cosmos I showed you in my last post?

This is the plant it came from:

That's all 5' 2" of me standing next to it. The bed it's in is a couple of inches higher than the ground I'm standing on but it's still a tall plant!

Second Day of Autumn

Okay, I feel I should let my readers know that things are beginning to look up again. It may not last long because I went to the thrift shop this morning and consequently may have to go through another (hopefully brief) round of depression during the recovery process, but at least I'm feeling more able to cope. Even the rash on the back of my hand is finally looking better.

This business of being chronically ill is a real learning experience, let me tell you. I get discouraged because I feel so young still. It makes me wonder what in the world my life will be like when I am truly elderly.

I spent yesterday in Regency England again. Apparently I need to get as far away from reality as possible every so often. I picked up Redwall at the thrift shop this morning; I've never read it before even though I've known about it for years. Or I may reread the Magic series by Ilona Andrews instead.

I'm feeling better but I'm not ready to sew yet. Before I try to sew I'm going to have to deal with the piles that have accumulated on my cutting table. At least the ironing board is still pretty clear. And look! My mums have survived the summer and are blooming right on cue. :- )

Last Day of Summer

We are having an absolutely beautiful day today. Very appropriate for the calendar's last day of summer.


As much as we need the rain right now I'm really not looking forward to the days and weeks of gray and wet ahead of us. Still, maybe when the temps drop back into the normal range I'll be more inspired to sew. Heaven knows I haven't been sew-inclined in what feels like a long time. That may be due, in part, to the new physical malady I'm having to cope with. By itself it's not a big deal - that we know of. It's some kind of rash, mostly on the back of my left hand. The distressing part is that there's a bit of it on my eyelids too. And we have not been able to come up with a definite diagnosis. Don't know what it is, don't know what's causing it, don't know how to make it go away. The patch on my hand has spread and evolved but not really healed per se. I have a follow up appointment with the doctor next Monday.

I confess to being more than a little discouraged by all this. On top of all the other restrictions and limitations imposed by Candidiasis and MCS I've about had it. You know it's serious when even the things you normally enjoy doing are not in the least tempting. The trick is to find something, some way to tie a knot in the end of my rope so I can hang on until things begin to look more promising. The other option is to just succumb to being a vegetable on the couch.

I don't want to be a vegetable. I've got a little tiny knot in my rope at the moment. My challenge for today is to try to make it bigger and stronger. I've gotta find something fun to do, some way to distract myself. Maybe it's time to go get lost in a book. Whatever you do today, please don't let me drag you down!

Ahoy Me Hearties!

Aye, tis true - today is International Talk Like a Pirate Day.


And I have sad news to report. Some scurvy dog has shanghaied a member of me crew:


Or the scoundrel jumped ship of his own accord. Either way, I have no-one in me crow's nest on the Bluebird. So far me skeleton crew haven't run us aground...

but I may have to run up me flag and go searchin' fer a new crew member.

S'pose I can get this guy to come aboard? ;- )