56°f/13.3°C, clear. Warmed up to 86°, hot! At least the humidity is relatively low.
Looking back through photos, I realized there were some I meant to post but never got around to, so I will so it now. Pure randomness here!
Well, this is actually from today. I picked a bouquet while I was watering some new plants. This is, from bottom center, coreopsis, then the red is spigelia, then feverfew, an allium seedhead barely visible, a sweet little rose, and below the rose a Shasta daisy.
Also today: farmers are hard at work getting hay up while the weather is good. This is near our home.
In the garden recently. That's Brazilian verbena and feverfew, and I believe a Great Fritillary butterfly.
In my shopping cart at Walmart yesterday: 4 miniature rose bushes. They ard only $4.97 right now! I have several already, one about 10 years old and blooms like crazy. I had gone in for my eye exam, and had to wait for Larry to come pick me up, so flower shopping it was! The exam was good by the way, no glaucoma or macular degeneration, and only a tiny beginning of cataracts. I need better glasses than just readers though, so I am trying to get used to that idea. Haven't ordered them yet.
On our road, the tree trimmers have been hard at work clearing electric line right-of-ways. We had to wait a bit on this truck, but we weren't in a hurry. And we arranged to have them empty their chipper truck here, so we will have free mulch in a few years, after it rots down.
Did I already post this? This guy kept coming back, apparently attracted to the yellow design on my glass.
We stopped at a Chinese buffet on the way home from the VA on Monday. It has been years since we went to one, before the pandemic as far as I can recall. I was craving General Tso's chicken, which i have been told isn't actually Chinese. But it was so good! I hope this fortune proves to be true.
At Taylor Books Saturday night, I was struck by this gorgeous pottery, made by a West Virginia potter whose name I forgot to get.
This glass is also made in WV, in Huntington. It was very like stained glass to me. Beautiful. And expensive.
Taylor Books also sells Folkmanis puppets. This brought back memories of my many puppets, all gone to the local library now. I had many of the ones in this photo.
And they sell bouquets of fresh flowers!
At the table across from us, a couple bought 3 desserts! They all looked delicious.
I bought this blue bowl at the antique mall in Marietta. Still haven't identified maker and pattern, but I am sure it's Early American Pattern Glass.
This was a Goodwill find a few weeks ago. She is so lovely. Not bronze, but "polystone", daggone it.
Found at the GW on the same day, for $8.99!
My gardening shoes, absolutely worn out. I bought a new pair in the same style, but I hate to give these up! The soles are thin as paper though.
One night last month up on our ridge.
The local jewelers truck.
Someone made this steel goat and mounted it on a steep rock cliff along US 19 in Nicholas County, WV, in honor of the Powell Mountain Goat. For 18 years, the goat roamed the cliffs along the highway and was never caught. We saw her (it was a she) several times ourselves. Her legend lives on!
Old barn in Pocahontas County. The 45° angle cut of the siding is pretty cool.
Last, just an old door in Marlinton, WV.
And there we have it---variety, the spice of life!
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
So, yesterday: mulched, moved the chicken coop, did a lot of stringtrimming, packed some larger ebay sales, went to open mic.
We had plenty of porch time, too, and nice visit with son Derek who helped move the coop. He had just run over his phone while helping a friend fix his golf cart, which was so sad, since he had just bought the phone ($800) two days before. Fortunately he had insurance on it, so a replacement is already on the way. Whew. How many of you have done something similar? I messaged him later, noting that lots of people drop their phones in the toilet. He wrote back, "did that with my last one!" Larry has run over or lost at least 3 phones. I am sure my time is coming.
Open mic last night featured my friend Pete Kosky, a writer, songwriter and musician who is also very funny. It was another fine evening with friends.
Today has started off quite noisy. Tree trimmers are here to clear the electric right-of-way, and their saws were going at 7:30 am. Now I am on the way to an eye appointment, my first checkup in years, while Larry goes to pick up grass clippings from our friend Glenn. Busy days.
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
The heavy rains last week caused much flooding, none disastrous, thank goodness, and now we are back to enjoying cool days and much less humidity. Weather really impacts our lives, particularly here in the country where it is the main determinant of what we do each day. Last week was a whirlwind, so today I feel like I am just catching my breath.
After all the rain last week, I put down mulch, working around the very wet areas, so now I have only about 1/4th of the garden left to do. I had to put that chore on hold though, as other life things intervened.
One of those things was a visit from two friends who are also gardeners, one of them a former landscape company owner and who wrote a weekly column for the Charleston newspapers about flower gardening. She is retired now but still works as a consultant. The lady coming with Lynne was Pam, a lady whose path has crossed mine numerous times over the years, but with whom I have never had the pleasure of spending much time. Now retired, she still lives far out in the country on her 200 acres. One of the ways we often saw each other was at music events, as she is a member of a women's Celtic music group.
So, you know I was working hard to make my gardens look as good as I could given all the rain, and, like most women I think, also getting my house put to rights. I am also grateful for the push to clean when company comes, because I am quite happy to give a link and a polish most of the time and spend my hours on more fruitful activities. I even made some chocolate-orange shortbread cookies!
Well, it was a lively visit. I picked them.up in town, then we came here for coffee and cookies and a garden tour--which was marred a bit but the stench from the darned chickens. The rain had made a quagmire of their run, and although Larry did his best to alleviate the situation, the smell was still, um, pungent. Still, we enjoyed the flowers and the herb gardens, and discussed the vegetable garden from a discreet distance. Lynne took these photos of part of my gardens.
She also took this one of me, apparently mid-tale!
(Today Larry has finally agreed with what I have been asking him to do, and moved the chickens back to their old coop until we can get things figured out.)
We left here to drive the back way to Ravenswood, where my friends had fun checking out the antique mall. Then it was lunch at the nearby Mexican place, and back to their car. It was fun to hang out with them, and we are planning at day at Pam's place next.
Yesterday we celebrated our 40th anniversary, which was Friday, in a small way, but taking a "mystery picnic lunch" trip on a sternwheeler in Marietta, Ohio. My friend Tamara showed up, unexpectedly, early that morning with some plants for me, from the high school greenhouse, which were going to be thrown out. She stayed for breakfast---scrambled eggs with cheese, ham, toast and sliced tomatoes from our friend Mark's high tunnels. So good! We got ready to go quickly, and arrived at the boat just as boarding started.
The boat trip was great, and so relaxing. I have a fascination with steamboat history, and with sternwheelers, and Larry enjoys them too.
The Ohio River is still quite high.
Mystery lunch!
My pasta salad.
Our mystery picnic lunches were varied. Mine was a chicken salad croissant that had cherry tomatoes in the filling, a Caesar salad, a pasta salad that was interesting but with too much pesto for my liking, and a sweet little lemon meringue pie. Larry's was a roast beef wrap, potato salad, tossed salad, and a sweet peanut butter cake with a caramel sauce. He pronounced his lunch delicious.
The flag of my people!
After the boat, we stopped at the antique mall where we had once had a booth. One of my favorite workers was there, and it was so nice to see her. We keep up on Facebook but hadn't seen each other since we closed our booth. Then we went back to Ripley, stopped at Shari's for coffee, then went on to Charleston for a little taste of the city-wide art festival called Festiv-All. It was fun to sit outside at our favorite brewery and just watch people.
Larry enjoyed a stout, while I had ice water.
I wonder what outfit was passing by that caused me to look at it like this?
I guess since it was an art festival people wore their "artsy" outfits, so it was a colorful mix to see.
Last stop was Taylor Books to browse, have a glass of wine and listen to a group that is becoming a favorite of ours, Minor Swing. Their music is a neat blend of jazz and swing, which they define as "gypsy swing". Not my usual listening, but I really like their sound.
Today? Not much going on, although Larry has dressed out two rabbits, which I cleaned up for the freezer. He has picked a gallon of raspberries, which i also n put into the freezer. Jam in my future, I think. Raspberry is my favorite of all the jams I make. I painted some small pieces for our booths, made dinner, and rested, as I am feeling worn out. No surprise, after such a busy week.
So that's what we have been up to. Tomorrow Larry has a doctor appointment, but this time I will stay home. Maybe I will get that mulching done? Maybe.
Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
