Flowers, Atrange News, and More Rain

63°f/17°C, showers and humid.

The Fire Pinks are in bloom on Joe's Run! There are more this year than I have ever seen here.

This whole roadbank was covered with them. 

So amazing, they are just doing their thing, no human intervention required. Maybe it's all the rain bringing them on? 

After a very short break from the rain yesterday, it returned overnight, fortunately just intermittent showers. But it is so humid! The temperature isn't bad (77° at 2 pm) but the humidity is 88%. I was out doing some garden work and within minutes sweat was dripping off my nose, in my eyes, and running down my back. Pure misery. I retreated inside after a couple hours, turning on the AC even though it isn't that hot, just to reduce the humidity so I can work in here. The Roomba is vacuuming as I write, the fans are on, and I have hot coffee, so all is right in my world at the moment!

I am so thankful the rain let up for a bit. Flooding is everywhere, although nothing catastrophic, thank goodness. As we were going out yesterday we encountered yet another downed tree. Fortunately some nice person had been along to cut a way through, and Larry cleaned up more of the broken bits and debris before we went on.

Yes, tgat is a crack in our windshield, no idea why it cracked. Just got up on morning and there was a little crack. By the next day it had spread. One more thing to deal with. Later, though. Got things to do this week.

A surprising thing happened on the WV Turnpike yesterday. A truck's back doors got open and little piglets were falling out onto the highway! There were actually 2 trucks; the police were able to stop one but the other continued on its way, dropping little pigs here and there as it went. There were two near the state Capitol,  and several videos showed police and other people trying to catch the little things. Sadly, many of the pigs were killed or injured. I hope that somewhere the second truck got stopped. Poor little pigs.

It has been a weekend of bizarre wrecks, like this one in Charleston. (Photo is from WV Metro News)

This car is hanging over an interstate bridge in Charleston Saturday afternoon! Believe it or not, the driver had only minor injuries. His Guardian Angel was certainly looking after him. There were several tractor trailer wrecks, 2 blocking bridges. So all in all, I am glad we didn't make any long drives over the weekend. 

But yesterday was Larry's 75th birthday, so we went out for brunch with our son Derek. Afterward I sent Larry into Tractor Supply with $100 to buy anything he wanted. Would you believe he came out empty-handed? The man just doesn't like to shop. But later at Walmart he bought what he really wanted: a battery for the four-wheeler. Go figure. But he was tickled pink, so it's all good. We stopped by Shari's so he could have ice cream with his buddies--no cake, though. And everyone in the restaurant sang happy birthday. Pretty nice! I gave him a card and a $100 Grand candy bar, because I figure he's worth that much! It was a nice outing.

And of course when we got home we got right to work. I mulched another big section of my vegetable garden and did more stringtrimming while Larry ran the weedeater and took the tiller through his garden. Surprisingly it was dry enough to do that.

We picked the cherries this morning, or what the birds and the rain left us. We've never had a problem with birds in our tree before but they sure found them this year, and all the rain caused some cherries to split. Still, we got about a gallon, and that will be enough to make several jars of pie filling. What we couldn't reach, the birds can have.

All for now. Housework is calling, and I must go!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Washed-Out Weekend

63°f/17°C, raining. We had rain all night Friday night and most of yesterday and last night. Today, guess what? Rain, all day. I am not complaining, because we really need it.

So much rain! I cannot recall a time in recent years when we have had rain for such long periods, and this trend is expected to continue all week. I just hope it let's up by June 1, because according to my late neighbor Belvie, rain on June 1 means there will be no blackberries.  

Some places are experiencing flooding in expected places, but in a neighboring county at least one family is having flooding that they claim is caused by the ongoing construction of a data center. There have been rock slides and falling trees too. We had to turn around and go out the longer way on Friday because a tree was across the road.

Friday was Ripkey on Sale, a yearly yard sale event across the whole town of Ripley. We live to go to this, and always find great stuff, but this year? Nope. Just too rainy to enjoy it. So who knows what treasures we missed out on? I don't really mind, as i have plenty of things still to price, paint, fix, etc. 

We had planned to go to Vandalia Saturday. This is an annual celebration only our state's arts , music, and culture, held at the State Capitol. We go almost every year, but the rain and storms took care of that idea. I thought we might go to a local restaurant that was having live music in the evening, but that event was canceled. Vandalia was still going on today, but neither of us wanted an hour's drive in the rain, so once again we just stayed home, much to the delight of our dogs. So much for weekend plans! 

I am also pretty much held up on gardening. I have boxes ready to put down for mulch and another load of grass clippings in the back of the truck,  but we haven't had more than a couple short periods without rain since Thursday.

Friday morning we lounged around, then went out in the afternoon when the rain broke for a bit to do a little groceey shopping. We stopped at Shari's and had a long, leisurely visit with our friend Glenn, who lost his wife last year and is still struggling with being alone. Our friend Bill came in as we were leaving, so I suspect he and Glenn had a good chinwag too. 

Suzy was there, having her weekly crochet class with a sweet young lady called Gnomie (no idea what her real name is), and Crystal came in with her daughter and son-in-law.  It was lovely to just hang out drinking coffee, and not have to rush off.  When we got home I got some housework done while Larry finally cut those branches that were hanging too low over the driveway trimmed off the mulberry tree. Poor man got soaked in the process!

Yesterday morning we bustled about , getting ready for the new fridge to arrive. It was here by 10:30am, having come all the way from Columbus, Ohio. Those guys were efficiency machines! They had to back all the way down our driveway because they had brought a big truck, even though i requested that they come in a small truck. In less than an hour the fridge was in and the door reversed to swing the way we needed it.  

Changing out a refrigerator is a lot of work: unloading and cleaning up the old one, then reloading the food into the new one, cleaning up the coolers, etc. I was very glad when it was all done, and of course in the process did some dumping out of stuff thathad got buried in the back of the shelves. Which meant more dishes to be done.

And what did I do next? Sat down and read my book! I finished it too. Chris of the Always Smiling blog had recommended The Last Letter of Rachel Ellsworth, so I ordered it a few weeks ago. 

It has been a very long time since I spent an entire afternoon and evening reading! It was a good read, with references to foods that sent me to Google to figure out what they were. The story centers on a recently divorced woman, Veronica, who takes a job as companion to a young, recently injured young woman who had been an Olympic snowboarder. Mariah had lost her mother, and wanted to write the book her mother was researching, a book that apparently would focus on the Parsi café culture and foods. To accomplish this, Mariah and Veronica traveled to the places Mariah's mother had jotted down in her vague notes, accompanied by a former war photographer, Henry. 

The plot intrigued me, and I found the characters well drawn and interesting, but I squirmed at Veronica's seemingly submissive ways, particularly in relation to her ex-husband.  What woman today would weakly accept a man just cutting off court-ordered alimony? I don't know any myself. Mariah was quixotic, sometimes charming, other times difficult, and often struck me as someone who had been too indulged in her life prior to tragedy striking. 

As for Henry,  he seemed again I cringed at the often-used romance novel trope of the wise man guiding the helpless females.  Still, it was a good story,  with enough of a mystery woven through the many mouth-watering descriptions of foods and meals, and the rich descriptions of the places the characters visited. It was an enjoyable light read, perfect for a long rainy afternoon. I liked it well enough to order another by the author, Barbara O'Neal.

Today we had a good, late breakfast, then got into some housework together while the rain poured outside.  We went out briefly and I pulled weeds from the dill and basil until rain pushed us back to the porch, where I stripped tape from boxes so they will be ready to put down in the garden as soon as we get a break in the weather. And after I post this, I think I will go hunt up another novel!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Window Display and Booth Update

57°f/about 14°C, raining. Rained a good bit yesterday, most of the night, and will continue today. We need it. Gardens are shooting up! 

We restocked Ravenswood booth yesterday, and I finally got my Memorial Day window done. 

I will leave this display through July 4th, then change it out, possibly to an early Fall theme, blending in some of the red/white/blue items to carry through to Labor Day. I am not feeling all jazzed up about the 250th anniversary, but on the other hand, I feel like we should acknowledge and celebrate it, even if we have a crew of morons running things for the moment. History will not be kind to these idiots, of that I am certain.

Besides the window, I made only minor changes, shifting things around and adding a few new items.

I had quilts on this rack but they all sold, so I put runners and tablecloths on it, and will bring more quilts next time.

The table and chairs are still there. I am thinking about bringing those chairs home and putting two white ones with the table. I would like those chairs in my own kitchen, actually.

I had a huge stash of framed art and mirrors which I have been bringing in and putting in crates to display. They have been selling very well. I don't know why I didn't bring them in as I bought them, but oh well.

I had 4 of tbese folding chairs in the booth, and sold two. Again, I had these stored in the workroom and never got around to bringing them in. Getting all this stored-away stuff into the booths has really boosted our sales this year.

I thought someone into camping would buy this old cast iron gas stove top, but no bites so far. 

Just an overview of our front booth here (we have 4 at this store).

I took no photos at Ripley because by the time we had lunch with our friends and got to that location I had only an hour before closing to get everything done! I didn't make any big changes there anyway, but will probably do that next week.

Today we will most likely be home all day. It's pouring rain and I don't feel like hitting the city-wide yard sales in Ripley in this weather. I am still in my nightgown as I write, and it's 10:30 am! Poor Larry will have to go out in the rain to trim some branches on a mulberry tree so that the Lowe's truck can get through to bring our fridge tomorrow.

The van is full of boxes to strip of tape so we can put down the load of grass clippings Larry picked up Wednesday, which are still in the truck, covered with a tarp. So I guess I will get those boxes ready today, and maybe start on that wardrobe, my next painting project. Maybe.  We shall see what happens. Right now, I want to finish my coffee and get dressed!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.