Thursday, October 3, 2019

unmotivated


I am totally unmotivated. Our open house is coming up in two months and I have nothing new so far to show. I vacillate between chastising myself for not putting in at least 2 hours every day on art work and telling myself I'm semi-retired, I can do or not do whatever I want. And apparently what I want is to do nothing. I mean, the stuff is sitting here right next to me while I ignore it.

I did finally get the teacup bird feeder repaired and put back up and put out the bird feeder for the fall/winter (hahahahahahaha) since I've had a big bag of seed sitting in the garage for at least a month, probably longer, but so far neither has had any visitors. (A cardinal and a wren visited since I wrote that.)

Grandgirl Jade was visiting her folks last weekend and came out on Saturday. She wanted to make a flower press and we managed to scrape up everything we needed except for the threaded bolts and wing nuts. I showed her how to use the radial arm saw and the drill press and she did all the work herself and cut several pieces of cardboard and paper to finish it off.

can you believe she's in her third year of college?

The road crew continues to work on the street, putting down and flattening a fourth layer which looked suspiciously like dirt with some of the first/third layer mixed in. They mash it down, roll over it, scrape it, water it down, etc. 


Looks good, nice and smooth, but unless they top it with something hard like asphalt it will washboard in a month. I wonder how much they have raised the level of the road. I'd just as soon any future flood waters not be held on this side of the road.

I finally broke down and bought a little sprinkler instead of spending an hour or more everyday watering by hand. It is still so hot out there and humid and mosquito-y and in 10 0r 15 minutes I'm sweating just walking around and if I stay out there longer then the sweat starts dripping off me. I got out there earlier today with the long handled nippers to cut down the trash trees, mostly raintrees and hackberrys that grow on the edges at the back of the property and the water sprouts off the crepe myrtles in front and by the time I was done the whole front of my tank top was soaked from me wiping my face on it and I was done. It just drains me. It's October, we shouldn't still be having temps in the 90s. My yellow angel trumpet is blooming and the heat today just shriveled the blooms up before they were even fully opened. Everyone keeps saying a cool front is coming through next week, and as I've mentioned before, by that they mean highs in the 80s. But you know what? I'll take it.

12 comments:

  1. cool flower press! I tried to make one but ended up buying a big one from Smith and Hawkin ages ago. I hope yours works for her and NO I can not believe she is a third year college student!

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  2. We finally got some cool air and it is such a relief. I am more than ready to put summer away. Two days ago I was out in my garden watering plants and it was the same scenario as yours. The heat, humidity and bugs are killers. Now, if I have the energy, I can start the big job of cutting, pulling up, and throwing away too many large plants.

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  3. I probably spent a good forty-five minutes (haha!) pulling giant rooster lily plants (or whatever they're called) from the pathway to my clothes line the other day and that did it for me. It's stupid hot, still, and yes- I'll take the eighties. Thank you.
    Your granddaughter is beautiful and I love that you're teaching her to use the woodworking tools. You are the best grandmama. No, I can't believe she's in her third year of college.
    Let's hang in there. What else can we do?

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  4. The weather is bonkers (and we know why, don't we?). Today's high here is 91 degrees. Tomorrow's high is 63. SIXTY-THREE! What the heck. I'm mowing tomorrow even if it's raining. (Not the actual grass - it's mostly dead - the weeds are getting out of control).

    Jade is lovely & is SO LUCKY to have you as a grandma!

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  5. I imagine it must be lovely to have a grandmother who is an artist. Your grandgirl is lovely. And sometimes when we feel like doing nothing, it's not nothing; creative ideas are percolating in the background of thought. Let them.

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  6. Your sister posted a funny comment on my blog about the "cold Front" coming on Monday morning. I laughed and laughed when I first heard about it's impending arrival. Cold front indeed. More like a semi cool front. David said it's time to put away the bathing suits and break out the mukluks and parkas.

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  7. I was about to suport your plans for (maybe) wanting to do nothing when I read on about all the stuff you did incl. flower press instructions and sweating while cutting down trees. Who are you kidding?
    I cycled a pitiful 6 km today and pretended it was something great.

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  8. That cold front is invading NE Ohio. I just turned off the air (yesterday was still the heat wave) and set the furnace at 68. I'm wearing hand warmers. My interest in the impeachment proceedings are heating up. And this weekend my "gardens" will be unearthed.

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    Replies
    1. My cold fingers fast forwarded to publish. No, I cannot believe Jade is in her third year!

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  9. I'm at the native plant society of Texas fall symposium, and one of the various awards this year is going to a woman who's been creating museum quality herbaria sheets, aka pressed plant for those of us who aren't so highbrow. There was an exhibit of her work, and one of her presses to look at. It's really interesting. The Emily Dickinson museum in Amherst, MA, had an exhibit of some of her pressed flowers, and a couple (three? four?) years ago the museum in New Braunfels had an exhibit of Lindheimer's herbaria sheets. It really is an art, and far more complex than sticking a daisy in a book.

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    Replies
    1. sounds interesting. along with the instructions for making the flower press were also instructions on when to pick the flowers and the proper way to press them.

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  10. That heat sounds miserable, from what you and others are writing (and what I experienced in Florida last week). Here's hoping autumnal temperatures arrive soon! I've never heard of a flower press -- as shoreacres wrote above, I pretty much just stuck daisies in books. LOL!

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