THOUGHTS FOR TODAY

WE CAN BUT TRY...

"Happiness is the art of never holding in your mind the memory of any unpleasant thing that has passed." 

Get up and get going, Susan!

Hello and good morning dear bloggy friends! I am trying to think happy thoughts today. The closer the time comes for me to return to Maine the faster the days disappear from my life here at home. Before long I will be crossing the bridge again to the Island to spend the winter with my aged mother, bless her heart. She is a trouper.  

But today is  not the future so I'm trying to concentrate on today. Do you have days like this? 

 

Roger is very busy this time of year working with  my son. He has a swimming pool business, Mark's Pools, LLC. They do everything concerning pools and he is super busy April through November. Roger, who has been working with him Spring, Summer and Fall every year since he retired 10 years ago,  mostly only does openings in the Spring and early Summer and closings, winterizations after Labor Day. They have about 200 pools to winterize. 

When Roger is home I tend to be more busy, organized and productive. (If I am honest, I think that's because I don't want him to think I am lazy.)😉 When left on my own, not so much. I go back to bed after letting the dogs out and feeding everyone and work/play/read on my tablet. But, in the back of my mind there is a battle going on...get up! Get moving! I ignore it until Lucy looks me in the face with those puppy dog hopeful eyes.

Alright, Lucy, my girl, we will start this day by taking a walk around the outside of the house. It rained all day yesterday so we stayed in the house by the fireplace, watching Acorn and Britbox. Yes, another unproductive day but enjoyable. We watched "The Sound". Have you seen any of the episodes, a new one every week. 

So, here we go on our walk...

 

Roger's pumpkin...

Roger's fire pit for debris is definitely not a work of art but is better than the barrel he was using. And his work shed is in the woods for a reason plus it holds his riding mowers that no longer work. Yep. My sentiments exactly. 

The pile of wood stacked there is from out beloved "Old Majestic", a humongous Pine tree. When it came down in hurricane Sandy it ruined the gate to the fence that we had put up to make a huge dog yard so our large dog, Mysti, could run and play in safety. It also weakened the fence where it came down across it. Most of the tree was not on the fence, just a huge branch that broke off. The chunks you see here are from the branch. Actually the top part of the tree broke off, fell on the gate and a huge branch of that rested on several fence sections. We had to have the rest of  it professionally cut down and taken away. The fence sections and the gate were out of manufacture, obsolete so we couldn't get replacements. Roger made due for the time being with the chain link gate but it is still there. We really don't know what to replace it with that will fit the opening. 

It was a long time ago now but I still mourn Old Majestic  every time I look out the kitchen window. It had a huge diameter. I counted the rings and there were 119! Mother Nature, she can be cruel. 

HAPPY MAIL

My happy mail had more to do with making my life easier than bringing me the kind of  happiness that clothes, cameras, books, etc, can give. None the less, I am very happy with them in a housewifery kind of way. I really like the Cordless Shark stick vac. It is so easy to empty the canister and very light to push around. The hand held has a hose that stretches to 4 feet and several attachments. It is also cordless. I bought these from mail Walmart. It arrived the next day! We do not live close but I really don't want to go in crowded stores even if we did. Especially so close to the time I will be seeing mom again. November 1st is my approximate traveling date.

 

I also sent to Amazon and had a heating pad sent to Mom so she should be happily surprised to get it today or tomorrow. I wish snail mail would be delivered as quickly as Amazon and Walmart. It takes forever for mail, let alone packages, to go from my post office here to the one on the Island.

One last tidbit...

This little Carolina wren for the past several days has been enjoying the food we put out for our stray cat, Rascal. We put the dish out every morning under the glass topped picnic table, on a little shelf type thingy that we put a board across. There's also a kitchen chair cushion on the board so he can nap out of the elements if he wants to stick around afterwards, full belly and all of that, you know how it is.😏

Well, this little wren gets in the bowl and pecks away happily. It's the cutest thing to watch. Today I heard peck pecking, the door was open so I quietly peeked out through the screen and he/she was out there again, only the bowl was full. It was having a grand feast with food flying out of the bowl in all directions. I didn't take pictures today though.

(I took these through a slightly milky glass sliding door and it was raining, so they could be clearer. )

STAY SAFE!