THROUGH MY WINDOWS

MOSTLY MAINE Happy Monday, the last day of August!  It's been a very HOT month here in Pennsylvania. I have been mostly inside doing what I love to do (reading, crocheting and watching dvds), hanging out with my best buds, Lucy and Dolly. They, like me, are a lazy lot. Zeppy, #4 cat, loves being outside in the heat but not too far away; stays close enough so he can let me know if he starts to bake.  Dolly spends a lot of time staring out the windows trying to see our resident groundhog who comes out to eat several times a day. She barks and he or she stands up trying to see just how much of a danger she is posing. Dolly goes wild.  I have been very lazy about posting about my trip to Maine that I took the first 2 weeks of August. My dad had a bad fall and I left to go up a week before I intended. I spent a lot of time helping my mom take care of him and I also cleaned, cooked and ran errands. It was soooo hot up there on the Island without air c...

CONUNDRUMS Gosh! It is sizzling here right now! I have hardly been outside all week. The heat index is over a hundred degrees Fahrenheit every day. I don't do well healthwise in such intense heat so I am content  to occupy myself with inside projects. (I realize that is an understatement, who DOES do well in 100 degrees temps??) Mostly HOOKY projects while watching season 5 of Downton Abbey. I read that season 6 will be their last.  Bummer.   Anyway, we recently had a small dinner party and I decided to use it as an excuse to do a bit of a house revitalization. The problem I have now is what to do with all the de-revitalized junk I weeded from the downstairs and put in the bird/yarn/office and what have you room. We are full up at the cottage, the garages, the sheds. A conundrum for sure. The grandsons are coming on Friday for a few days so I have another conundrum-what to feed them. Here it is 3:34 am. I am wide awake and pondering this questio...

WITH EYES WIDE OPEN Hi there! Hope you are staying cool or warm depending on what part of the world you live in. Here in Eastern PA it is very humid with temps in the 90's. I would like to introduce you to Dolly. She is 9 yrs old and has had a rough time of it. She came to live with us a week ago all the way from WV. She was recently spayed and we are working on getting her house trained/broken and cat savvy. We have 4 cats and  she terrorized them into permanent hiding the 1st couple of days she was here. She's about the size of Lucy but weighs about 10 pounds less. Needless to say she could use a bit of fattening up. That shouldn't take long since she eats voraciously! We are working on getting her used to our way of life and so far she seems very happy with her new home-especially the large fenced in yard and walks around the property several times a day. We have over 2 acres with lots of trees, shrubs, flowers, etc. and she runs like she has springs at...

HOOKY LOVE AND THRIFTY FINDS Hi there! It's a glum looking day here. The forecast is for thunderstorms and hail and even a tornado watch to hit us later in the day coming from the central part of Pennsylvania and heading east towards us at full throttle!   The rain and thunder storms we have had off and on for the past week haven't done much to give us relief from the relentless humidity.  The good news is that we have had an endless supply of big, juicy and sweet strawberries come through our pantry door from our little patch. They are winding down now, bummer. Roger took this picture and just had to get in a portion of the maple syrup I brought him back on my trip to Maine last month.  My days for the past 2 weeks haven't been all that ordinary. We have had the pleasure of pet sitting my daughter's 2 very well behaved dogs. Lucy has been thrilled to have Sweetheart and Shyanne visiting. She has missed her buddy, Mysti, who passed on to doggy heaven a fe...

MAINE IN SPRING PORTLAND HEAD LIGHT taken on a foggy day.   Hi there! I have just returned from a month long visit to the Island (aka Little Deer Isle) off the coast of Maine. The beauty of going in May is that there is hardly any tourists around. Of course, it's much cooler and there's not much color yet but I will take that instead of the humidity and 90 degree temps I left behind in Bethlehem, PA. I decided to take a detour this time to Southern Portland, Maine to see the famous Portland Head Light. I had only been there once before and it was many years ago. It's located near Cape Elizabeth where the twin lights are but they are not nearly as interesting and accessible as Portland Head. While there I snapped pictures all around me despite the poor picture taking conditions.  The lighthouse was not as large as I remembered it before but never the less very impressive in it's history. I won't go into all that because a simple g...