Catching up - September 29, 2025

My beloved routines were all discombobulated last week.  

Wednesday, The Husband was scheduled for a morning doctor visit and a medical test.  Things were already running behind when we got there, and we ended up spending pretty much the whole day at the doctor's office.  What fun.

Since he has loads of vacation time that he hasn't taken, The Husband took the rest of the week off from work.  We were slugs for the next couple of days.  Friday morning, I did manage to drag myself up to the community garden to pick squash.  While I was there, I pulled up all of the "wood chip mushrooms" so nobody would eat them.

Saturday, we worked on Nanny's porch railing.  The porch has a ramp that was built when Pop-Pop was alive, and he's been gone at least 10 years.  The ramp doesn't have a roof over it, and the rail and some of the flooring had weathered to the point that they needed replacing for Nanny's safety.  The Nephew replaced some of the floor boards, but he works on a river boat and "shipped out" before he finished the job.  Son #2 worked on the railing Friday afternoon but did not finish it.  The Husband and I decided to take up where he left off.

He left off on the section of the railing that runs along the edge of the ramp.  The top and bottom boards of the rail had already been installed; our job was to put upright spindles between them.  Since the ramp is sloped, we had to cut the spindles at a corresponding angle.  O.M.G.  Neither of us knows much about carpentry or geometry.  We pretty much winged it.  It took nearly all day.  The job did not turn out perfectly, but it is stable and is not an eyesore.  Unless Nanny gets out a tape measure and a level (which she might do, for real), no one will know that we fudged a little, here and there.

I am almost finished with The Granddaughters' portraits.  The LRB's portrait gave me fits.  Little children's faces are hard to draw, and this little child's face is surrounded by a mass of fine, curly hair.  I did it FIVE TIMES before it began to really look like her.  At one stage, my first grade school portrait stared back at me.  (This was kind of creepy.)  Anyway, I'm calling her portrait and #3's portrait done.  Still have to do the backgrounds of #1 and #2, but that won't take long.  

Yesterday, I did a sketch in preparation for The Grandson's portrait.  He, too, has a head full of curly hair.  

I need to get my butt moving today.  We have a road trip to attend a wedding later this week, and I haven't worn my "dress up" clothes and shoes for so long that I don't even know where they are or if they still fit.  My feet will probably revolt when I put on shoes other than crocs or tennis shoes.

  

Ginseng - September 23, 2025

I stopped at the local hardware store on my way home from today's art class and bought a new hoe.  One of the guys at the counter took it to the back of the store and sharpened it for me.  I used it to plant my ginseng.

I planted 2-year-old rootlets in one spot, and a few seeds in another.  Hopefully, they won't wash down the hill with the first rain.

On my way home from class, I also stopped at the community garden to see if the squash needed picking, and it did.  Got 4.5 pounds.  We had a big rain yesterday (the first in months), and the experimental mushroom plot was just FULL of mushrooms, but they aren't the winecaps I planted.  If they're still there later this week, I may pull them up to keep someone else from thinking they're edible.  

 

Chalk Pastels Class #3 - September 23, 2025

Heading out to class in a few minutes.  Art bag is packed, car keys in my pocket.  Siri is keeping track of the time. 

There will be only one more class.  I will be bummed when it's over and will look for another class, somewhere.

There is a little place about 5 miles from our house that has been giving art lessons for 40 years.  Last year, I would go up there on Tuesdays to do some "free-style" painting with a group of ladies.  This was not a class in which everybody painted the same picture.  We all did our own thing, with an instructor in the room to help/advise us through rough spots.  I worked on an oil painting of an old tractor but got stalled when the instructor fell ill, lost her husband, daughter, and mother within weeks of one another.  I expected the shop would never re-open, as the instructor is in her 80s.  But her grandchildren have taken over the shop and are giving art classes for children and adults.  I am going to stop by the shop pretty soon to see if the Tuesday morning ladies are back in the swing of things, and if they are, I might join them.

I worked on The Granddaughters' portraits yesterday and am calling them done, except for the LRB's portrait, which I am re-doing.  They are all done in colored pencils.  I want to try one in watercolor, and one in chalk pastels.  There's a new set of chalk pastel pencils on a slow boat from somewhere, scheduled to arrive next week.  

Fall - September 22, 2025

It's hard to believe that the fall equinox is here, already.  

Nine months ago, I retired.  "Nine months" seems like a long time when you're thinking of future months, but it does not seem like a long time in retrospect.  Time has flown by.  

My big plan for my first year of retirement was to raise a fabulously productive vegetable garden and indulge my art/craft yearnings.  Some of that has panned out, so far - I've quilted/painted/crafted my head off.  The gardening?  Not so much.

This year's gardening season started out wet, wet, WET.  The tomatoes, peppers, and squash seeds went in the ground during a short dry-ish spell.  They almost drowned before it finally quit raining, and despite the fact that I had nourished them and babied them, they never really produced much (except for the butternut squash, which was planted by accident - it went crazy).  The first planting of purple hull peas barely sprouted.  I re-planted, but those seeds came up thinly, too.  The second planting actually made a few peas, but my negligence let them dry up on the vines.  The same goes for the first round of peas in the community garden plot, for we were out of town when the peas were ready to be picked, and the brutal heat got to them before I did.  

Round 2 in the community garden has done well, so far.  The peas are blooming, and the squash is already producing.  "Volunteer" cantaloupes and watermelons are spreading through the peas, but everybody seems to be getting along.  No sign, yet, of the winecap mushrooms, planted a couple of weeks ago.  I have no clue how they're supposed to behave.  The cabbages I started from seeds a few weeks ago could be planted now, if I had a place ready for them.  The broccoli got a late start, and it's still too wimpy to go to the garden.  

Saturday's mail brought some ginseng roots and seeds.  Sunday, I went out with a hoe, looking for a place to plant them.  Not far from the house, I found a good spot on a north-east-facing slope and started raking leaves and sticks and hacking down poison ivy.  I'd barely cleaned two square feet when the end flew off of the hoe.  It appeared to be beyond repair.  The ginseng didn't get planted.  Tomorrow, when I'm in town for my art class, I'll get a new one and plant the ginseng tomorrow afternoon.

I worked on the portraits of The Granddaughters this weekend.  #4's portrait was the first of the bunch, and it didn't turn out so well.  Tired of looking at it, I set it aside and started on #3.  It turned out better.  #2 and #1 came out pretty good.  On a roll, I started over on #4, and it is much, much better than the first attempt.  But they all need finishing/refining, and I'm afraid I'll ruin them if I do more work on them.

It's only paper, right?

VICTORY - September 19, 2025

Well, it happened again.  The jumping spider that lives under my porch table showed himself; I attacked it; it disappeared.

I saw his shadow through the paper towel as he crawled on the reverse side . . . 

. . . and thought, I've got you now, *sshole.

The flyswatter was within reach.  I snuck around to the back edge of the table and gave the paper towel a hard wallop.  And could not find the spider, dead or alive, anywhere near the table.

I went back to my chair, defeated and unsettled, thinking about how the blow might have fired the spider right into my chair . . . .

UPDATE:  

I noticed something dark under the green cone (which I had already looked under) . . . 

Before I lifted it, I gave it a good whack with my fist.

Sure enough, there was a spider under it.  

A flat one.  

Cookies - September 18, 2025

One day this week, I made a batch of devil's food cookies.  After dinner that night, as both The Husband and I were raiding the cookie jar, I said to him, "These can't stay here.  I'm taking them to The Granddaughters tomorrow."  After dinner last night, I bagged up most of the cookies, and we walked them across the road.  When we came home, the Little Rotten Baby came with us.  She wanted to go out to the porch when we got here.

During the porch-cleaning frenzy of a couple of weeks ago, I'd gathered up small toys and piled them in a little wagon, a miniature replica of the metal red wagon we all grew up with.  I don't know how old this wagon is - we "inherited" it when an aunt died - but it's pretty old.  The LRB wanted to play with it, but I'd not gotten around to cleaning it, and it was dirty.  I wiped the wagon down with a paper towel, but this cleaning job did not suite the LRB.  She said, "Do you have a water hose?"  We took the wagon outside and washed it and dried it.  She took the handle and said, "Now, I need something to put in it."  As she was gazing around the yard, looking for cargo, she spied the tricycle that has been here going on 20 years.  "Does that still work?  Can I ride it?"  We had to wash it, too.  

This created a dilemma.  She wanted to ride the tricycle, but she also wanted to pull the wagon.  Her eyes lit up at the suggestion that she could pull the wagon with the tricycle.  I went inside and got some string and tied the knots.  She jumped on the tricycle.  The pedal mechanism is rusty, and the front tire seemed about halfway flat.  She had to bear down hard on the pedals to get going.  When the slack went out of the string, it yanked the front wheels right out from under the wagon, and she was left dragging the handle.  

The Husband and I evaluated the situation and discovered that the nut had come off the bolt that attaches the handle (and the front wheels) to the wagon bed.  We spent about 10 minutes rummaging through toolboxes and drawers, looking for a nut, and finally found one that would work.  With the wagon repaired and re-attached, she made about three passes around my car and then asked if she could take the wagon and the tricycle home, even though she already has a spiffy new pink trike.  She had a mind to ride the old trike home, pulling the wagon with it, but we would not let her, as it was about to get dark, and there's a blind hill in one direction and a curve in the other, and cars zoom down this road like it's a racetrack.  We disconnected the trike from the wagon and walked them and the LRB across the road. 

As soon as we reached her driveway, we reattached the wagon to the trike, and she took off.  Before she'd pedaled 20 feet, the wagon went sideways; it had lost a bolt holding one of the back wheels.  She made it to the front porch steps, with one rear corner of the wagon grating on the concrete loud enough to cause her dad to come out to see what was causing the ruckus.  

We left the whole broke-down mess in her front yard. 

* * * * * * * * 

While The Husband and I were rummaging around for a nut for the wagon, the LRB rummaged around in the sewing room and found a small pencil sketch of a frog holding a martini glass.  She brought it to me and asked if she could take it home.  I said yes, "...but let me show you another drawing."  I showed her the colored pencil drawing I did of her.  She said, "Who is that?" (which kind of busted my bubble, truth be told - there's nobody better than a 4-year-old at keeping you humble).  I pulled out the portrait of her next older sister.  She immediately recognized her, and then she realized that she was the subject of the other drawing.  She said, "I'm going to take both of these home."  

I promised to let her take them home when they're finished.  

Wednesday - September 17, 2025

Yesterday was a good day.

I made it to art class without incident and even arrived 10 minutes early in the hope that the instructor would already be there and could critique my portraits and tell me what's wrong with them.  As it turned out, the instructor was a tad late, and she jumped right into instruction.  When she asked to see our artwork, I confessed that I had not fooled with the chalk pastels but had tried to do my granddaughters' portraits in colored pencil.  I showed her #4's photo and my portrait and said, "Tell me what's wrong with this portrait.  Why doesn't it look like the picture?"

Her reply was, "It isn't finished.  Keep going."  

I'd hoped for a little more specificity.  ;)

She did give me a few tips - add some blue here, strengthen the highlight there.  

After class, we had lunch together.  It was fun.

When I got home, I worked on the portrait a little, but I'm not sure it improved the likeness and I'm scared to do anything else to it for fear of totally ruining it.

Oh, well...it's just paper, right?

Art Class #2 - September 16, 2025

When I got on the scales this morning for the first time this month, I nearly croaked.  Up five pounds since the last weigh-in.  What a nice way to start the day.

I can't figure out how this is possible.  

Except that I have been sitting on my butt since July, when the temperatures approached the 100 mark and I put down the hoe and picked up the paintbrush. 

My second chalk pastels class is this morning.  The art supply bag is packed and loaded in the car, along with my art board, to which is clipped the colored pencil portraits of #'s 3 and 4.  If I can work up the courage to actually take the portraits into the classroom, I am going to ask for advice on shading the faces.  Although I worked on #4's face yesterday and improved it somewhat, she still looks like a haint.  

I hope the instructor doesn't ask to see the chalk pastel paintings we've done between classes.  My one attempt at using the chalks at home turned out very badly.  Yesterday, I took a paper towel to the thing and wiped off most of the chalk, corrected the under-drawing, and started over.  Chalk pastels smear something awful, and I have not learned to keep my drawing hand off the paper.  The re-do isn't any better than the first attempt.

Gotta run.  

Lazy Weekend - September 15, 2025

This weekend, I tried to draw colored pencil portraits of Granddaughters 3 and 4, using cell phone photographs as guides.   

I started by cropping the photos, enlarging and printing them at the right size, and lightly tracing the faces onto mixed media paper.  Tracing the faces is cheating, in my humble opinion, but if I'd tried to free-hand them, I'd still be trying to sketch the first one.  

There are about a zillion colored pencils in this house.  Whole sets in boxes and tins, and jars full of odds and ends from who knows where.  Some are probably left-overs from my sons' grammar school days.  Different brands, different materials.  Some blend easily, some don't.  I don't know the difference.

I've made a mess out of both portraits.  Too much blue in #4's portrait; her skin is zombie-colored.  I backed off the blue for #3's portrait, and it is far too pale.

I'll probably start over.

* * * * * * * * 

The Husband and I and The Sister-in-Law went to see the Downton Abbey movie yesterday.  Enjoyed it.  

* * * * * * * * 

I went to check on the community garden this morning.  Didn't see any live squash bugs.  Powdery mildew is running rampant.  I harvested a little over 2 pounds of squash and then sprayed the plants with neem oil and pruned off some of the most affected leaves.  I tried not to get any neem oil on the blooms, fearing it would kill the bees.

The purple hull pea plants are putting out runners.  They'll be blooming soon.  I am determined not to lose this new crop like I lost most of the first one.

Community Garden - Squash Harvest - September 13, 2025

This morning, I picked the first squash from the new squash plot in the community garden.  The seeds were planted on August 7.  Got about 2 pounds.  More squash are coming along.  They'll probably need picking Monday.  

Squash bugs were running rampant.  I had a bottle of Sevin spray in my car, but it was half empty and would only spit and sputter.  I am not sure how many bugs actually got a dose.  I smashed a bunch of them by hand.  I'll get more Sevin on my way to the garden Monday.

Someone has picked the big "volunteer" watermelon from the pea patch (and did not bother to add the weight to my total).  I was so disappointed, for I intended to pick it today, myself.

Mules - September 12, 2025

For over a week, I have been trying to draw and paint a mule from a photograph.  It hasn't been going too well.   I've tried watercolor (three times), colored pencils, and pen & ink.  

Here's the reference photo:

(I found this picture online.  I would give photo credit if I could find it again.)

Note the mule's eyes and ears.  The camera angle and the coloring around the eyes gave fits.  The tops of the ears are missing.

Yesterday's watercolor attempt was almost a success, but I made so many mistakes that I ruined the paper and gave up without finishing the background    I'm still not happy with the left eye.  Or the nose.  

I might try again today.

* * * * * * * * 

The little town closest to us recently built a new park on what passes for the town square.  The park has a stage, and there is live music there on Thursday nights this month.  Last night, we drove to town to hear the band.  I was surprised at how many people were there - lawn chairs and blankets on the ground all over the park.  Little kids chased each other.  Folks visited.  The weather was perfect.  Our dinner came from a food truck - buffalo chicken "egg rolls" and shredded pork tacos.  

I set my chair down beside my first cousin, Richard, whom I had not seen for months.  He is a hoot, and he knows everybody in town.  When we arrived, he and the guy sitting next to him were discussing whether or not there had once been a dry cleaner in one of the old buildings across the street. The conversation had apparently been sparked by the lady behind us, who was asking the question of every "old-time" town resident who walked by.   I didn't remember one, but I didn't grow up in town.  I said, "Ask the mayor, he should know."  We asked him.  He didn't know.  I called my sister; she didn't remember a dry cleaner, but she hadn't grown up in town, either.  

If there was ever a dry cleaner across the street from the park, everybody old enough to remember it probably has Alzheimer's.  

It remains a mystery.

When the town library opens, I might do a little research . . . .   

If I don't forget about it.  ;)

First attempts - September 11, 2025

The chalk pastels class instructor handed out some laminated pictures of a painting of four pieces of fruit.  She asked us to loosely sketch the fruit with our charcoal sticks, then she demonstrated how to apply chalk pastels to the paper.

I smeared my work right off the bat.  I'd get one part looking halfway decent and then ruin it while working on something else.  The edges of things kept disappearing.  It wasn't looking to good for chalks being a medium that appealed to me.  Right there in class, I abandoned the fruit and just started playing, filling the page with color.  I accidentally created a beach behind the fruit.  I smeared that away and made cresting wave in front of the fruit.  With a little work, the wave could become bunched-up fabric.  I tried to turn a green apple and a peach into a green apple and a plum, and the two objects almost became an avocado.  

I left the class thinking, Well, that was fun, but . . . I dunno . . . .

A couple of hours after I got home, I tried another picture.  The subject was an old mill that I photographed on some camping trip to Missouri.  I can't quite make out some of the details in front of the building.  It looks like there might be two ramps with rails, and more rails around a walkway leading down to the water.  I'll never be able to do the railings in chalk without creating a muddy mess.  I had a pretty nice tree working until I tried to fill in behind it.  It just went from bad to worse. There's so much chalk on the upper right-hand side that the paper won't hold another morsel.  I tried to rub some off, but I think it only smeared it deeper into the paper.  I backed away from it.  

However, I think it still has potential - maybe it's not totally ruined yet.  I'm going to take it to class next week to see if the instructor can show me some tricks to redeem it.

Art Class - September 9, 2025

My first chalk pastels class was scheduled to begin at 9:30 yesterday morning.  I planned to leave the house at 8:45 to allow time for me to stop by my bank's ATM to get money for the class fee.

At 8:30, I took my art supply bag out to my car and settled them in the passenger seat, then went back inside to brush my teeth and get my purse, phone, and keys.

I could not find my keys.  I'd last used them the day before when I went up to the community garden.  I seemed to remember dropping them in my purse when I got home, but they were not in my purse. Nor on the table.  Nor on the counter.  Nor on the sewing table.  Nor in my art supply bag in the car.  And we don't have a spare set.

At 8:40, I decided to just drive the Wrangler to art class and find the car keys when I came home.  I transferred the art supplies to the Wrangler and hit the road, with my mind still wrestling with the mystery of the missing keys.  It occurred to me that, although unlikely, the keys could be in the garbage can.  It was garbage pick-up day, and I'd seen The Husband take the kitchen garbage bag to the can before he rolled it to the street.  Our garbage truck runs any time from dawn to dark, and I could not count on this week's garbage still being on the premises by the time class (and lunch with The Old Boss) was over.

About 2 miles from the house, I turned around and went home to take yesterday's garbage bag out of the can.  I stashed it on the back porch because it was stinky.  On the way back to the Wrangler, I saw my car keys laying on the driveway, next to the driver's door.  I said a bad word or two, snatched up the keys, and got back in the Jeep.  As I was backing out of the driveway, I saw the garbage can and decided that there was now no reason for yesterday's stinky garbage bag to stay on the back porch, so I went back and got it, and stuffed it in the can.

8:45.  Whew.  Still on schedule.  Onward!  Just needed to make a quick stop at the Dollar General on the way.  

The bank where I'd planned to use the ATM is on the town square, roughly 3 blocks from the art class.  All of the parking spots by the bank were full.  I stopped in the street, turned on my flashers, jumped out to use the ATM.  And it was out of service.  The next closest ATM that wouldn't charge me a fee was 10 minutes away.  Nothing to do but use the ATM at the convenience store on the corner, which charged me $3.50.  

I made it to class by 9:30, a little frazzled.

It was a fun class.  Five other ladies, plus me and the instructor.  I didn't know any of them, but they all seemed very nice and are WAY ahead of me in talent.  Several of them even do art instruction in other media.  One of the ladies had sold a painting, and the other ladies were all, like, "YAYYY!  Congratulations!"  Some of them are exhibiting their art at various places around town.  They are wayyyyy out of my league!  But that's good!  Maybe I'll learn something from them.

Most of the group was planning to have lunch uptown after class.  I would've gone with them if I'd not had a lunch date with The Old Boss.  

I am not sure if I'm going to like soft chalk pastels, but I'm going to like the class.  :)

Mushrooms - September 9, 2025

The community garden pea patch is coming along.  The "volunteer" melon/cucumber/squash vines are trying to run the show.  I will let them, as they will likely produce more food than the pea vines will.  

The squash plants are big and green and blooming their heads off, but they do have a little mildew.  I am not going to treat them with any chemicals.  It's supposed to be hot and dry all week, and this might take care of the mildew situation.

UNLESS . . . . 

There is a network of sprinklers around the squash plot.  If I read the little meters correctly, they come on around 7 p.m. each night.  They'll be keeping the wood chips damp, which may perpetuate the mildew.  I'd better re-evaluate the situation later this week.  

Yesterday, I pulled nutgrass from the unattended plot next to the squash plot, covered it with cardboard and grass clippings, scattered mushroom spores over the grass clippings, and dumped 4" of wood chips on top.  The spores may not even be viable, having sat in a sealed plastic bag on the back porch all summer.  We'll see what happens.  If nothing else, I'll have smothered some weeds.

In a few minutes, I'll be leaving for my first chalk pastels class.  When the class is over, I'm meeting The Old Boss for lunch.

I'm excited about the class.  And the lunch.

   

Porch cleaning - September 7, 2025

It all started when The Husband noticed a dead mouse in the trap on the back porch, in the corner where my worktable sits.

To get to the trap, we had to move the table, the stool where I pile stuff when I run out of room on the table, and a fan, and when we moved all of this stuff, I saw spider webs glinting in the light.

If there is anything I hate worse than a mouse, it's a spider.  

I vacuumed the corner from ceiling to floor.  This ignited a porch-wide cleaning frenzy and "throwing-away party" that lasted nearly three hours.  We over-turned furniture to get at all the spiders and webs and egg sacs.  Dusty throw pillows went into the washing machine.  There is no longer a dead ladybug or stinkbug anywhere in sight.  It's so nice to have a clean porch.

We did not over-turn my worktable, which I believe, based on evidence, harbors a monstrously large and wily spider.  Turning the table over would require taking all the stuff off the top and putting it all back.  I ran out of steam and didn't do it.

Here is the evidence:

See all those white flecks on the floor?  This is not paint.  I'm pretty sure it's spider shit.  Whenever I move the table a little bit, a new splatter appears.  It cannot be swept away, wiped away, or vacuumed off.  It takes a scrub brush and some elbow grease to get it off.  I believe the spider is one of those furry jumping spiders, as I have seen one on/around my worktable but have never been quick enough to kill it.  I've actively hunted for it, but there are so many places for it to hide among the dark network of legs and brackets and braces, and there's no way to check all of those places without turning the table upside-down.   

So, for now, the spider lives on.

* * * * * * * * 

In a little while, I am going up to the community garden.  The squash had a touch of mildew last week.  There's a sprinkler nearby that may be causing the problem; it needs to be turned off, now that it's not so hot and dry.  

Mushrooms were sprouting in the wood chips covering the squash plot.  This gave me an idea.  I have a bag of winecap mushroom spores that I intended to put in our home vegetable garden but never got around to it.  They might not be viable anymore, but I may scatter them in the squash plot and cover them with wood chips and see what happens.  The food bank might not take mushroooms.  If they don't, I'll bring them home.

Art - September 5, 2025

I've done a lot of watercolor painting during the past few weeks - mostly small vignettes that will fit on 5 x 7 greeting cards.  They are all over my house, in various stages of completion.  Last week, I gathered them up and sorted them into piles on my sewing table.  Animals here, flowers there, people over yonder.  Then I re-sorted them into finished and "needs work."  (The finished pile was a LOT smaller than the others.)  I decided to go ahead and affix the finished paintings to blank greeting cards and put them away.  I was halfway through this process when my daughter-in-law called to ask if she could use my t-shirt press.  I said yes.  She said she'd be right over.

The sewing table is the only place in the house where the t-shirt press can be conveniently used.

I stacked up all the paintings and cards at one end of the table to make room for the t-shirt press.  And there they still sit.  Once my forward energy gets interrupted or re-directed, it's hard to crank the project up again.

The same thing happened with the lavender quilt I started a few weeks ago.  I was in the process of appliqueing the hexagon flowers to their backgrounds; the components were stacked on the sewing table, and the ready-to-sew ones were stacked beside the sewing machine.  The machine was threaded with the right thread.  I could work on a few blocks, stop to cook or whatever, and go back to it in a spare moment.  Then someone came by with a "little" sewing project that needed doing.  The quilt blocks are now in one big stack, somewhere in the sewing room.  Before I can re-stack them and work on them, I'll have to put away the t-shirt press and the cards that still occupy the sewing table.  And re-thread the machine.  

Sounds too much like work.  

So, instead of getting back to some of these formerly in-progress projects, I took on a new one; I'm starting a chalk pastels class next week.  Two hours on Tuesday mornings for 4 weeks.  I'm stoked.  Got all my supplies, except for charcoal sticks.

When I signed up for the class, I had only the faintest recollection of having briefly tried pastels, probably in some art class 50 years ago.  I remembered only that they're messy; they smear easily, and leave your fingers coated with chalk dust.  Note to self:  pack an apron in the art bag.

Yesterday, as I was rummaging around, hoping to find a charcoal stick among my art supplies, I unearthed two ancient sets of pastels - one chalk, one oil.  I had not opened the boxes in years.  The oil pastels had barely been used, but half of the chalk pastels were missing, and the rest were in fragments.  Clearly, I'd had some experience with chalk pastels since we moved into this house 40 years ago, but I could not remember a single thing I'd painted with them.  I pondered this, off and on, all day.

Then, late in the evening, I remembered two chalk drawings - probably done on the same day, many years ago - using The Husband as a nude model.  In one pose, he was sitting with a leg draped over a chair, his "business" hidden by the arm of the chair.  The other was just a picture of his butt.  I recall it resembling a peach.  

They are still in this house, somewhere, evidently well-hidden.  I *think* I might know where they are.

I said to The Husband last night, "Should we get rid of them, so our kids and grandkids don't find them when we're dead?"

He said, "Nah...."

Community garden check - broccoli and cabbage seeds - September 4, 2024

Last night, I nearly mortified myself at the Dollar General up the road.

Only the best people shop there.  

The Husband and I had gone in for paper towels and toilet paper and such.  The guy at the cash register was new and a little bit slow and deliberate in waiting on customers.  Before our purchase was rung up, a line had formed behind us.  

We got our stuff and proceeded out the sliding doors, both sets of which were open to the cool night air. While The Husband put the buggy up, I went on ahead.  Just as I stepped through the second set of doors and onto the sidewalk, I coughed and simultaneously let the biggest, longest, loudest fart you ever heard.  

I'm surprised somebody in line didn't holler, "Damn, girl...come back and get you some AlkaSeltzer, or somethin'!."

The Husband was right behind me.  I wish I'd said, loudly, and with indignation, "HONEYYYY!  Good grief!"

Maybe he got the credit, anyway, since he was behind me.  

* * * * * * * * 

I checked on the community garden plots early this morning.  They're coming along nicely.

Here's the pea patch, planted one month ago.  

That big old watermelon is from a volunteer plant that came up with the first pea crop.  At the opposite corner, near the orange water hose, are two or three other volunteer vines - maybe some type of squash, some type of melon, and a probable cucumber.  They are beginning to fruit.  One of the vines is making green, striped, crookneck-shaped fruit.  This might be one of mother nature's hybrids.  Or a gourd.  <shrug>  

Here's the squash patch, planted one day after the peas:

The squash plants are coming along nicely, about to bloom.  I found a few squash bug eggs on the leaves and one actual squash bug, all of which I smashed.

But just look at the surrounding plots, thick with nutsedge, pigweed, and grass.  Some of the plots never were planted; others were planted but not tended.  I have been weeding the plot directly behind the pea patch, trying to keep seeds out of my plot.  Next season, I would like to have a new neighbor in that plot!

When I came home from the community garden, I transplanted some cabbage seedlings into bigger pots.  Only 8 of about 18 seeds sprouted, but they are looking healthy, so far.  Hopefully, I did not kill them when I peeled off their cardboard starter pots.  Since I had a few more empty pots, I planted a couple more cabbage seeds and some broccoli seeds.  

Pepper Jelly - September 3, 2025

I made jalapeno pepper jelly this morning.  For the first time, I had to buy jalapeno peppers; my garden is a failure this year.

My hands are on fire, both from steam burns and the heat of the peppers.  No, I didn't wear gloves.  They hinder me more than they help - the capsaicin always seems to get inside them.  I've tried rubbing olive oil on my hands before I start cutting the peppers, and that did seem to lower the heat, but I forgot to do that this time.   

Canning is a miserable and potentially dangerous job.  Slippery floors.  Heavy pans full of hot water.  Steam.  Knives.  

Boiling hot sugary syrup....

This morning, I turned my back on the stove for an instant, and the pot boiled over.  

Every dishrag and kitchen towel I own is wet.

But there's not much that's more satisfying than hearing those jar lids pop.

The peppers in my jelly are always floating on top when I take them out of the canner.  Once the jars seal, I let them cool a bit, then invert the jars.  I'll turn them upright again before they're completely cool.

Sometimes the jelly doesn't set and comes out of the jar like thick syrup.  And that's ok with me, because we usually use it melted, anyway.

Labor Day - September 2, 2025

We did absolutely nothing on Labor Day, which I suppose is the point of the holiday.  We needed some down-time, for the previous week was stressful.

In previous posts, I complained of being worried and anxious.  One cause of this was medical issues in the family.  Last week, I was nearly paralyzed with anxiety.  My BFF's daughter's wedding was Saturday, in another state, but I cancelled my plans to attend it for fear of being needed here.  Today, I am relieved to report that the medical issues have been resolved, and everyone is ok.    

Another stress-relieving event was the arrival of my first social security retirement check.  Past posts hinted at the problem.  The upshot is that, through no fault of my own, it took nearly 9 months from the date of application for this first check to arrive.  It seems my application somehow "fell through the cracks."  I made multiple calls to the SSA, waited on hold for literally hours at a time, and even drove an hour to see an agent in person.  Nobody I could reach, either by phone or in person, had any authority to do anything other than make a note of the problem.  Nothing has ever frustrated me so much, and for so long.  (What if I'd had no other source of income?)  Even with the first check in hand, I am still not convinced that it will be "smooth sailing" going forward.  We'll see if that second check comes.

Now that my anxiety level is down, I need to turn my attention to other things, get my mojo working again.  Yesterday on social media I saw an advertisement for a local art class, a chalk pastels class, and I signed up for it.  It's a 4-week class, two hours each, starting next Tuesday morning.  I'm stoked.  Yesterday, I ordered some of the supplies I'll need.   

Last Friday, I checked on the community garden plots.  A sizeable chunk of the purple hull pea plot is being overtaken by volunteer melons and cucumbers.  I am letting them do their thing.  The new squash plot is coming along nicely.  Squash bugs had laid eggs on a few of the plants.  I crushed them.  I'll need to get back up there soon to re-check the squash and water everything.

Today, I need to buy groceries.  <Groan.>