IN Carmel

 A wonderful night of sleep.  A gift to start the day and it started with the usuals.  Then off to church to meet Julie to break the glass on a picture sold in the silent auction. That really was finish breaking the rest of the glass to remove all the glass from a picture sold in the silent auction.  We broke it safely.  That's the whole picture of that event!!                                                          Pink it is. From my friend Kathy's garden. I met with the program staff and talked through the expectations concerning the kitchen in the Gathering Center. That lead to finding a few more things...like coffee and filters that needed to be in that space. With the addition of a microwave pulse just a few more things, I think that area is alive and ready for successful action with all necessities close by.  I spent a bit of time organizing some cabinets, changing a sanctuary banner, sorting through more stuff and then was on my way home three hours later.             

 Monday all day.  But Sunday night was a night of little sleep.  What's with that?  So around 7 A M I pulled myself out of bed slowly but surely.  It was a morning of very little activity except TV watching with my eyes closed.  That lasted till 2 pm                                                    A simple but not so simple Zinnia.  What a gift.  It seemed that the light dawned at that time and I was up.  I made a trip to the drugstore for two prescriptions and some photo prints of Holy Week and Easter at North.  A visual to jog our memory.  Our drugstore prescription waits are not the shortest by any means so an interesting conversation transpired with a delightful 6-year-old who loved dinosaurs that kept us all in the waiting line involved in his interests.  His shoes were covered with dinosaurs.  One person pulled up information on her iPhone about the dinosaur footprints found because of receiving water in Texas.  So the attempt of waiting tried to make a silk purse out of a

                                                                                  Rose of Sharon   Another interesting Sunday.  All the morning stuff is completed and we're off to church.  We rehearsed the anthem for the morning in the chapel and on into the sanctuary for the 11 o'clock service.  Arriving in the space early is always a gift.  One of them being there is always time to visit with folks who also arrive before the prelude.  I noticed a couple that looked very unfamiliar and sure enough, they were visitors.  And the gift that came through that visit is that Carol's mother was a Hostetler who had ties to the community where my father grew up also with the name of Hostetler.  I would imagine that we are related somehow.  There were other things in common Gary having graduated from the same college as I did 14 years after me.  There is that two degrees of separation saying.  It seems to be true if we only somehow find a way to talk to each other.  Carol and Gary we

 The day started with the usual.  I'm in a rut with nothing to push me out of it.  But it feels good like a favorite slipper.  So...I'll use my energy somewhere else.  After the usual morning routine, I started to fill the water bottles with flowers.  What fun and I just picked and choose with beautiful flowers added to the bottles of water which will fill tables this afternoon at neighbor Bill and Kathy's shindig!.                                                       What returned to my mind was thematic teaching.                                                                                                                                         My favorite way to teach.   Such a pretty clean white color for this Hosta.  The purple Hosta flowers don't have a chance with me.  Then it was off to church to work at Bread and Bowl, a bit late but knowing that all the workers would be able to move right ahead without me.  And they did.  The place was a buzz with busy peop

  Soon to be gone but shared so much beauty this summer.  These flowers average 8 inches across.  Same old same old as JB Russell has said more than once. Two Eggs, Wordle, crossword puzzle, post the blog and a walk in the garden with a cup of coffee.  Then comes the surprise.  There seems to have been a party of one in the garden last night.   The one left a deer track in the middle of the new lettuce patch. Missing was the leaves of the red beets eaten for the second time growing close by, The yellow tomato plant in its 6 ft. high cage was tipped over with 99% of the yellow tomatoes missing.  We have a deer who knows how to choose good eats.                         Time to use the deer off sprayed again.  The two tomato plants not touched are loaded.  I cleaned up the mess including other broken down plants, deadheaded, and headed for the house.  The morning assignment was to continue on with the wren houses.  That happened and left to complete on two pictured gourds is the final spr

 The day started with wordle and the Star Crossword.  Nothing new about the start.  I decided to check on the birds which meant a patio visit and neighbor Judy arrived with a bag of gourds.  I have been thinking about the Umoja fundraiser that has seen many gourd wren houses made for the silent auction.  They are really popular bidding items. The November event is not far away. Neighbor Judy made another gourd contribution of California purchased gourds which always are thicker and perfect for the birds.  My job would be to turn them into wren homes.                         T wo of the four I worked on today.  These are perfect sizes for our musical friend.   The first thing was to wash and scrub them clean removing the fine skin that covers them.  That takes soaking as well as scrubbing. Then the quarter-size entry hole was made for wrens.  I burned that hole to size.  After that, the material on the inside of the gourd needed to be removed.  Sometimes that is easy and sometimes it

 Hump day, Wednesday.       Beautiful hibiscus, all five at one time with buds waiting for tomorrow.  They will soon be gone.   The day started with a great wordle and crossword puzzle, and two eggs, this time with onions.  Not bad.  Could it be that eggs are beginning to need a zap of something added to egg taste?  It seems that this morning I either pulled a muscle or perhaps suffered a cramp with the result that walking is something to think about. So I declared that this morning I'll spend some time restricting movement meaning sitting for a spell.  It seems to help.                                     Picnic time.  We'll pass on the s'mores.  A little bit heavy on the sugar.                                                                                            It would seem that this hot dog picture is a bit out of place.                                                                                                                          You are right about that

 My goodness...it was 7:15 this morning.  Half of the day was over but I sure was feeling like I had a great sleep.  But not so good was wordle.  I lost.  Not so good was the crossword puzzle.  Strange words for this brain.  I will say the eggs were delicious.   This tomato plant is a huge giver of tomatoes. I think the tomato plant will produce till frost.  They are really good small tomatoes identified as Tomato Sweet Cluster, which have been a huge surprise in taste.  Not real juice, and not real dry.  Just really, really good tomatoes.                                   Another picture of Mexican Sun Flowers which have moved on to the                                                                                                                necessary flower list needed in the garden.   Since I had no scheduled commitments, the day was mine to use with what I chose to do. After a conversation with neighbor Bill yesterday I moved on to that conversation need.  Bill has a business p

 With the exception of a few hours in the morning, I was out and about doing this and that.  A healthy yellow native cup plant lining the deck at the Michigan Russell's house.  It's really healthy. The day started around 3:15am.  I hate that.  I thought I had been awake for a couple of hours after that and it was only 30 minutes later.  I got up.  At the end of the day dragging time will arrive.  So the morning started early with wordle, The Star crossword puzzle, and coffee. I educated myself about the weather and read a little on Facebook.  I added a little of Joe and Meka but they had the day off and then eggs with tomatoes and sour cream and more coffee.                                           More walk pictures around the lake at Carmel's Central Park. I did some deadheading but not much.  Cut down the already dead horseradish leaves and put the tools away for the day. I made a couple of phone calls and also received one from my friend Renee.  Her dad Larry is very s

 Up early as usual.  I never was a sleeper although when small and the barn light went on shinning in our bedroom window at 6 am for my dad to do chores before catching the bus to go to work, I thought it was the middle of the night.  I concluded that they were crazy for thinking it was time to get up.  Humm...Most every morning I'm awake at 5:30 and ready for the day.  Funny how that works.   So up early with my two eggs and sour cream.  I did some weed pulling in the front again.  It's the weed called violet living among vinca vine.                                           Our dear associate minister Sunil Katian.  A great leader of our flock.   Another great church event with a wonderful anthem to sing supported by a beautiful piano arrangement.   Everlasting God  T.Fettke Where can I go from your spirit?  Where can I flee from your presence?  To the heavens, on the wings of the dawn to the far side of the sea?  To the depths and into death itself?  Even darkness is not dar

 This is a ketchup day.  Or is it catch-up day.                                           More pictures from the walk at Central Park, a Carmel city park.  The day started with the scissors and flowers putting together two arrangements of zinnias, black-eyed Susans, grass, and a few other things.  I forgot to take pictures.  Then it was off for delivery to my two good worker friends.  They earned way more than flowers but that was my limit.                                                                    A water lily getting ready to open. Back home and the WALK again with the realization that it was time to get busy on what needed to be finished in front of the house.  Well, some might call it finished.  I would say making it better because a gardener is never finished.  I redefined the front of the bed and got rid of a whole lot of charlie and violets and more.  Stuff is sitting in piles waiting to be gathered and added to other stuff in the big blue.                               

 So, this morning began as they usually do with the walk around the garden and then finding weeds to pull.  Yup...no change but I made a promise to myself that there would be an early end.  I complied. Only one small pile of weeds taken from a small plot.  Remember, I wanted to get a life!!! I gave the life part of the morning my best effort.                                     Butterfly weed is one of my favorites with a very clean-looking orange.                                                                            The  morning sun is doing its best to put this flower in its best light.   The life I choose was to walk the path at Central Park which is very near to us and the biggest park belonging to the Carmel Parks Department.  It has wonderful walking areas through many interesting places which could keep the walker on many different paths for many days.                       I walked the boardwalk path by a school of fish about 8 inches long.