Finished Product

A new day, a completed puzzle and believe me it was not easy, but placing that very last piece was very satisfying . . . one more down. It will be a while before I start a new one, maybe in the fall when the rains come back and the days are longer. I have a beauty waiting for me that Pat gave me, fifteen hundred pieces to sort and start . . . but, not today. Today Pat and I are going for a ride over to Crescent City where we will visit "The Land of Oz" and hope Dorothy and the Wizard will grace us with a few sheckles to buy lunch. We will shop at Walmart and see if we can find our way around the 'new' store. They have moved everything around and we can't find anything. Now that is one of those puzzles I talked about yesterday, change, ah change where have we heard that word lately. Okay, okay, I wont go there.
Today is going to be a very good day. I can feel it in my bones, oh no, that is arthritis, well . . . at least the Bakers cyst has simmered down for a bit and that can't be all bad. Make your today a good one, do something special just for yourself . . . you know, pamper yourself with homemade bread pudding with sauce, that is what Phyllis served us yesterday when we played Chicken Foot and it is a comfort food that really does what it is meant to do. Picture six ladies with a huge plate of hot homemade bread pudding and a large spoon. You know we didn't drop a bit.

Puzzles

Life is full of puzzles which we have to sort out and we find it takes patience, understanding, and the desire to take the time to unscramble messes. Sometimes it is relationships, friendships or family members who cause us to search for answers to whatever dilemma is on the priority list of our new day. All we know is that it takes time to put every piece together to get to the whole picture and solve the puzzle.

Beverly Dolittle is famous for her oils and now there are zig saw puzzles out to amuse us. Believe me a day spent on this fellow and you wonder if you lost all your marbles. It was a challenge and I'm not sure butterflies are my favorite little insect anymore. Whew!!! They were awesome to put together.

At the moment I have daisies on my dining room table. It is an impossible puzzle . . . but, it is coming along very slowly. Someone asked the other day if the person who gifted me that puzzle really likes me . . . now, that is a puzzle. I really think she does. Of course we are eating off of our laps, or on the kitchen shelf and have even used the coffee table. The fact that we have to sit low and our knees are up to our chins does not make for graceful dining, but, we never do without and soon we are back at the dining room table looking for one more illusive piece knowing that we will solve the puzzle.

I hope you have a jig saw puzzle to do at your house. It is amazing how friends, family and even a visitor will take time to look for a piece of the puzzle. It really is a delicious, delightful feeling to find the right piece for the right spot ----and one really has to be nutty as a fruitcake to place 1500 pieces on the dining room table but think of the satisfaction once you solve the puzzle. Pick out a good one. It takes stamina to stay with a puzzle, no matter what kind, so be strong, be healthy and be happy.

Happy Birthday to you!!! Happy Birthday to you!!!

Good morning John C., I hope you can hear me singing this morning. What? You are thinking it sounds 'off key' . . . of course it is, is there any other way to hear the birthday ditty? I don't think so . . . just know that my heart is in it, and I am thinking a million wonderful memories from the start of my 'midnight special' to just a few weeks ago when we shared some time. So finish your project and come home soon where there are those of us who love to celebrate special occasions for a humbug like you. So . . . Happy Birthday to you, Happy birthday to you, Happy birthday dear John, Happy birthday to you!!!!!

P.S. If they have lobster where you are be sure to order it for your dinner. The picture just came over the computer about a 'yellow' lobster which is more red than yellow and very, very rare, one in a million or more, doesn't even have to be cooked to turn colors....ha.....ha.....so if you see one in a tank be sure you pick it out as you deserve only the best.

Update

A new birdhouse is sitting in my yard thanks to my daughter Patricia who happened on a yard sale and found a larger bird house to entice the two momma birds from vying for space. I just noticed the older birdhouse has two openings, a two story bird house, now that has to be a first. There is not one, but two birds trying to build a nest in the birdhouse on the porch. They seem to know when I am about and wait patiently for me to disappear then come and land on the porch rail with a feather or a piece of twine in their beaks. Pat was standing by the window yesterday and got to see one of them enter into the birdhouse and then fly out and away. So today I am going out and see if I can tie the new birdhouse down so the wind will not topple it and hope that one of the birds discovers it and moves in. I will put some of the lovely bird seed out to entice them and wait patiently to see what happens. As you can see there is a bird feeder on the fence rail which the larger birds frequent, hopefully one of them will nest in the new birdhouse. Time will tell, I'll let you know.

I hope that you have made friends with the birds in your yard. Pat has a yard full of the most beautiful birds that find peace and contentment in her yard. I'm hoping for the same as they are fun to watch and really very beautiful. They have a 'way' with them, just like we do and I hope you invite them in so they can make you smile.

And The Days Go On

Have you noticed some days are much better than others. Today is "D" day . . . The allied forces landed in Normandy and we lost so many men. I find it hard to believe it took place sixty five years ago, and the men who gave their lives are being honored, hopefully forever, as the news commentator mentioned the last of the veterans are dying out a thousand a day. A few are finally telling their stories after a lifetime of keeping the horrors of war within. God Bless them all.

As for my cartoon, you have to laugh with me, standing in front of a three way mirror trying on new clothing has a way of playing with our minds....oh how we see ourselves. I had a sonogram yesterday and luckily only had to remove my shoes and socks, all because of something called a Baker's cyst. I've never heard of it. As Katrina the Great, I think I can continue to bend and stoop and find that the body doesn't listen. I can only bend from the waist now so that means I put a strain on the leg muscles . . . well, what's a little strain among friends ? . . . a baker's cyst. Fluid stays in the knee and hurts, the leg swells, it actually turns red in horror but at least it is not a clot which could be the end of a beautiful friendship. Time will heal it.

The tea cup represents drop in company, hosted in my sleeping gown, but who cares, the company was good and I had my dinner brought over for today by my neighbor. She brought her company over to visit with me who is of German decent, and celebrated her visit by making an over abundance of German 'sour broughten' (forgive the spelling as I know that is not right). It looks good enough to eat.

As for Christ Himself ( doesn't that picture give you hope), whose arms surround us every day, let us lift up our hearts and say a prayer that we can cope with the days as they go on. I'll say a prayer for your good health, a bit of wealth and a lot of belly laughs.

Patience is a Virtue

I promised to take pictures of the mother bird who visits the birdhouse everyday and I have stood patiently waiting for the opportunity, well today was it, and the three pictures have mother bird sitting on the railing with a tiny piece of something in her mouth; and the other two she is at the tiny opening in the birdhouse. The sad part is that it does not show up in the pictures here but if you had the pictures in your computer you could enlarge them and see her. She is about a foot away from the bird house (to the right) in the first picture and the other two right at the opening. She should show up as she is a bright fat old gal with a bright yellow jacket and a white belly. There are three of them that come by every day and two sit high on the wire chirping while this one dives and flies around making sure I am not nearby. One tiny noise from me and she is long gone. Will we get to see the little ones? Who knows . . . but believe me I am not standing our there for hours to try and get a picture of them. Sorry, but the weeds are calling.

I hope you have a bird house and birds in your yard. I hope they come and find some lovely seeds to eat and know they are welcome. I hope that they sing for you and make your day as bright as these little ones do when they sing for me.

Smiling is Good for You.

This is not a picture of me with friends, but it could be, ha....ha. When I saw this picture it brought back instant childhood memories as hop scotch was an every day event and we used a rubber heel of a shoe as our marker. How agile we were and how much fun we had, but, time has passed and bending, stooping and all of those wonderous things we used to do with such ease are going along with the seconds and minutes of the days that have turned into June, 2009 . . . the second day already. Summer is coming and sunshine will prevail for some. Here on the coast it varies from a week of sunshine to a week of foggy days. If you read that Medford is ninety degrees then you can bet that we on the coast are seventy degrees. That is when the tourists make a bee line for the coast to enjoy the ocean and the cool breezes . . . and some do draw hop scotch patterns in the sand. I have been known to pick up a shell and try to play a game, just one more time, but you have to know, I cheat, as I walk through the blocks smiling all the while.

I hope you have a memory to make you smile today. Think back a bit and you will find hidden sweet morsels of delectible memories to make you smile. Send me one or two, I'm never to busy to smile. Thanks for tuning in, I'm sending hugs to you.