Tropical Storm Henri

 This morning, I busied myself with battening down the hatches as we (figurative we) await Henri's slow arrival. He's wobbling in from Long Island, NY, but still, I don't want to sacrifice my flowers to any old tropical storm. My roses are cut and sitting on my windowsill.⬇

The hanging plant ⬇ is visiting the car in the garage and anything that could become airborne has been safely stashed on the bottom shelf of the gardening bench. 

For a tropical storm, Henri is sure making a nuisance of himself. It rained all day Sunday and will rain all day Monday and most of Tuesday. I am also concerned about whatever is coming this way from Canada. Maybe I shouldn't fret. It appears that it will blow north of me. I'm the blue dot down there. ⬇

But no worries for some anonymous darling has sent me sustenance. Do you require comfort food in stormy weather? I'd really like to know.

To whoever sent this...Thank you! I'm going to be all set.

Love, 

Vee

P.S. Changes at Laurel's below... 

Guess the river wasn't quite enough. (It really isn't. She does a lot of heavy lifting in a day and needs to soothe those tired muscles.)

Thanks for your visit!

Secret Ingredient

Outside

I try to begin all posts with an attractive average photo. Sometimes blogger has messed with my plan and tossed in one of their own choosing. That's not all they're messing with. My disposition is another.

Inside on a Sunny Summer Day

There is not a whole lot going on around here so I keep busy watching what is going on beyond my windows. 

You may imagine my surprise when, one day as I was waltzing through the house in my nightshirt, this dude was right outside my window by the fence. 

I watched him like a hawk as the top of his head bobbed along my fence and down to the end of my property. He did a lot of hand signals to some invisible someone over in the forest. He seemed to be taking measurements, but I didn't request any surveying. Oh well. He better not come back because, if I'm dressed, I'm going to march right out there and ask him what he's doing. 

There's been excitement during the very stormy days we've had in the past month. My neighbor's ancient trees are falling apart so every storm has meant more limbs down. The last time it thunder stormed, the entire tree came down. I have been telling folks that this is doing my heart a lot of good...all that jumpstarting for free. I was actually using my camera to video a bird on the deck railing when the first part of the tree came down with a thwump. It startled me so much that I dropped my camera and then, like a pro, picked it back up and continued to film. I staggered to the window like Carol Burnett in a Mrs. Wiggins' skit to see what had happened: tree down in a wind storm. 

🌳🌳🌳

Let me rescue this post (hey, I never promised to be fascinating) by sharing a secret I learned while watching Kent Rollins on his You Tube channel. Egg salad sandwiches are among my favorite things in all the world to eat so when he mentioned a secret ingredient that would add the perfect extra something to deviled eggs, I decided to try it for my egg salad sandwich. Yessum. It isn't necessarily pretty, but it sure is tasty. Just a tablespoon or two will be enough. Now here's a question for you: do you make your egg salad sandwich with mayonnaise or Miracle Whip?

Double screen cap

Kent doing his dance while Beag steals a deviled egg

Hahahahahaha...


If you visit Kent's channel, you will find that there are many videos from which to choose with lots of secret ingredients and fun ideas. I really enjoy them.

And that's it you'll be so happy to know. Thanks for reading!

And Then a Hawk Blew In

Every day for quite a few now, the beautiful summer afternoon erupts into thunderstorms. The warnings of tornadoes and micro-bursts scrolls across the bottom of the tv screen or our radio programming is interrupted with the news. 
The day before yesterday was particularly wild. As I sat looking out at the swaying trees, I saw a flash of something white and large land on a branch. It so happened that the camera was handy for a change and so I took a few 146 photos. I really can't see anymore what I am taking photos of because the viewfinder is so small. How I get a photo is more a matter of serendipity than talent.

~any port in a storm~

You'll be able to see how much I cranked the photo below if you watch that little video above and listen to me prattle on about whatever it was up there. You'll hear me hesitate with the word "vulture" because I was struggling to remember the word "vulture" and I can't do two things at once so well anymore. Remember, I couldn't see it very well in the storm and hardly at all on the viewfinder. But do watch the wild ride that poor hawk was on (and not only from that wild camera shake midway). He stayed for about 15 minutes, until the worst was over.
 ~A Body and Two Feet~

Don't you just know that if any of this had worked out, I'd have been using it for Donna's Photo Challenge tomorrow. ☺
*** 
There have been days when I have not even gone outside at all this summer. The gardens are not doing well and my enthusiasm is on the wane. I came to gardening quite late in life and now my body is not happy with tugging and toting, bending and hoeing.  
For that reason, I was very surprised to see that there was a ripe tomato on the vine. 

A cherry tomato. I should have known. I've been complaining how tiny they were thinking they were Early Girls...somebody mislabeled somewhere... and I am such a rube that I had not even entertained the thought that there was an error. Now all is forgiven and I shall wait for the other nine to ripen just as this one did — on the vine. 

Gotta love marigolds. No bugs. No blight. They keep blooming and stinking all season. Cheerful little buggers they are.
Well do have a great Thursday! I'll catch you later...
ツ

A Little Excitement

Yes, it was a little exciting yesterday afternoon when the first of the tornado warnings started across our screen. 

Tornadoes in Maine??? Yes, very rare, but they have happened. We were told that if a tornado developed it would probably be an E-1 or lower and that we would have, at most, a ten-minute warning. Thing is, tornadoes can't get going so well as they have no place, unless over water, to really develop.

Anyway, I felt such a sense of solidarity with all of you who have been experiencing this sort of weather for several weeks now. It was stressful. Why we actually discussed a plan of action, which is pretty remarkable for the two of us! It all came to naught for which we are very grateful. 

Oh, one other minor thing...see that 74° at 5:01? That's in Portland where Channel 8 lives. It was at least ten degrees warmer inland. It usually is in the summer. We've been sweltering and are looking forward to the cooler temps arriving even as I type. The high yesterday was another 96F; today is more reasonable at 78F.

My son dropped by with some leftover plants my daughter-in-law is contributing to my garden. I hope to get those in the ground today. I still need to visit the nursery and pick up some herbs and some marigolds. My raised bed is going to mostly be an herb garden this year.

Would you believe that I still haven't finished cleaning upstairs? I've been at it for weeks and weeks. It has been further complicated by receiving a huge bag of hand-me-ups from my sister. Great items. Just wish I were her size. =D  

This is my favorite.

I can't decide if I want to wear it or cut it up and make something else from it. Currently, I'm wearing it. 


Like the tornado, this post just fizzled out... 

Have a great week!

Low Information Photographer

That's me. I'm so proud.

Really, though, you people are driving me batty! You have so many things to share and so much to teach me and some days it's all I can do to get the laundry done.

For example, this morning I read my comments from yesterday's post and Veronica mentioned something about "silver birch" and I thought to myself: how romantical...I would certainly prefer to call the white birch chunk a silver birch chunk. Would you believe this led me on a search lasting over an hour? And just when I thought I had it all resolved, John came along and said, "I love working with yellow birch." Yellow birch?! Don't get me started! <  *thud*  >

Then, Lorrie, who is my twin in cameradom ever since she bought a new camera and started taking even more amazing photos than ever before and I copied her (That's right. I asked her what kind of camera she had and, when my Canon was in the shop being repaired for a month, I bought a camera like Lorrie's), shared her secret. [That sentence is a hot mess.]

This is really quite clever by half, if I do say so myself, because when I see an exceptionally beautiful photo (Who am I kidding? All of Lorrie's photos are exceptionally beautiful) I can ask her what was going on there.

*This* is what was going on there:

Ah ha! Bracketing! I knew it all along. (No, I confess I had forgotten, but I had tried it *here.*)

This was my subject corner more or less...

and these are the three consecutive pictures...

Which one would you choose as the best one?

~~~

Yes, in answer to your question...we are getting ready for the third weekend storm. The town was by to make room for more snow just this morning.

So two questions, maybe three:

1. Are you a low information photographer?

2. Does your camera have a BKT setting?

3. Did or will Storm Q affect you?

Helen

So there I was right in the middle of my post when John came in with a rant and now I've had to switch it all around because it was a funny rant.

"Why don't they just start naming beautiful days, eh? Why don't they say Beautiful Day Gloria was the most beautiful day we've seen in 67 days!" 

This in response to snowstorms now being named. Apparently, the latest snow storm to blow through is named Helen. Do you find this as ridiculous as we do? Are all storms and weather patterns to be named now: Ice Storm Pete, Thunderstorm Joe, Windstorm Bill?

So that's this morning looking out on a semi-gray day. I wanted to share what happened before the storm and during the storm so I'll just carry on with that and thank you very much, John!

The evening before Helen arrived—the crescent waxing moon—thanks to a poet I know these things: 

O lady moon your horns point toward the east;Shine, be increased: O lady moon your horns point toward the west;Wane, be at rest.~ Christina Rossetti

During the storm, fire and light, which provided a great deal of winter cheer.

Yes, we are still enjoying the dvd fire. Still makes us feel warmer. I play it every afternoon as I putter about or read or play with the iPad. Yes, I am still enjoying my lights atop the china cupboard.

In other news, I have been able to join Pinterest, finally getting on board (pun intended) with the rest of you, Pinning Wonders. Yes, someday, when I have enough boards to feel great about, I'll add a Pinterest button and invite you all to join me. 

For now, I'd like to share a little bookmark project. You can see what I repinned to one of my boards *here.* This is my interpretation...a little project during a snowstorm Helen.(See? Now that just doesn't sound right!)

You may remember this calendar cover from a *recent post.* It is the reason I purchased the calendar. The one reason.

~Before and After...so much nicer than an index card~

And no old books were harmed in the process.

Thank you to all who joined in the Note Card Party. It was another fun day!

The Silence Woke Me

Source

... All night long in the dark and wet,
A man goes riding by.
Late in the night when the fires are out,
Why does he gallop and gallop about?
Whenever the trees are crying aloud,
And ships are tossed at sea,
By, on the highway, low and loud,
By at the gallop goes he.
By at the gallop he goes, and then
By he comes back at the gallop again

So there I was lying in my bed and all I could think of was this old rhyme by Robert Louis Stevenson. It actually sounded more like a freight train than a gallop. I was finally able to sleep and was wakened early this morning by the silence.

"Sparkle City" is still here as are we. My sister's car did not fare quite so well as a tree fell on it. She says that that is preferable to a tree falling into the house as some of her fellow nurses had happen to them.

We are continuing to pray for those who were directly in Sandy's path and who will be dealing with her today.

I am closing comments so that I may take a breather from the computer today as I was pretty much glued to it yesterday. I'll be visiting to see how you are, though!