My mom wrote recently to tell me that she and her two sisters were getting together and would be spending the day painting on the back porch. No, they weren’t painting the back porch, they were painting ON the back porch.
All three are pretty clever and handy with a paintbrush. Sadly, I am missing the clever-artist gene as well as my dad’s handy-fix-and-build-things gene. My brother, Dale, got both. My brother, Chris, got the handy-fix-and-build-things gene. I’m not sure what I was left with, aside from my grandfather’s garden gene. I hope not the cancer and heart problems genes.
She sent photos, which I thought I would share.
Some of her paintings are naturalistic landscapes. Some are just fun, like kissing fishes and such.
I remember when I was growing up that my mom could draw ANYTHING. It seemed to me an amazing talent that someone could actually draw a picture of a person and it would look like…well…a person!
To this day, my drawings are more stick figure than realistic. Sad, really.
Good day today. Harry, Ben and I met my new friend, Vennie, who is from Seattle, for lunch in Annapolis. It was nice to be out and about with three handsome and intelligent men.
–Bumblebee (Robin)
Robin
The birds in Calvert County are going to be happy with me! Benjamin and I raided the Wild Bird Store in Waldorf today.
We bought:
- A proper pole with raccoon/squirrel baffle (That THAT, you beasties!)
- Four arms for hanging birdfeeders
- A new nyger seed feeder (because we got 15% off on everything when we did)
- Nyger seed (Duh)
- A bluebird feeder, with little acrylic walls and holes just for the bluebirds. It also has a little tiny bowl inside for the mealworms they like.
- Mealworms
- Books on bluebirds and purple martins (Yes, next summer we’ll probably add a purple martin house. I tell you, this bird feeding thing is addictive!)
As soon as the guys get back from the dump, I’m putting them to work setting everything up.
Benjamin and I also bought a juicer so that we can use up some more of the vegetables that we grow–and that our friend Lucia brings in HUMONGO quantities from the farmer’s market in Hughesville.
In other bird news, there are now TWO eggs in the nest. Bluebirds lay about one egg a day until they have a full clutch of four to six.
You’ll also be THRILLED to learn that I started my first batch of cheese today (if you don’t count the yogurt cheese I make all the time). You’ll probably be all atwitter to know that I took PHOTOS. Whoohoo! Do I know how to have a good time or WHAT?
–Bumblebee (Robin)
Robin
If you happen to look at my posts regularly, you know that I was in crisis mode this week. Too much to do, blah, blah, blah.
I am sorry to complain, but that really wasn’t the point of the post. Most of you seem to have adequately captured the point, which I won’t dissect here.
Sadly, my brother-in-law, Todd, did not. He wrote to tell me to stop "whinnying." (I think he meant whining). He emailed me instead of posting a comment because I think he has figured out that I now have a policy of deleting all his RUDE or MEAN comments so that he doesn’t give other people ideas about being mean on this very polite forum. Of course, I will allow any clever, insightful and, especially, complimentary comments to remain. Post one today!
Anyway, the crisis has passed, at least for now. After delivering the fourth report in two weeks and completing a questionnaire draft at 10 p.m. last night, I earned a stretch of free time this afternoon to do really important things like getting the oil changed in my car and letting the lady at Nordstrom convince me to buy an OBSCENE amount of makeup.
I have every good intention to pull those weeds in the vegetable beds and mow the newly rain-soaked lawn tomorrow. I also have some interesting plant news and some cool miracle fertilizer challenge photos to share.
In the meantime, here are some other quick updates:
- Sarah, our youngest Papillon at 1.5 years, goes through the occasional bad patch with steps. I’m not sure why, but she usually can go up to the second floor in a flash without a second though and run in and out of the house using the couple of stairs at each doorway. But sometimes she has a little bit of a mental block. Example: She will climb all 14 stairs to the second floor but stop…at…the…very…last…step and cry. She can’t bring herself to go up the last step. She will go all the way back down and cry at the bottom of the stairs. Another example: She currently has a fear of going up the TWO STEPS from the garage into the house. Sophie (the other, older and wiser Papillon) clearly makes the effort to encourage her by standing at the top and barking and even demonstrating the up and down stairs movement. No go. Sarah high-tails it to the back door to get into the house instead. If you have a clue as to the reasons for this addle-brained behavior, please email me.
- While I was in Annapolis, nearly an hour from here where I have to go to get the oil changed in my fancy-schmancy SUV, Verizon decided to no longer recognize the $400 Treo phone I purchased from them. While I was on a pay phone at the Barnes & Noble typing in a 26-digit security code and going through other STUPID security procedures, my 16-year-old son was in a panic because I wasn’t here when he got home from school. Was he worried about the safety of his dear mother? No. He actually CALLED HIS DAD at the office all worried because he wanted to know WHAT I WAS COOKING FOR DINNER! I won’t tell you what I’m thinking about this.
- The squirrels have discovered my birdfeeders. They went through a $10 bag of premium nut mix meant for the birds in about the four hours I was getting slathered with makeup by the impossibly pretty woman at Nordstrom. Two lessons for me: Don’t buy $10 bags of bird seed and 2) Get a proper pole with hooks and a baffle to keep out the squirrels and raccoons.
- Todd, the aforementioned brother-in-law, writes to me that he is gleeful at the prospect of going to Las Vegas next week. It’s not because he’s going to lots of great shows and will be bellying up at the buffet at the Parisian (although I bet he will). It’s because he THINKS that on the trip he will find me a clever present to top the taxidermy frogs, toy Papillon (he and his wife are having the should-we-or-shouldn’t-we debate) and Elvis snowdome that I have already sent to him. (I am a very considerate gift-giver.)
Okay, that’s it. My plants are squeaking for some water and I have a zucchini pie to make for the ravenous teenager.
Ciao,
–Bumblebee (Robin)
Robin
