Monday, October 05, 2020

October 5, 2020 Monday 4pm

Good afternoon!
I have already been working for a couple hours (in-between laundry loads, sweeping the patio, and feeding critters) going through our pictures and Leah's videos.  Am just now getting to the actual uploading on to YouTube so I can then post the videos here...so this is going to take a while--LOL!  
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It's been a busy week...or as busy as I get, anyways.  Tuesday I had a video chat with Leah so we could finalize the Cashwise pick-up grocery order...and to just chat, of course.  :)
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Was a beautiful end to September.
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But...construction started across the street.  This was taken standing outside the front door to our apartment building.
That patch of wild field is now gone...
...and so is the thirteen-striped ground squirrel.  I am so sad.  :(  I still see the partridges.  They come pre-dawn and toward dusk when the machines are quiet...but I have a feeling they come from farther away than before.  The sparrows are here all day long, though.  Human activity doesn't bother them much.  ;)
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Thursday Leah dropped off a few groceries.  Friday afternoon I read to the boys over a video call while they had a snack.  Those were my only events to speak of.  But I did get started on the studio--finally!  I emptied out the taboret!  The five taboret drawers...
...loosely took up three drawers in the new IKEA cabinet.
I have room to spare...maybe.
Next I will be searching through the studio for other watercolor and Chinese brush painting supplies...
...so things might be shifting about quite a bit in this cabinet.  :)
But it is nice to have a start!
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Annie scared the hell out of me this week.  I woke up and...no Annie.  No Annie begging for her food and following me about.  No Annie when I called for her.  No Annie when I searched and searched the apartment.  I fully expected to find a dead body!  But I finally caught the glint of her eyes underneath my desk behind my desk chair--where she has never gone before.  She wouldn't come out but she let me give her a quick pet as long as I wasn't trying to pick her up.  She wanted to be left alone.  So I let her be.  (I certainly know the feeling of wanting to crawl under the porch to lick my wounds in solitude when I am feeling awful.)
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Later on I went to get her can of food and she did come out for that...but never made a sound.  She did eat and was drinking water...was peeing and pooping...so I figured maybe it was something she ate?  The night before I noticed her carrying a big injured or very old, dying cricket in her mouth and setting it down in the back corner of the living room. She batted her new toy about to torture it a bit...but before I could get over there to remove it Annie saw me coming to spoil her game and let the poor thing crawl behind the bookcase.  Maybe she later ate it?
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Anyways, she wasn't herself all day but was gradually improving some.  By the following day she was more herself again, but she threw up once (no cricket remains).  She's seemed okay ever since.  Hopefully that was all it was.  She's back to crying in the morning and following me all over the place.  Whew!  I thought I had quite suddenly lost her out of the blue...but she seems fine now.  I'm still keeping an eye on her.  ;)
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Meanwhile, since I have the 80 minute introductory osteopath appointment on Friday I will definitely have to quarantine for 2 weeks.  Have a long form to fill out online before I go.  I am nervous because of covid, of course, and I have no idea what an osteopath does...but I am looking forward to having a doctor who knows all my issues, you know?  Somebody who will look at me as a whole human being.  ;)
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So, I'm going to visit McFamily tomorrow before I have to stay away for a couple weeks.  Maybe longer as Leah needs to see an eye doctor in order to get new contacts ordered and Dagan needs to go to one, too, for his glaucoma checkup.  (But he is not going down to Minneapolis for his annual checkup with his cardiologist this fall--just doing his usual pacemaker check via the phone.)  Having longer doctor and eye doctor visits are more exposure than usual for us--so might not see much of McFamily in person for a while.  Covid is still on the rise in North Dakota so I decided to put Caroline's cleaning on hold again for now, too. 
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The taboret will be going over for Ian's classroom tomorrow!  Here's what it looks like now on the upstairs landing.
He's got little clothespin clips to hang up his work... 
...and a huge whiteboard (was Mama and Daddy's) behind him. 
So far he is liking school. 
So glad the taboret is going over there.  I have loved that little cabinet and want it to stay around for sure.  :)
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More meanwhile...
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I worked on a set of Christmas cards this week, too.  We had folded one base the regular way we always do it but then decided to have them open up at the top this time for something different.
This is only the second set of cards we've made using the Martha Stewart corner snowflake punch for the inside lining.  Leah had been punching away and it broke...wouldn't come apart anymore...just awful.  
So pretty, but sure didn't last long!  We have been disappointed with several products by Martha Stewart and will be avoiding buying her products from now on.
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So, I drug out the various corner punches I have.
This is one of the oldest I have but it still punches easily. 
This three corner Fiskar's punch was pretty much a bust for me.  Harder to position and to punch down.  I messed up several corners so I didn't do many with that punch and only used two of the three choices because it was just too hard on my wrist/arm.
The good old corner chomper--plain but works well to just round corners.
But my arm and hand got tired so I left the rest with square corners.
So...if you don't get one of the cards with the pretty snowflakes punched in the corners inside...blame it on Martha!!
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My patio plants are still hanging in there.  
The coleus have suffered the most with the frost we had once again this last week.  They are constantly losing leaves.  But it still is looking so pretty out there on the patio.  :)
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Okay--as you know, Dagan and Leah (and the boys) have been working on landscaping most of the summer.  Leah did the walk around the house I requested...but her phone/camera is old and it kept shutting off on her--ROFL!  I got a kick out of the series of videos.  I decided to post the sliced up tour because several of you have asked what they planted where.  Loading and transferring all these little videos is why this post will be up quite late this Monday--LOL!  Feel free to skip the tour if you're not interested, but Gramma loved it.  I will be waiting to see what all this will look like in a few years!!  Whoohoo!  :)


















Whew!  I got them all in the right order!  Adding pics and videos seems more difficult with the new version.  I couldn't get them to line up on the left correctly, but I got them in here.  :)
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Also have a couple of short random videos of the boys.  :)  Ian loves his tomatoes.  Eats the big ones like apples!

And here Liam was helping to dig a hole for a tree.  :)

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And finally...
now you can now really see that the righthand tree across the way has turned red.  One down and two to go.  ;)  Will the center one turn next?
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With the new blogger and YouTube being so very slow...well, I started about 2pm and it is now almost 8:30!  I guess blogging has kept me out of trouble for the whole day--ROFL!   
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Anyways, got my ballot in the mail last week--tada!  The partridges were here and gone for an evening meal!  I had my evening meal, too, while I waited for videos to process.  But I made it to the end!!  Whatever errors are in here are in to stay.  I am done and dusted--LOL!  Stay safe and enjoy your precious week.  :) :)
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"I am especially glad of the divine gift of laughter; it has made the world human and loveable, despite all its pain and wrong."
W.E.B. Du Bois

14 comments:

Rita said...

My comment to get your comments...or the ones blogger allows me to get via email--LOL! :)

DJan said...

You have certainly been busy, Rita. I'm glad to hear Annie is all right. That would have been awful! And I will go back and look at those videos when I have more time. Thanks for them all! :-)

Anvilcloud said...

Aww, I am sorry that you're missing the squirrel, but it seems as though Annie is now back in fine fettle (I should look that expression up).

You're talk of self-quarantining fits in well with my post today. You are being so conscientious.

And I don't know what to think of someone working on Christmas cards already. :) I have often made my own photo cards, but lately, I just seem to email a pic and a wish these days.

Far Side of Fifty said...

I really enjoyed Leahs tour! My 2 cents...I love that she planted a Ginkgo Tree!!! No loss on the Russian Olive ...they have thorns...put in a couple of Apple Trees Hazen is a good one! Put the Russian Sage someplace else as it will have lots of bees. A Hydrangea would be beautiful someplace more on the East or North side....hard to tell directions...They have done a marvelous job with their foundation plantings! Tell them to take the supports off after the first few months trees need to sway in the wind to grow strong roots:)

Far Side of Fifty said...

Write Martha a letter. I have Fiskers punches some work ok some are a real pain. One was stuck and Fiskers replaced it. Your cards look great. I am anxious to hear how your Dr appt goes! Osteopaths take care of the whole person!! Should be a good fit for you!

Serena Lewis said...

It sounds like you've been keeping very busy. Life seems to be getting busier here too.

Love those clouds!

Are they putting up another apartment block?

So sad to hear the thirteen-striped squirrel is gone. Let's hope it just moved on because of the construction and didn't get harmed.

I adore my six drawer unit from IKEA. I wouldn't mind getting another. Great that the taboret is getting a new use in Ian's classroom.

OMG! What a scare with Annie! I'm so glad she is back to normal. Kya has scared me a few times when she isn't in all of her usual sleeping places and hasn't responded when I've called. She is usually found snuggled up in a NEW sleeping place. Last time, she was inside my wardrobe fast asleep. It's a worry when our pets suddenly act out of character.

Good luck with your Friday appointment. Wear a mask and sanitise frequently. Stay safe, my friend.

The cards look lovely...good work with those punches! How annoying that the Martha Stewart one broke. :(

I will try to get back to watch the videos later. A little strapped for time at the moment.

I haven't had any issues with the new Blogger yet. They have improved it dramatically since the first time I tried it.

Hope you and McFamily stay safe and well.

Enjoy the rest of your week. xo

Jo-Anne's Ramblings said...

Some bloody great clips and photos of what sounds like a busy hay week

Bonnie said...

The videos are great and their landscaping looks fantastic! I'm so sorry to hear Annie was sick but thank goodness she is doing better now. I really like your new IKEA cabinet and the taboret drawers should be perfect for Ian's study area. You are making great progress on the Christmas cards! I'm usually behind on everything I do. I'll be thinking of you Friday when you have the osteopath appointment. You and Annie take care!

Divers and Sundry said...

Nothing discourages sparrows lol Your visits sound like enjoyable interludes in these isolated days. Poor Annie. And poor you :( It's scary when they act not like their usual selves. What pretty Christmas cards! Your patio is still looking good. I still have flowers, but our weather is so much warmer than yours in October. How nice of them to provide the video tour. It looks great!

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

You did have a lot to do this week, Rita, just loading all the landscaping videos, most of which I watched. Seeing Ian's enthusiastic enjoyment of a tomato was fun. Liam is quite the landscaper too and may have a future in dirt tossing. Hope that Annie continues to feel better and glad she wasn't lost for long. Doctor visits for us next week, chiropractor and dentist and hope yours go well as going to a new dr. the first time is always a concern of mine. And too bad about the wild flower no longer being a refuge for some critters. Progress isn't always a good thing :-(

Lady Fi said...

Pretty flowers and wonderful skies!

Leah said...

Hello Far Side of Fifty, I like plants with thorns, I don't know why, so I still long for my Russian Olive Tree, but will need to find something else. We may plant apple trees, but if we do, they will go over by the gardens, on the West side of the gardens, not like that helps you to know where, but basically towards the front of our house and on the opposite end of the gardens from the trees that we just planted in our back yard, so they'd be over on the side. Thank you for the Hazen suggestion, I've jotted that down, I haven't heard of it so I don't know if it's hardy for here.

We are actually trying to attract bees and other bugs, so I'm glad that the Russian Sage will attract them. We were so happy to see them buzzing about our garden and flowers in planters this year!

I know that most people love hydrangeas, but I've never been into them. I'm a foliage person myself, not a flower person, though I do have the Dwarf Korean Lilac for it's flowers, they smell wonderful, I grew up with one right by our front door, so it brings back memories, their foliage is rather plain the rest of the year. Therefore, I have no plans on planting any Hydrangeas.

Yes, I know all about taking the stakes out for the trees, but around here we always suggest one year for the stakes to be left on. I used to work at a local nursery, I worked inside, with the annuals, perennials, shrubs, trees, and also did landscaping for a couple of years. So I am pretty well versed on how to plant, water, and take care of everything.

I will take the stakes out from around the trees next year towards the end of the Summer so it's about a year from planting them. With Winter starting in just a month or so, it would be impossible to take them out as they will be frozen into the ground shortly. Maybe it's because of our flat land and our nearly constant high winds, but that's always what we suggested (at the nursery where I worked) and every other place I've encountered up here. Many people leave them on too long, so I understand why you bring it up, I know they need to feel that wind in order to make strong roots.

The Ginkgo I'm really looking forward to, I love them so much! Their wonderful leaf shape, how they sound in the wind, and their color, this one is very small and narrow, for whatever reason all of the branches had been cut/trimmed to make it quite narrow. I look forward to it filling out in the next few years and be able to see it's shape better. I had to order it as there were none in stock, they guy that ordered it for me ordered two, and when I was picking mine up, loading it into the truck, a friend with a truck helped me transport them, another couple saw it and asked him what it was and if he had anymore. So, I think I inspired someone else to plant one too and that nursery is likely to carry them now too, which I think is wonderful!

Thanks for reading,
Leah

pearshapedcrafting said...

Lovely to see Leah's garden, it will look great when the plants mature a bit! I hope that the construction work doesn't take a way all of your long views. We have a long view in the Winter but the tree outside our balcony becomes too thick to see through in the Summer! One of my Martha Stewart punches broke but a friend was using it and she was quite heavy handed! The boys look to be having fun! Take Care, Chrisx

Harvest Moon by Hand said...

Sorry to hear about the thirteen-striped ground squirrel not being around anymore. What are they constructing? Your art supplies are so organized. Ian's space is getting more personalized with the new additions. The Christmas cards are really coming along. They look beautiful!