Fun stuff

 The Gritty Girls

This is just going to be ...

the Fun Stuff. 

Why not? 

Mirth is out picking mushrooms. I think she is looking for those psychedelic ones!

We TOLD Harriet NOT to play with the food!

Hobby enjoys wandering the woods looking for cool fungi. She found Scrambled Egg Slime Mold aka Dog Vomit Slime Mold. Real name: Fuligo Septica 

Hobby and Susan stop to cool off in the creek after hiking.

Garden Gargoyles discussing the Welcome Friends sign. Obviously they are not impressed.

It is obvious that some of the gals need a bit more education on how to carry a load on a skid steer...

No one was injured.

This weather has been bad for mowing and some outdoor activities. But if one likes fungi and slime molds, this is absolutely great weather.

More on that soon.

Sneak peek:

Hot and Humid

Hot 
Humid
Wet
Holiday Weekend

That is the weather this week which is good for the crops and not so good for mowing or enjoying the outdoors. 

I did spend a whole day though cleaning up the upstairs of the house. Both the East Wing and the West Wing [ ~~ tiny little rooms in our story and a half cottage ~~] got deep cleaning. 
I did some purging while I was at it.

My walks have been short and after Charlie nagged me one morning, I decided to take him along with my long lens on a walk to the mailbox. 

This wren kept chattering at us so I stood still and waited for her to land on something. I was pleased that she was singing her morning songs. 

We got to the ridge and I grabbed the mail which was just junk mail. It was a flier advertising a Huge Sale! All mattresses must GO! Store Closing!

That store has been closing for about a year now. 

I tucked the ad under my arm and decided to look at the weeds along the ditch to search for insects.

I was so pleased to find this beauty. I think it is a Spotted Skipper, however I am not sure as the wings in this light almost appear blue tinted.

This one could be some sort of Spotted Fritillary. I call it 'little brownish spotted butterfly'.

However, my buddy didn't think too much of our little side trip.

I wanted to just walk down a ways and look a tiny bit more... and so I called Charlie...and got this...

I agreed with him and turned around to take him home. Once he got in view of the house, he trotted the rest of the way to the porch door and stood looking at me. Little dogs get the heat from the ground and his short nose doesn't allow him to cool off very well. 

My morning walks are the highlight of my day right now. I do it early as the weather is hot and mugg--ly.

This is from my morning foraging walk. Oops! I should have left my camera sitting in a bag on the porch for a while before taking it out in the extremely hot and humid climate.

[This was one of those days where the dew point and temperature were just about the same degree!]

Stupid me. But there it is:

I'd stopped here to photograph a fawn laying down in one of the mule trails but got a fogged lens instead.

I did see this fawn on the way back though!

My morning foraging looked very promising.

This is my creek or was the creek until the drought hit. For the first few years I lived here, it was like this. Then we had some flash floods and for many years water always flowed over the rocks but no more than a few inches deep.

It is almost moist and cooler in this bottom. Beware though, the rocks are like walking on marbled ice.

Yep, marbled ice is a good description. The bruises on my gluteus maximuses will be a good judge of that. 

However, I was more interested in getting some delicious oyster mushrooms for supper and some to dehydrate.

On the way back home with my goodies, I found some chicken of the woods...I think. These did not look appetizing at all with the amount of icky looking gnats and bugs on them. 

But the blaze orange color is hard to miss.

And then more cool bugs. A Hover Fly and an inch worm on the head of a yarrow blossom.

So what is this hot and humid weather good for?

Well.

It is good for short excursions into the woods to find neat insects, wild flowers, and wicked cool fungi and slime molds while picking black raspberries!

:(

What the F happened? 

Normally I don't include current events in my blog. But I will comment on what happened in Highland Park Illinois yesterday.

My parents rented a house in Northbrook while we were kids. While school was in session, I lived in the northern suburbs. Each summer my mom packed us kids up and we moved to NW WI and lived in a two room cottage with no heat or hot water.
As children we learned the importance of hunting and gathering. That was a way of life for my Grandparents. 

That isn't quite relevant, except to understand that I grew up with one foot in the affluent neighborhoods which included friends from Highland Park and each of the towns surrounding the area.

So when I saw the news story of the mass shooting in Highland Park at the 4th of July parade, my very FIRST thought was.

No, it cannot happen there. NO, it wouldn't happen there. Really, why would it happen there? How could it happen there?

And then it hit me. It doesn't have to make sense. Assault weapons and some person with a grudge makes the NEW reality.

It will happen here
It will happen anywhere.

It will happen in
your town.

It is just a matter of
time.

I'm so sick of 'thoughts and prayers'. Time to ban weapons of this type. 

I won't win an argument regarding the second amendment, I'm not that well versed in law. And I do own rifles and a .22 pistol. I am a hunter of varmints, but rarely find any opportunity to shoot anything. I've come to carrying pepper spray most of the time as it is easier to use and is not deadly. 

I have a background in weapons as I trained with them for nearly 10 years as a part of my job. We were told over and over again the consequences of firing a weapon.

We did not have semi auto weapons. 

There are no reason for anyone to own them. 

Not unless you just want to kill humans. 

When will our government representatives do the right thing?
When will our high courts do the right thing?

America used to be a pretty decent place to live.

I didn't celebrate the 4th of July. 

We normally don't go to parades and fireworks. I'm married to a veteran who responds negatively to fireworks and crowds. 

He had a grim view of yesterday's events, and he agrees that weapons of war should not be in the hands of the ordinary citizen no matter what. 

This is my opinion and I feel rather strongly about it. How long must this go on?

Just wow

Last night's evening storms brought in heavy fog which is typical for our area.

NOAA  issued a dense fog warning. I was pretty pleased.

The wall of fog was so thick I couldn't see the mules in the pasture when I got up.

I grabbed a camera and headed out after sunrise. I usually don't pick up the mail on the day it is delivered. I generally save that walk for the mornings.

When I got to the ridge it the fog was thicker than thieves. The world was grey.

I mean there was nothing at all to see. This is a field of oats and generally you can see all the way to a horizon.

I wanted to wait around to see if the sun would break through enough to shine through the forest and create a magical atmosphere. 

Just as I was ready to give it up.
BAM!

The sun broke through.

It was time to get wet and wade into the forest. I knew where I wanted to go. I wanted to go see The Hugging Tree. [Sometimes I give names to certain trees I really like. I'm odd, okay?]

I started down the faint trail that is still there and headed into the forest.

And there is where I lost all track of time and just focused on the magic that was appearing before me. It changed each minute with the movement of the fog and the sun. 

I just kept moving around and shooting. One of the awesome features of the Olympus camera [aside from being very light], is its stabilization feature. 

I wasn't thinking about that, but was just mumbling to myself -- ohhhh...ahhhh...ohhh see that?...oh .. my...OH!

Oh!

The light kept changing and so did the foggy sun beams. 

Even after I walked into multiple spider webs, I was still marveling at the scene before me.

I was amazed that I didn't trip and fall over a log as I kept moving around. I couldn't keep my eyes off the forest.

Neither could my small friends.

I didn't want to leave the woods, but I knew I had to. Someone was sitting and waiting for me and would wonder what took me so long.

The sun rose a bit higher and the light beams started fading.

It was amazing while it lasted. I followed a deer trail out and got soaked from the wet leaves. I didn't mind. It was worth the little side trip. 

Once more I consider myself quite lucky to live in this area which presents such amazing beauty just a short walk from my porch.

Oh yes, I finally did make it to the Hugging Tree.

It is the tree in the distance with the arms uplifted.

[I have so many photos yet to look through. I am still just stunned by this one single foggy morning. Watch out, more to come?]

Garden Stuff

I did not do the big vegetable garden this year. Instead I have been depending on the Farmer's Market and a local co-op store that sells fresh produce from nearby farms. Walmart produce has been 'worser than awful'. 

I am going to purchase some veggies to freeze and dehydrate later this year so I will be set for our winter crop of veggies.

However we have three tomato plants in some rather ugly containers on the pallet garden.

In the slats in front there are cosmos and some other flowers for later fall flowers. On the other side I have Verbena. It doesn't like this garden as much as I hoped but next year I'll try something else.

The ugly green tub is a delight. I have coleus and a really beautiful geranium that I've never seen before [pointing up]. The leaves are beautiful in two tones of color and the flowers are very delicate looking.

On the porch I have some hen and chicks in this neat pot given to me last year for my birthday by my neighbor. I thought the hen and chicks died off over winter. Surprise!

I have hen and chicks all over the place and they are all doing this neat reproducing thing. I might just have to make a hen and chick garden somewhere. I have them growing in stumps and several other rather drab containers.
I even packed the holes in the stumps with dirt and then plopped the hen and chicks on the wood. I have so many that I will have to make some plans for next summer.

Below is another pie plate garden. I found an old pie plate and tossed some nice dirt in it. The little plants were over wintered in the house and replanted this spring. I need to pick some more moss to use as mulch. 

Oh! I see a little dragon peeking out from one of the geranium pots!

My first garden 'statue'. A T-Rex eating garden gnomes. And...then garden gnomes napping just below T-Rex. This just makes me chuckle.

Another very large pot on the porch with stone crop sedum and that beautiful delicate geranium. 

I took nasturtium seeds and planted them in the bare spots between the bugleweed plants that were devastated the winter last year. Lack of snow cover allowed so many plants to die. However, right now they are making a very strong come back.

I planted these for my friend in Mobile AL. When she lived for a short time in Massachusetts she had a garden with so many of these. She misses them now as they don't do well in her hot climate. I take photos of these and text them to her. They started to blossom on her birthday.

Tired of it yet? Her is my Lego person I named Mirth. Her smile is infectious!

I love her stocking cap and pigtails. She looks happy holding that bright nasturtium!

I'll stop here because I don't want to bore anyone!

The Happy Table is coming along, I have to wait for another dry day to try a light white wash on it and then top it off with a polyacrylic sealer. The photo below is after I started working on this side of the table. I did some free hand drawing in pencil and then filled it in with black paint.

I had coffee and breakfast out here the last couple of mornings. 
So nice to have a pretty outdoor spot to relax and eat!

Have a safe and fun weekend everyone. We will be staying home and enjoying our home and gardens. Most of the yard is done and the rest can wait until the rain is done and it dries off again.

Daze of Summer

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful area. I have to drive or walk to the ridge to see a sunrise view like this. I can also see a more limited view in the meadow north of our house.

We had a dense fog warning on Wednesday and I thought it might provide me with an interesting landscape.

It was pretty neat. As the sun rose, the fog got more intense. I wished I was on the bluff watching this, but I knew the drive to there would have been horrible with the low river valley fog of the Kickapoo. Driving in semi darkness in thick fog is no fun.

There was the sun...and then...it got very thick!

One of the cool things that occurs where I live is that I can go to the highest ridge point and watch the sun rise up. Then drive a quarter of a mile and watch it rise again. When it is done on the ridge, I can go home and watch for it to come over the trees. 

Thursday morning I noted that there were supposed to be some clouds in the sky early. I took the 'Ru and headed towards the end of the dead end. This spot is generally pretty nice for sunrises in July and through early October.

I am thrilled to say that this year the fields to the North and East are planted with soybeans. That means I can watch sunrises unobscured by 9 foot or taller field corn.

The gnats were absolutely vicious even with the gusty winds. I was able to jump into the car to avoid them and then jump back out to take a shot.

Finally I decided enough was enough and headed back home. I stopped just before I left the ridge and as always, was pleasantly surprised.

The swallows had awakened and were getting down to business!

I rarely go up to the ridge any more in the evenings which I used to do when I rode every night with my mule Badger. 
I miss those summer nights of me sitting on my big mule and watching the sun go down.

I do however, enjoy those mornings when I get out and enjoy the world as it wakes up.

There is nothing quite like a new sunrise to raise the spirits.

It's okay, really

 

This was a week of appointments and craziness.

Rich was tested in Pulmonary Therapy with regards to the six minute walk. He actually did pretty well. His gait was very slow and he did have to rest for a full minute after 4 minutes of walking. He was using O2. 
He agreed to coming to PT 3 times a week.

We traveled to Madison to see a Urology specialist who did some testing [I'll spare you the details]. Only to find out that what Rich was experiencing was pretty normal for someone of his age and his medical concerns.

I should have understood that this was a warning of sorts. We headed home and he was furious. He was sure that the doctor would 'fix' the problem instead of telling him that he needed more exercise and more walking. His legs are pumps, if the pumps don't get used the fluid builds up and at night and that causes more problems. [Okay, it is more complicated than that. But let's leave it at that.]

The next day was a phone consult with his Mental Health provider. Those phone visits every two months for the past two years are harbingers of Foul Moods and Anger. Rich generally says very little. The provider asks him how things are going and Rich answers his same answer each time. 

The Same. Nothing Changes. 

The more the MH provider tries to talk with him the worse he gets. 

You aren't making anything better. Nothing Changes. 
I want to be better.

I know that the MH provider does not have a magic wand and he does not have the ability to find a magical pill. 

Finally the provider informed him that he was leaving the VA. This created an outburst of anger that was a bit more intense. 

Generally the provider asks if I am there and we go to speaker phone. But with the foul mood Rich was in it didn't happen.

The provider did try and explain things and I could see that none of it was connecting. Rich argued that he did NOT want to come to Madison to see who he was supposed to see next.

When Rich hung up he was very angry. 

He wants me to see something about Aging and something. Old people something?

We are aging, I told him. The referral would actually make sense. He has reached a point in his illness[s] that his medical conditions will not get better. He knew that but knowing it is different than acknowledging it. 

I asked again who was he getting referred to?

I don't know. Something about Old People. 

I tried to tell him that this made sense as he was considered aged and someone who worked with older veterans might be able to help him.

This explanation hit a brick wall of Fury. 

I did what I can only do. I got up and left the house to work in the garden. No sense in fighting a wall.

Eventually he came out. I'd washed the mower deck on the Clipper and he had to flip the deck back up. I tried to help him, but as usual the deck wasn't cooperating because we don't have a good level spot to park it.

He got angry again and decided to heck with it all and he'd drive the Clipper around until the deck behaved.

When I motioned for him stop he started to yell at me. I explained that dragging the deck was not going to make it suddenly behave. He revved the engine and backed up digging up gravel from the driveway.

That was it. I threw up my hands and walked away. He tried to holler at me to 'get back here.' I waved goodbye and kept walking. 

Somedays there is no sense in arguing or being calm, cool, and collected. All of that was out the window by this time. 

I was close enough to see if he got into medical trouble, but far enough away to be removed from the situation.

However.

This must have been an improvement in daily activity as he had gone outside to put the mower back together. Granted, it took 3 days to get the job done in small bits. 

But....

By supper time everything must have been hunky dory. [Is that even a word?] He was back to being a pleasant person.

I know I need someone to come and give me a break. That is evident. However.

Our county suffers like many other places in the lack of available people.