How Does Your Garden Grow?

Windy days and the Japanese maple still hasn't lost it's leaves

The Watchers. Not often that I can get them in one shot.

If you look carefully through the trees, you can see a ginormous house being built.  Prissy and Gruff owned that plot of land and wanted to build a house for their daughter. Because of an unusually heavy rainfall in April of that year, the plot didn't pass the perk test and they were never able to build the house.

The November garden flag which looks similar to the September flag

Most of the leaves are down in the backyard.

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Can Crochet Summon Dragons?

The Friday Five Good Things

Five good things that happened this week.

1. Another warm day. Probably the last evening in the sunroom

2. Ran out of stick butter so I had to substitute vegetable oil in a cornbread recipe. A slight change in texture and taste, but not noticeable by the rest of the family 

3. Deep cleaned the living room in anticipation of The Young One's  visit.

4. Another sunny and warm day.

5. Another warm day. November weather has been unbelievable. Perfect day to spend with Teague as ladies who lunch and then afternoon in her sunroom. Ice cream was involved, too.

How was your week?

You 🤬

 

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away.  The leader's inspiration for this doodle was the affirmation from her Yogi tea bag.

The exercise was a neurographic drawing of circles on the line. I interpreted the instruction more literally and drew faces and then added the quote from the tea bag.

T Stands for A Cup of Tea Poem

 

A Cup of Tea

by Anonymous

When the world is all at odds

And the mind is all at sea

Then cease the useless tedium

And brew a cup of tea.

There is magic in its fragrance,

There is solace in its taste;

And then laden moments vanish

Somehow into space.

And the world becomes a lovely thing!

There's beauty as you'll see;

All because you briefly stopped

To brew a cup of tea.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

are trying out a new pen called Curva Pen. It boasts that no matter your grip wrist position you can use this pen. The nib has a hook to it. Literally a hook. The pen can be used by left or right handers and is ergonomically designed especially for those with hand-related conditions.

The pen comes in a set of two. The thickness of the line at .07 mm. I found the pen to be nice and slim and easy to hold. No matter how I held the pen, I was able to get a smooth line. The pen also came with a white foam cushion which is supposed to ease pressure on your hand especially if you are elderly. I tried the cushion, but found it difficult to get on and off the pen. Not very helpful if you already have hand-related conditions.

Ordering was easy off the website and the pen was delivered quickly. Free shipping was also a nice benefit.

I was disappointed that the ink was not waterproof. I had hoped to be able to use this pen in the doodle class I take where I like to add color with watercolors. My bad that I didn't pay attention when I was ordering and received pens with blue ink instead of black ink which I prefer to use.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

Unbelievably high temperature on November1. Our normal highs are what is predicted for Saturday. No complaints. We got to spend a pleasant evening in the sunroom. Not many more evenings there in the forecast.

Sitting on the bottom right of the photo was what I thought might have been a squirrel. When I moved closer to the window to see if I could get a better  look, it turned out to be a hawk. It flew away into the woods.

Oak trees still holding onto their leaves

Plant identifier identified this red bush as a burning bush. We did not plant it. The Leaf Lady has a whole bunch of them along her fence line. Wind, bird, or animal reseeded it for us to enjoy

Forsythia leaves

Nasturtium

Cornflowers

and Cosmos still going strong

The Japanese maple hasn't lost all its leaves yet.

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Russell loves his puzzles

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. The Young One finalized dates for her visit. She'll be here for Thanksgiving.

2. I had an exceptionally productive Monday starting with a very fun doodle class

3. Play day at Teague's. She sent me home with some frozen, ready to bake giant chocolate chip cookies from Dream Dinners.

4. Only one student showed up in class. It was more like an art play session than a class.

5. Summer temps for Halloween. No cold, no rain, no blizzard. No complaints. Most likely one of the last evenings in the sunroom for the season

How was your week?

2OLOTR (Two Old Ladies on the Road) Roxbury, Connecticut

On the last runaway trip with Teague, I came up with a new title for us. 2OLOTR. Two old ladies on the road. I was looking forward to our getaway to the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts. But before heading there, I wanted to make a stop. To visit a place I have wanted to visit for some time.

As with a lot of our ramblings another dumb trail was involved. The place I wanted to visit was a cemetery. Great Oak Cemetery in Roxbury, Connecticut. I'm fortunate that Teague is a good sport and enables and indulges in my fantasies. So we took a 2 or so hour drive to Roxury, Connecticut so I could visit

the grave of my hero and favorite actor of all time, Richard Widmark. I fell in love with Mr. Widmark when I was 8 years old and saw the movie Take The High Ground.

Another fan left a DVD case of the movie The Halls of Montezuma. Someone also left an America flag. Because of a perforated eardrum, Widmark wasn't able to serve in the military during WWII, but he was an air raid warden and entertained service men.

On his headstone, I left a pale pink, quartz heart.

Widmark is buried with his first wife, Jean Hazelwood and there's a waiting marker for his second wife, Susan Blanchard, ex-wife of Henry Fonda.

It wasn't until I was going through my photos of the trip did I notice that Widmark's headstone is sinking.

There were lots of famous neighbors buried here. In front of the Widmark's is writer, Arthur Miller and wife Inge Morath

Frank McCourt, author of Angela's Ashes. The inscription on his grave reads: 'Tis.

Playwrite, "Pete" Gurney is also buried here. He wrote the play Love Letters. Teague and I saw that performed by Robert Wagner and Jill St. John.

So, this trip to the cemetery to see Richard Widmark's resting place brought me full circle.

Richard Widmark spread from Here There Be Dragons, my Minnesota travel journal

In 2006, the Young One accompanied me to a convention in Minneapolis, Minnesota.  While at the convention my friend, Frau, came from Iowa to show us around when not busy with convention stuff.  I documented this trip in a book shaped like the state of Minnesota that Frau gave to me.

She had asked if there was anything that I wanted to do. I asked her if Sunrise, Minnesota was nearby. She said it was about an hour away and near where her parents had a summer place. Sunrise, Minnesota was the birthplace of Richard Widmark

On the way to Sunrise we passed through fields and fields of wheat. A friend had visited the Hollywood Walk of Fame and took a picture of Richard Widmark's hand, footprints, and his neatly written Palmer method, signature.

Online, I had seen a sign announcing Sunrise was the birthplace of  Richard Widmark, but I didn't expect that someone had made a shrine in the vacant field where the house he was born in once stood. The dedication sign reads:

Richard Widmark's Birthsite "Hollywood Legend"

In the summer of 1914, Carl and Ethel Mae left Braham, MN to take a job as a clerk in Elias Nordgreens Mercantile Store  

It was here on December 26 at 12:26 AM when Carl ran across to the existing house and announce to Harry Wolleat they had a son.

Richard Weedt Widmark

He would go on to Movie Stardom, starting in 1947's "Kiss of Death" as the infamous Tommy Udo, "Don't Bother to Knock" with Marilyn Monroe 1953, and "The Alamo" with John Wayne 1960. From 1947 to 1991 he made 74 films. In 1949 his hands were place in cement at Hollywoods Walk of Fame, and his legend, and legacy

were made permanent

Pictures in the spread of me worshipping at the shrine and refusing to leave.

Not only was there the large Welcome to Sunrise sign which I had seen online

Est 1853

Welcome to 

The Historic Village of

Sunrise 

Birthplace of Hollywood Actor  Richard Widmark

and Illinois Governor Frank O. Lowden

"Almost a President"

but someone also had a museum of Richard Widmark memorabilia. We walked across the street to the museum which was in someone's garage. There didn't seem to be anyone around, and we didn't knock on the door.

Doodling for Stress Reduction

 

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away.  The leader's inspiration for this doodle was leaves.

T Stands for Self Portraits

Teague and I visited the Norman Rockwell Museum in Stockbridge, Massachusetts last weekend. We saw Rockwell's iconic self-portrait. Notice the glass on the wicker chair which holds the mirror. Paint water or a beverage? You decide.

Besides Rockwell's art there was also a special exhibit going. What Me Worry? The Art and Humor of MAD Magazine. Alfred E. Newman Triple Self-Portrait, 2002, Richard Williams. From the museum description of the painting: An admirer of Norman Rockwell and the chief appropriator of his work for MAD, Richard Williams put a twist on Triple Self-Portrait, the artist's 1960 cover illustration for The Saturday Evening Post and My Adventures As An Illustrator, his autobiography, Alfred E. Newman takes Rockwell's seat at the easel..."

Can you spot the things that are the same and the things that are different?

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

The Young One may be coming home for a visit in November. Monet and I are Fall cleaning the living room and dining room starting with the flat file. First a cup of tea.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

The scarecrow acts as a weathervane, but it's still creepy when the wind blows so the scarecrow suddenly faces the house.

More solar lantern decorations. Himself cut the bottom out of plastic Jack O'Lantern trick or treat buckets and then then fitted them with a solar path lantern. The top of the lantern looks like a witch's hat.

The Watcher

The Lone Marigold

Brilliant Fall colors. I don't know why everyone travels to Vermont, New Hampshire, and the Berkshires in Western Massachusetts to leaf peep. Colors in our own backyard are just as vivid and beautiful.

Colors and leaves no past peak.

How does your garden grow?

Happy, Little, Time Waster

 

Timepiece

The Friday Five Good Things

 

Five good things that happened this week.

1. I started feeling better from the sinus cold.

2. I felt well enough to go on the runaway weekend to the Berkshires with Teague, but first a stop in western Connecticut because there was something I really wanted to do.

3. Sightseeing around Stockbridge

4. Head Stoning in the Stockbridge Cemetery and

5. a visit to the Norman Rockwell Museum

How was your week?

Godzilla's Bird in the Hand

A week or so ago, my friend Andy Fish asked for my snail mail address. I thought he was sending out a promotional postcard announcing an upcoming art show he and his wife, Veronica were participating in.

Last Thursday, I was surprised when I went through the mail and found this large, flat mailer addressed to me from Andy. 

Inside the nicest note I've ever received and a tiny, twee cardinal charm. Andy said when he and Veronica saw the cardinal they thought of me.

Cardinals always make me think of my parents. They loved watching these birds at their bird feeder. After my parents passed away, I started seeing cardinals especially when I was feeling down. It never failed when I was down in the dumps, I'd see a cardinal which I took to be a message from the folks. 

Last Thursday, I was feeling very sorry for myself. Himself had gallantly shared his sinus cold with me, and I was put out that I would have to postpone the runaway weekend trip with Teague to the Berkshires. There was no time to reschedule the trip, and there was something I really wanted to do.

Inside that padded envelope, the teeny, cardinal charm. My folks again, thanks to Andy.

The charm also came with a little card:

The

Christmas Cardinal

Charm

This little cardinal brings

good luck to you.

It symbolizes the power of faith

in all that you do.

Its brilliant red color symbolizes

joy and Christmas cheer,

bringing beauty and warmth

to last throughout the year

Wishing you all the joys

of the season!

This little charm

may be carried in a pocket,

held, or placed on a shelf.

Godzilla holds my favorite pen Man pen, and so the little bird won't get lost among the tools and desk toys, Godzilla lends a hand (along with a bit of museum putty) to guard the little cardinal.

Doodling for Stress Reduction

On Mondays via Zoom, I participate in a class where we spend  a half an hour doodling our stress away. 

I had told the group leader I would not be in class on this particular day as I would be away. She kindly sent me the doodle she planned so I could still participate and be part of the doodle community.

The happy faces doodle was digitally drawn as I sat on the front porch of the  cabin when Teague and I were in Weirs Beach, New Hampshire. I printed it out to put in my Doodling for Stress Reduction book.

T Stands for Pink Breakfast

The last few play days with Teague have involved having breakfast. On this particular day, we decided to try a little place in Grafton called First Bite.

We had tried to stop in several months ago, but the restaurant at 8:30 AM wasn't opened. The owner was just arriving as we left for another breakfast spot.

On this day, the restaurant was open for breakfast and lunch. I had my usual English Breakfast tea and Teague was treated to a fancy apple juice complete with apple slice garnish.

We felt very under dressed in our t-shirts and jeans. The decidedly feminine decor was more suited to a bridal shower brunch.

The menu was quite extensive. Pancakes and waffles came with a selection of toppings from candy, sweetened cereal to traditional maple syrup. I had a delicious cinnamon roll waffle with maple syrup and a side of bacon.

Drop by hosts, Bleubeard and Elizabeth's blog to find out what the rest of the T Stands For gang is up to. If you want to play, include in your Tuesday post a beverage or container for a beverage. Don't forget to link your blog to Bleubeard and Elizabeth's page.

Monet and Me

 

Monet helped me pack for another runaway weekend with Teague which is happening as you read this. I won't need my beach chair as beach is not involved.