This Perfectly Imperfect Life

Once home I turned to look behind me before opening our front door and shook my head, thinking I was being ridiculous. "Too many horror movies," I chuckled and entered into the welcoming relief of our air conditioned home. Because I was drenched with sweat and the sky was turning dark, the first thing I did was peel off my clothes and take a shower. The water cooled my body temperature and began clearing my mind so I could process the events of my little adventure. How do we know what's real and what's not? What our mind produces vs something else outside of us producing it? And like one of the characters points out in the novel "The Physick Book Of Deliverance Dane" by Katherine Howe, "Just because you don't believe in it, doesn't mean it isn't real." Sure the novel is a work of fiction, but the statement was true. There are always elements of truth in fiction. I realized I was staring out the bathroom window up at the canopy of maple ...

These vines were unlike anything I've ever seen, in my garden or wrapped around the trees outside our back yard fence. They'd been there so long, their lengths has turned to bark, as thick as 2 inches around in some places. How long had this barn been here? Better question yet, how long had the vines been wrapped around it? They looked older than the barn itself but I don't know how that could be possible. Unlike most plants which wrapped themselves around a structure, these hadn't forced their ways into every nook & cranny of the surfaces they covered and weren't jeopardizing the barns' stability. No trees grew up and through what seemed to be a vine covered hole in the roof. "Amazing!" I said aloud, standing in front of it, camera in hand, not moving. I had wanted to come out and take pictures of this place since we moved here nearly 4 years ago and decided during breakfast that today was the day. With it being only a short distance up the road f...

The First Time I Tried Writing (And I'm Not Talking ABC's) I don't remember if it was late Winter or early Spring, but I remember it being warm & sunny, one of those first kinds of days after what seemed like a long, cold Winter. It was a Sunday morning. I had just watched an episode on PBS of a British TV version of Little Women. Before this, I'd only known of the book, which I bought at one of the school book fairs. (6th grade and I still have it!) I so adored watching it and seeing my favorite parts of the story, especially Jo, come to life. The day before, my new desk from the used furniture store had been delivered and was still sitting in the living room in front of the large window because Mom hadn't taken apart the old desk to throw out yet. I vaguely remember the desk being brown, but I'm unsure if that memory is correct, and that I was wearing something purple. A sweatshirt? I sat down at the desk and stared out that window, which was open wide. Th...

Introducing Grand Niece Caroline Jo, born at 10:06pm TX time last night, 6lbs 9ozs.

Hubby got laid off today. He's happy. I'm bawling & on the verge of getting sick. If he's crying wolf again (yeah, sometimes he thinks he's funny), I'm going to puke on him and maybe that will straiten out his sense of humor.

Ah Summer. Gotta love it sometimes!

Friday, July 17, 2009 Recently I’ve been journaling a lot. (Notice how I haven’t been blogging a lot? Well, to me I'm not blogging a lot). Here are some excerpts, if you will: Friday 7/10/09 I feel it today. My calling. To write about SH . (A place, not a person). To write about the NJ I know, to write about NJ in the non Soprano's/Real Housewives of NJ way. To write about my love of gardening. To write about my love (compulsion for) of taking pictures. My love for my husband. I feel will be able to write my fiction more freely once I'm done with my story. For better and for worse, I must get it all out. I feel such a desire to take my new camera and take pictures all over town, SH , H & H Woods. I actually FEEL it! My book, the one I proofed this Spring with all the blog posts, maybe I need to work other parts of my story into that, along with the blog posts. To make it a memoir of my life and blogging. Something like that anyway. Not sur...

I actually put a bumper sticker on our suv which says just that. (Hubby shouldn't have pointed it out to me if he didn't want me to start partaking in his bumper sticker fetish. A fellow Marine gave me one which says "I have one of the Few Good Men" for shits & giggles because he knew I'd put it on the suv). Anyhoo, Summer Tomato's are finally coming off the vine. Yay! A little worried I don't see anymore tiny yellow flowers on the plants but I'm going to remain optimistic.

Opened by noon!

After another difficult time waking this morning and an appliance delivery arriving while still in my nightie (Superman ain't got nothing on my clothes changing skills), I ventured to the kitchen for breakfast, but first pulled open the patio door blind and saw this! My Mardi Gras rose bush is blooming again. Now there is a rather large Robin playing the staring game with Pinky kitty through the screen door and what seems to be a heated arguement going on between a Carolina Wren and a Squirrel over on the back fence.

The whir of fans. Cool yet humid Summer air scented with Lavender and Violets. Freshly laundered sheets. Feeling more calm.

Since I literally just whipped this up yesterday afternoon, do everything to your taste ~ I have no precise measurements! Salad: cold mini pasta bow ties (half box) chopped green olives chopped cukes diced red onions chopped mushrooms diced peppers (red, green, yellow, orange) crunched up bacon (12 slices) halved cherry tomato's halved small mozz. cheese balls diced roasted red peppers a few healthy hand fulls of shredded parm. cheese Toss well Dressing: garlic powder white pepper fresh ground pepper parsley flakes basil flakes a generous helping of grated parm. cheese a couple of cap fulls of balsamic vinegar a few heaping cap fulls of red wine vinegar with garlic less than a cap full of extra virgin olive oil 2 tables spoons spicy brown mustard Wisk until well blended, then pour over the salad and mix until everything's coated. Keep in the fridge until serving time.

Have begun once again! Last two weeks were cancelled because of the weather. It has been and is a GLORIOUS day! As close to perfect weather as you can get. Sunny, cotton ball clouds, nice breeze, no humidity and temps not too hot & not too chilly. I had the windows & doors open all day. A bit of heaven on earth. I made a kick ass pasta salad, the best pasta salad I've ever made to go with left over fried chicken for dinner here on the beach. We've got some beers. I've got "The Unlikely Lavender Queen" to read and I've got a hot pretzel. I'm with Vic & a friend is stopping by. Life is good at the moment!

1~ 1st Cosmo bloom 2~ 1st ripening Tomato 3~ Plane that usually goes out & down the beach was flying over head 4~ Zucchini bloom & Parsley 5~ Roses (see those 2 Wolly Aphids?! Little bas...)

They are on 2 of my Rose bushes. And on my Coreopsis/Salvia. The trees (and vines) were trimmed back to the fence on Wednesday and the debris sat all over this area for quite some time before the landscapers cleaned it up. I noticed the nasty white little buggers this morning and immediately did a G search because I didn't know what they were. They tend to infest trees, but also infest bushes and flowers. If they begin to eat what they are infesting, the plant will become distressed and die. Some ways to get rid of Mealy bugs (also known as Woolly Aphids): Use a mixture of warm water and dish soap and warm water. Mix approximately 1 tablespoon of soap per one pint of water. Use a spray bottle to apply the mixture while the water is still warm. The soap will help penetrate the waxy coating and will kill the mealy bugs. Some mealy bugs may be underground when you treat and kill the first batch of bugs, so it's important to retreat about one week after the first treatment. Us...

Glorious evening. Delightfully cool. Wood smoke scents the air. Lightning bugs blink. Moon rise behind cheese cloth clouds. View of it so different here at the coast than up in the mountains. Quiet. Summer or Fall? If I didn't know, I wouldn't care.

A safe & Happy 4th of July all! While we celebrate in our different ways, take time to remember what happened on this day in 1776, the sacrifices made to make our Country and the ones made to keep her safe. (Climbing down from soap box now)

There was a photo with that previous post but I'll be derned if I know what happened to it! I took this one a few minutes ago and it's now official that I'm in love with this place! What a beautiful setting for our 1st evening here, sitting out by the fire, the lake a mere 15 paces from us. I was a little disappointed with not seeing our home town's fireworks last night (since we came up here) and there aren't any fireworks up in this area at all (town's just didn't have the money for it - it's a shame really) but this more than makes up for it!

Despite a few odd mishaps & shit fits (Hubby not mói for once) we arrived safely during a thunderstorm and started settling in. That's mainly what this weekend is about, getting settled in and set up. More shit fits ensued earlier today (again Hubby, not mói) but things are coming together and we're finally starting to relax. It cleared up late this morning, we had a storm this afternoon and now it's breezy & perfect with blue skies & cotton clouds. We'll be up here whenever we can and I'm now really looking forward to it!