What's Up?

It's been a busy week in this part of the world. I had a large play dough order so I decided to make batches of each color instead of filling the order from 3 batches. I ended up making 11 batches of play dough and a large batch of alien guts. Since I'm going into my busy season it should make life a little easier having extras on hand.

My husband is actually on vacation. It's been awhile since he has had any time off so we've been trying to enjoy it. We had incredible weather for the first couple of days so we took advantage of it by going out and about in our neighborhood. I also managed to get my transplanted flowers from the last house in the ground, hopefully they will be okay. A few dried out while they were waiting for their new home. We will see!

Nature Walks

We took advantage of our surroundings the other day(even though it was in the upper 30's/low 40's and a bit nippy!) The little guy and I started out walking a trail at the Mentor Marsh then we moseyed on over to Headlands Beach and finally had lunch at the Holden Arboretum. The pictures uploaded in reverse order, but it was a great day and we look forward to doing it again very soon!

Out My Front Door

Everyone is warning me about my garden. That the deer will destroy it. Well, it's okay, I have decided I like seeing the deer every morning, just like I like seeing an occasional skunk (from a distance) and other wildlife. I guess it is my hierarchy of living things. Like flowers but they aren't as dynamic as animals. Of course it is fall, so maybe my outlook will change after a long , cold winter when I start itching for signs of life. But then maybe a constant feast of wildlife throughout the cold months may take the edge off of my desire to see plant growth. Who knows? We will find out in a short few months!

Living Inside a Painting

Sunrise over Morton Salt plant

I used to work at the Cleveland Museum of Art. Before that, the CMA was one of my favorite places to visit. I have favorite paintings there that I visit every time I go. One of those is
Twilight in the Wilderness, Frederic Edwin Church (American, 1826 - 1900) 1860

[link to Church Painting]

As I drove home from taking my husband to the Park and Ride, I saw a beautiful sunrise forming. It has been a typical gray fall here as of late, which I actually love, especially with the vivid autumn hues of the trees in peak color playing against the dreary sky. However, as I drove toward home I saw beautiful, peachy-pink clouds forming above the horizon. I quickly returned home, ran inside and grabbed the old Nikon. I then proceeded to try to find an ideal place to capture the beauty of the morning sky. Alas, I had to settle for the sky over the Morton Salt plant. (I saw more picturesque locales but no good, safe places to stop the car and since the wee tot was strapped into his car seat, I made the best of what I had to work with) Obviously, the beauty still shows. As I looked at the sunrise, I realized how it feels to live in a painting. There is a great similarity between the Church painting and the photo. Thank Goodness for an artist's eye. I realize the freedom of my artistic license. I naturally delete the sordid details of my view and focus on the beauty of my vision. I also do that with people, although people tend to remind me of their less attractive side so I can't linger in my idealism for very long! I wish everyone the freedom that I felt that morning. Enjoy!

Great New Band: hyperstory

Give a listen! The debut album comes out November 10, 2009

I Love Autumn!

I took my little one out today for a play day since he had been such a trooper over the past 2 months with the move. We started off early and went to the Holden Arboretum we walked around and looked at the pretty trees and then the bug discovered an area where they seat groups before a tour. It is constructed with wood railroad ties built into the earth. The bug just walked back and forth, up and down, over and over and over. After I managed to pull him away from that, I had to supply him with 'cookie straws' (in 2 year old speak, that would be a doughnut) We got back in the car and drove to a little apple orchard a few miles away. We sat down and shared our doughnut and apple fritter and drank our cider and coffee. We went outside and looked at the pretty trees then made our way over to the pumpkins. I had every intention of buying our pumpkins but realized that I needed to have daddy there to pull that off.

The little bug got to play with some little ones his own age, a rarity, unfortunately, when you have a mommy of 'advanced' age. I then had to pull him away when I saw he was getting tired and the older boys were beginning to misbehave (throwing handfuls of rocks on the slides is not something I want to encourage the little one to do) I had to drag him out kicking and screaming (literally!) Luckily when other mommies are around, they understand! He fell asleep within minutes of hitting the car seat. I managed to get an appointment with my hairdresser today, it was a fluke and a very unusual happening, but it has been nearly 2 years since my last cut!! So I let the little guy sleep in the car from the time we left the orchard until we nearly got to the salon (two hours since I had made a trip home between the two spots) It was lucky he got such a good nap because he was so wonderful sitting patiently in his stroller while I had all my hair cut and styled. All in all, it was a very good day that was needed by both of us!

Oh and on another note, the deer have found my daylilies. The buds that were just opening up, mysteriously disappeared. The only thing I'm disappointed with is I didn't get a picture of it!!
I also realized I'd rather have an animal eat my flowers than a rotten kid unceremoniously rip them off as they walked by (yes, it happened often at the other house!)

Hello, Is Anybody Out There?

First off, let me apologize for my absence, I never would have thought I couldn't post or drop cards for as long as it has been! The move isn't complete but the old house chapter is finally coming to a close(thank goodness! When I recover from the move, I will share all the gories) In the meantime, I wanted to share some new images, not all that great (I actually had the date stamp on for nostalgia purposes at the ole' homestead and forgot to turn it off,whoops!) I snapped my first few photos of our neighborhood deer(hopefully they will get more artistic and just plain better as time goes by!), a couple pretty nature shots and the pick-up spot for my husband's bus. A little taste of my new life. Enjoy!