Such A Peaceful Moment

When I've been having 'one of those days' and I'm at my very wits end,what you see in this photo from Tallulah is what I try really hard to visualize in my minds eye.




I imagine I'm in Ludington, Michigan, right on the shores of beautiful Lake Michigan. It's a pleasantly warm evening, a gentle breeze is blowing and the sun is working it's way down.

I'll tell you, it never fails to calm me down and give me hope. Sometimes, I even feel the breeze blowing my hair away from my face, sometimes I even smell the water.

I bet you have a favorite place too. And sometimes, when things are tight, if you go there in your head I betcha you'll feel better, at least for a moment or two. And sometimes that's all it takes to turn a day around.

Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.

Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

We All Got Stuff To Do

Summer is the time for home improvement projects everywhere, I guess. At least it is on my street.

You figure I'm home all the time waiting to hear from you (hint! hint! 248-615-1300) so I see and hear my neighbors when they're working outside. And don't even say 'but Tawny, I tried calling you last week and your machine said you were out shopping!’ Even the most devout of people who work from home have to leave at least occasionally to restock their larder (smile).

The big thing, at least right now, seems to be landscaping. The folks to the left of me ripped out all of their shrubs. The guy from across the street kitty corner pulled the stumps out with a chain attached to his truck. Then those neighbors bought new trees--one of them some odd looking artsy-fartsy kind of tree that, surprisingly to me, looks great--some shrubs, and about a gazllion huge Hosta plants. I'll tell you, the front of their house looks like it could be in Better Homes and Gardens.

The neighbors down and across the street had a contractor come in and pull out all of their cement driveway all the way back to their garage. It'll be a day or two before they get 'whatever' back in its place. I'm assuming it won't be concrete just because theirs wasn't cracked or broke or anything. It looked great.

Speaking of which, I wish I'd thought to ask them if I could have their old concrete driveway. Why? Because mine is in disrepair. Cracks and buckles abound. I've gone ahead and sealed them with some stuff, but new (or new to me) would look nicer.

Even in my garage the floor is cracked and buckled. Again, I've sealed it and it's okay, but it's not pretty.

Halfway down the block the elderly gentleman who lives there just finished his new garage. He had one that was attached to his house by a breezeway, but apparently he wanted bigger and better because he knocked the old one down, tore off the breezeway and rebuilt in the backyard. And it's gorgeous! He makes furniture in his spare time now that he's retired and he's built one heck of a nice workshop.

My garage, all two and a half cars of it, isn't used as a garage. It's a workout room, a gym, filled with all sorts of gym equipment I've picked up at stores and garage sales. All the things you would normally store in a garage--lawn mower, snow blower, shovels, hoses, etc.--reside in two sheds in my backyard.

Yes, I said two sheds. One of them houses the lawn furniture in the winter.

I have a few things to do here myself this summer. The trim on the house needs to be repainted, the wood shed needs painting again, the trees in the backyard could stand a pruning of dead branches, etc. And my kitchen is in dire need of a new paint job and a new garbage disposal. And a new sink and counter tops sure wouldn't hurt. Not granite though. I'm good with Formica.

I'll bet you have your summer work projects cut out for you, too. Hope you get yours all done.

Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

And Another One Bites The Dust

I've been watching the reality TV show Jon and Kate Plus Eight, on TLC, for years, ever since it debuted. Jon and Kate's adorable little children hooked me. I tune in each week to get a little dose of sunshine in my day.

I don't know if I ever mentioned I was a fan of the show to you or not. I'm not one to critique TV shows, I don't do it very well. For the most part, with TV and movies, I can only say that I do or I don't like it. Nothing technical, just a yay or a nay.

With TV shows it's all actors and actresses playing roles. Just because, let's say, Susie Q. Moore plays a waitress in a show, which does not mean that she's really a waitress in real life.

But Jon and Kate Plus Eight are a real family living in Pennsylvania with eight children. One set of twin girls and one set of sextuplets, three boys and three girls.

You'd just about have to be living on the moon not to know that Jon and Kate have been having marital problems. Their troubles have been on the cover of numerous magazines at the checkout aisles of grocery stores and drugstores. It's been mentioned as part of the daily news on local and national TV stations. Even if you've never watched their show, it would be nearly impossible not to be aware of what's going on with them.

None of their personal business is any of my business. I just know that the kids are adorable and I watch the show each week.

This past Monday, at the end of the show, it was announced that Jon and Kate have filed for divorce after ten years of marriage.

Again, it's none of my business.

But I'm saddened by it. Why? Because I know that the children are going to be impacted by their parents decision. Good or bad, their little lives are never going to be the same. No matter how much their parents will try to keep life 'normal' for them, it won't be. For example, Dad isn't going to be living in the same house with them. Sure, he'll still see them. But it's not the same. He'll get busy with a new place to live, a new job, a girlfriend. Maybe he'll remarry and have more kids. He'll have a whole other life.

Initially I'll bet the show was designed to let us see a real family living a real life, at least as real as life could be while under the scrutiny of a TV crew with cameras and lights.

Now it appears that we'll see a real family dealing with the heartbreak of divorce.

Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

Some People Will Do Anything To Get A Good Photo

Like I was saying about digital cameras yesterday, you can take some killer photos with them. And once that shutterbug bites you, well, what's a little risk if it culminates in a great photo?

Tallulah, who is no slouch when it comes to putting herself in the middle of a potentially risky situation when trying to capture 'the shot', sent me this one of someone else with the same mindset.




I get the shudders just looking at that photo, much less thinking about being in his spot. As clumsy as I am, I'd fall off the edge.

Now as much as I like ducks and geese (and other assorted small wildlife), unlike Tallulah, who took these next three photos, I would never ever never get this close to a Mama Goose and her sweet little brood. Why? Because geese bite! And with my luck Mama would think I was plotting to goose-nap one of her babies.








But they are good photos, aren't they? The babies look adorable.

HSM has graciously offered to come over as soon as she has some free time and take some shots of 'my world' so I can share them with you. You know, all the things/places I talk about here in town. It's about time you got a look at them without having to plop down for a plane ticket to come see them yourself.

Yes, she knows I'm looking to buy a digital camera, but she also knows I move as slow as molasses when it comes to making a big purchase. This way she can take the photos, load them into her computer, then email them to me and you won't be waiting for months as I evaluate this camera against that camera ad nauseum (smile).

Hope you're having a good day. It's hot as blazes here!

Be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com

The Things You See When You Don't Have A Camera Handy

Some years back I bought a really nice (to me) camera. It has zoom capabilities and takes the clearest of pictures. Because I bought it so many years ago, it uses film. And that's never been a drawback for me until now.

I was always more than content to shoot photos, drop the film off at the drugstore and pick up the final product an hour later. Then it was just a matter of mailing or handing out the photos. No big deal.

But now that I have this blog there are so many things I'd like to show you and I have no easy way to do it.

Sure, I could go the film route. Then take the processed photos over to HSM's house and have her scan them into her computer. Then she could email me the scanned photos. Then I could email them to TWG and have him insert them in to the blog. That's doable, but time consuming.

I've been looking at digital cameras at the warehouse stores---Costco and Sam's Club---and reading about them online. I'm trying to determine what I want and need in a camera before I take the big step and purchase one. Hopefully I'll have it all figured out soon.

In the meantime, I spent most of yesterday out in my backyard. It's like a Shangri-La back there. Lots of shade trees and more birds and assorted wild life than you could shake a stick at!

I was wishing for a digital camera big time yesterday. There was a woodpecker (no, he didn't look a thing like Woody!) busy pecking away in one of the trees. I would have liked to have shown him to you. And there were squirrels, too. Black ones and brown ones, and one hybrid that was black with a brown tail! A bunch of chipmunks, as well. They were jamming so many peanuts into their mouths it was unbelievable.

Unfortunately I don't have any photos of that to show you today, but I do have photos of those purses I was telling you about a few months ago, the ones I crocheted for HSM.

This first one, I call it the Good 'n Plenty purse because it looks like a box of that candy. All bright pink and black. Snazzy bright pink handles on it, too.




This second one is multi-colored. It goes with everything (smile). On the down side it has a hokey handle. Looks sort of retro, hippie-ish.





Okay, that's it from here for today. You be good and be careful, take care, stay strong.


Hugs, Tawny
www.tawnyford.com