I finally found time to relax yesterday. We slept in late and then I whipped up a delicious omelet, toast with homemade grape jelly, diced fresh mango and apple, brewed two coffees and we headed for the back deck to dine outdoors. This was our first breakfast together out on the deck all summer.
Although the sun was on our backs it was comfortable enough to break bread. The pups were panting so we hauled out the swimming pool and put it up on the deck with us and they splashed around to cool off, occasionally shaking, sending droplets over us for our cooling system. The boats were going in and out, mostly out, and we watched the birds in the bath and a hummingbird flitting about the remains of the summer blooms. Nature was thriving all around us, there was good food and fabulous company with hubby….life doesn’t get much better than this! To bad there wasn't more of it! It seems our lives are all work and no play.....
Saturday night I heard the other half of nature, the predator, carnivore kind. I counted four coyotes but there could have been more. One was howling, one was yelping and two were barking, loud and excited from somewhere on top of the neighbour’s hill. I grabbed a flashlight and shone it along the tree line but no eyes glowed back. I’m curious about nature and had the urge to climb the hill, but I won’t go chasing these guys, giving them something to think about, maybe chasing me home. I only wanted to make sure they were far enough away so taking the pups out to pee would be safe. Hubby being home is a huge help, he can hold the air horn and the bat. I don’t take my eyes off the shadowy bushes around our property for a second and spend my time with one eye on the four doing various squats and the illuminated brush of the flashlight. Of course the pups know when danger is close at hand, they won’t leave the deck and keep their noses high, sniffing and expelling the air as if members of an acapella quartet. Their instincts are better than mine so I pay strict attention and throw on my own maternal intuitions, we make a careful team.
This is the first day I’ve had to relax since hubby came home. I’m not sure what the word relax means at your house but for us there is no sitting around with our feet up. Here relax means away from our daytime jobs but get to work on home maintenance. We aren’t sure how long he has in the province so we have to cram in a season’s worth of work in a very short time. We joke; he’s not here for a long time, just a good time, and maybe not even a good time considering how much work there needs to be done around this place. Imagine your own home and yard, the upkeep you do each summer, imagine none of that happening, all the maintenance piling up like dung behind the barn. Firewood will arrive this week as well. We laugh and say, plenty of time to rest after we’re dead....really funny eh?
So I washed the car for the first time this year and the downstairs windows of the house, sticky from the salt air. Then hubby and I, him doing the cutting and me doing the pointing, trimmed the overhanging birches that have grown out over our back doorstep roof, creating an out of control growth of lichen and curling the shingles, staining the house with mold from the lack of air movement and sunshine to burn it off. So much scrubbing with bleach, oh joy on that job!
Sometimes I picture us living in an apartment, or maybe fantasizing would be a better word. It would suit the comings and goings of our lifestyle. Maybe we could live a little. Live meaning doing fun things. Existing is what we are doing, going from job to job, cleaning, maintaining, all the yucky stuff to protect our property values. Wouldn’t it be nice to unburden ourselves of yard and building maintenance! If all we had to worry about was occasionally pushing and pulling a vacuum around it would be heaven. Instead we see the deteriorating condition of our home, repairs to the rotting wood on the decks and window frames as weather beats them up. All the washing, scraping, priming and painting that needs to be done, continuous upkeep with no end in sight, like running a race without a finish line. Then there’s weeding and pruning or the yard is overrun stealing more and more of the living space. Keeping ahead of the elements is a full time job and a battle than we can’t win.
Wouldn’t life be grand without all those extra worries!!?? But I suppose this is the curse of youth, hard work toward the time when we can relax and enjoy the fruits of our labour, hopefully not from a wheelchair. As we get older, we either bite the bullet and still do the work, or pay to have it done because it never goes away. It’s a vicious circle and a waste of perfectly good energy. Possessions are high maintenance, maybe it’s better to dump it all and live a little.
I brought home my Initially Yours letter “I” the next in line and #17 of the 26 letters of the alphabet. I’m thinking blue willow, several shades of blue and a bit of white. I hoped to start Sunday but good intentions and all I didn’t even take it out of the bag. After working outside until dark then making and eating dinner, I had to do the company paperwork and pay bills so that took me to 3:00 am. So much for a day off…..
I’m now thinking I need to hook a piece for Halloween. Add a bit of zest to the holiday for the shop. A stocking sporting a witch leg clad in striped stockings and the classic buckled shoe. Perfect for the coming Scarecrow Festival this weekend, great to hang on the door, so I’ll have to whip up that design asap. Some witchy green, orange and black will be the palette and I’ll hook it in #7 to make the job a two evening masterpiece. I have Mr. Jack O’Lantern kits to put together and decorate the shop for the season....do some fun stuff for a change!!!!!
Although the sun was on our backs it was comfortable enough to break bread. The pups were panting so we hauled out the swimming pool and put it up on the deck with us and they splashed around to cool off, occasionally shaking, sending droplets over us for our cooling system. The boats were going in and out, mostly out, and we watched the birds in the bath and a hummingbird flitting about the remains of the summer blooms. Nature was thriving all around us, there was good food and fabulous company with hubby….life doesn’t get much better than this! To bad there wasn't more of it! It seems our lives are all work and no play.....
Saturday night I heard the other half of nature, the predator, carnivore kind. I counted four coyotes but there could have been more. One was howling, one was yelping and two were barking, loud and excited from somewhere on top of the neighbour’s hill. I grabbed a flashlight and shone it along the tree line but no eyes glowed back. I’m curious about nature and had the urge to climb the hill, but I won’t go chasing these guys, giving them something to think about, maybe chasing me home. I only wanted to make sure they were far enough away so taking the pups out to pee would be safe. Hubby being home is a huge help, he can hold the air horn and the bat. I don’t take my eyes off the shadowy bushes around our property for a second and spend my time with one eye on the four doing various squats and the illuminated brush of the flashlight. Of course the pups know when danger is close at hand, they won’t leave the deck and keep their noses high, sniffing and expelling the air as if members of an acapella quartet. Their instincts are better than mine so I pay strict attention and throw on my own maternal intuitions, we make a careful team.
This is the first day I’ve had to relax since hubby came home. I’m not sure what the word relax means at your house but for us there is no sitting around with our feet up. Here relax means away from our daytime jobs but get to work on home maintenance. We aren’t sure how long he has in the province so we have to cram in a season’s worth of work in a very short time. We joke; he’s not here for a long time, just a good time, and maybe not even a good time considering how much work there needs to be done around this place. Imagine your own home and yard, the upkeep you do each summer, imagine none of that happening, all the maintenance piling up like dung behind the barn. Firewood will arrive this week as well. We laugh and say, plenty of time to rest after we’re dead....really funny eh?
So I washed the car for the first time this year and the downstairs windows of the house, sticky from the salt air. Then hubby and I, him doing the cutting and me doing the pointing, trimmed the overhanging birches that have grown out over our back doorstep roof, creating an out of control growth of lichen and curling the shingles, staining the house with mold from the lack of air movement and sunshine to burn it off. So much scrubbing with bleach, oh joy on that job!
Sometimes I picture us living in an apartment, or maybe fantasizing would be a better word. It would suit the comings and goings of our lifestyle. Maybe we could live a little. Live meaning doing fun things. Existing is what we are doing, going from job to job, cleaning, maintaining, all the yucky stuff to protect our property values. Wouldn’t it be nice to unburden ourselves of yard and building maintenance! If all we had to worry about was occasionally pushing and pulling a vacuum around it would be heaven. Instead we see the deteriorating condition of our home, repairs to the rotting wood on the decks and window frames as weather beats them up. All the washing, scraping, priming and painting that needs to be done, continuous upkeep with no end in sight, like running a race without a finish line. Then there’s weeding and pruning or the yard is overrun stealing more and more of the living space. Keeping ahead of the elements is a full time job and a battle than we can’t win.
Wouldn’t life be grand without all those extra worries!!?? But I suppose this is the curse of youth, hard work toward the time when we can relax and enjoy the fruits of our labour, hopefully not from a wheelchair. As we get older, we either bite the bullet and still do the work, or pay to have it done because it never goes away. It’s a vicious circle and a waste of perfectly good energy. Possessions are high maintenance, maybe it’s better to dump it all and live a little.
I brought home my Initially Yours letter “I” the next in line and #17 of the 26 letters of the alphabet. I’m thinking blue willow, several shades of blue and a bit of white. I hoped to start Sunday but good intentions and all I didn’t even take it out of the bag. After working outside until dark then making and eating dinner, I had to do the company paperwork and pay bills so that took me to 3:00 am. So much for a day off…..
I’m now thinking I need to hook a piece for Halloween. Add a bit of zest to the holiday for the shop. A stocking sporting a witch leg clad in striped stockings and the classic buckled shoe. Perfect for the coming Scarecrow Festival this weekend, great to hang on the door, so I’ll have to whip up that design asap. Some witchy green, orange and black will be the palette and I’ll hook it in #7 to make the job a two evening masterpiece. I have Mr. Jack O’Lantern kits to put together and decorate the shop for the season....do some fun stuff for a change!!!!!
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