Three Random Pictures

There will be no explanation for these because Jube is even now screaming at the top of his lungs. Later!

Snails, Flowers, and Jube

This was my picture of the snail. Dru has closer ups on his blog.

It was a traumatic morning for the snail.

Ooooo!

 

Look Mom, I found a flower!

More flowers. A flower is judged by how well it will spin between your finger and thumb.

The yellow flower wins.

Not an Angel

This child woke up at six o'clock this morning. I tried to put him back to bed. I worked at it for a whole hour. The only thing that happened was that he hollared so the neighbors could hear him. Pii Phone said so this morning when she came down and visited with the child through the gate. I put him on his dad's shoulders when I got tired of his whining. Once he finally was allowed up, all he wanted was to be held. He's asleep now. Stinker.

So Far Today…

I watched my baby toddle across the yard in his bare feet.

I did the dishes.

I prayed with my man.

I showed the neighbor girl how to make cookies.

I changed the sweeper bag and vacuumed my main floors.

I tidied upstairs.

I stumbled through two pages of Thai reading to my patient husband.

I journaled and read my Bible.

I planted some of my seeds from Mom.

I used up the bag of grass clippings from the last mowing for mulch.

So far, today has been a good Monday—which says something. Sunday was truly a day of rest for a change.

It’s cool outside and there is a very substantial cloud cover. It will probably rain, and Pii Phone says that it’s cold season now.

I am happy.

I’m the Queen, or Not…

Today I get to be the queen. A queen on the day before her birthday, no less. It’s the day before the queen’s birthday that she looks forward to. The day after her birthday is the day that she has to go to all the high society parties in her honor and sit through endless formalities in her honor. But on the day before her birthday she gets to do what she wants, however she wants it.

I want my breakfast in bed at seven thirty on a silver tray. Served with hot garden tea out of very pretty tea things. Then I shall have a shower, no a bath in the hot tub, and then I shall get dressed in my perfectly fitting most comfortable, me-ish , clothing and go down for my interview with the housekeeper whom I will instruct to clean the whole castle from top to bottom just so-so. (She of course delegates to the servants.) Then I go to visit the cook in the huge kitchen. (On my last birthday I gave the cook the day off and cooked myself just for fun. But she made me do all the dishes then too, so I decided that this birthday I was going to do something different.) We menu plan for the week and I give her a check for a monstrous amount and say, “Buy what you need and don’t be stingy.”

I then go visit the nurse maid and my son. The nurse maid is dismissed for an hour and I spend a nice happy visit with my already bathed and fresh son.

Then I go out to the garden and find the gardener and tell him that the lawn simply must be mowed this weekend and please make sure my mother’s seeds from the kingdom across the sea get planted today. And he smiles at me fondly and says, “Yes ma’am, as you wish ma’am,” and gets busy. Because all the servants love me of course. As I stroll out to the carriage waiting for me I stop to admire the huge goldfish in the pond.

And then I go shopping. I suppose that most queens don’t go shopping like this one does. But my whole kingdom knows I enjoy shopping so they indulge me. Of course, I never allow anyone to give back any change, so they all love it when I come shopping. Today I am buying shoes. Any shoes I like and at least three pairs. And if I get tired of shoes I shall look at purses. Sometime during the day I shall bump into a good friend from olden days, or a sister, and we shall finish the trip together, complete with coffee shops and expensive dining experiences. Towards supper time I shall get in my carriage and speed home to spend prepare for my evening with the king.

And I’m not sure what the king and I shall do together but we shall enjoy ourselves immensely.

Thank you for visiting my castle.

What? You mean I have to do my own cleaning, cooking, and gardening today? And be my own nursemaid? Fine, see if I ever invite you to my castle again! Oh, and you would have to mention that it’s the king’s birthday tomorrow, not mine. Fine, I’m out of here…

Odd Memories

I keep thinking about the days of the squirrels in our house. So today I sat down and wrote about it. Here it is. Forgive me for any typos or grammatical errors. I’m quite tired and can’t quite see straight. But here it is.

Squirrels in the Stone House

The first encounter took place between Jenny and the squirrel.  Jenny and I had bravely decided to sleep in the basement on the bed that for some reason or other was set up in the big unfinished part of the basement. We left the washroom light on because the basement really is dark and scary at night. In the middle of the night I was rudely awakened by Jenny screaming and thrashing around in the bed. I wasn’t sure what all the excitement was about but I figured I’d better scream too. Funny what happens to our logic under those kinds of circumstances at that time of the night. So there we clung to each other shrieking. After a bit I saw a small animal disappear into the washroom. Jenny then informed me that it was that animal that had awakened her –it had been “huffling” around under the blankets.

Mom and Dad heard us squalling two stories up and to this day Clark regrets that he didn’t hear it from the next room. Huh, missed that party I guess. Anyway, Mom met us upstairs and tucked us into our normal, much safer bed. But we still couldn’t figure out what the critter was. It looked like a squirrel to me, but it was too small.

A week or so later Mom and Dad discovered that the beast was a flying squirrel. They caught him playing in the coats hanging under the steps.

Over this time we also had borders living out in what is now called “the boys’ cabin.” Dad discovered that they could put rat poisoning in the gap between the upstairs floor and the living room ceiling then shine a flashlight down the register and watch the squirrels eat. Jenny and I were tucked in bed one night and the guys were watching them through the register in the hall. All we could see of the fun was one of their back ends sticking into our bedroom through the open door. As little girls, we made hay on the fun possibilities before us—it was one of the borders we never really learned to know or like very well. But we never would have dared to actually do anything. We sure had a nice giggle party though.

The squirrels always stank terribly when they died in the walls—sometimes to the point of causing occupants to move out of their bedrooms for a while. Dreadful, I assure you.

We were headed out to PA for Lorinda’s wedding at five o’clock in the morning when anther squirrel made its appearance in the living room. Dad roared around with a broom after it for a while but gave up and somehow the squirrel disappeared and that left puzzlement in my mind.

Once we rid ourselves of the flying squirrels, the regular squirrels migrated inside to spend the winter. Mom was tucking us into bed one night when I had to run to the bathroom downstairs one last time. I encountered a squirrel under the dining room table, and being and excitable adolescent at the time, jumped and hollered—not once, but twice. When I got back upstairs and told Mom what I’d seen she said, “I figured, but why two shrieks?” I don’t know. I just remember it didn’t feel “finished” somehow after the first one.

We watched a mama squirrel mover her babies out of the house one spring. She brought them down the rocks outside on the dining room window sill. Mom didn’t have the heart to shoot them. Dad, of course, wondered why she didn’t. The logic was, “she was moving out anyway.”

Today’s Mess

This is why people use baby powder rather than the real ant poisoning to keep critters out of their cabinets.

 

At least he’s happy and healthy again. I love my baby! He’s decided he can walk now too. He’ll be a year old on Sunday and I can hardly believe it.