August is Here & We Have a Bit of Rain

New plants in my Zen garden

Fairy mushrooms sprouted in my raised beds. They only last a day.

It is a little wet and rainy out and I'm really enjoying my panoramic view. I love it that my garden is getting rain. California is having a major drought so all rain is good rain in my book. Hopefully in a week or two, new desert flowers will be blooming as well. They are little time capsules, just waiting for the right moisture to bloom.

I'm almost done reading a Winter's Tale by Mark Helprin. I can't believe it is taking me so long as he is an excellent writer and well worth the effort of reading.

Mostly I've been swamped with the website giveit100.com. I'm doing a huge self-improvement project which has been taking over my life.

My daughter gifted me with the book the Calorie Myth by Jonathan Bailor. As soon as I'm done with the other book, it's next. I put on 12 pounds while on vacation. Egads!

I just hypnotized someone in a chat room and he was so impressed he sent me money. Woot!

Our neighbors came back from vacation and also paid us for watching their cats and dogs and watering everything. Oh and chickens. We had to feed and water the 2 chickens.

Speaking of chickens, ours no longer look like pullets. They are getting fluffy and making bocking sounds. Bock bock. They are munching on live meal worms too. Boy they love those things. I hold one outside the chicken wire so they can reach through and grab one without taking my finger off.

I'm also making a country musical instrument called a washboard. Yes, I'm turning into a hillbilly. And I don't care.

So I just made my to-do list and was ready to dive in when my boyfriend said he is off to Victorville to get things for the garden. So yay! I want to go of course. I'll try to do the dishes first though, because usually by the time we get home I'm too tired.

I also started a Manga style painting this morning of a cat girl, when the rain started. So I put it away for now. I need to clean off my table in my container studio, so I can paint inside in bad weather. During the heat of the day it is way too hot in there to paint so I haven't worried about it much. But if I'd kept it clean, I'd be painting right now. Just one more way I keep getting in my own way.

I will still have all the specialized blogs, but I'll do my best to make this one a priority, because I don't always have time to itemize every topic into the right blog.

Washboard DIY

Musings on Life and Veteran's Day

I wrote this on Facebook and decided to repost it here so I don't lose track of it.

I just want to take a pause today. Trying to survive I have an iron in many a fire, and in a way I feel like I'm being drawn and quartered. Yesterday I sat in my zen garden so I could have a moment alone. A big black raven flew by and I could hear its wings beating against the air.

I have a few energy vampires in my life. One is innocent enough but for some reason she wants to wedge herself into my life. And the other is just a brat, demanding and whining until I can hardly bear him. What kind of person do I need to evolve into to attract the kind of people I want and need in my life? I think I need mentors, but I don't need micro-managers.

I also just unfriended someone who believes our country should be government and religion all melted into one big lump of glass. What happened to the separation of church and state? Is that no longer a valued truth? As we approach Veteran's Day, I ponder how they fought so we could have freedom, including freedom of religion. That means we can't meld our government into 'God and Country' when people have the freedom to believe in various forms of god or to not believe in god or to be undecided. Or to put it bluntly 'when government and religion are combined, people get burned at the stake.'

The foothills are glorious today. As soon as the chill is off the air, I plan to sit and gaze at the beauty of nature, and realize I belong to the Earth, not the other way around.

Lifestyle While Traveling

Bear with me. I'm really sleepy right now but haven't had time to post in days, so I wanted to do an entry.

I'm still traveling, living on the generosity of family and friends. It's been lovely but taxing. I'm trying to fit into the lifestyles of others. I miss my own schedule. But the weather has been great and I've spent a lot of time in parks. I've also gotten to watch movies and play computer games. I saw the new Lone Ranger movie. I liked it but since it just came out I don't want to spoil the plot for anyone.

Back home, my boyfriend found my ankh under the passenger seat. I had about given up on ever finding it again, so I'm happy about that. Now if only I could find my two missing library books before the fines get too high. Where could they be? So frustrating. It's a tiny house. How do we keep losing things in it?

I've been watching art journal DIY videos. I just don't seem to have the energy to work in my long hand journal lately. I have it sitting right next to me on a TV tray, but once the Internet goes on, I can't tear myself away from the magic box.

Driving home yesterday I spotted a small deer. It's the first and only one I've seen on this trip. We took a walk along a country lane last night and I saw a bunch of grapes growing amidst pear trees. Lovely.

My daughter is on the Paleo diet so I've gotten to experience some new recipes. I liked most of them. I couldn't quite get used to pureed broccoli though. The salmon was great. And the spaghetti squash with spaghetti sauce on it wasn't too bad.

The sleepiness is starting to overwhelm me.

Type more another day.

Firewood and Old Biddies

I think being on Pinterest too much is going to make my head explode. I'm at the library. Three old women were all trying to use the computer next to me at the same time, chattering away the whole time with no regard for anyone around them. The oldest one kept losing the library card. The younger one kept trying to explain to the other two how the Internet works. It was kinda funny in a sit-com sort of way. I can just see the Golden Girls doing an episode like that.  We need a version of the Big Bang Theory where all the leading characters are over 50.

I think spring is on the way. The birds in the yard are building nests. I saw a raven carrying a twig and a dove carrying straw. And the male quail are chasing the female quail around the yard. It's still cold enough to need firewood at night though. So far we've gotten by with free firewood. I'm just hoping it lasts until the cold weather quits freezing the yard up.Give it six months and I'll be whining about how horribly hot it is. I'm really not sure I'm a desert person. A dessert person maybe. Pass the cake.

Next Mood Swing Is In Three Minutes

Today my emotions are all over the place. Thrilled that my daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby girl on the 4th. Anxious because so many bills are due today and we paid them by the skin of our teeth. Happy because I just rewarded my own hard work by buying an ankh from Etsy. I've searched for a long time for an ankh I liked. It's the Egyptian symbol of eternal life. Tired because I still have this cough and congestion. Ecstatic because I just found out I can handle the Second Life game with my broadband connection when I didn't think I'd be able to. Frustrated because I haven't been well enough to look for more work or do much work in my studio. Today was definitely a mixed bag of blessings.