WHAT TO DO ON A VERY RAINNY DAY...

The weather is really crappy with heavy rain today and my arthritic shoulder is acting up of course. I took this picture through my dirty window and I'm surprised how clear it is. It's been raining cats and dogs on and off all day. I'm not sure why those shovels are on the deck but I wasn't about to outside to put them away.

  I decided to bake the banana bread for my hubby that I had planned yesterday but didn't got time to do.
I had frozen over ripe bananas in the freezer that I save just for this purpose. It took 3 medium size bananas to make a cup of puree banana. My husband sampled it with a fresh cup of tea and said that it was good. I'll have to take his word for it because I haven't tested yet.  It's still warm.

I sure hope that all my Blogger friends and everyone is somewhere safe and dry today.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving some comments.  JB

SOMEONE IS SOWING SEEDS FOR ME

I thought that I would share my serendipity pumpkin picture with you. I haven't planted pumpkins seeds for years as they take way too much space in my garden and every year I  get a pumpkin or two at the store for Halloween. Last year I bought 5 or 6 and gave some away to my grand kids to carve and I kept one to decorate my front step. When I was done with it I threw it in the compost near the back of the deck. Would you look at how big it got....

I figure that when I emptied my compost some of the pumpkin seeds must have fell on the side or the squirrels might have planted them there. I know that some birds or animal planted small sunflowers seeds from my bird feeders into my daylilly flower bed this year so now I also have serendipity sunflowers.

Here is one small pumpkin and I can see others  growing under the foliage.

Another view from the upper deck. Even though I pruned lots of stems it's still sending some everywhere. I guess that perhaps, I will not need to spend any money for my pumpkins this year. And that's a good thing like Martha Stewart would say...

One of the smallest single sunflower that got chewed up by earwigs I presume.

Now I never saw such small sunflowers and the bee was small too.. These are about only 15 inches high. Isn't this a beauty?

This one was  matured and was being eaten by something.

Thanks for dropping by and leaving a message. I hope that all my blogger friends and their love ones are ready for Irene and are keeping safe.  My prayers are with you.  JB

I WAS MUGGED IN MY OWN FRONT YARD BY...

I wonder how many of you ever got attacked by your own garbage can.
Well I'm embarrassed to say but I fell victim  to this attack last Thursday morning and although I'm healing quite fast, thankfully I'm still sporting tell tale bruises on my face and knee. I got a black eye and a black bruise on the side of my left chin and my right knee. All this happened because.... well... my hubby didn't put the garbage out last Thursday morning like he was supposed to do and I was late for my barn chores as I hadn't slept much the night before because of shoulder pain and humidity and heat. I was so very tired that morning to begin with.

I proceeded to remedy the situation and since I was late I decided that since there was very little garbage in our huge Dolly garbage can that I simply would put the recycle bin on top of the open dolly and push it down the slopping drive way saving myself a trip.

When I got to the bottom of the slope and into the tall wet grass, my foot must have hit the open cover hanging down and the dolly went on it's side with me plunging face first in the hard cover. It could have been worst since I have osteoporosis, yeah...  All this happened so quick and I landed my butts in the very wet grass and went to the barn with a wet ass.  To make matters worst the Baptism was just a few days away and I didn't want to ruin my grandson's baptism pictures. I had to buy some makeup to try to cover my bruises and I hate wearing makeup because it feels awful on my sweaty skin in the heat.

I've been taking some pictures of the remaining flowers yesterday. My grass is uncut and the weeds have taken over and I'm tired of the whole mess like many of you.  That's why God in his wisdom gave us Fall...

One lone little day lilly left. Most of the weeds are forget-me-not that self seeded. I'll have to pull them out.

My poor tomatoes got hit  real bad with the blight this year, and my beans are about finished. everything else is growing well.

Thank God for late bloomers, some of my day lilies  are still blooming and some are done blooming.

I'm having difficulty uploading photos at the moment so I'm going to stop before something else happens to my blog.  Thanks for dropping in and leaving a comment. Have a great weekend.  JB

MY ARTIST DAUGHTER WAS PUBLISHED...

I thought that I would share a proud moment with you.

My daughter Jackie is an artist and she is teaching at the NEW BRUNSWICK COLLEGE OF CRAFT AND DESIGN in Fredericton.  She is a master weaver and also spins and dyes her own yarn which she sells.

 When she was asked to submit some felted pieces for a book  called 500 FELT OBJECTS she did and because there were so many submissions she wasn't sure that her pieces would be accepted but two of her pieces were accepted. Maybe she can add a comment to let us know how many objects were submitted and who was publishing this book.

Sorry for the bad pictures. We were racing for time before leaving for James' baptism.

The red vessel on the right is adorned with black beads.

This is her second vessel  called Buoy which is also felted and adorned with beads.

Sorry for not having more information as I never saw the book until she was at the door leaving.

Thanks for stopping by and leaving a comment.

JAMES'S BAPTISM

James is all dressed up for his baptism and and is wondering what the fuss is all about.
My daughter wanted to have her baby baptized here at our church because more family could attend.

Here is Mom and dad posing with a happy little boy.

Getting ready for the ride in the car to go to church.

There is a very tired me sitting next to my daughter.

He was good all through mass and the baptism ceremony and was so cooperative.

There was a celebration with BBQ and so much food and cake at the church hall for everyone. I'm not showing pictures of everyone who was there.

Thanks for visiting my blog and leaving a comment.

A COW ON THE LOOSE AND AN ABANDONED NEW BORN KITTEN.

I checked my calendar and it's been 24 days since my last post and life hasn't slowed down for me but is going a bit faster... go figure....

It's been raining just about every day here but today was exceptionally beautiful with clear blue skies and warm sunshine.

I've been busy with the baby here and work but gardening and yard work has been neglected  because of the rain. Everything is growing so fast, the grass and the weeds and the cucumbers.

I wanted to post before this but by the time I sit at the computer I'm dead on my feet and brain dead too and I also have many more excuses... but here I am this evening...

A few weeks ago I got a parcel in the mail that was so well wrapped it took me for ever to open it and inside I found this cutest little cow pitcher pin cushion  made by Doris-Ann Savoie of  THE  WOOL GARDEN SELLING BLOG. 

Thank you so much Doris-Ann for your thoughtfulness. Sorry it took me so long to find the time to settle down to post a picture. What a cute pin cushion.

You can visit her blog by clicking on THE WOOL GARDEN SELLING BLOG above and see other creative project handmade by Doris-Ann.  Thanks again Doris-Ann, it will go in my rug hooking room.

Last Saturday when I came to work at the barn I found a tiny new born kitten that was just left on the cold cement floor  and it was in a wet pool and still had the placenta attached. I scooped it off the dirty floor without touching it and deposited it in a box with hay that was already there. All the barn cats came to check it out and one by one  they seemed to be scared of it as they all acted funny. I had an expectant mother cat but she was still very pregnant and refused to even sniff it. She had her kittens about three or four days after and hid her kittens up in the hay loft.

I let it at the barn as I thought that a stray cat left her there and would return but in the morning I found the tiny kitten had climbed out of the box and had travelled about eight feet from his box in the cow holding area that had wet manure on the floor but it was in a dry area thankfully. It was meowing loudly.

 I cut out the umbilical with a pair of scissors because it got itself tangled in the cord. I found out that it was a female and I fed her a tiny bit of warm cow milk with a syringe because I didn't know what to do with it. She was cold and still dirty and I wrapped her in a clean rag, put her in a small bucket and took her home and bathed her with warm running under a gentle stream and wrapped her in a dry warm face cloth.

I checked on the internet to find out how to care for an abandoned new born kitten and followed their instructions and I was planning to take her to the vet in the morning to buy some kitten milk formula and bottle and nipple.

 My daughter  cut off the luer-lok  excess from the syringe and it made it easier for the kitten to suck milk, she even  gave me some warm breast milk to give to the kitten as cow milk is too hard on their digestive system. I even wipe her tiny behind with a kleenex to stimulate her to pee and poop like they instruct us to do because new born kitten cannot pee and poop by themselves. The mother usually lick them to make them pee and poop.

I kept the kitten warm on my belly when I was reading my book THE HELP and I even took her to bed with me, in a box with warm towels and a heated Magic Bag wrapped in towels to keep her warm as baby kittens can't keep warm by themselves. I woke up every two hours to feed it a tiny bit of warm breast milk during the night  and at 4:30 am  when my alarm rang I saw that she was  barely moving when I picked her up so I skipped that feeding and by morning  she was dead the poor little thing. I felt so bad and wish that I would have brought her home right away instead of leaving her at the barn all night. Now I know how to care for an abandoned kitten. It's not easy though.

I was so very  tired the next morning and feeling pretty bad but it had only a 50% chance of surviving the first two weeks and because she spent all that time being cold and hungry her chances of survival were slim.  Now I have new admiration for a mother cat with a litter of new born kittens. It's really demanding work. At least she did not died without love and care.

Thanks for visiting and leaving a comment.  JB