Outside My Window ~ 8.22.10

Outside My Window…is a mostly cloudy morning, 81ºF with 85% humidity at 9:45 this morning.  It feels like 88ºF outside when you factor in the heat index.  Yuk!  This is typically one of those mornings when you walk outside it feels as if someone has thrown a wet blanket over you and you began to sweat immediately.  As I said….yuk!   We have a chance today of scattered thunderstorms ~ some of which could be severe.  This type of forecast is normal if we have a hot and humid day.  Of course you think rain will cool you off….not so much around here.  It can rain, and then the sun will come out and turn the place into a steam bath.  I can officially say, I’m over summer.  It’s been hot….it’s been humid…we have had little rain….let us move on to fall please.  I know, I know…..I will be wishing for this heat when the winter cold comes ~ but right now, I’m so very tired of this heat.  It has been a hot summer here folks.

I am thinking…about possibly trying to can some green beans this year.  Not a whole lot mind you…..I don’t have the space to store too many canned goods.  I’m trying to come up with different ways I can save on my food bill and that was an idea that sounded possible.  I understand canned goods last longer than frozen and since I don’t have a huge freezer, that would be the way to go I believe.  We will see….

I am thankful for…the headaches that plagued me the first of last week have left the building….or maybe I should say my brain.  It started out as a slight pain on Monday…worse on Tuesday…and it finally crippled me on Wednesday when the intense pain woke me from a sound sleep very early in the morning.  It is never a good thing when a headache wakes you.  Happily, all has been well since then.  🙂

From the kitchen…is a pot of French vanilla coffee and last night dinner dishes in the sink.  Groan…I don’t know why I take the time to stack them but not the time to wash them.  It always seems like a good idea that evening ~ fresh start on the day will make me want to do the dishes.  It never works out that way and you would think I would learn that by now….but I don’t.  Along with that, I have some fresh veggies I picked up at the Farmer’s Market yesterday.  I also picked up some green peanuts so I could make boiled peanuts today.  I got a taste of them when I went to see my parents earlier this month in South Carolina and have wanted some more ever since.  Boiled peanuts are a Southern treat not generally found in my area.  I may be able to find them in the more rural outlying areas, but as far as my city…not so much.  I also checked out another place on the peninsula that I have heard about for years and years and never really looked at.  It is a grocery store called The Farmer’s Market, but one that is open year round like other commercial stores.  The word on this place is they sell the best meats in the area…the best.  I never really checked out the place because of my inability to eat most meat until this past spring but decided to do so yesterday ~ just to see if the stories were true.  They did not lie…a huge display of meats with many people gathered around making their selections.  All kinds….all cuts….and very, very reasonable prices.  I was surprised to see how reasonable actually.  But my find of the day ~ a special, get it while you can ~ beef tenderloin at $3.99 a pound.   I could not believe that of all days I decided to stop into this place, there was the heaven on earth of meats on sale for an unbelievable price!!  Ever since I enjoyed this delicacy at my parents house, I have lusted after this cut of meat in the stores I visited.  I have stared longingly into the meat case at the strange, almost oblong shaped package.  And while I wanted to enjoy one, if you have priced them yourselves, you know this isn’t a cheap cut of beef so I would always walk away empty handed.  When I walked up to the special cooler with several folks gathered around and saw what they were snagging up, the heavens opened and the angels sang.  Of course I bought one…not huge, but I got one!  😀

I am creating…a few different things at the moment.  I have made progress on the wicker trunk and should finish that up very soon ~ if I can decide on which fabric I want to line the thing with.  It will definitely be fabric, no more plastic liner.  I think I’m ready to pull out my Serge sewing machine and try an idea out on it.  I purchased it years ago, but haven’t used it all that much ~ time to break it in good.

I am going…work on my photos from my recent trip to Catawba.  I have had so many other things happening I haven’t had the opportunity to edit those photographs.  I was lovingly told by someone near and dear to me that it wouldn’t take so long if I didn’t take so many.   She does have a point, but I’m addicted to my camera so that would never work.  🙂

I am reading…mostly the blogs I visit on a regular basis ~ but that hasn’t been so regular lately and I seem to be playing catch up more often than not which makes commenting a bit late.  

I am hoping…that my niece going back to college and my two nieces just starting college this year all have an amazing year.  And to my family members who are watching their little girls take these big steps toward adulthood and independence…I’m right there with you.  When did our babies get all grown up??   I got all weepy feeling when I saw my niece yesterday…it doesn’t seem that long ago I went to meet her for the first time at the hospital after she was born.

I am hearing…the ticking of my many clocks….the sound of the coffee maker gurgling a new pot of coffee because the first one I made, well I forgot to dump the old from yesterday and chaos ensued when the pot started to overflow because you can’t leave coffee in a coffee pot and then add enough water to make another full pot without chaos …. and clean up.  But I have it together now and coffee should be forthcoming ~ very soon I hope.  And my wind chimes singing to me outside.  Of course, that is in large part to the winds that are preceding these rather large and ominous looking storm clouds that are building.

Around the house…dishes (groan)…….laundry ~ of course, it multiplies like rabbits if left unattended too long….debris from my craft projects that I need to gather up.

Plans for the week include…editing photos from my recent trip to Catawba……uploading a bunch of photos for prints…..working on several ongoing projects…..and not too much more that I can think about right now. 

One of my favorite things…being able to scratch things off my “to do” list.  I know, kind of an odd favorite thing…but a dwindling to do list is one of my favorite things because that leaves more time for ….. you got it, relaxing.  😉

A picture I’d like to share with you…OK, first you need some explanation on this.  Last year I planted morning glories….one of my all time favorite plants because they always grew well in planter boxes on my balconies when I lived in apartments.  Plus, how can you not love a plant that has heart shaped leaves?  So….last year, I plant morning glories in a planter box in the garden.  I wasn’t sure about doing the seeds directly into the ground because I had never grown them that way, so I went with a box.  They did alright….nothing extraordinary but I had a decent amount of blooms.  The vines were a little scraggly, but I did get blooms.  Anyway, I decided that this year I would go for the ground…I wanted lucious vines like I have seen around so I thought the ground would be the answer.  Wow….did they grow.  I fixed it so they would grow up, over and around my fence.  They went crazy, vines shooting out everywhere and grabbing anything they could.  But where were the flowers? 

I was beginning to wonder because I have not seen a flower yet…….until yesterday.  But here is the funny thing…….the flower bloomed on a section that I CUT off a few days earlier and had laid on my walkway.  Yes, a section I had CUT off…..one that had wrapped around the old sunflower stems so I just cut it off.  I didn’t throw this section away because of the sunflower ~ I wanted the birds to enjoy what was left of the seed before I threw it away.  So as I was leaving to go to the store, I glance down and what do I see ~ a bloom…on the CUT off section!  And not only is the cut off section blooming ~ but there are more blooms and buds on it this morning.  Are you kidding me??    😕