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I Hope I'm Back!!!

Once again, I have been away from this blog for far too long. I see many of you continued to visit anyway, and I thank you.

Last week I lost my father. He was 83 years old and died of multiple problems, but primarily lung cancer that had been undetected by the doctors until it was stage 4. It was called COPD and other such problems.

There have been too many losses in my life the past couple of years!!!

BUT...the one loss I am grateful for is my divorce is finally over after 2 years of craziness!! No matter what the ex and his attorney did, I continued on....and in the end its ok. I was awarded anything that was of any value including the house and contents.

So now I pick up once again and move on. The pond is flourishing (see older posts for when it was built). I will be posting new pictures soon if I can remember how to do it!!!! The tadpoles I put in the first summer are now very noisy frogs that entertain me and make me laugh when nothing else can.

Be back soon!!!

To My Friend.........

I met Pat many years ago, back in 1976 when we both lived in the same apartment complex. Our daughters, Patti, Mindy and Kris were 'partners in crime' and played together, fought with each other, and got in trouble together more times than I want to remember. Pat use to sit on her deck and laugh at me chasing my dog across the complex when he got loose. He always went straight to the duck pond and then I'd have to try to get him out and drag him home. We use to go to the Ann Arbor Farmers Market together on Saturday mornings and split the cost of a whole pumpkin pie, we both were really struggling back then. From that time on, Pat always requested my pumpkin pie when she visited. I'll miss those visits.

Over the years we shared a lot of laughter, tears ideas and plans. I will miss the yearly email in the fall when she'll ask me if I 'smell Fall coming yet'...Pat loved Fall and always had the gourds on the table and the pumpkin on the porch. I will miss her asking me if I made Mexican Wedding cakes for Christmas this year (by the way, that is MY recipe she used...HA HA). This summer she won't be telling me about her blue morning glories, something else we both loved, but I will plant double in her memory, along with purple iris that she also loved. I'll miss our yearly Christmas ornament swap at Christmas, but will cherish the many she sent me over the years.

We use to laugh about sitting in our wooden rockers together 'when we got old' , on the front porch of a log cabin, something we both wanted. In fact, we use to build log cabins out of the Lincoln Logs I still have, and will keep always. We shared a love of quilting and sewing, although Pat was much more prolific than me.

In the 34 years that I had the honor of calling her my best friend, we never had an argument or a cross word between us. That is truly a rare thing.

I will miss you forever my friend, keep the coffee pot on and wait for me.

There will never be another Pat.

A Snowy Evening

Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening

by Robert Frost


Whose woods these are I think I know.
His house is in the village, though;
He will not see me stopping here
To watch his woods fill up with snow.

My little horse must think it queer
To stop without a farmhouse near
Between the woods and frozen lake
The darkest evening of the year.

He gives his harness bells a shake
To ask if there is some mistake.
The only other sound's the sweep
Of easy wind and downy flake.

The woods are lovely, dark, and deep,
But I have promises to keep,
And miles to go before I sleep,
And miles to go before I sleep.


I have once again been away from my blog for far too long. From October and Halloween on (the Irvington Halloween Festival keeps me busy). Then Thanksgiving with all the cooking, cleaning and fussing. THEN Christmas, and we all know how frantic Christmas can be. I am just now slowing down long enough to take a deep breath and enjoy the winter.

In the middle of all of this holiday frenzy, I had a huge personal crisis to deal with as many of you know, and that also was quite consuming in many ways. Thank you to all my family and friends who were there for me. I truly felt I had miles to go before I slept.

I've been away from the blog for a while. Thank all of you who have emailed and asked where are the posts and pictures and they miss me!!
Summer was hectic, plus the added responsibility of the pond, so there was little blogging time. Ponds are far more work than one can imagine! I still love it tho, and don't regret having it built. The fish are growing at an amazing rate, especially the koi...they have doubled in size in a very short time. The plants flourished, and wouldn't you know, the cala lillies are rooted and doing well, just in time to be uprooted and taken inside for the winter. The temperature of the water dropped 20 degrees in two weeks and the fish have slowed down and eat very little now. It is netted to keep leaves and walnuts out..which was a major undertaking.
The leaves are turning, there has been frost and it is officially Autumn here in Indiana. The Halloween decorations are up inside and out, and I'm excited as I love Halloween.
I had my birthday in September although I won't divulge which one it was, and recieved so many cards, emails,phone calls and hugs I was overwhelmed. Thank you all. I recieved gifts from my 'friends I've never met'...both Canadian and Scottish.
I am preparing to open my Etsy shop and have my wonderful banner created, thanks to Big Brown Dog graphics in Tennessee. I will be posting a link to her. Any of you who want graphics for a blog, Etsy, website or Ebay..contact her, she's amazing!!

Storm Damage

Yesterday was not a good day!!! In addition to a sink that had been stopped up for three days (and trying to avoid a plumber) I awoke to thunder, lightening and hail, which really scares my dogs, so I had to get up early and deal with that. One storm after another went thru all morning, and around noon the Big One hit. It rained so hard I couldn't see out the second floor windows and there were huge down drafts of wind. I could see leaves and limbs flying by but little else. Then the power went out.
GREAT!
I spent the next 5 hours trying to think of something to do that didn't involve electricity. It was dark and gloomy, so couldn't see much inside. Then the power returned, I decided to run to the store only to be faced with the damage in these pictures. My block was 'ok', my phone lines were hit and all my phones are dead (thank goodness I unplugged the computers and phone line to it). My pond is a mess, but an hour or work fixed it back nice. This damage is serious....and its only ONE BLOCK FROM ME!!! I certainly got lucky and decided I'd quit fussing so much about mud, leaves and no power!! Every street pretty much has one or more downed trees across it. Power and other utility companies are all over the neighborhood and chain saws are running until dark.
The brick Victorian in the picture is one of the oldest houses and one of the first houses built in my neighborhood, it dates to around 1874....and one storm did this!!
I am so lucky!