Whew! Just got here! One thing led to another and next thing I knew it was Tuesday! I lost my coffee mug for a couple of hours. Found it at noon in the microwave. Sheesh!

I have been run in by the lightening rains and hail. Had a good day working on the patio. I had it almost done and it was turning out way too wonky so last night I picked it all back up and started over. It turned out much better this time. Far dark squares will be planted and others will be filled with small river stones. I still need to do a second row of slabs out to the clothesline to roll my cart on. Feeling pleasantly tired. And where I had to meet up with the existing patio I was hoping not to have to move it worked out!! So happy about that.

It was pouring rain so I did not get this photo staged very well and I just quickly put the tools in the dog house shelter and ran in. It is quite a mess out there still. With all the metal out there I am not stepping out to fix any of it now.

I am drinking lemon ginger tea. No goodies with it. The tea is enough. I think I need to go change my shirt. I am soaked.Did not feel it until I sat down to rest. Burrrrr.

Shades, you put me to absolute shame. I could not have kept up with you even 15 years ago. Now just hearing what you accomplish in one day makes me exhausted!

That is a beautiful patio. And to think you did it twice.

I have one - that is one as in "1" - round, exposed aggregate, 20" diameter paver to move to a new spot in the hosta garden. It will have to be leveled, then the birdbath base, now the Fairy Garden pillar, set on it...sometime in June. And I'm dreading it.

We don't need staged photos; we just love photos! More photos! Many photos!

I'm Happy, we are mug twins. I normally have three mugs of cold tea lost around the house. One is usually in the microwave. I do make "real" and "proper" tea in my large teapot in the morning, but then as the day progresses and it gets cold I continue to pour out cups and heat them in the microwave. Then I wander off with one in my hand, set it down, wander somewhere else, look for my mug, find one, and reheat it.

Nasty excuse for tea; I know. But for day-to-day I can't be stopping every hour to make one small pot of fresh tea. I need BIG tea!

We're having "Breakfast for Supper." I've cooked the bacon. I'm running (creeping) downstairs to get some O'Brian potatoes out of the freezer, I'll scramble eggs and make sourdough toast and call it good. I have a couple oranges to slice and serve, too.

Well Caroline I do not know how old you are but if a person has health issues everything is harder. Fortunately I am in pretty good health for my age. the rains stopped and I hurried back out to plant the hens and chicks. Tomorrow if I can still move I will work on claiming my garage now it has been cleared .It will be slightly stressful but hopefully not as physical as today was. while planting the hens and chicks I was really feeling it in my knees. I must have done hundreds of squats today.

Caroline you can move your base. My pieces were much smaller than what you have to deal with. Much lighter too I would imagine.

Schoolhouse Yes I had to do it all over again. Bummer but I never would have been happy the way it was. Now I think I can live with the imperfections and there are many. Still slopes some . Not enough to make the chairs rock on the slabs so all is good. I did notice that space is shaded from about 2PM on so that will be another nice place to sit to drink tea or coffee. I want to get the carport patio set up too. Maybe I should get going on that. I am having company May 10th. I would like to have some of this big stuff done if possible.

Drinking one more cup of tea then off to shower and I think bed might be calling to me early tonight. I am tired.

reading shades posts make me tired too. I'd better go to bed early too.... lol!

I managed to have my taxes done by email today. I emailed her the #s, she emailed me that they owed me. and I emailed back 'good. I don't need to mail it today then'. so, she'll do it up on a form and either email that to me or print and pop in the mail to me.

earlier the a/c guy came to check that out 'cause I'll probably need it soon. it seemed to be ok, so I paid him.

Set date for surgery - the 27th. a Thurs at 10 am. gee, i'm not usually awake yet at that time... oh boy. This'll be ruff. They said I'd be done by noon (what am I - a roast?). later that day I have to be at his other office (in another city about an hour away) for a check up at 4.20pm. Then i'm done for the day (guess I am a roast!). I'll be glad when this is all over.

I've been going to bed earlier the last 3 nights - and probably tonight. and sleeping thru til early morning. I guess that's a good thing.

it's just after 9pm here and I think i'm ready to fall asleep.

Shades, I am 61 - but I don't look a day older than 75, (!) and I usually feel as though I'm on the downhill side of 93. But I keep plugging along, one foot in front of the other...

Tell us what you're accomplishing today. I may get motivated!

I'm putting away the few Easter pretties. I've downsized and thinned out a lot of "Spring Items." (aka Junk)

I consolidated two broken down cardboard boxes into one smaller, well labeled and inventoried 18-gallon Sterilite container that is half empty. I try to use only this size of container in the dungeon/basement. It's easy to stack them neatly.

"Fall" is the next to be beaten into one-container submission.

As soon as I finish this cuppa, I'm going out to see if there are any signs of life around the Hosta markers.

It's 35°

I will pry the large paver up with a crowbar, get a grip on it with yardening (my new favorite term) gloves, tip it up, and "roll" it to the new location.

I can either lift it over the rock border, or move a couple rocks and roll it through the gap. Leveling will be persnickety, but not really difficult. Wes said he will carry the concrete base and bowl out there for me.

Like most of you I fight arthritis - feet, knees, hands... It's better in the warmer weather. Add diabetes, high blood pressure, a spinal nerve issue, and mitral valve prolapse, I sometimes wonder how I wore myself out so quickly! Still, I have more good days than bad. I'm so eager for Spring, and plants, and flowers, and the Purple Martins' return.

Our late, cold, short, glorious Spring makes the winter woes just disappear!

Caroline I would move the two rocks out of the way to roll your round slab through. Always cautious of your back because bending over and rolling like that the side to site motion that slab will want to do could easily get you. I noticed last night walking across the slabs I laid down a couple are moving slightly. I need to find them and sort that out today. I laugh at the dog trying to not walk in the empty spots when I let him out last night. He will find his path soon.

I also have arthritis in my hands. Getting pretty painful. Doc says to keep moving them for as long as and as much as I can. He probably did not mean dealing with cement pavers. LOL

I am not lined out on what I a going to do today yet. I need to make a call to the seed store in town . I had a slight consideration of planting those empty spots to a short growing grass. I found one on the internet and not sure if it is ok in our zone. Internet says yes. I will ask locally first. It would be nice to have a small grassy place there. Grass that leans over and does not need to be mowed. Hummmm

If I do not go to town to get grass and potting soil to fill in the squares I might go out to work on the garage sorting. Or I might rest today as my body is a little bit sore I will put the tools away I left out there and try to clean up some and maybe even put that last row of slabs down for the clothesline walk way. That is what I should do. finish this project. I am not at all sure what the weather is going to do. Lovely out right now but that can change in an instant.

I get tired just looking at what Shades has accomplished!

Funny, I just thought about how I missed Tuesday. maybe we should change it to Any Day Tea!

But, right now I am drinking a cup of English Breakfast as I peruse the internet.

I had a pot of Yorkshire Gold this afternoon while doing a crossword. I had been running errands since before noon and came home hungry for a hot cuppa.

Where I take tea in the orchard on nice days (older pic. the beautiful yellow Windrush rose has been gone for some years now and the two chairs with wooden slates had to be replaced because I sat on one and the slates had rotted out!)

Thunder, lightning, rain, wind. Same old same old. I am so sick of rain! Save some for July when we really need it.

It really was a lovely day here today. Perfect weather. sorry you are having so much rain. I see it is in the line up for all this coming week for us. Again. Yesterday rains broke all records in history.

Whelp I did end up going into Weiser and bought 4 big bags of the potting garden soil and as long as I was there I bought my months worth og groceries. About 15 pounds of burger and 4 pounds of cheese 2 half gallons of almond mile and I am out of there. Eating the way I do makes life so easy for cooking shopping clean up. And I am happy healthy and have tons of energy.

I lugged the potting soil back to the dog yard and put it in the empty squares then drew up a mosaic pattern of succulents and also adding in some grass and planted the succulents. I need to buy the grass seed tomorrow. I will ride to town with a friend going all the way down to Ontario. So excited on how this project it turning out.

I also filled in the three rows of pavers out to the clothesline. I decided to leave it open and just gravel under the clothesline. Mainly because I am totally out of pavers to use and if I leave it open then the kitty kennel door will swing both ways.

I am pooped out now though and still need to shower and get to bed early because friend is an early riser and will be here about 9AM. I am drinking my lemon ginger tea for my last cup of the day. I think this is my second pot. night all.

I dragged a lot of things back into the barn today, from when the guy was repairing the foundation and I had to empty the building. Well, not really dragged I have my battery-operated cart I can pile items into. Even hung the curtains back up. Now I'm feeling the "urge to purge" again since there seems to be so much more space in there now. Only I did that not too awful long ago, so much of what I have I use or eventually will use.

Just got finished mowing. I had mowed Tuesday, but the grass was high enough already. Besides, possibility of thunderstorms tonight and maybe rain in the morning.

Had Yorkshire Gold again this afternoon with two pieces of jelly toast. Pic is from 2011. Pretty joined me for tea on the back porch. She's got a dirty nose. This was not too long after she came to me as a feral.

Oh Schoolhouse, Pretty is so cute!! What a beauty!

I have just enjoyed catching up with you all and what is going on. It does tire me out too to hear all that gets accomplished.

I just rolled into the driveway at 1:00 this morning from a little vacation in Los Angeles. My goodness they are the craziest drivers I have ever seen. I was so thankful not to have to drive while I was there. It was my annual trip with friends and we stayed at a neat house and then saw the sights. I went on Tuesday and returned the wee hours of this morning. And it just turned midnight now, so I will be going to bed very soon.

The favorite part of the trip for me was going to the LA Arboretum. It was full of different kinds of gardens, so many flowers, some water features, a neat house and barn from past days and birds and turtles of all kinds. I saw a bird I had never even heard of before. It was a red-whiskered Bulbul. I got a picture though it doesn't do it justice. You should look it up to see how beautiful it is. It is even rare to the LA area! Anyway, I am exhausted and heading for bed. But here is the picture of the bird.

He had a red patch just above the white patch at his eye. And the part where his tale attaches to his body is a bright orange color. Such a wonderful sighting! Made the whole trip for me. But I am glad to be back and reunited with the pups. They are sound asleep already so I better go myself.

It's Monday. The day before Tuesday. And you know what that means!

Today I'm going to dehydrate liver to use for dog treats. P.U. I do it in the garage so it doesn't stink up the house.

I'm barely in cleaning mode but forcing myself to start. I do want to get that carpet upstairs removed but not today. I'm debating about boxing up the pretties in one of my old kitchen cupboards that's here in the work room and using that cupboard for office storage. The genealogy binders and the overflow of "stuff" makes it look messy all the time. I know that will be an all day project because one thing will lead to another and at some point I will have a huger mess.

The sun was supposed to shine today and I think rain tomorrow or Wednesday so I really should work outside today. Plenty to choose from!

Hold everything! Go here. http://extremegenes.com/funnier-than-comedians-93-year-old-wins-love-hurts-storytelling-contest/  Watch this!

Now back to our regularly scheduled day.

Imhappy the cupboard switch sounds like a perfect solution to keep the genealogy binders in. I found by having the proper strorage and not just storage to store stuff I do not really need has worked wonders for my clutter issues. Especially in my studio storage. I am so loving the new studio spaces and am able to keep them fairly tidy. I just cleaned up my work bench this morning and as messy as it looked it only took me about 5 minutes to set it all right again.

I still have not organized the garage since the removal of snowmobiles and stuff of friends but I am getting to it shortly. Building the kitty house is using up a lot of material I had stored for it or another project some day and kitty house has won out. Removing the 6 bi-fold doors from loft storage space and two windows has created a nice big floor space up there.

I painted the last coats of paint on the door frames and shelf boards I will be using and the 2 by 2 corner boards I am ready for assembly. Only I really need to draw it out. I just have a vision not actual detailed plans. Hoping to do that today. Then another shelf upstairs will come down to the garage floor area and so on. I have company coming May 10th and I would really like to get these two things done. Well along with another dozen other things.

I Forgot I was going to go to town today and get some more garden soil on sale but suddenly decided to lower my expectations for this year. I can add the low planter next year or plant the low planter this year and do the other smaller planters next year. It will be one or the other not both or all. It is a relief to mentally decide this. I feel like I am trying to do too many things at one time. I need to cut myself some slack. Now to decide which I really want to do and get it going. It is raining on and off today so I am being domestic and cleaning the house and doing laundry.

It was gale force wind today. Again. It's either that or rain. And the dreaded snow word for.... Thursday? My lilacs are going to burst tomorrow or the next day. In the snow. So they won't last. It always freezes when my apple trees are in bloom. They aren't close so I still have that to look forward to.

Maybe tomorrow I will do the cupboard switch. I like my pretties out where I can see them but I don't "see" them anymore anyway. Maybe I could squeeze a couple of things into the other cupboard. It will turn into an all day event no matter what I do. And if I think the room looks trashed now, imagine what it will look like at noon.

All of the outbuildings are 3/4 clean. Just need that final push which probably won't happen. I wish they'd get here and do the waterway while it would be possible to plant grass seed. July is not optimal grass seed growing weather.

I ended up mowing in the rain. I know not good but I was half way done when the rain started. I kept going. Looks ok. Better than it did. We have every weather situation during one day. Rain wind sun more rain hail. My grass seed is planted on my back patio. I hand watered it yesterday. NOW I hope it is not going to get too wet with the rains. not sure how long it is supposed to keep raining I have not looked lately.

I know all about making an even bigger mess trying to clean up a mess. I am good at that. I felt good about eliminating when I built the new china cabinet. Some times I think I could get shed of more but for now everything fits and I am not at all into buying anything more.

I did work on the carport patio a little bit late this afternoon between rain storms. Actually had a wee bit of sun when I headed out there. Raining by the time I got done. Lowering my expectations for planters is going to work well. I just filled one big planting tub up with smaller empty planters and moved it out of there. Will plant them next year or maybe never. After all I am trying to make my yard easier.

My 23 year old iron patio set is in need of painting. It was powder coated when new but most of that has worn off. I think I will give it a sanding and spray it. going to take quite a bit of spray so if any one has better ideas let me know.

I didn't do anything today but go to town for cat food. It was sunny but I was still cold! When I got home I made tea, then tried to do a crossword but barely finished it as my eyelids grew so heavy. Got under my throw and I actually fell asleep for a half hour and dreamed about telling a friend who was visiting that it "sure is hard keeping my house clean". ha

As soon as I do some a little more weeding and do the edging of the borders, I need to grab a bucket of Murphy's Oil Soap or PineSol and go room by room in this old house. Sounds like we are all trying to get into Spring cleaning.

obviously I am not trying hard enough!

Well, certainly didn't see me doing this, this morning. I remembered I had my Dad's old work bench out in the garage someplace under all the junk, and I wanted to put it down in the barn to use as a low table for - junk (ha). Anyhow, one thing led to another and here I am cleaning out one half of the garage! Oh my gosh what a lot of cobwebs, wet cardboard boxes bursting with contents I hadn't seen for years, evidence of mice (ewww) and other gross stuff.

I found the work bench and now there's a table laden with boxes of the said junk out in the yard with a big FREE sign on it. I confess I put things on the table but got sentimental and brought it back, then took it back out! Why am I saving it? Gosh.

Then I smashed all the big cardboard boxes, threw them in the trunk of my car, and made a trip to the recycle bins down at the fire station. On the way home I stopped at the bakery and bought a box of glazed donuts and my Yorkshire Gold tea is brewing as I type. Better go check, it's a strong tea, dare not let it steep too long.

Happy Tuesday everyone!