Gasp.
Someone went outside and did not take Annie.
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I know I said that I knew I didn’t fall off the earth, but maybe I did. Maybe I did fall off the earth. I’m wondering if maybe I should have stayed gone. And yet wondering why it took me so long to get back. Those of you who are so busy you feel like you are meeting yourself coming and going will know what I mean. The rest of you: congratulations.
Annie can vouch for me that I’ve been extremely-crazy-busy lately, with barely time to cook. And the carpenter can vouch for the cooking part. As you know, Annie sits with me when I type all day, and then when I’m gone, as the carpenter says, “her world turns upsidedown.” She’s been upsidedown a lot lately.
The school year is approaching and there are things I want done before the school year arrives. This past week I had a huge personal-household-tax-related-yucky-business-matter to work on. That’s all I’ll say, but realize that over the past two weeks it has consumed HOURS of my time. I’ll just be glad when it’s over. I’ve also gotten a yearly physical (not that anyone needs to know that) and, dare I say it, a colonoscopy. I joked about sharing the colon pictures on here, but I guess no one would ever come back and I could just shut the blog down completely. (My children didn’t speak to me for a few hours after I returned home from the appointment with my colonoscopy pictures.)
Annie, on the other hand, does not care how gross the hepatic flexure looks on paper. She still loves me. Thank goodness for that.
I’ve also been busy with bun-buns. We have eight now that I suppose we’ll have to keep for awhile. When it was time to sell the last litter to the pet store, someone beat us to it and the pet store had all they could sell and then some. So here we are. The phone rang the other day and when I answered my sister jokingly said, “Uh, yes, is this the petting zoo?”
I don’t like for the bunnies to be always in cages, getting little exercise, so I’m creating some places for them to run and enjoy eating violets and clover and laying in the grass. Coco is first to enjoy one of the timeshares I’ve set up in the yard. She is totally loving it. I hope that when the fruit of my loins numbers in the dozens, someone will make a place for me to run and jump, too. I accidentally let a rabbit get loose last week and you know where it headed, right? Yeah, over to Mr. and Mrs. Perfect Vegetable Garden’s house where it plopped down in a flower bed and began voraciously ripping foliage from some things in bloom. I didn’t see it right away, but my oldest son, who’s tearing apart yet another engine in the yard, came inside and said, “Mom, there’s a huge black bunny in the neighbor’s yard and it doesn’t run off when you walk toward it. I think it’s one of ours. Did you let one go?” Goodness gracious, deja vu, here we go again. By the time I got to the neighbor’s yard, Midnight was carrying out the aforementioned voracious eating spree. I shook some lamb’s quarters at her and caught her pretty easily. Thank goodness for little miracles.
On the gardening front, there is only one path down which one can safely walk these days. I’ve set up buckets of machetes at the entry ways of the other paths, just in case anyone feels inclined to cut their way into the garden to look at creatures with me. I don’t know, it just feels like time is going by faster these days. Or am I losing my mind?
I had to put this picture in (above) because I just love the bright green fern you can see in the background and how it contrasts with the dark spider legs but sort of dances with the bright yellow on the spider’s back.
I’ve also been busy (and delightfully enchanted) with the farmer’s market. I love the time with my mom. I also enjoy meeting new people and seeing now-familiar faces. I have quite an inventory of pins building up and a few dolls to choose from, so I think it’s going well. The little doll house was a hit with the children and with a few adults as well! We were asked it if was for sale, but I made it especially for my mom, so maybe I can make one or two more in the future to sell. We’ll see. It was so much fun to make, but I realize I’m already at my limit as far as things to do. At any rate, don’t my mom’s little clothespin dolls look so sweet in their new home?
Finally (and I’m not sure why this picture is so faded on one end) I’ve slightly rearranged my living room (uh-gain). I had to. I found an extremely sturdy, real-wood bookcase at Goodwill. Upon being put in its new place in my “pink room,” it was immediately filled with books. I asked my husband, “Can you believe there were this many books floating around the house without a home?” Without giving it a moment’s thought, he said, “Yeah!” Hmmmm. I say one can never have too many books. I have to work today, so I better close for now. I hope that my weeks can begin to slow down a bit now and I can focus on school and getting everything ready for that. Enjoy this day!
I was asked the question last night, and I don’t mean the “will you marry me” question, but rather this question: “Mom why do you have to take pictures of every creepy-crawly thing?”
I just have to. And if you have to have a reason why, I can give you one. The zoom shows you things you can’t put your face in close enough to see, though I would do just that if I thought I could without getting bitten on the nose. You can see the hairy legs on the spiders. You can see all their eyes. You can see their pretty colors. You can see what feels like emotion to me, the human, when you can see a praying mantis face enlarged x20.
This big spider lives somewhere around my front porch, but it does not come out during the day. I had to go out with the flashlight and light up the web and take the picture. Can you imagine a close-up of this in natural light? Wow.
In World Beagle News, Annie Banannie, a.k.a. Fatso Beagle, continues to snuggle up behind her owner while her owner churns out the medical notes for people just like yourself. Where would the faithful transcriptionists of our country be without their beagles? One can only imagine.
Annie closes her sleepy green eyes with just a soft touch and a kind word. Is there a better heating pad for the back than Annie? I think not!
On a final note this morning, I was all set to wear a fun new pin to the Farmer’s Market today, but alas I was not able to go. One of my sons needed to be somewhere and since I’m the mom, and since the carpenter had a prior engagement, well, there you go. I’m off to type! Enjoy this day.
I wish I could hang around and visit, but I’m only on a teeny tiny break to show you some pictures. First of all, I’m typing today, and you know who sits snuggled up with me while I type, right?
Annie hops faithfully into the chair and squeezes around behind me so that I can never fully sit back in the work chair. It does keep me awake, however, which is a good thing since I’m working. Annie. The love of my midlife crisis. I thought I wanted another baby until we got Annie. Is she spoiled OR WHAT????
From the farmer’s market Saturday morning, I wanted to show you some stuff my mom makes. She makes the best clothespin dolls ever. They are adorable! Normally she does not have the dolls with the crocheted angel dresses, but this was a one-time (I think) cooperative efffort with a friend. She does regularly sell the prairie-looking clothespins dolls, though.
The bigger dolls are made from wooden clothespin-type structures that my mom hand carves from wood found on her property. Is she just the coolest person ever?
I need to get some better pictures for you, where you can see their long hair and how they look standing up. (Note to self: Do that soon.) I think their little faces are just so sweet.
She also makes bonnets, pantaloons, and aprons. I had her hold up this little clothespin-doll-size bonnet that she made. It was so adorable. Two young girls bought some dolls from her while I was there and they got two extra bonnets for their dolls. So sweet! Well, it’s time to slide over to the work chair. Only 4 more hours to go and the day will be done. Can’t compain about that. Have a lovely day!
Well, club members, it’s that time again. Time for another of my fabulous hit songs from the mid 1970s. The songs just keep getting better and better. So grab your mop or broom or coffee cup or dust rag (or whatever it is you hold in your hand while you stand and stare) and get ready to sing!
Whoaaaa, is that a club song, or WHAT? And not only is it your choice what you hold while you stand and stare, but you get to choose what you want out of life, and out of your club president. Do you want saugar canes or honey? Knowing how my presidential mind worked way back then, I’m not sure I choose saugar canes. It might be safer for you if you just go with honey.
In other club news, I have chosen our membership chairman. Yes, dear friends, it is Annie, a.k.a. Fatso Beagle, the love of my midlife crisis. I noticed the other day that she is really good at standing and staring. Yes, here she is holding onto her knotted up sock, staring at the ceiling.
I zoomed in to give you a closer look. As you can see, she is not looking at me, and there’s no one else in the room, I promise. She is totally focused on the ceiling. What she saw up there is up for grabs. I know I look very much the same way when I am trying to decide something important, i.e., whether or not to move a large metal blanket cabinet down the stairs for the dozenth time, and trade it for a sewing desk (insert heavy object of your choice here) which will be dragged upstairs for the dozenth time. No wonder my children hide under their beds when I look like that. Oh dear. I have wandered off topic again. Yes, it happens frequently these days. I was telling a dear friend just the other day that I am much like an ameoba lately. Room for only one thought at a time, I’m afraid. If only I were like a certain carpenter man I know, who really made me laugh (hysterically) the other day when he said he had enough gray matter to run a power plant. I think men just say things like that whether it’s true or not. Just sayin. So back to WHY Annie will be the membership chairman. I have made a very keen observation. She does not bark at everyone. Only some people. Some people she does not bark at and some people she does. (How’s that for saying something forward and backward?) Anyhoo, I got to thinkin’ that maybe she’s barking at people who are not real good at standing and staring. In fact, it seems highly likely that this is the case. So far, the people she has barked at (relentlessly) are people who strike me as not being very good at standing and staring at all! Are you getting a picture of how the membership process will work? Well, that’s all for club news for now. Let’s talk about creatures.
I wish this picture had turned out clearer, but basically I had to lie down on the ground with the camera almost in the wet dirt to get this. The web is nearly horizontal and the spider was on the ground side of the web. It was just such a pretty sight after the rain, I had to share it with you.
I love these little green creatures you can see on the tansy. I’m not sure what they are, but they are here every year. They can really hide well on plants that are colored just like they are. They sometimes jump on my arms when I bushwhack my way through the garden. And speaking of that, I have more chores to do than can be done. Makes me want to just sit down and do something mindless, but I’m afraid of what carpenter man will say when the lady banks and trumpet vine finally grows up around the doors and windows so that we cannot exit or enter the house, and what he might do if there’s nothing for supper except cereal and cucumbers (again). Enjoy this day! It’s bright and sunny here and we got buckets of rain last night.
I know you’ve just been on pins and needles wondering about our bunny escapees! I am finally free (FREE I SAY!!) after working all day to sit down and blog now, so I will tell you the story. I’ll share some pictures along the way. Some bun-bun pictures, that is.
I left you hanging after telling you about returning home last night from my karate class to find my husband, Thomas, looking at me rather seriously. He pulled his reading glasses to the end of his nose and began to talk. “I walked outside this evening while you were gone and saw Mark looking a bit irritated.” Mark is our very good neighbor and I knew this could not be good if Mark was looking irritated and Thomas was telling me about it. “What happened?” I asked, wondering what I’d done.
“Well,” said Thomas, “I heard him say something about a rabbit so I looked that way and saw him looking at a large rabbit sitting in his yard. I think he was about to kick Coco.” Kick Coco?? My neighbor Mark had never looked like Mr. MacGregor to me before. Never until that moment. Before I could say anything, however, Thomas continued speaking. “Mark looked at Coco in amazement and said ’That’s a wild rabbit!’” My husband at that point noticed Coco’s little baby, the one that looks just like her, only a few feet away. He said to Mark, “Well, actually, that might be our rabbit.” “Really?????” Mark asked, puzzled.
I was still wondering why Mark might kick Coco, but Thomas said that Mark probably thought the thing was rabid because usually WILD rabbits take off running when you walk toward them, not just stand there looking at you like they might come toward you and climb up your legs. He has a point, and Coco does look wild, after all.
At that point, Thomas said he undertook trying to catch the bunnies. Now, the bunnies might stand there looking at you as long as you look shocked, like Mark did, but try to catch them and they hop away. Thomas managed to get the little one, who scratched his arm “all to pieces.”
Meanwhile, Coco was hopping towards the edge of a wooded area. Gasp! Thomas said he went inside and called Michaela. Her version was that he yelled upstairs, “Michaela!! Get down here right now!!!” (Nothing like your wife’s bunnies running around your neighbor’s yard to get you stressed out.) And not just any neighbors but neighbors who are BIG into vegetable gardening. I suspect Coco had spent long enough smelling their cabbages and peas and green beans and had figured it all out and knew in her heart exactly where she’d make a run to if she ever escaped.
Thomas the Carpenter Man told Michaela to get him the pellets and a small bowl. He filled the bowl with pellets and shook them at Coco. She came close but not close enough. Thomas went and picked some lamb’s quarter and shook that at Coco. She was enticed. He said he got her behind the neck and pulled her into a laundry basket and then carried her back to her cage. Case closed! And cage closed! We discovered that Michaela had been the one to leave the door open. Not that anyone’s in trouble. Just sayin’. I passed Mark’s wife on the road today and she waved, but somehow it did not seem as hearty a wave as usual. Nah, it was just in my mind. It had to be. Still, they now know that we have nearly a dozen rabbits who are dreaming day and night of devouring their veggie garden.
Ahhh, the bunny escapees. This is how they look when you open their door, Coco and her little as-yet-unnamed daughter. Is it any wonder they jumped out? I should say not. I patched Thomas’s arm up. It really was not, as he put it, “scratched all to pieces,” but he did need some peroxide and some attention. I have found that attention is always the best band-aid. Well, I must run. Much to do tomorrow! And tonight I’m making a clay goat for a doll to hold.
It sounds racy, I know, but don’t worry. My new male friend is a praying mantis that has been hanging around the front porch in my spider plant.
I wasn’t really thinking of him as a male until the carpenter man pointed out that he was brown, so he was male, and also that he must be smart because he’s still alive. “Males don’t usually get that big,” the Carpenter Man said, “because the females kill them.”
My fondness of Mr. Praying Mantis grew by leaps and bounds instantly. He’s been such a good friend. He lives faithfully in the spider plant. Sometimes he scares me by not being visible when I look for him, but then when I water the spider plant he comes running out and perches somewhere to look at me like, “Hurry up!” I used to think he was saying “hurry up” and that was all. Now I know he’s saying, “Hurry up, would ya, before some lady praying mantis finds me and kills me!!!” Who knew. I’ve been too busy standing and staring to keep refreshed on the fact that male praying mantises are brown and that they don’t live long. I think it’s time for a bunny update soon. In fact, it’s urgent. I came home from karate class tonight to find the carpenter man looking at me from over his reading glasses. He proceeded to tell me a long and exciting story about having to catch bunnies from the neighbor’s yard while I was gone. He showed me his bleeding arm. To be continued…
Jumping is such a nice word. You can jump around. You can jump rope. You can jump for joy. You can jump at an opportunity. How ’bout jumping on the bed? Or jumping in the swimmin’ hole?
And then there’s the Jumping Spider. Yikes. Actually they are beautiful creatures clothed in bright jackets. Many of them have an almost fluorescent patch on their thorax and abdomen. I was hoping to get a picture of one of our huge black jumping spiders for you, but they stay hidden pretty well. This one caught me off guard. I tried to get an excellent picture, but he was pretty jumpy. (I crack myself up.) Anyway, Michaela and I will be busy doing our own jumping around. We are going out to shop for a new dress for her, as well as a nice pair of shorts for her to play in. I would like a new pair of combs for my hair, but I don’t have to have anything. I mostly want a date with my darling daughter. In the meantime, Queen B. will be in charge.
I know you’ll find Annie to be kind and attentive, and perhaps a bit bossy, but in the most adorable way. You’re in good hands.
I know some of you are longing to see baby bunnies…Carol?
Just like his mama, this one laid his ears back so that he looks ear-less.
And here’s one of my favorites! I love that gorgeous honey-colored coat and then just a touch of gray around the face. So sweet! This one is very active and he’s hard to catch!
But he will come right to the open door for food! Bunnies are that way. Once again, they are not always cuddly creatures who like to be held close (though some are) , but they can be very friendly, and they know our voices and our hands.
Food please? Food? FOOD PLEASE? They all come running to the door and then they run around in circles, waiting on pellets or fresh greens from the garden. They love fresh greens!
Nothing like having your mother trample right over you saying, “FOOD FOOD!!” Well, she does sort of look like she’s getting a hug in there too. Michaela and I are trying to learn the art of determining if a young rabbit is male or female. It is NOT easy. Even for those who have done it for a long time. We think we have the males and females separated, all except the little black one you see next to Coco, but he’s the runt and very shy, so we thought we’d leave him with her a week or two longer than the others who were separated about a week ago. They’ll be 7 weeks old tomorrow. How times flies when you’re having fun. On an Etsy note, I’ve enjoyed working on pins and pendants (had a request for those) this past week.
I love working with the clay. Well, I love working with many types of media. Sure makes it hard to get to the work desk, which I have to do today. Enjoy this day!
Which is to say, all the time.
It’s not like Annie does not get fed. Not at all. Her nickname, bless her little beagle heart, is Fatso. She is ready at any moment to eat. If a crumb is dropped, she is there. If even a cat food can is popped open — yes, she is there. We have to put a gate up between Fatso Annie and Oreo so that Oreo can actually get a bite or two of her own food. If not for the gate, Oreo would be dead from starvation. The need for food has gotten so intense, Annie has enacted several drastic plans to get more food. She knows where the dry dog food is kept and she knows that if she scratches and lunges at the container it gets on everyone’s nerves and she might just get fed if she aggravates everyone enough.
The scratching starts. This is not a slow thing. This is a frantic scratch scratch scratch with one paw after another. Frantic, I say, truly frantic. In fact, let’s scratch so hard that it knocks the container against the wall. Over and over and over again..
And it goes on…
and on and on and on.
And on and on and on and on and on. Annie is shameless when it comes to food. She does not care who is looking. In fact, the more people there are, the better. It just means more of a chance that someone might drop a crumb, or feel sorry for her and give her some food.
Hmmm. Annie thinks this might not be working. And, if you’ll notice in the left upper corner, Oreo has appeared to watch Annie act like a food fool.
Oblivious to all eyes on her, Annie resorts to more aggressive measures to get to the dog food. Perhaps she can chew the lid off and then the whole container of puppy chow will be hers. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.
Poo!! That’s not working either. Will barking at the container make it open? No, but it might aggravate a family member until they give me a handful of puppy chow. And then it happens.
Annie makes eye contact with Oreo and something inside her snaps. Cats can really make you feel dumb. The scratching stops.
A little help. Please?
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I am a 40-something-year-old mother of four delightful children, have been married for 22 years to my carpenter husband, and live in a 1921 farm-style house. I find the most joy in my garden, growing and harvesting herbs and flowers and caring for our pet rabbits. I have a 21-year-old son, a 19-year-old son, a 16-year-old son, and a bright and bubbly (and very funny) 11-year-old daughter who is homeschooled. I'm a North Carolina girl and I love sharing North Carolina links and information. I'm a book lover, bird lover, gardener and aspiring herbalist. I seek no help for my thrift store addiction. I do medical transcription from home part-time.
To live content with small means; to seek elegance rather than luxury, and refinement rather than fashion; to be worthy, not respectable, and wealthy, not rich; to study hard, think quietly, talk gently, act frankly; to listen to stars and birds, to babes and sages, with open heart; to bear all cheerfully, do all bravely, await occasions, hurry never. In a word, to let the spiritual, unbidden and unconscious, grow up through the common. This is to be my symphony.
I would
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for you to leave a comment, but you can also e-mail me at lynn AT thehealthyhomeschool.com
