Monthly Archives: February 2016

Mama said there’ll be days like this

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There’ll be days like this my mama said. Such a smart lady my mama.

Some days beg for a little vent, a shoulder to cry on, someone to listen as we share little challenges, all in a day. That was yesterday and today we’re still without water.

First things first, we woke to no internet. Ok, no biggie, the hubs can get to it later.

Next, I noticed our sprinklers were not turning off and water was pooling.  This is the second ordeal with the sprinklers in the last week. Turns out we have a bad valve and we look to replace them over the weekend. But in the meantime, we have the water turned off for the entire household. Luckily we can turn it on for showers and such and then right back off it goes. I told the hubs this morning as he was getting dressed for the outdoors that it was as though he had to make a run for the well before he could shower this morning. And then it took me back to the days before me, when folks really did have to pump their water. And then I thought of how thankful I am that all we need to do is turn a knob for running water. It’s not so bad after all.

Note: this issue it unrelated to the broken/repaired pipe I shared last week.

So last evening, the hubs insisted we go out for dinner. It was a nice treat with all that was going on at home.

But folks, the shoe dropped once again after dinner. As the hubs went to start the car, it would not start. We both grinned, looked at each other and agreed that we were ready for the nonsense and day to end.

We were also delighted to have AAA to the rescue. They were by our side in less than 30 min., they came equipped with new batteries and provided the best service on the spot. And our car was good as new and back on the road within 45 min of our first call.

While the internet was down, I painted in Photoshop (yesterday). It’s the image that so inspired me to shoot the other day. I can’t express the amount of joy that comes from painting. And I can say it was good for the body and soul. Amen.

The first image on the left is a underpainting. Image in the middle is the next layer, what I refer to as intermediate strokes and the last image is referred to as detail strokes.

While the layers are far from finished, it gives an idea of the steps taken while in the process of putting the layers together as one.

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And with that, I shall continue to move forward. And feel grateful that we have so much to be thankful for. Even if we have a mound of dirty clothes in need of washing.

Blessings – Debbie

Inspired

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Do you ever get caught in a rut, doing the same thing over and over? And that process is repeated like the usual day in and day out fixed routine. And you reach that moment where you want to continue what you are doing, but differently. A change if you will.

That’s how I’ve been feeling with photography. I feel like I keep taking images of the same stuff, just a different picture of the same sort of stuff each day.

Not that there is anything wrong with that, because there will always be a different angle and composition of that sort of thing.

But I’m feeling a bit bored at the moment and searching for new inspiration to get fired up about.

And today I was greatly inspired with a simple indoor shoot of a pair of glasses composed on the table in our breakfast nook.

And here’s my little experiment that turned my morning into fun.

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I’ll say, step away from the same ole same ole and try something new. You never know what will happen unless you try.

Blessings – Debbie

Flowers and Friendship

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Happy Day! Today feels like flowers and friendship, because it is.

It’s flowers, because I noticed the ice plant on the upper terrace beginning to bloom. It’s also known as delosperma cooperi or mesembryanthemum cooperi.

However you call it, I find what little we have to be so very pretty.

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And friendship, because a few of us got together for a little brunch and had the best time visiting over coffee before and after we finished eating. In fact, our special time together, prompted another brunch date in a couple of weeks.

And now to finish a little more work around home sweet home.

I’m sure the hubs and I will have another fun date (this evening) catching up on our new favorite show, Downton Abbey. I think we watched 3, if not more episodes last evening. It’s bound to be GOOD! No spoilers, we are still catching up.

Blessings – Debbie

Good Bad and Ugly

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Lately we’ve bumped into some good, bad and downright ugly situations. But first, I’ll start with the good. Actually the good part of this should be more like GREAT!

Great in the sense –

  • Weekend dates are wonderful!
  • We’ve had a hankering to try this new restaurant in town and we finally got around to going.
  • They have ribs on the menu. (I love ribs, really good ribs)
  • They advertise fall off the bone ribs.
  • I’ve been searching for really good ribs since our move to So Cal a little over 6 years ago.
  • I need look no further for my rib fix. Finger licking good, let me tell you. We’ll be back!
  • The hubs had their filet and from what he said, it was really good too.

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The Good – Another wonderful thing this past week was the girls book club get together. It was our first meeting of 2016. We had such a wonderful time discussing the book – Boys in the Boat by Daniel James Brown

The bad – We had quite the storm over the weekend. Wind, rain, power outages in the area for up to 6 hours. Our friends, a mile or so up the road, brought some important frozen goods over that evening. Luckily our power, powered thru the storm.

The Good – During the storm, the hubs and I did a little more binge watching of the old but new to us show Downton Abbey. Love that show! Where have we been? We are caught up thru season 4 already.

During the stormy and ever so windy night, I thought the wind was going to literally carry us away. The hubs slept right thru it.

The Good – The morning after, we woke to pretty sunny skies with a little sprinkling of hail left over from our storm.

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The Good – A pretty red rose in the garden for the “love month”.

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The Ugly – Late yesterday afternoon I noticed a bit of a waterfall on the upper terrace. I quickly sent the hubs a message saying that it did not look like a sprinkler gusher, but close. I then made my way up the terrace and quickly took this shot with the cell phone and sent it to the hubs saying “we have a problem”. Then he gave direction for me to turn off the water main.

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The Good in the midst of Ugly – In true hero fashion, the hubs came home and saved the day! And we had running water once again last night.

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The Ugly – The “root” of the problem. It’s pretty crazy the amount of trouble roots can cause. We plan to have more roots removed and new pipe put in the ground.

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Life is not always roses and sunshine. But it’s what we make of it thru the storm.

Blessings – Debbie