Category: Front Porch Musings

No camera photos again!!!

But my Instagram has lots of phone photos. I admit I have not been wordy on the Instagram posts, but there are photos of life with Bear, Auggie and me.

We are all well, but between various home and rv maintenance issues and other life stuff – AND work!!! – I’ve been distracted.

Meanwhile, in addition to Instagram – another thing that has been distracting me, but I think it is worth taking a look at is a post on a food blog I like: Budget Bytes SNAP Challenge Post.

SNAP is an acronym for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the replacement for the food stamp program, here in the United States. After reading Beth’s ( Budget Bytes Blog) post, I have thought a lot about all I read. It is not just about the money for food, it is also about the place and utensils to prepare food, the knowledge of how to make the tastiest and healthiest and most filling things on a very small amount of money, the ability to get to stores and transport food home and the equipment (frig) to store food…things I take for granted. Living on a very restricted food budget has to be stressful in all kinds of ways. Until reading Beth’s post, I hadn’t really given it much thought beyond donating occasionally to my local food bank.

Now, I’m thinking.

It is nearly the 2/3 mark on the way from the summer solstice to the autumnal equinox.

It is now dark when I get up at 5ish …this morning 4:50 a.m.

I love the change and although I enjoy the early summer light…to a point…I love when it starts back to being dark in the morning.

This morning, I was sitting in the sunroom with Auggie snuggled on my lap – I’d had my turmeric tea and was thinking about starting coffee as the early dawn light rose.

And then Auggie jumped up and I noticed why…a bat… *IN* the house. I grabbed Auggie as the bat was flitting about the sunroom, threw open the sunroom slider and shut the sunroom doors to the kitchen, which left the bat in the sunroom. The window opposite the slider was open – screened. But I forgot that the slider had the split screen.

With Auggie still in my arms, I ran outside and around to the outside of the slider and pulled down the split screen.

The bat left on the draft.

People try to somehow shoo bats out, but the easiest thing (per Google and my experience) is to open a window or door and an opposite window or door and the bat will immediately find its way out on the draft. It doesn’t want to be in the house any more than any person wants it in the house.

The mystery, though, is how it came in. In springtimes past, they have come down the woodstove chimney. But after 3 or 4 episodes, I finally put a reminder in my calendar to close the damper in late April – opening it only if I have a fire. I checked the stove and all was locked up. BUT…bats are like mice and can squeeze through very small openings so maybe it got in the chimney and found a way out…a mystery.

Continuing with Wednesday morning… I had a hair appointment in town at 9:00 a.m. and a few things I wanted from the grocery. Bear and I headed to town in the Jeep about 7:45 with my plan being a walk, the grocery, my hair appointment and then home and to work.

Adding to the “wild kingdom” theme, we saw a large healthy skunk about a mile down the road home. It crossed the road in plenty of time, but Bear saw it and raised the alarm which caused the skunk to raise its tail but no spritz and we continued still smelling our normal sweet smell.

And then…

A rainbow.

A bit faint, but nonetheless, a rainbow.

The sky to the west was dark and low.

The sun was rising above the mountains behind us – backlighting the valley.

And after watching and taking photos of the rainbow, I turned around…

…the rising sun sending rays through the cloud breaks: lighting the wheat and hay fields.

All of the colors of a rainbow: on the road home.

It IS my birthday!

I did shed some tears but they were the happy kind of tears.

I did not have the kind of sorrow over Bob and all of last year’s events that I anticipated. I am thankful that mostly I am able to remember the “big orange sun” of Bob’s love and companionship and maybe because this summer is so different than last…there is no morbidness in this August – a good thing!

The wee hours of my birthday started with thunderstorms and rain.

…but, in a good way as the thunder was of the rumbly kind vs the sky splitting kind.

And the rain is very welcome.

Auggie moved from his fleece to my shoulder and both he and Bear allowed me to sleep well past my normal 5-5:30 wake up until shortly after 6:00 a.m.! I thanked them both for the birthday sleep-in.

I had hot coffee for the first time in many mornings. And my good dog at my feet. Auggie was on the kitchen chair. It was a perfect morning.

I thought to document the day with photos of my here and there….BUT there was so much traffic, even at 8:30 on the way to farmer’s market…everything took longer than anticipated so I did not stop for photos…

The day’s haul will be evidence of where Bear and I travelled.

Farmer’s Market: The wood owl is a new nightlight, chard, cucumber, lemon-cucumber, summer squash and tomatoes.

Grocery: cabbage, lemons, limes, MT Wheat flour, lotion, cilantro and Dixon, MT cantaloupes!! The cantaloupes are my birthday dessert. Dixon, MT cantaloupes are eagerly awaited here. I have been enjoying Washington State cantaloupes but was so hoping the Dixon’s would be here for my birthday and I was NOT disappointed.

A stop at Murdoch’s Ranch and Home Supply for some new collars for Auggie, an Auggie toy, a pig’s ear for Mr. Bear (not pictured as he had half in the Jeep and the other half when we got home!) and for me!!! – Apple licorice and Cinnamon licorice. There is actually no real licorice in either and mostly sugar and corn syrup and even HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP! But it is MY birthday and I love this stuff so… Happy Birthday to me!

Bear after enjoying his home half pig’s ear.

By the time I unloaded and put all away…

… with the traffic and everything taking longer than expected…

it was after noon.

And it was my birthday…

So I opened the birthday wine.

While I was pouring, Bear came in shaking his head.

But today, I was able to extract the foxtail myself.

Hoo-rah.

It might not look like much, but in one’s ear…OWW!

So.

Today. August 16, 2014. The 59th anniversary of the day I was born.

My mother emailed me her memory of the day.

I’ve heard my birth story before, but I never tire of hearing it again.

I was born in Toledo, OH – Midwest in the United States. Typically HOT and HUMID in mid-August and 59 years ago no air conditioning in most homes and hospitals.

Family brought a fan to my mother’s room. My mother relates that the nurses attended closely to cool in the breeze from that fan.

My father was present for my birth but right after had to leave for National Guard duty: band camp as he was part of the National Guard Band.

He sent a letter to me.

Actually, it was a love letter to my mother.

The letter is written in pencil and it has faded and looking at it today, I realized I needed to preserve it so I’ve entered it and saved it.

It is a beautiful letter and the words, the subsequent actions of both my father and my mother…I was and am a dearly loved child. No one could ask for more. Reading the letter, and another from my mother to me when I was an adult and reflecting on all of my years and the love of my father (he died almost 33 years ago) , my mother, my two step-fathers (my first step-dad died in 1996)…

It’s my birthday and I’ll cry if I want to – it has been a wonderful day.