Day 585

When hubby was turning 50 a couple years back I gave him a choice of birthday presents to celebrate the milestone. A trip to Italy or an automatic sprinkler system. Being he was the one in charge of the lawn and all the watering and moving of hoses and sprinklers, he chose the automatic sprinkler system.

I'm glad he made that choice. Because if it weren't for that choice I wouldn't have today's pictures.

Two more things to know:
*We are on our last week of irrigation water and we've been keeping the sprinkler system going since we won't be able to water again until next spring.
*It was very cold last night.

How cold? Well, one of our sprinklers that hits a low-hanging branch in the backyard resulted in this. I couldn't decide which view I liked best so I'm posting all three.

Day 584

I never suspected going to the grocery store would cause me to dig out a tennis ball. (Although a softball would have been a better model.)

Softball-sized peaches, the biggest I've ever seen in my life for 78 cents a pound. After eating just one hubby has decided we need to make a cobbler because they are just too big and unwieldy to eat.

Day 583

A few things occurred to me today.

A. My husband is a much nicer person now than before he got sick. Don't know how or why it happened, but he certainly has changed for the better.

B. When it comes to quilts my time management sucks. I've had some quilt tops I made for Quilts for Kids that I never got around to finishing, some from as long ago as March. They've been sitting, and sitting, and sitting. I'm now working on getting them sandwiched and quilted, but have absolutely no good reason as to why I didn't finish them up earlier.

C. I keep forgetting to stop and smell the roses. This evening when six o'clock rolled around and I didn't yet have a picture of the day I headed outside to find some type of fall scene. I cruised the rose garden and saw several roses that had been nipped by the frost but many roses still in full bloom. Knowing I've taken plenty of pictures of roses over the past couple summers I automatically passed them by. In my head I kept thinking, there isn't anything spectacular out here. Only as I started to leave the rose garden did I realize everything around me was spectacular.

How could someone look at this and not think spectacular?

Day 582

Something sad - yet inevitable - happened in the vegetable garden in the wee hours of the morning.

The chard wilted. The cucumber and zucchini leaves turned brown. The pepper leaves curled. The tops of the tomato plants became black.

It frosted last night. The days of picking my juice from the veggie garden look to be about over. (Thank goodness the kale and carrots are hearty.)

But also thank goodness for fall, a season of pretty colors. Today's example is the neighbor's vine that creeps over, and sometimes through, our fence.

Day 581

Over the last few days I've been hitting the bottle hard. The juice bottle, that is.

Each day I have:

• 2 bunches kale
• 1 bunch celery
• 1 pound carrots
• 1 cucumber
• 1 zucchini
• 4 leaves chard
• 3 peppers
• 1 portion lemon
• 1/2 bunch parsley
• 1 beet
• 2 apples
• 1 pear

All in a liquid format, all made in my juicer fresh each day. That's a lot of juice!

I am avoiding processed foods, sugar, salt, and fats, all with the hope that my pain and fatigue will abate. It hasn't happened yet, but I'm expecting it will soon.

I did have something at dinner tonight that is on my not-to-eat list but I couldn't resist. One of the grocery stores we shop at has this garlic bread that has whole cloves of garlic baked right into it. When you add some butter and Parmesan cheese and pop it in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up the edges it's about the tastiest thing you'd ever eat. Just look at those garlic cloves!

Day 580

Darn the Jackson 5.

You know how you get a song stuck in your head and it sticks with you the whole day? I have one of those songs that pops up a lot.

A B C
It's easy as, 1 2 3
As simple as, do re mi
A B C, 1 2 3

It popped up when I was taking today's pictures. I should never have said one, two, three. Done. That set off the lyrics and they have been stuck with me since.

1. Flowery quilt for a six year old girl.

2. A Thomas the Tank Engine quilt for a two year old boy who dressed as Thomas last Halloween.

3. A baseball quilt for a seven year old Boston Red Soxs fan.

It's easy as 1 2 3...

Now the only way to get that song out of my head is to replace it with another. How about the fact that these quilts are heading North to Alaska to three siblings who has a dad stationed far away.

In case you're not familiar with that song...

Way up north, (North To Alaska.)
Way up north, (North To Alaska.)
North to Alaska,
They're goin' North, the rush is on.

Day 579

I almost took a picture of the reader board at the coffee shop by the gas station. Today it read: Having kids is like being pecked to death by a duck. In my case it should read, Having a husband who is sick is like being pecked to death by a duck. 

I passed on that picture, but opted for a better one. If I hadn't driven the back road to the gas station I wouldn't have been able to capture the morning sun reflecting off of Lake Lowell. What a spectacular view.