Weekend Wrap-up

   This was a weekend of movement, magic, Mother's Day mania, and much more! (How's that for alliteration?) Despite being on the go pretty much all weekend, I enjoyed a feeling of relaxation, probably because everything going on was stuff I wanted to do and made time for.


     Saturday morning found me and my friend Dev at a Tarot-reading class, the second half of the class we had taken last year (!). I have mentioned before that I read my cards every day, sometimes a full spread, other times just a one card "what will the day bring?" draw. This class explored the ties between Tarot and astrology. I know pretty much nothing about astrology, except to wonder if my mother might have gotten my birthdate mixed up with someone else, because I am the most un-Aries-like Aries I have ever met. I've been given a great recommendation for a site to use to explore my rising sign; this may go a long way toward explain why this Aries acts like a Pisces (This isn't a post about astrology, I swear. In fact, I'm done now). Saturday afternoon found us enjoying libations on the Rendezvous patio. If you are ever in Turners Falls, MA, visit the Voo. I can highly recommend the Bourbonade and the Cheeky Tart. (PS: The Voo is doggie friendly!)


    Following my couple hours of day drinking, I decided it was a nice enough day to attack the disaster that has in former times been known as my back steps. I had a container garden out there a few years running and then got out of the habit. We had gotten a plot in the community garden so I didn't really see the need to do pots on the back steps as well. Well, lesson learned, between work and school, a container garden right outside my door is the way to go. Unfortunately, because I wasn't really doing anything out there except making sure it was (mostly) clear enough for my son to take the trash out, the back steps turned into a junk collecting heap. I should have taken a "before" picture. It's still a work in progress, but currently I have two types of zucchini planted, lemon cucumbers, jelly melons (WEIRD...check them out here:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHA2omTzN2U )
I like cucumbers, but these are just too bizarre for me. My husband and my 22 year old son are looking forward to them because the two of them are weird. The 9 year old wanted to plant them just because the melons/cucumbers/whatevers are weird. I also planted Jimmy Nardello hot peppers and Sugar Rush Peach hot peppers. I need to pick up a few more bags of soil, and two types of bell pepper and six types of tomato are going to go into pots; strawberries and dwarf grape tomatoes into hanging baskets, and cucamelons, also known as Mexican Sour Gherkins are going into the same pot as the weird jelly melons. In a fit of cleaning, all of the flimsy plastic pots and cracked/broken ceramic pots went into the recycling bin, the birdfeeder was refilled and hung back in the leggy maple tree, a sweet little wind chime was looped over a grapevine cane, and all the wild unruly grapevine tentacles that keep trying to eat the door were cut back, as were the lilac branches from the not-so-dwarf variety that lives at the foot of the steps and likes to try to kill you as you try to carry trash and recycling out. (In an aside, I am also violently allergic to lilacs, so giving that almost-tree a trimming was very therapeutic.)


   Once I finish planting all of my babies and sweep up all the dirt I've thrown everywhere, my steps will once again be a lovely place to sit and enjoy the sun. I do wish the landings were wider and I could actually put a chair of two out there for when I drink tea and read or browse my favorite blogs (see below!), but renters can't be choosers.


   I'm doubly glad I spent time outside Saturday: it was a beautiful day, not too hot, a prefect May day. Everything looks 1000% better, and I don't even have all my plants in yet! So there's the satisfying feeling of accomplishment. Also, it poured on Sunday. So much for Mother's Day! Actually, it turned out to be a lovely (indoor) day. I surprised my mother with lunch out and a manicure and my husband surprised me with emeralds. AND the Sox and the Bruins kicked butt. Did I mention Sunday was a nice day???


   I have my boy's Taekwondo practice on my plate this afternoon, so I doubt I'll be doing any more work outside this evening after work; plus its drizzly. I like rain, but after the April deluge I'm pretty well set here, thanks. Instead, I think I'll fire up my computer and see what's happening in blog land. See below for some of my favorites, running the gamut from living magically to career advice, fabulous author blogs, and home and self-care!

  






https://theodoragoss.com/




https://www.terriwindling.com/




https://www.cleanmama.net/



http://www.dinneralovestory.com/




https://www.thewednesdaychef.com/




https://www.classycareergirl.com/blog




http://uncustomary.org/blog/



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lulu's Library #4

Image
Here dear friends is an update from my family's reading. Again, a few (new) favs for Lulu's Library: Dragons Love Tacos by Adam Rubin: TOO FUNNY! This fabulous book is a nearly step-by-step guide to hosting the perfect dragon party. Just make sure you don't forget to serve tacos, because dragons LOVE tacos!!! What Forest Knows by George Ella Lyon (with a nod to Illustrator August Hall!): The best word to describe this book is 'beautiful.' Beautiful illustrations (very, I might add), simple but beautiful text, this book about the changing of the seasons and what the forest 'knows' has become a bedtime favorite, and my little guy loves to point out details of the pictures and discuss them. Check this one out: I'm sure it will become a favorite. Good Night Yoga by Mariam Gates: This sweet bedtime story is written as a series of yoga poses, guaranteed to get your little one interacting, but in just the way you would want them to at bedtime. Col...
Read more

Myddfai Reiki: 5 Unexpected Tricks for Replacing a Bad Habit with a Good One

5 Unexpected Tricks for Replacing a Bad Habit with a Good One Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-unexpected-tricks-for-replacing-a-bad-habit-with-a-good-one.html#ixzz47DLuMgVt By: Elise Moreau April 26, 2016 Follow Elise at @ elisem0reau If you asked anyone how they managed to eliminate one of their old bad habits by replacing it with a good one, they might give you some vague answer like, “I just decided that I really wanted to do it,” or “I pushed myself.” While this may be true to them on the surface, it doesn’t give people like us any hints about what kind of mindset tricks they may have subconsciously used to do it. Habit formation is an extremely personal endeavor, but there are some more specific ways you can increase your chances of success. In fact, some of the most effective tricks are pretty counterintuitive for most people. Here are just five you should consider. Focus on a trigger rather than t...
Read more

Beauty for Your September Morning...

Image
To the Light of September By W. S. Merwin When you are already here you appear to be only a name that tells of you whether you are present or not and for now it seems as though you are still summer still the high familiar endless summer yet with a glint of bronze in the chill mornings and the late yellow petals of the mullein fluttering on the stalks that lean over their broken shadows across the cracked ground but they all know that you have come the seed heads of the sage the whispering birds with nowhere to hide you to keep you for later you who fly with them you who are neither before nor after you who arrive with blue plums that have fallen through the night perfect in the dew
Read more