It’s that time of year to clear out the cobwebs, destroy the dust bunnies and revitalize your abode, now that Winter is hopefully in the rear-view mirror.
Please don’t forget your brain needs a little airing out too … at least mine did this weekend. I confess to running out the door two mornings in a row, not giving a second glance to any dust that may have settled down (ol’ pesky dust) or worrying about a single thing that smacked of housework. And, for sure I wasn’t going to do any housework today because it is “National No Housework Day” – oh yes it is! Just check it out here.
My intent was to clear out the cobwebs in my brain first and foremost and that could not be done with a feather duster. Nope, I needed a dose of fresh air and a couple of parks under my belt to get the job done properly.
So off I went, shutting my eyes to that dust.
You read about my trip to Elizabeth Park yesterday, and this morning I headed to Council Point Park to visit with Parker and his pals. There will be more on that trek later.
The back story ‘bout housework.
My mom, God rest her soul, was a fastidious housekeeper and she tried mightily to instill that trait in her only child. But, just like cooking and baking, the housekeeping gene clearly skipped a generation. As a dutiful daughter, I helped keep the house clean, and, when my mom was unable to handle the everyday housecleaning tasks, it became my job full-time. Oh yes, I tried to ignore the criticism, spoken or unspoken. I knew my housekeeping efforts would never pass the white glove test. But, we were two different personalities, and, even people who love one another disagree sometimes as you all know.
So, I fought mightily to forgo the big, all-house cleaning that we used to do both Spring and Fall. I made the point that Spring cleaning butted up against mowing the lawn twice a week, endless weeding, pruning and planting, plus a full-time job. Working in a law firm all these years served me well, as I presented my case and made a valid argument, and Mom finally relented. We settled on one big house scouring every Fall. Buoyed by that victory, even then I protested taking never-used dishes and glasses out of the cupboards to wash them, plus washing down the insides of the cupboards. I reasoned that we never used these items and who was looking high up in the cupboards anyway? I won that argument too (yay me), albeit by a narrow margin, as my mother’s rebuttal was “dust will collect in there – have you no shame?” I hate being shamed, but it made no sense to me.
Today’s cleaning regimen is an abridged version.
Fast forward several years … I have adopted a new-and-improved routine for cleaning the house. You might want to try it. (You can thank me later.) No more scrubbing and washing every nook and cranny in the house (grrr), and it’s not like I plunged headfirst into that chore anyway.
With MY housekeeping regimen, no water is involved, so no muss – no fuss!
Now, a feather duster is my friend.
A few tips are in order when you use a feather duster.
#1 – Make sure it is of good quality, as you don’t want feathers flying all over the house.
#2 – Make sure all the feathers are clean before you start working.
#3 – Angle that feather duster properly so you can tackle the dust.
#4 – Then, with a mere flick of the wrist, feather duster in hand, just a fluff over the stuff is all you need to do.
The way I see it, housecleaning has no gray areas, even though my method is certainly different than what you’re used to.
But in the end, everything still looks pretty and presentable.
So, you can still hold your head high because you gave it your all.
And, next weekend you can hit the ground running because you finished your housework in just a few minutes.
I don’t know if Martha Stewart, or Mom, would approve, but I hope I haven’t shocked YOU by these revelations?
Will I ever return to the tedious business of washing down ceilings and walls, moving every piece of furniture and polishing that furniture, while knickknacks repose all over the house awaiting the polish to dry?
The answer is “NO, I believe that ship has sailed.”
Note: The Mallards, Mallard Hybrids, Pekin ducks and Canada geese were seen on my walks yesterday at Elizabeth Park and Dingell Park. I must admit I grew a little impatient with the ducks who were busy with their preening and it was difficult to get them to get their beak out of their feathers. (I was lucky a few times.) That, coupled with “National No Housework Day” prompted this post.
The freighter was the first one I’ve seen in the new shipping season; it was on the Detroit River and I viewed it from Dingell Park.
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Not a fan of that rip it all apart and clean routine either. I have a corner cabinet with dishes I rarely use. I found that when I use them I have to wash them first anyway so why bother unless I can see something nasty. I didn’t do anything productive either. Not inside or outside. Well, maybe a walk can be productive.
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Yes, it took me a long time to convince my mom that this was the way to go and I’m sorry to say I’ve gone the opposite way now. I’ve learned from several friends with debilitating illnesses to put the housework aside and live in the moment. They said to me they wished they had the ability to do so. It put my thinking in another light. I’m glad you agree with me. My mom said “they’ll get a film on them” … yes, but like you said, wait til they are used.
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Linda,
The post pictures are beautiful- looks like those birds are doing a bit of spring cleaning themselves. I am a fan of those detailed house cleaning strategies you wrote about- the only issue is I have never done them as I am now too big to do it. My mum is a daily cleaner and am not sure if she does the whole works these days but she probably did when she was younger. She is a two cancer survivor.
I agree that we don’t need to clean those little used dishes so often and who visits so often anyway and of course, we need to wash them everytime we use them – so why bother? But the fans and the ACs and stuff like that- they need a regular brush over.
The birds in the first picture are beautiful and look well fed too- in fact all of them. I think they are all happy Spring is here.
Susie
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Thanks Susie – I thought the ducks deserved a post dedicated to them – it was okay to throw in a couple of geese as well but they did look happy – perhaps the weather has finally gotten a little warmer. I hated seeing them in the icy water and on the ice floes. That seems so cruel to me Susie. My mom really got into the housework … I took years trying to convince her that she could rinse out a coffee cup and put in in the sink to await the next dishes to be done. She was adamant a dirty dish should not be in the sink … she relented a lot the last few years, but because I pressed her about it saying it was not necessary. I have one of those long-handled dusters which is great for getting the hanging lights in the kitchen and hall. I don’t have any ceiling fans.
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Oh, Linda, my mom was quite fastidious in her housecleaning too! I can remember as a kid, I had to iron the sheets and pillowcases and even my dad’s handkerchiefs and boxer shorts! She had a routine – washing on Mondays, ironing on Tuesdays, etc. She wiped down all the woodwork (baseboards, trim, doors) and cabinets every week, along with a thorough cleaning of all the bathrooms, dusting and vacuuming. The dusting and vacuuming was my job too. Every spring mom would do a thorough housecleaning, wiping down all the walls, removing everything from all the cabinets, etc. So time-consuming!
I am much more relaxed about my own housecleaning. Mom would be so disappointed! 🙂 I would rather be outside watching the ducks and birds in the parks too.
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Our moms were the same Laurie. My mom ironed the sheets and pillowcases, pajamas and my father’s boxer shorts too. It must have been the era. My parents were 30 years old when they had me and I always figured that had something to do with my upbringing (strict) and my mom’s incessant cleaning, as she was older (at that time 30 was old for starting a family). My grandmother was not like that at all. The kitchen was the worst – the house is done in Early American and the kitchen with all the knickknacks on the wall and corner cabinet, above the high cupboards … there are ducks everywhere, decoys mostly, a rooster or two and decorative rustic pots. All dustcatchers. I am relaxed about the housecleaning as well – a little too relaxed. When the weather is bad, I do a better job.
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I do a better job when the weather is bad too. In fact, I just wrote a post about that! 🙂
My mom was 40 when she had me, so I had an older mom too. My grandma’s house was also immaculate. I must have dropped the ball somewhere.
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Yes, you figure that you have to stay inside anyway, so you might as well be productive. I am behind in Reader at least 1 and 1/2 days – I may be scrambling all week to catch up, especially while so busy at work and leaving later. Yes, older moms have a different mindset for sure. My mom quit working after I was born. My grandmother’s house was clean, but she was not fastidious about it like my mom was. I figure I dropped the ball somewhere too and I take after my grandmother for her cooking and baking skills – they are not stellar!
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My mom quit working after I was born too, but she eventually went back part-time. She was a teacher too. She had worked during WWII, when my dad was in the army and my sister was an infant, all the way up until I was born.
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You were inspired by your mom being a teacher to be a teacher too then Laurie? My mother had gone to business school and worked in an office as a bookkeeper before I was born.
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That was cute! I don’t like clutter, and I like to organize so my house is usually neat and tidy but I seldom dust anymore. I just don’t have the energy for it. I used to clean my house from top to bottom at least twice a year, dusting all the tabletops and little knicknacks etc. Now I just clean the main areas every week, and when the tabletops get too dusty, I get the Molly Maid people in….they send three people so they are in and out in 2 hours. It’s $100 plus tax. My mother was a relaxed housekeeper, more into cooking than making sure the house was spotless, impossible on a farm, with people and dogs coming in and out. I know women who drive themselves crazy trying to maintain their houses perfectly – what a waste of time and energy.
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Glad you liked it Joni. I looked at those duck pictures last night and told myself I could do something special with them. They were all about preening yesterday – they’ll stop to catch a breath for 1/2 second and then go back to it again. You have a two-story house though, so lots more to do. I have a very small house – it seems there is clutter everywhere or it gets relegated to the basement and it is a finished basement, so I feel bad about that as well. Yes, I will not get any awards as “Suzy Homemaker” that is for sure. It is a waste of time and energy.
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I’ve seen 2 freighters so far and both were last week. The coal docks are right in my town so we do see a lot of them throughout the year. Cute post it made me smile!
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I didn’t see any close up last year … several at Lake Erie Metropark, but very far away. Glad you like this post Diane … I had a mess of duck pics preening and decided to have some fun with it. I started to do a post saying “we all have a morning beauty routine” but went with housework instead. Hope your house is getting back to order after last year’s water woes.
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Thanks Linda it’s all dried up and it is a great week! All my flower beds, raspberries, rhubarb, asparagus and blueberries are ready. All I have left is my 50 foot arbor that is covered in wisteria. Will finish that one day this weekend and babysit my new (5 months old already) grandson the other day.
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I didn’t realize you had that much property Diane – do you live in a rural area? That wisteria must be beautiful. My neighbor had an arbor with a beautiful wisteria for years. He lived on a corner and people would stop to admire it – he was very proud of it. He passed away and they sold the house – the wisteria is no longer there and perhaps the new owners did not like it, or it died. I know it took a lot of maintenance – he was always out there pruning and fussing with it. No wonder you have such a large harvest to cook/bake and freeze! Five months old already – I told you your new grandson will soon be ready for Swedish meatballs at the next big family event!
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Here is the link to my arbor in full bloom. I have pink and purple wisteria. It is A LOT of work, non stop until winter. I totally understand why the new owners got rid of it. My husband and I built this arbor back in 1997. I planted small wisteria plants and trained them to go all over the top….so much work but worth it now. All I do now is constant pruning.
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That is beautiful Diane – thanks for forwarding it to me. My neighbor next door had a small wisteria and she never did anything with it. It was a small arbor with two planters, one on each side of the arbor. She put it in the corner of her yard and I thought it was dead – it never blooms or has bloomed. But I was in my back garden and a vine had wound in and around my lilac tree … it has to be the wisteria and it was choking it. Here I thought the wisteria was long gone – like you said … wait and be patient for it to bloom. Very beautiful.
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My mother worked full time so she was more lax than most of her peers about spring cleaning. However, we lived in a clean enough house with a spotless kitchen. I do what she did figuring I grew up healthy enough, so why not do like mom did!
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You’re a smart cookie then Ally. I figured I could bend the rules … I’ve kind of bent them over the other way too much though.
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Excellent tips and photos to complement the words! You’ve got me smiling, once again. And incredibly thankful that all I did yesterday was mop the kitchen floor. To heck with dusting! 🙂 Happy Monday, Linda, hope you have a great week!!
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Thanks Shelley and glad I gave you a giggle for your early morning. The ducks were more interested in preening, so that worked to my advantage for a change.
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Yes, it was an enjoyable read! Ducks, despite the saying, are hard to get in a row for pictures! xx
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Glad you enjoyed it Shelley. Speaking of ducks in a row, I aim to get a shot of a Mama duck and her ducklings trailing along behind her this year and hopefully a swan with her cygnets riding on her back. I’ve only seen the ducklings in a row behind their mom one time and the shot was dark because it is difficult to get close to the Ecorse Creek at Council Point Park. The City thinned out the trees along the Creek banks last Fall and some of the bushes as well, but there is still too much brush to get too close to the water. I’ll likely need to try another park to be successful in getting those shots. It was a sweet sight to behold. I have to research when ducklings and cygnets arrive – I always think of it when I’m offline. At this Park, the goslings arrive in various stages and last year I had three different families at one time, with each family’s goslings in a different stage of growth. I hope at least one goose family will plan to debut their goslings for Mother’s Day Week.
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That’s a wonderful idea! In our parts, or at least south of us, Mother’s Day weekend is when we saw the cygnets at the park by where my daughter lives. I look forward to your post, I’m sure you’ll have a wonderful tale (tail) to share! 😉
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I hope I am luckier this year – we had all the rainy weekends last year. One of the walkers at Council Point Park is retired and he goes to the River to visit with the fisherman down there. There are several regulars who he visits with. He kept telling me about the swan and cygnets … I got there a couple of times and nothing was there. I also understand there are deer on the island where the eagles are and they swim in the channel, but I’ve never seen them. I assumed it was an urban legend, but I’ve asked others and they say “nope, they swim in the water with only their heads above water.” That would be an interesting post too if I saw that.
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I have a hunch you’ll be luckier for photos this year. The animals are all thrown off by this winter too, they’ll be moving around in modified patterns I’d think? Just like us?! Keep that camera ready!!
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Love, light and glitter
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Love, light and glitter back at you too Eliza.
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Loved the duck pics alongside the feather duster text. I never heard of such house cleaning horror!
OMG! In Africa we take a very different view. There’s loads of dust, insects, torrential rains etc constantly, so its a losing battle of note. So we don’t even begin. Much more restful.
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Thank you Alison – I watched those ducks preening and caught a few nice shots of them and decided it would be perfect to talk about feather dusters and housework. Glad you liked it. I finally had to stop that madness as it seemed there would be a long Winter period of inactivity (except for shoveling snow) and then there was a mad dash to get everything done in the space of two months once the growing season kicked in – it left me quite frazzled. But it would be every weekend for 6-8 weeks to get the house back in order again. Your way and my way works for me – restful is a better way to go!
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Saw butterflies today… eating sap oozing from Birch trees! 🙂
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Butterflies already – how nice! I didn’t know butterflies ate sap. Hope they will be okay with this storm moving across parts of the Midwest.
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My mother wasn’t overly fastidious. Our house was clean enough, but I really liked that she had more interesting things to do (in my mind, anyway) than deep clean. I have definitely inherited that gene. Our house is clean but I bet someone could find some dust in a few corners (and that’s ok). I didn’t realize that yesterday was National No Housework Day so I’ve decided to, instead, celebrate today.
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I certainly should have put the word out earlier! Some other bloggers said the same thing. I was glad I convinced my mom that we should lighten up a little – it was killing me and now I think of all the weekends we missed while stuck in housework mode and it makes me sad.
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Oh my gosh, my mom was the same. It must be that generation. All that emotional energy went into cleaning the house!
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I think you’re right Pam … maybe it was because the definition of “the family homemaker” was so different in those days. It took me many years to persuade my mom that it was okay to rinse out a coffee cup and leave it in the sink until the next load of dishes were done. She was adamant that everything must look perfect in the kitchen before she turned out the light and went to bed. I am striving to go the opposite way and if she was still here, she’d probably be disappointed in me, but I know I was resentful of the time making the house look perfect and a house can still be a home without such attention to cleaning details.
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Hell, yes!😘
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Cute post, Linda! And great photos of the avian spring cleaning! I try to keep up with chores, but don’t get swept up in the spring cleaning fever.
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Thanks Sabine! When I first got to Elizabeth Park, with the exception of the beautiful bridge in the mist, there was not much to see or take photos of … the waterfowl were performing their morning preen as they usually do when you get there early. The longer I watched them, their cleaning rituals created a few pictures and were begging for a narrative to go with those photos. Those Mallard Hybrids sure are beautiful and unique looking. I have strayed away from those Spring cleaning routines, after too many years of trying to accomplish them at the expense of giving up every weekend … it is just an abbreviated routine now and even then, not as much as I should be doing.
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I watch birds take baths in the bird bath and love how thoroughly they preen their plumage, so I know what you mean about their rituals. As for spring cleaning, I can think of plenty of other things I’d rather be doing! 😉
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Yes, the birds are fastidious about preening their feathers. Even domestic birds. My parakeets loved their hooked-on birdbaths.
My canaries were scared of them. I got the baths in different sizes, but they were reluctant to get in. They wanted to try climbing into their water cup and taking a bath there. 🙂 I agree with you wholeheartedly on the housework. I do my best job when the weather is bad.
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😊
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Amen to the brain needing a bit of airing out too! I think I might have honored National No Housework Day non-intentionally, lol.
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This was such a fun read Linda. I don’t understand why such an important holiday wasn’t on my calendar. Now please tell me where I can get one of those feather dusters you have pictured. I would like an automatic (well trained) model. LOL.
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Glad you liked it Ruth. I came home with so many pictures of birds preening or eyes closed, that I figured I’d have some fun with it. My feather duster is not so exciting – it is bright pink and looking a little sparse. Get an older model as they will know all the housekeeping tricks. 🙂
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I hate dusting so if I could get a duck that would walk or waddle around my house all day dusting everything I would pay big bucks. LOL. 🙂
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And get one of those Roomba vacuums and you’d be all set! I don’t like dusting either Ruth, and my mom used to use soft flannel cloths which she cut down from old flannel sheet blankets or PJs. She would pick every item up and dust it and underneath it. When I started doing all the housework, I bought a long-handled and a short-handled feather duster. My mom said “that only pushes the dust around” … I bought those special dusting clothes by Pledge – now they were great, but they stopped making them, so back to the feather dusters again.
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I don’t mind vacuuming or really any of the other house work too much. Just dusting! One of my quirks I guess. 🙂
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I know a lot has to do with your ducts being clean too. Right after we painted and papered the house, one of my bosses at that time, got his wife an unusual present. She also hated dusting and so he got Dusty Ducks to come in and clean the ducts. He said they never had any more dust. I had to get a new speaker phone for work last year as the old one broke – this one is black and you would be surprised the dust that is there, just one or two days after dusting. The computer keyboard too, even when I’m using it – hmmm. After my boss had it done, we looked into getting it done, but they had to take all the registers off and this is a small house and they said that they would try to be careful but couldn’t guarantee that scuffs from equipment would not be on all the baseboards, or in the case of a recent paint job, lifting paint off. My mom and I agreed we had enough work with the painting/papering, and not going to go through more painting.
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I am with you all of the way on this. Life is far to short to dust the skirting boards daily and constantly clean the places no-one ever looks 😁. I am loving your feather friendly way of cleaning .
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It sure is Zena. It took me years to try to convince my mom that we should not be dedicating as much time to taking care of the house (and that was just inside for goodness sake) … she agreed but not whole-heartedly. That feather-friendly way of house cleaning was innovative wasn’t it?
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Miss Linda………………………..that was clever how you correlated the duck pictures with the kinds of house cleaning…………………….I enjoyed the white duck looking “shocked” at me the best
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Thank you Ann Marie – I am glad you liked those pictures depicting Spring Cleaning. I liked the white duck with the “shocked” look on his face and looking backward the best too – it looked like he stopped what he was doing to utter the words “you don’t say” or “really!!!???”
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Ha ha Great post and entertaining. I really need to share this with my mom as my mom was simular to your mom you could eat off the floors growing up. And now that i have to help out it’s not never to her standards. We joke about it sometimes. But housework well it will always be here. I hope i didn’t do housework on NO housework day.
ugh. lol Sorry for the lack of reply i’m catching up now tho!
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I’m glad you liked this post Pril and hope your mom gets a kick out of it and does not take offense to it. I said to my mom for years “we must lighten up on housework!” I felt pretty triumphant when I succeeded in getting rid of some of those chores and also when I convinced my mom she could just rinse out a coffee cup and put it in the sink for the next load of dishes … she liked the kitchen clean, and uncluttered, nothing out of place when she turned off the light for bed. I’m just the opposite! I figured you were busy or on weekend adventures … hopefully the weather gets a little better soon.
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I agree with you about cleaning. I just cant spend the whole day cleaning like my mother did. It seems like their generation was brought up that way. My Mother lived through the dirty 30s in the Dakotas. She use to tell us about the dust in their house all the time. So they had to clean constantly. I think that is where she got it from. Life is just to short to worry about cleaning that much. 🙂
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I agree with you Sandra. I just do not have that instinct in me – I did it to keep peace with my mom and while I had my canaries I was diligent about dustig and vacuuming regularly to keep things clean (canaries are susceptible to respiratory illnesses) but they are both gone now, and I won’t get another pet (too much grief losing them and also our weather is so erratic anymore that I constantly worried with my last canary that we’d lost power – in Summer they don’t do well with heat and humidity and I was sprayed for years for spiders and centipedes in the basement and could not take him down there – with these Polar Vortex events and the possible loss of power in the Winter, even though I had measures to keep him safe without power, I did not get another pet after I lost Buddy in December 2016. I have to tell you that I am glad no one comes to this house because I would be embarrassed to let anyone come inside – the contractors like for HVAC checks only come into the basement and the plumber was here and I cringed when he came into the kitchen – I have too much clutter too, but resolve to try to do something about it when retired. Also, you may find this hard to believe, but I have not seen my boss since October of 2012. He e-mails me work, occasionally drops off a tape in the morning while I am out walking so we’ve not had a face-to-face meeting since then. And that is because there was a huge spider in a web between the siding and the mailbox and he was going to drop the tape off in the mailbox on a Sunday … I said “please bring a club and a roll of paper towels and smash the spider that lives there first” so he brought a paint stick and some paper towels, but it rained and spider did not come out to sun itself on its web. Things have gone downhill fast since the blogging picked up the last two years and since I’ve added more pictures to the blog posts … as you know all that takes time. I am going to finish my post I started yesterday – multiple problems with the block editor caused me to save it and leave. I could not edit in the text, nor justify some paragraphs and it occasionally would freeze, no matter what browser I used. I still don’t see my post in Reader, although WordPress sent me a link to see it. I unfollowed then followed myself again but it is still not there. I just wrote a note to the Happiness Engineers and explained that and told them the three problems I had creating this post which I will have publish on Tuesday morning. It is the part 2 of the walk which I mentioned yesterday. I did ask them if the fact that I am still on Windows 7 is causing the problem since the very last day for Windows 7 (for support) was Tuesday, January 14th? We have had our equipment and the Windows 10 laptop here at home since last Spring and I suspect we will go over to it in the coming weeks now that my boss has returned from vacation. He was in all day yesterday and edited all the work I did last week.
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I have never had birds as a pet, I grew up on a horse farm and dogs are my thing. Just love them. Finding a way to downsize stuff will really help with everything. I have never collected anything, like some people do. So there isn’t much to dust at my house. We are downsizing to a 200 sq foot cabin from a four story house. I am so excited about that. Less to clean and no room to have alot of stuff. I have always traveled light, I moved a lot over the course of my life. So I have never collected things, like furniture. 🙂 That is pretty cool you have a job that you can do from home, and you two have been working together for this long. I use the basic word press posting page. I am not sure what they call it. My videos don’t always post unless I send it to u tube first. I am still working on figuring that out. Once I got used to windows 10, it doesn’t seem that bad. They always have to change the formats to everything.
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I finally made it back here – first I had to write back the WordPress Happiness Engineer who insists the post is in Reader though I can’t see it and a fellow blogger who subscribes by e-mail did not get it in her e-mail nor in her Reader and sent me an e-mail to tell me. I am reluctant to post the one on Tuesday morning – maybe I need to hold off on it.
it is the rest of the same day’s walk. I have always been a keeper, not a thrower and my mom and I would have an ongoing tiff about it – she said “something comes in, something goes out” … that is not always possible. And I have clothes, coats, accessories from work that I suddenly stopped wearing when I no longer worked on site after my mom’s dizziness kept me home with her – they are dressier clothes, not something I’d wear outside to walk or in the house either, so I look around and I honestly wonder how two other people lived in this house at one time (my parents) and our/my bird, who was spoiled and had his own closet of stuff (mostly in case of power outages in Summer or Winter months, plus an extra cage to swap out when going to the vet – I’d clean the other one up so he always had a clean one every six months). When I got the whole house insulated in 2017, I cannot tell you what a mess they made downstairs and in the garage – they did not have to come upstairs thankfully. I cleaned the basement and garage which took the course of the Summer. Robb volunteered to come help me after I sent him pictures of the basement and garage (not for help, just because it was so horrific) … then multiple plumbing emergencies downstairs (and upstairs) that Summer … I felt like I did nothing but clean/paint the laundry room and clean up messes. I thought it would be nice to have a treadmill if I was able to put one in the basement – it does not have to have a lot of bells and whistles, just a basic model to walk on during the Winter months and really rainy days like these past three days … I look around and tell myself there is no room. Maybe when retired I can go through the basement and upstairs and make some room. The problem in the basement is my mom did not want clutter upstairs, so things were relegated to the basement. It is paneled, tiled with an area rug in one half plus the old living room furniture as well and the other half the rooms are separated and closed (laundry and pantry rooms) … so it COULD look nice downstairs, but does not and the upstairs does not look much better. I like the size of the house, as it is small,. You are right – a smaller place is much less work … I could get into that for sure. I decided to do all my tax stuff today and get it all organized and a spreadsheet done for when I get the year-end stuff then it will be ready. I did not read. I had to figure out what is wrong with the speaker phone at the kitchen table where I work during the day … all of a sudden there is static and it is a fairly new phone. I don’t know if it is the phone or an ATT issue. Before I knew it, the entire day was gone. I liked the Classic Editor – this one took some getting used to.
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Sounds like you had a busy day. I did not do much, it was a good weekend to relax for me. I have sold or given away most everything in the big house. Getting ready to sell it soon.
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I felt productive, but I also feel like the weekend goes by too quickly when there are chores or jobs to be done. I was more enthusiastic about getting tasks done on a weekend when I was younger, but I have learned to be protective of my “me” time. I don’t get any vacation time since working from home so weekends and holidays have to be used for my own time. Well I hope the house goes quickly for you. A neighbor around the corner passed away and his house was on the market for two days and sold. I was amazed. It was sad as he was 64 just a little older than me and his wife died earlier last year, same age, of dementia. It makes you stop and think about spending too much time on cleaning house and doing outside chores and doing more for yourself.
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That is so true Linda, understanding time changed for me after I turned 50 and my mother passed away 2 years ago and she was the last of her generation. It is like life shifted for me after that. Time is precious, it is a gift. We dont know how much time we have. Enjoy every moment we can.
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I sure agree with that Sandra. I tried to tell my mom that for many years. We used to do a big Spring cleaning and then Fall cleaning. I said that was the time when I had the most do outside and Fall was meant to be enjoyed once the heat and humidity was gone. We finally settled on once a year and began in August and through Labor Day and done by mid-September latest. I hated doing the kitchen – it is small but lots of knickknacks and doodads on the wall, on top of cupboards … scrubbing, waxing, washing ceilings, baseboards – this was not my thing, but did it, as I said, to keep peace in the family. I do not do that now and since walking and blogging, I do cleaning even less. I used to spend a lot of time in the yard – not a weed to be seen, everything as perfect as possible. Maybe the Polar Vortex killing off everything and the neighbor bringing rats to my yard was good in the long run, as I don’t spend the hours and hours I once did. My mom said she never felt as old as when her mother died and she became the matriarch of the family though my aunt died a few years later and she was estranged from her brother. So basically, it was just her. I have no kids so I did not feel that way, but the thought of less time to enjoy life than we had when we just took all the years ahead for granted scares me a little.
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That was a lot of cleaning, my Mother did some of that. I also grew up in forest type setting. So yard work was not a thing. I still plant flowers every year but it is more wild flowers, just a little something extra for butterflies and bees. I dont have any children either. I watched my sister raise her children, I visit them as often as I can and my brother. So letting go of what material things I had was not hard. We are in the best times of our lives I think.
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Yes my mom was really into cleaning the house and it took years to convince her that we could have a cup of coffee or cocoa at night and leave the cup in the sink overnight. She did not leave the house with a dirty dish in the sink – I worked on her to break that habit too. You are in the best time of your lives – you are both retired, and your husband can pursue his photography as a hobby or an occasional job and you have time to devote to your photography and enjoying a fulfilling life. I look forward to retirement for being on my own hours and just being able to enjoy life at a slower pace. The problem with many people is they wait too long to retire, then do not feel their best … I had a boss one time and when he and his wife went to Hawaii on their honeymoon, he said there were many people there who had just retired and taken this trip after working for many years, raising a family – their dream trip, but the trip was too hard on them, too rigorous to enjoy some parts. It is better to enjoy life while you can. For you, retiring early, at age 58, you can accomplish that goal.
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And anyone can do it, you just have to have a plan. It depends on what kind of life style people want that determines there retirement I think. If they want to travel the world they need more money. I dont care to do that. Just live the quiet life and help others when I can. Animals or people. Yes, if you wait to long it might be harder on some. Well, it is bed time for me. I enjoy our conversations Linda, I hope you have a good evening. I will catch up with you later. 🙂
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I fully agree with you Sandra and I enjoy our conversations as well. I traveled a lot in the 70s and early 80s. Always by myself as friends got their own places and met people then married and had kids. I wanted to see some of the world and since I lived at home I was able to take a trip once a year. Sometimes I wish I had gone back to a full-time job after my mom passed away and would have continued taking the trips that I enjoyed. I got laid off and just used that time to have some quiet time after my mom health issues from the past year. Other times I would say that working from home and walking in the morning, blogging – this life would not have happened if I had chosen that traditional work route once again. I stopped traveling in 1984 when my father suddenly left my mother and took all the money out of the bank and annuity fund and fled the country – she was penniless if not for having the house which was paid for thankfully,but she was too young to collect Social Security. So things changed … a lot for both of us. But, with the way the world is these days, the unrest, the unsafe travel, I’m more inclined to not take those trips to the few remaining places I wanted to go … I’ve begun to think a lot about the future. I would not mind to live somewhere that snow/ice and bad weather is not an issue, but I fear that climate change will spoil every corner of this earth in years to come and that dream is not possible. I’m shoving off now too – our Mama Hummingbird continues to sit on her chicks to keep them warm. Every peek at the webcam and no chicks to be seen.
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The paths we take leads us to the lives we have. You are doing what you love, and that is all that matters. I would not travel to other country’s, I don’t care to fly, there are plenty of places in the states to see for me. Sometimes right in our own back yards, like the parks you go to. Nature is always surprising us.
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Hmm – I was typing a response and it flew off the screen – now, that might be user error. I do not see what I typed … that’s likely because I went to another tab to see if they shut the lights for the hummingbirds at night – they do not and the babies look a little grumpy. They are moving all over the place. I wish I had visited just three places: Italy, France and Alaska – I planned a trip and had put a deposit down in 1984 for Italy, but canceled after my father left on Christmas Day 1983 and did what he did at the banks and fled the country in January 1984. I always assumed I’d go back, but with so many transportation accidents (plane and train), helicopters even, terrorism … even climate change like Alaska’s melting landscape, Europe’s increasingly hot and unbearable Summers, Venice flooding, all make me rethink things. But I have lots to see in the U.S. – I would love to see New England’s fall foliage, or Yosemite – I’ve only been to Florida and California as an adult and traveled along Route 66 as a child, but don’t remember much of it, though there are pictures along the way. Now, I’d enjoy to visit parks more and enjoy nature. My boss went on a safari and spent 10 days in South Africa a few years ago – that really does not interest me to be honest – perhaps a little too rugged and a little dangerous. We had a local woman who was killed by a hippo while on a safari a few years ago. Have a good day Sandra – it is not raining mercifully so I hope to get to the Park this morning … a clear and dry week, but precip again for next weekend.
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You have a good day also, the states have so much to offer in all the local and state parks. We will never get to see it all. I had a plan to visit all the state parks in Iowa, I have been to a few and they are all gorgeous. We don’t have to go far to see such a variety in landscapes.
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When I went on the tour of the lighthouse back in September, it was my first lighthouse and I was the only person who was not part of an organized travel group that take whole vacations that revolve around lighthouse tours. So, this lighthouse on Grosse Ile is on private property and only open one day a year – this was the first day of this tour group’s agenda – then they would go to Canada the next seven days visiting lighthouses, ending up at Niagara Falls. I mention this because the members were all very nice and told me they have a “passport” that they get stamped for every lighthouse in the U.S. and Canada – it is a stamp like in a regular passport. I had never heard about that before, so I took some pictures of the “stamps” and used them in the blog post, then a fellow blogger told me they do that passport for the state parks. This was all new to me as well – she and her husband have been trying to go to many state parks in their travels. I think Michigan has a good selection of nature areas to visit in the Lower and Upper Peninsulas. I have gotten the add-on fee to my driver’s license, but no visits to state parks due to all the torrential rain last year – maybe this year will be the charm.
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Yes, maybe this year. I don’t think I will get to every state park in Iowa either. I think I have been to 15. I would have to recount. And Michigan has so many also. So much to see, do not need to leave the country.
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Very true – walking in nature and visiting natural occurences is indeed a way to see the U.S.A. – on foot, all the better.
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We ride bikes quite often also. There are so many nice bike paths also. They replace the old railroad tracks that are not getting used with bike paths and walking paths. Those are nice.
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That sounds nice – I no longer have a bike for outside; just the exercise bike downstairs. I have been writing a post for Friday using some bird pictures from Elizabeth Park. I was going to write it over the weekend but all the issues with WP made me step back til they got them resolved. The metroparks Downriver (where I live) have nice bike trails and now three of them are connected to one another which really sounds nice – I learned of this the day I got lost and ended up at Lake Huron Metropark where all the butterflies were on the wildflowers. I saw signs, so checked it out online when I got home.
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I put a wire basket on the front of mine and I have a place for my camera equipment. And my husband has one. So we are covered in case we see anything to photograph on the ride. My husband likes to go off road more. I like to stay on the bike path most of the time. It is relaxing for me. We go during the week though, less traffic on the paths. Weekends they are busy with speed riders.
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That’s a shame there are speed riders there – I can’t say I’ve noticed them as I stick to the rustic trails at Lake Erie Metropark unless, like last year and the year before, they were soggy and roped off due to all the Spring rain. There are some riders there, but they have a divided pathway that bikers/walkers must adhere to. But at Lower Huron Metropark, I remember I even mentioned in the post that I saw more bicyclists than walkers. And they rode across the pathway sid by side – I figured they were families and I have to say there were many young children riding together – that surprised me. I would not mind to take a bike to ride through the big parks … I have not been on a bike outside since I was hit on my bike in 1976. A woman drove out of a bar parking lot and hit me and did not stop to help … I was lucky, just bruises and road rash, but the bike was quite damaged. I was just a few blocks from the police station and I worked at the diner through college at that time, so knew the police officers well, as our diner made all the prisoner meals for the police department for years, so the officers stopped in to pick them up and they rotated shifts … the desk sergeant was someone went to high school with. I knew the make/model/color of the car, three numbers of the license plate and gave a description of the woman driving it – they got her the next day. We had to go to court, but she got an attorney who said she stopped to assist me and I said I was fine – I suspect she was drinking and was afraid to need to take a breathalyzer test – she saw me, went right on her merry way. The condition of the bike and my legs would tell that she should have stopped after knocking me down. There was a witness who saw the accident (on a street corner) but went into the house and would not cooperate with the police. She/we went to court and she said the sun was high on the horizon and she didn’t see me and all she got was a moving violation – a rolling stop at the stop sign. I said she came out of the parking lot and never stopped. At least I was believed there.
The police believed my story and they were angry they could not do more … Allstate Insurance Company repaired the bike, but I have not gotten on a bike outside again … I will though, I have to find where to put it.
I have minimal room in the garage on either side of the car … no, just no,m I can’t bring it upstairs in the cluttered mess. 🙂
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That stuff happens a lot, people not holding themselves accountable for doing that. It is one persons word against another unless you have a witness. I have crashed a couple times, nothing like what happened to you. Mine was just not paying attention. I like to go slower most of the time and just enjoy the ride and scenery. I don’t do it for exercise. I can’t travel farther than walking and like I mentioned the bike paths are so nice now and go for so long. You see more on the path then in a car.
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Do you wear a helmet Sandra? My boss crashed in his bike while riding on Belle Isle about five or six years ago. It was hot and he wanted to reach his water bottle and did not take his foot out of the toe clip and he went over the handlebars and ended up in the E.R. … he had a third-degree shoulder separation, but because he swims every day at least 1 1/2 to 2 miles all year around, his shoulder muscles were strong and he was able to not have surgery and recover completely using those rubber bands to strengthen his arms/shoulders and get range of motion back again. I will ride again, but I have to tell you that it would only be in a park because the incidence of pedestrian/vehicular accidents and bike/vehicular accidents grows every day. But for a big park with no cars anywhere, I think it would be wonderful.
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I dont have a helmet yet, I only like riding on the bike trails or at the campgrounds we go to. I dont ride anywhere near traffic or in towns. Cars go to fast now. Bike trails are the way to go. My husband is more adventurous, and he has crashed a couple times. Mostly scrapes and bruises so he got a helmet right away. It sure is different then when we were kids isn’t it? I rode bikes all the time, on those bumpy old sidewalks.
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You should be fine without a helmet then Sandra. My boss was riding on cement and missed that curb and was laying on the ground out cold at Belle Isle Park in downtown Detroit. Two women, twins, called 911 for him. He used to ride back and forth to work as well everyday – it was 9 miles each way and he had to pass the Chrysler plant on Jefferson Avenue. Someone hit him coming out of work – no E.R. trip that time; another attorney who works downtown and he knows through the years stopped and took his bike and him to work and he had road rash. But he had a bike helmet on both times. You’re right – we just jumped on our bikes and rode off down the street without a care in the world.
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Those were the fun days as a child, drop your bike anywhere and it would still be there when you got back. I am glad your boss came out ok from his crashes. I am not the adventurous type when it comes to riding. I like the roads less traveled.
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Yes, no worries about having your bike stolen – now they steal them off the front porch in broad daylight here in my city. I remember seeing that you like the roads less traveled on your website. I’d rather be on a rustic path than a cement path if possible too. (Safer and more to see.)
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Even when we travel I navigate to the older highways. I completely avoid the big cities. In Texas they are running out of room to build more roads in the city, so they are building the highways higher. They are 4 to 5 highways on top of each other. They are like rollercoasters. And I dont like rollercoasters.:)
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When we still went to Toronto to visit my grandmother (she passed away 01/29/86), even back then, every time we went there were changes to the expressway – we had multiple expressways the last 1/2 hour or so of the trip and each of them would be under construction, or the big trucks would hog the road and you could not see to get over – and we had non-Canada plates which probably did not help. If we could, we’d take the No. 2 Highway instead of the 401 … it was slower for the trip, but less stressful. I could not deal with highways like rollercoasters … I don’t like them either. And I hope I never have to go anywhere that there is a roundabout from what I hear about them. I don’t like driving the expressway, just surface streets anymore. Not worth the aggravation and 696 through Oakland County they drive like the speed of sound.
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I know, highway 10 heading to Texas was 80 miles an hour speed limits. Way to fast for me. It is not good on the Rv either. So we do t go that fast.
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Oh that would be rough … a car is bad enough. 80 miles an hour I would not like – they repaired the Rouge River Bridge which goes from Detroit to the Downriver suburbs about three years ago. In doing that project, they said it would take about two years to complete and diverted the traffic to Fort Street (end of my street). They also raised the speed limit on this highway from 35 mph to 45 mph and promised to move it back to 35 once the project was done and the expressway/bridge opened again. They never did that – there are accidents there every day as people now go over 45, more like 55, and semis go rattling along going through all the red lights now.
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Everyone is in such a hurry all the time. I like that line from the movie, Galaxy of the Guardians, he says, always trying to get from something, to nothing at all. Something like that.
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I’ve never seen that movie, but that is certainly the way our society moves today – I often feel like I would like to climb off this fast-paced world and go to an earlier and gentler era. Not only does the world move fast, but people talk so fast, I feel like I need subtitles sometimes to follow them, especially younger folks.
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That is funny and so true. All the new language they use, abbreviations, and they text way faster then we type. It is amazing.
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Yes, I feel really old and if I ever go to Best Buy for anything and need to ask a technical question, I’m in big trouble if that person talks a mile a minute as they’ve lost me in no time.
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Me to, I just learn what I need to.
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When I bought the digital compact in 2015, I got home and opened the package – no cord to transfer the images from the camera to the computer. The first digital compact had lithium batteries and a CD came with it to load onto the computer so I could transfer the images – that camera was bought in 2010; the second one in 2015. I went back to the store and said “nothing in the instructions says there is a USB plug cord, yet how am I supposed to transfer the images – the manual, a little fold-out pamphlet says nothing” … I had the same salesman who talked a mile a minute. He told me to get a SIM card reader – had no clue what that was … he was not the best at explaining and I walked away feeling very dumb, and very old!
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That can happen, but now with u tube, I check that first, there is someone to explain everything you want to know on u tube.
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Yes, now I know that and learned more about the DSLR than from the “Dummies” book and definitely not the manual. I was following Jared and his tips on manually using the camera, but he talked loud and fast and I had to find another set of videos to watch. 🙂
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There is always more than one, it does make it easier.
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Yes, and Canon sent me something today – a download for an easy-to-follow guide to understanding the manual controls of your camera, so I downloaded it – will take a look when the weather improves – a lot. A lot could mean April perhaps.
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Hopefully sooner, 🙂
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Indeed! The compact is too handy to use to be honest.
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I like my smaller camera when doing hiking. It is like a compact, a lot lighter then the big camera.
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I find it difficult to get used to the fact that the DSLR has no real protection except when it is in the big carrying case. I think you can buy cases that fit like a 35mm case did, which actually protected the camera while you were carrying it – if you wanted to take a picture you flipped down the front of the case. Your lens cap permanently hung on a string off the front of the camera – I miss that. Now, I have a lens cap on a string for both lenses and on the long lens the elastic is in the way and has flipped off a few times – landed in the mud one time and in goose poop another time; on a regular lens, I have to take it off and keep it in the case … I am very slow to swap lenses as well. So the digital one is a breeze to use.
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Yes, that can be a problem. I had to get a bigger case just to carry everything.
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Good morning Sandra – I got a case that came with the DSLR kit – it protects okay, but the latch is very difficult to open and I’ve gotten my finger skin caught many times and bruised it (of course I am clumsy/accident prone too). I ordered a “slouch camera bag” from Amazon … the reviews were good and it looked to have lots of protection for the camera body and lens, but the way it was shaped, I found the zipper kept opening – for just standing in place, or toting the camera somewhere, maybe okay, but hiking around and taking big steps, I was concerned something would fall out. I have to find either a very large safety pin, or maybe a smooshy-type case. I can’t use my 35mm case as this camera is too wide. I used to use tube-like carriers when I had the 35mm camera for different lenses. I may go that route too. We may get to the 50s the beginning of next week – I am ecstatic for that. 🙂
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Good Morning, that is great about the weather. It is nice to have some warm weather in the middle of winter to help melt some of the snow before spring. I use a shoulder bag or a back pack for camera gear. There are so many to pick from now to use.
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I was happy and then came home and they are mentioning “the return of Winter next Tuesday or Wednesday” – well that’s too bad, but at least if it is warm on Sunday/Monday then the snow from this Saturday will melt. I saw the Facebook site for Mud Island where the eagles are (at John Dingell Park where I mentioned the other day to you), and it showed some photos that the photographers with long lenses took of the eagles … mostly flying, one in a tree, but a gorgeous photo of an eagle preparing to land on an ice floe. But I can’t get there on a weekday and we had three weekends of bad weather in a row – entire weekends, so I would not have gotten there. The ice is no doubt gone as it is all gone in the Creek at the Park I walk every day. I may try Sunday if it is clear but likely, with the ice floes gone, they will be too. A shoulder bag sounds good or a backpack – I have some compartment-style tote bags but they are not padded enough unless I could buy some padding for it or take it from the “slouch bag”.
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When I go to the location for eagles on the River it is always cold, and it seems to ne an all day process waiting for them to fly. It is fun seeing all the giant cameras out there. The people are always friendly.
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Yes, people are there all day sometimes and some folks have binoculars as well – some are just there to view and not take pictures, but always a friendly crowd, sharing how long they’ve waited and how many they’ve seen. Someone saw 4 or 5 while there last week in the brutal cold – that is a lot.
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There use to be dozens by the Mississippi, but the last couple of years it has dropped to 4 or 5 sightings. They must have found better places to go.
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That is a shame – climate change probably – our bird population is shrinking, despite putting so many birds on the endangered list. The populations increased after those endangered lists, now they can’t find food or the climate conditions make it more difficult for them to forage. Speaking of odd weather, I am hurrying off to do some errands because even though it appears we will have 50 degrees Monday and I could get out and about then, but we have a Winter storm coming in Tuesday with snow and/or other precip and I don’t trust that it will not come in a day earlier – I don’t want to go to the grocery store Friday or on Super Bowl weekend – it will be a madhouse. They are saying flurries out there now, but I don’t see anything and that was unexpected as well.
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Have a good day Linda, yes avoid the store this weekend. I will have to look at the weather. I usually check to see what is headed that way. Talk to you later.
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You too Sandra – if I knew Monday would be fine, I’d much rather walk today … just when I am starting to gain traction on my walking, another weekend of not-so-great weather … my trip to the River might be put over. I wish Monday’s 50 degree plus weather would be this weekend. I am itching for a long walk on the River … I’ve not been to Dingell Park in awhile. In Spring due to all the torrential rain almost every weekend, I know the last time had been when it was icy. I can get there on a weekday when the sun rises earlier, but not now – it is not that far away but the parking lot is near a restaurant and not always easy to get in on a weekday. Also on my photo bucket list is cygnets; I try to find them every Spring and others see them, but it is like the eagles, not always hanging around there when I show up and the Spring’s incessant rain was a real spoiler as well.
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I would love to see that bird also. They are always so far away. But so beautiful. Winter seems so long now when we want to get out and walk. When I was younger, winter didn’t seem long enough. Funny how that changes. Last year the Mississippi River was flooding just about all summer, could not get near the water in many places. Roads were washed out, they are already talking about flooding again on the river.
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I went out this morning and it was a very dark sky. There was lake effect snow about 20 miles away in Monroe and a semi ran off the road and overturned. I told myself it would likely snow before I got home – I got the allergy shots (I have to go once a month and was due this Monday) and driving to the store, it started to sleet. They had said possible freezing rain, so I came back home – will try again tomorrow morning, but they said the same tomorrow and Saturday – I can always go Monday before what they are now saying will be shoveable snow Tuesday into Wednesday. Like you, the Winter seems to last too long – that’s since we don’t enjoy Winter sports. They just had an article on Accuweather today about Lake Erie flooding as it’s high above it the normal rate from all the rain. This will be the third year for massive flooding at Lake Erie Metropark and at Elizabeth Park down by the Detroit River as well; it was a soggy mess until mid-Summer. Luckily at Council Point Park, it sits above the Creek, so it never floods … I guess I will be spending less time at big parks and more time there. They are remodeling part of Heritage Park where they have the village and creating quaint and old-fashioned looking storage sheds for big equipment to fit in with the village theme. I’m sure they could find somewhere else to store the equipment (in my opinion) as it is a huge park, but anyway, this is an ongoing project. That likely will mess up any picture taking in the Winter unless you limit what shots you take and work around the heavy construction equipment. They tore down a ramshackle old barn – it was great to take pictures of it, as it needed paint, was sagging and was patched up with mismatched boards. In the Spring, there was a huge lilac bush against the white wood fence – it was beautiful. You will see the pictures of it as you go through the blog. I went up there one morning before work to see their goslings. They have a lot of geese at that park (no swans though) and I was lucky to get some nice warm-and-fuzzy pictures of them and their mom.
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That all sounds so similar to the area on the Mississippi river, one of my favorite places closer to down town has been under construction for over a year. It looks like they are extending the park. I can’t really tell. One area they put up few basketball courts, but hardly ever is anyone even using them. I used to drive by a piece of land that was full of trees on the edge of town. A pretty place, and last year they started cutting the trees down. And now there is a giant car lot there. Because the stores want to be in the new improved areas of the city. They had a lot in town and just wanted a new one. It seems like such a waste, but city’s keep getting bigger.
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I follow Heritage Park on Facebook and was dismayed to see that – they say they will keep the quaint look of the village, but it is a large park and I think they should have left well enough alone. When you see my photos of the ramshackle barn you will see the beauty of it as well.
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Looking forward to those photos, I love the old barns and farms. So much history and beauty compared to the new industrial look to everything.
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Oh I do too Sandra – and I love the color red. That is what draws me to Heritage Park’s historical village – that red schoolhouse and the red caboose. This was the post … I did not do justice to that beautiful lilac bush and I wish I could have captured the smell. That was the morning I got up early and went there before work. The goslings were so cute! I just was looking at them again. I took the big camera that morning so I could get close-ups of the goslings. The photographer who always posts pictures of the “Heritage Park Photo of the Day” had shown the goslings a few days before, so I knew I’d find some – the only ones I saw that morning.
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What an awesome group of photos, the buildings and water are gorgeous. The babies are so cute and I can smell the lilacs by just looking at the beautiful color. Cant wait for spring.
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Thank you Sandra – I was so glad I went that morning, just an absolutely gorgeous morning, full of sunshine and Spring flowers. All those flowering trees were beautiful. The Park photographer who maintains the site had shown photos of the trees in bloom, so I knew I needed to get up there soon before we had a heavy rain or a big windstorm and the blossoms ended on the ground. Those goslings were so sweet – I was lucky the mom moved away and let them do their thing and I could get some shots of them. I’ll miss the barn and those rickety railings – they had character. The lilacs bloomed like crazy – I have some in the yard, but they don’t bloom like that and they were planted the year we moved here (1966). When you see the colors of Spring, it gives you hope.
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Yes, when the spring colors start to come out, it is so refreshing after winter. I love the change of seasons.
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Yes, I enjoy the ornamental trees that look so delicate with their blooms and the magnolias – you don’t know where to look first – all that beauty after the blah landscape of Winter.
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I am ready to start taking photos of flowers again. 🙂
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You had those beautiful yellow flowers on the cactus got you ready for Summer, then those lilacs. I want to go back to the Ford Estate this Spring – when I took all the photos when I walked on the grounds, the guard told me to come back when the apple trees blossom. I have a lot of photos I took that day, not picked through them yet – Winter is not over and will do it sometime before I return in the Spring. Their potting shed area was just beautiful and a mess of wildflowers everywhere – gorgeous.
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I do like the wild flowers. The yellow flowers were the only ones I saw here this time of year. I would like to come back here some day in the spring or summer. I guess the cactus blooms are spectacular in the summer.
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I like them too and see a lot of the wild daisies in yellow and in white. I told myself last year I was going to learn how to identify them – looking on the internet does not always help even after you narrow it down a little. My mom had the little cactuses which sometimes bloomed just once a year – one I remember had the long stem coming out of it and a flower on the end. I can’t remember if it was a barrel cactus or not, just remember that tall stem and a purple flower.
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I have never tried growing cactus. I dont have a green thumb.
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Good morning Sandra … it’s late for me. Last night I listened to the weather folks, (multiple weather folks mind you), that all said a wintry precip and mist this morning. Like your day of rest each Sunday, I decided to throw caution to the wind, and not set the alarm, and wake up when my body decided it was ready. Sigh. Well, I am well rested. And no precip, so going to get caught up here and go outside … now they say a possible inch of snow this afternoon. It should melt as it will get to the 40s by afternoon, so I’ll go tomorrow afternoon instead to the River after it melts. If I wait too long, my Park squirrels return to their nests and don’t come to the pathway though. I’m wondering if more eagles might come out in the afternoon? I usually go mid-morning. I had a green thumb for years in the yard, but only after spending hours and hours out there. I wanted a climbing rosebush to make a memorial garden for my mom and my canary, whom both of us adored, and died suddenly the same year as my mom. So in the Spring of 2011, I bought three “Stairway to Heaven” climbing rosebushes from Jackson and Perkins and they never thrived … for about two years I nurtured them, spending a ton of money on fungus prevention as they were not hardy and suffered from black spot and mold issues. But they were beautiful what blooms I had – a gorgeous shade of red. Finally I had to rip them out so they did not destroy the other roses … and I threw away the umbrella trellis I bought to train them to grow up the trellis and along the wrought iron supports for the patio. I never bought another climber and got hydrangeas instead – I could not kill them. I was in a very old cemetery last year – they have wild roses growing along a fence … I must go back this Summer as it was just after Memorial Day and it was hot and humid and there were lots of roses already, but they were just growing wild and so pretty …. mine with all its TLC failed. I can’t grow inside plants. My mom had a few and they did not last long under my care after she was confined to bed, then gone and I’ve never been able to keep a poinsettia to Christmas time.
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Good Morning, sometimes you just need to sleep in. Roses take a lot of work don’t they. I have never planted a rose bush. I did plant a hydrangea last year up at the cabin and accidentally mowed it over. Maybe it will come back this year. We are so much alike, I can not grow plants inside either, they always look great when you get them from the store and then the leaves start falling off, turn yellow. Just does not work for me. I am heading out right now, I just got on the computer for a minute. Have a good day, talk with you later.
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Yes we are so much alike Sandra. It was a running joke between my mom and I about the poinsettias. I always got us a small one when they were available in the store – hers went on the windowsill and mine went to work on my desk. The sandy soil or lack of light at the office may have been the problem, but Mom’s would thrive right into February when it started dropping leaves,while mine bit the dust a week or so later. I was so disappointed in the climbing rose and mentioned it to some people who said I should have ensured I had a hardier rose and it would have thrived as it had full sun during the day … now we get so much rain in Spring that I am surprised any of the remaining shrub roses survive. I ordered that climber based on the name “Stairway to Heaven” alone, so I did no research on it. I have some shrub roses called “Home Run” and I almost lost them in the first Polar Vortex. I cut them to the ground and intended to pull out the big roots at Memorial Day … it would have been a big job to do. Shortly after cutting them down, they begin to turn green – it took them a few years to look normal again, but last year’s polar vortex knocked them down for the count and this time they rallied back but don’t thrive as my neighbor put a high privacy fence up which blocks the sun. When my neighbor behind brought rats to our yards in 2008 when he left out his dog 24/7/365 and fed it table scraps and never cleaned up after it, my yard was no longer a paradise. The bird feeders and bird baths had to go due to pest control service putting out rat bait. Then the first Polar Vortex zapped my butterfly garden – I never have had the enthusiasm as I once did and gave the bird baths and feeders to others and concentrate on feeding the birds and squirrels at Parks and at the house, but not in the yard like before. I did buy some sunflower seeds yesterday as I feel badly for some of the smaller birds who cannot eat peanuts. I will just scatter them where they can eat, whether at the house or at the Park.
I will go out now, later than I like but you are right, sometimes you have to just sleep in … shutting off the alarm tells me when I should have gotten up relying on my own body clock. I am heading out before the snow flies (hopefully) and not back til later.
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Hi Sandra – I had gotten behind in Reader and got caught up tonight … Wayne has not posted in six weeks he said due to all the rain, then snow they are having in Tofino. He just posted for Christmas and New Year’s with old pictures. You said you wanted to know when he started posting again – just eagles and bears? He did four posts which the links are below:
Harbor seals:
Trumpeter swans:
Daredevil (eagle):
Romeo (eagle):
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Thanks Linda, he popped up in the feed when I was reading yesterday. I saved his site to my favorites now. I love the photos of Romeo. I like the name he gave him also. What beautiful backgrounds also.
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OK that’s good – I was not sure if you wanted all of them. They are still in the rainy season and he does not post much until Springtime … lots of bears in spawning season as they go to catch salmon, as do the eagles. I like the names too – especially that picture on New Year’s Eve of Romeo and Juliet gazing at each other.
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As soon as I saw his post come up I saved it. It is hard to find them again if I don’t save them.
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I know, I have done that and put it in my “notes” at the side of the screen … I have to weed out my notes as they are so cluttered up right now with things I hear on the radio and want to look at, or items read on WordPress and sites.
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That is funny, I just did that yesterday on mine. I had a mess of them. And made folders to put different categories in. Easier to find now.
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I used to be very organized with the pictures and posts and archived them off quarterly and had a “notes” document for posts that I had in my head, quirky headlines that I thought of, places to go – I cannot seem to keep on top of it anymore. I have archived off my desktop notes just because I had no more room to write anything … clutter everywhere, even on the desktop! I’m still trying to get to bed earlier and don’t seem to do it more than one night a week. I’m going to finish the errands I didn’t do yesterday due to the sleet and what I was concerned would be freezing rain. I won’t go out before it is light – too much crime everywhere in the City and often at the grocery store – sigh. If I get myself in gear, I can still be back by 11:00 to start work but told my boss I might be a little later and will stay later – we had a busy week after he returned from being out for over a week, and he has a meeting this a.m. and things slowed down thankfully, so this morning works well. I hate coming home, rushing, rushing and having rushes all day … getting set in my ways!
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That is nice you can get your walks in before working for your boss. Morning shopping is the best, I won’t go to stores at night, to tired by then anyway. I see people heading to malls and shopping late at night, I just am not interested in that. I guess the difference between day and night shifts also. I worked a night shift for years, did not like that at all.
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I won’t go due to the crime – it’s been ages since I went out in the dark. Probably when I worked on site and would take the car for a run in the Winter and came home in the dark as well. Crime was not bad then – this crime was just the last ten years … our City was in receivership and first responders were laid off, no new hires or they worked part-time. It is better now, but not like it was in the past. This morning it was really busy and I ended up being back later. My boss was at a meeting and had friends coming to the office, so it was not too bad and I said I’d likely be a little later as they had sales and would be busy – I was right about that. I try to go if possible during the week. They will be very busy tomorrow due to the game on Sunday and parties, etc. I try to set my errands up to run as many in one day to not miss going to the Park. I stayed later to finish some work since I was later getting here. It sounded like a sick bay – I was glad to leave and I saw several people wearing masks today – could be for the flu as well as the Coronavirus too, but it was a little unnerving to see that.
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That would be strange to see everyone wearing mask. I dont get sick at all unless I go to my sister’s. All her little grandkids seem to always be sick and I catch what they have every time. I try not to touch to much at stores, or I wipe my hands a lot also.
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Yes, I didn’t like that but maybe these people have compromised immune systems or were going to be having surgery and could not afford to get sick. My boss teaches school – he and another professor teach one labor law class and that professor, who has since passed away, had non-Hodgkins lymphoma. He had a stem cell transplant – I think two of them actually, and he had to wear a mask for almost a year afterward.
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I told my sister I was going to start wearing one when I come visit her, until the kids stop being sick. She just laughed.
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Yes, kids are sick all the time – they touch their face and spread germs. I wanted to get everything done today so I don’t have anywhere I need to go (hopefully). They don’t mention the flu these days like right after Christmas – hopefully that has tamed down a little.
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I don’t hear much about the flu when I dont watch the news.
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I listen to WWJ 950 AM through the day – but when sports is on, you have to stream it. If it is University of Michigan sports, they have news available on their website, but Pistons basketball pre-empts both, like now – no news from 6:30 (pre-game) til who knows when, probably around 10:00 p.m.
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I see some news clips on the internet and that is about it. It is time for me to retire for the evening Linda, I was able.to stay awake a little longer tonight.
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I do see video clips on Click on Detroit or WWJ’s Facebook site. I am heading to bed shortly – will go to Reader where I’ve not been yet and then go to bed too, like I told myself I would do in the New Year. Will catch up tomorrow Sandra.
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Ok, have a good night. Talk later.
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Will read your comments and visit your post, then shut it down as well. Grocery shopping wore me out!
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Does me to. 🙂
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Sandra – I wanted to pass along a blog site to you. A fellow blogger has been following this site for a while and recommended it to me. I’ve only been following a few months. The past several two posts have been about a fawn they rehabbed and the last two posts about how they are trying to turn him lose with other deer. I was rooting for their little guy named Tukker.
https://littlesundog.wordpress.com/
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I will check it out. I love it when people work to save animals.
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Yes, I would like to go back and see what she has done for rehabbing – I saw it when I went to get the blog site info for you. I’ve not been following long and I see she does not post very often, but lots of pictures when she does. It is a cute story about Tukker and she commented back to me they had another rehabbed deer and had to release her eventually – I imagine it would be difficult to see them go.
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Hopefully they will survive back in the wild. They will have a good start after rehab.
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Yes, this one yesterday looked back at her and decided to go back with its human instead. 🙂
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Awe, she might have to stay then.:)
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Yes, I’d be glad she chose me over her real “kin”. : )
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🙂 Animals are a blessing
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Yes they are.
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🙂 .I am retiring for the night. My pillow is calling my name. 🙂
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Me too Sandra even though I went fairly early last night … I purposely have not sat down more than about 30 minutes today. Will catch up with you tomorrow. Pleasant dreams.
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You also.
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