Today is the anniversary of the day that we celebrated the Daddy's birthday. He would've been 112 this year. The Daddy was born on July 15, 1905, but most of his formal papers show July 25. This is my theory for the discrepancy: His baptismal document, the only legal paper he had about his birth, was in Spanish, the primary language of the Philippines back then. Spanish was not the Daddy's family's first language. And, I suppose nobody cared when the Daddy signed a contract in 1928 to go to Hawaii to work on the sugar plantations, nor when he joined the Army during WWII or he became a naturalized U.S. citizen. When the Daddy was born, the Philippines was in transition from being a Spanish colony to a United States territory. The Daddy said that when he was a baby his parents ran him up into the mountains to hide during the war. The Daddy was surprised when I told him that it wasn't Spain the Filipinos were fighting, but the United States. I'm not sure if ev

I don't think I'm there yet—a succulent crazy mama. I did go to a succulent and cactus show a couple months of ago. It was something to do. It was free. And, yeah, okay I did buy $30 worth of plants, which I finally planted in that ceramic planter above.  The purchases were the orange and red moon cactuses, that spiny looking tree, the cactus with the tiny white flowers on the right that's blending with the white rocks, and the succulent in the metal planter on the left. Maybe that little succulent in the center of the bowl. I can't recall. I also can't remember if I kept their name tags. Yesterday, I dug out the Mama's spindly looking aloe vera plants in the back yard. They were nesting next to the apricot tree and geraniums,  getting too much water and not enough sun.  I thought I would plant them today in a sunnier part of the backyard, but I felt too tired. Maybe tomorrow morning, I'll at least stick the largest plants into the ground, and a few

The Humans watch a lot of British black comedies because the Missus Lady loves the quick, dry wit of the British writers. They don't even have to try to be funny, she says.  I don't know what she means. Purrrrrrr. I hear no complaints from the Hero Man so he must think the same way. The Legend of Barney Thomson (2015)   Setting: In and around Glasgow The Missus Lady says this film is wonderfully absurd. The main character is meek, bland barber Barney Thomson who has no customer service skills, so over the years he got pushed further into a corner where no customer wants to sit. One evening after the barber shop closes, Barney and the manager have a heart to heart about woeful Barney that ends in an inadvertent push and shove, the manager dead, and a finally living large Barney. It was an accident so why didn't Barney quipppp just say so instead of hiding the body? Hero Man says if that was the case, there would be no movie. Because the shop is shorthanded, Ba

Come See the Strange Thing! Posters called out to the Husband and me once upon a time at the county fair. Only a Dollar! How could we resist? We walked up to the counter, plunked down our two bucks, and entered the tent. Pictures and articles were plastered on the wall. I didn't want to read. I wanted instant gratification. Where is the Strange Thing! ? Then. . . . Eeeeeeeeeeeew! On display was a shriveled up something that looked like a dried up armadillo. Yuck . The Strange Thing! was said to be a blood-sucking creature called a chupacabra. Was it real? Qué sera, sera? The Internet mostly says the chupacabra is an urban legend, but that doesn't keep the curious from conducting field research. Years later the Husband and I crack up whenever one of us brings up The Strange Thing! Have we learned our lesson? Will we plunk down hard-earned cash to see the next Strange Thing! at a county fair? Qué sera, sera? By the way, we have our own little strange th

Molly the Cat can't stand the heat. Neither can the Husband and me. Nor can the computer. The last couple of mini heat waves were simply high temps. Now Mother Nature has added another element—humidity. (Or is it us humans that has created the change?) Bleack . It's very unusual for our neck of the woods. Poor Molly under all that fur. She looks at me and questions why I'm not doing anything about the heat. Kweippppp! Time to hook up at All Seasons , a weekly meme open from Sunday to Wednesday, hosted by Jesh at Artworks from Jesh StG. Click here to join in or to read the tales of other participants. Thanks, Jesh!

The Humans in this household like to watch movies in the afternoon. Three or four times a week, they do. Their movies come in the mail in a red envelope. I like it when one comes because the Lady or the Hero Man holds up that something - red and announces gleefully, "We got a movie!" I heard the Lady say that she has seen so many movies she can't remember one from the next. A couple times they got a movie that they've already seen. But they don't seem to mind. The Hero Man lets the Lady choose the movies. She's purrrrrty even-handed, choosing a sci-fi movie for him for every girrrly movie for her. Both like comedies. Sometimes a movie ends and the Lady says, "That wasn't a comedy." The Lady decided to do a movie theme for the new round of ABC Wednesday, even creat ing a list of movies she might write about. But she ran out of steam. "You do it, Molly," she said. Mewwwwww. So I am. Here's my first pick. Purrrrrrr. Albert Nobb

Yup! I made limoncello.  Not just say I'm going to make it like I have the past 13 years. It tastes pretty good, too. The Husband said, "Whoa!" on the first day of tasting. Potent. Today, the fourth day, he said, "It has mellowed." Yup. Still potent, but now the lemony taste is coming through. I chose Giada de Laurentiis' limoncello recipe because it didn't require months of waiting for the solution to do it's thing in a closet before we can drink it. Yup. Instant gratification. Of course I modified the recipe as I went along. I pared lemon peels from 15 lemons and added lemon juice to the sugar syrup. I waited six days to decant the liqueur because I didn't have any bottles and jars. The recipe says that it's good in the refrigerator for a month, but I think it can last longer. After all I used the Costco brand of vodka, which is 60 proof. Yeah, dragon fire. But, remember, it's a mellow fire. Giggle. I'm linking up with A

Zetabetical. Cool word, huh? I learned it this morning in the novel I'm currently reading, Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman.  Zetabetical. Google coughed up 39 results of the word, its earliest use in 2003. In the novel, the protagonist, Eleanor,  organized the tins on her kitchen shelf in zetabetical oder. Tins? The novel is set in Glasgow. Zetabetical. From the statement, I take the word to mean alphabetical in reverse order. You know, starting with Z. It wasn't easy for me going backwards, as you can tell in my picture. Giggle. Today marks the last day for the current ABC Wednesday team. Thank you Roger, Leslie, Joyce, Gattina, Di, Melody, Pheno, and Troy! Next week, a new round begins under Melody, the new ABCW administer, and her team at a new address . For the next ABCW round, I shall go through the alphabet writing about movies I've seen. Yup. I've almost forgot. Click here to check out more Z themed posts.

Happy Fourth of July, One and All!

Surprise! The amaryllis is in bloom. I had no idea the amaryllis could have a second bloom, six months apart. It isn't unusual, according to what I read today. My trick: Do nothing. I'm thinking that it may be getting the right amount of moisture from the foggy mornings.  Hurrah! The drawer full of hens and chicks is new to the front yard. I finally pulled the succulents out from beneath some rose bushes and planted them in this drawer without a bottom. I placed the two plates there to cover the dirty spots on the drawer. Beats having to repaint the drawer. The flowers fizzed out in the VHS-Tape Planter . Cie la vie! The pot of frizzing spider plants on the other side of the yard called out "Dibs!" I hope they like their new home. Many years ago in another town I recall a house lined with sunflowers on its south side. I thought it was so cool and wanted to do something like that one day. Looks like that day arrived. I'm linking up with A

Note: I wrote this post yesterday from the iPad, then sent it to my computer by email. Perhaps one day I'll learn to cope and paste on iPad. Anyway, by evening, I was too pooped to get on the computer and publish this post. In the end, does it really matter if I had? :-) I'm taking a short writer's break from being a domestic goddess. Brief no doubt because I have been thinking about writing that first sentence for the last 10 minutes. Every so often that sentence repeated itself in my brain when I wasn't distracted by The Solid Gold Oldies music station on TV playing in the background and by the ambitious things I want to complete before dinner begging for mental attention. Sigh. I forgot. What was the intent of this post? Probably to brag about the things I have finally got to and then some. Should that be one word: then some, thensome? To my great surprise the Blenheim apricot tree gifted us—and the birdies—with many branches full of fruit. We can't eat the

Today the sweet Husband turns a young 6 times 11. One, two, three, everyone— For he's a jolly good fellow. Happy Birthday to the Husband!! We're at the letter Y on ABC Wednesday , which means this round is nearly over. Wowza! Click here to check out other participants this week. Thank you, ABCW team!

Imagine: You are on a tree-lined avenue. You may be walking, driving, standing, or grandly sitting. The thoroughfare may be as rustic as pepper trees edging a private road or as sophisticated as a boulevard in sweet-smelling shadow of the flowering trees. You are on a xyst. The word was coined in Ancient Rome to describe covered garden paths and tree-lined gardens.  A word fanatic might disagree with my application of the word to our imagined tree-lined streets. "Where is the garden?" that word fanatic might ask. I would simply respond. "Look around you." Giggle. It's the letter X this week at ABC Wednesday . Check out the  meme here .  Thank you, ABCW team!

I imagine it going this way: "Susie. Susie, hold still." "You can go play in the water after I take the picture." "Susie! Stop moving." The photographer, who was probably the Mama, sighed. She most likely turned to the Daddy who knew what to do. He crouched behind me, holding me in place. "Susie smile at the camera." Click. No doubt the Mama sighed when she saw the photo. Oh, well. Throughout my life, the Daddy always had my back. Happy Father's Day to all you dads out there! I'm hooking up with Seasons , a meme hosted by Jesh at Artworks from JeshStG. Click here to check out other participants. Toodle-ooo.

Rusty n ails. Rusty rust. Rusty stringing-words-into-sentences-into-paragraphs-into-stories. I'll get there. Again. 

Sweet peas. One of my favorite flowers. One of the first flowers I successfully grew as a kid. When I was a teenager, they let me grow sweet peas on the south side of the house. I can't recall though if I was a decent shepherd of sweet peas. You know, if I had watered them regularly without being told. I doubt they would've told me if I forgot. Knowing the parents, they would've given the sweet peas a drink if they were watering in the area. The parents were great. I like to think they were impressed that I actually took an interest  in growing stuff. I also planted Sweet Williams beneath a tree in the front yard, but they didn't do as well as the sweet peas. Sweet Peas. Sweet Williams. Yup. I was attracted to the names. This morning I collected sweet pea seed pods in the backyard. Their season went quickly. The sweetpeas in the picture are the last for this year. They're volunteers. I didn't even know there were sweet peas until I looked out the wind

WOW — Cosmos! The first Cosmos to grow in our yard, as well as the first of the season. The online Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines the word wow as "a striking success" when used as a noun and "to excite to enthusiastic admiration or approval" when used as a transitive verb. The noun has been around since the early 16th century while the verb usage was said to begin in the 1920s. Wow, huh? Every day, I am wowed by the wow's happening on the once-the-front-lawn. Today's wows are all firsts on some sort. WOW—Pompom Poppy! Friend BB gave me seeds from her yard for the past three years. This was the first year for them to pop out for me. WOW—Sunflower! This is the first sunflower of the season. The Husband and I first saw it this morning.   Wow is for the letter W , which is the theme for ABC Wednesday . Click here to see what bloggers from around the world have posted.  Merci beaucoup, ABCW team.

Some of you dear readers may recall that the Husband and I stopped watering the lawn and bit by bit began pulling it out. The Husband has given me carte blanche to plant what I want where I want. He seems to be happy to do the grunt work such as digging holes, hauling, placing heavy plants where I say, and putting stuff in the green garbage can. He's such a sweetheart, the Husband is. Today, I give you a peek of the view around our mailbox. The cosmos showed themselves over the weekend. It was a grand surprise. We had no idea what flower the feathery green stalks would be. Below is the view looking from the house. The Mama kept the orange roses and pink daisies in pots. I chose to put them in the ground because they have a better chance of surviving. Those are the last of the Spring poppies. Yesterday I pulled out a lot of old growth, throwing many of the seed pods back into the yard. Maybe poppies will show up again in late July. By the way, if you want to see how th

Summer is time  for sunflowers to grow over our heads. Summer is for less time on the computer. Summer is time for the Husband to get his hair cut.  Summer is for playing outside—pretending to be  all sorts of things, including a super muscle man with his terry cloth cape. Today is time to hook up with All Seasons , a weekly meme hosted by Jesh of Artworks from Jesh StG. To check out other participants, please click here . Thank you, Jesh. 

Am I allowed to say I’m a cancer survivor when I didn’t know I had cancer? On the fifth of May, as I lay groggily in a hospital bed, the Husband relayed the good news to me from the Surgeon. “’The surgery was a success!’” the Surgeon said.  Cancer was found but it was noninvasive.” Huh? Last week, I went to my follow-up appointment with the Surgeon, who said again, with a big encouraging grin, “The surgery was a success!” He gave me a copy of my biopsy report, summing it as such: A benign tumor was found on the  layer of muscle tissue of the uterus wall and paratubal cysts were discovered on a fallopian tube. There were a lot of cancer cells, but they were all contained within my uterus. They had not yet embedded themselves into the uterus wall—the saving grace. Several days later, my brain has begun to process it all. I don’t understand it. How I got cancer. Was it because my womb, who really ought to have a name, didn’t get to carry life? I imagine my uterus was looking