That's how I do things these days—little by little. Little by little, I'm clearing out the Mama's belongings, moving furniture around, changing things, and so on and so forth. I work at a task until the sadness surfaces. Some tasks, I'm not ready to do. The front yard has been easier to tackle. Somewhat. I committed myself in August when I dug out a bit of the lawn and planted some of the Mama's jade plants that outgrew their pots. Click here and scroll to the bottom of the post, to see how the change looked in September. Progress has been little by little. A couple weeks ago, I created a geranium corner in the upper part of the yard. At first, I planned to transplant some of the Mama's geraniums into the ground, but then I decided to have the Mama's reading chair grace that corner. (The chair is too flimsy for anyone heavier than the Mama to sit on.) I want to eventually paint the chair yellow and blue, or maybe just blue or just yellow. Mayb

The cues: 1) Starts with R   2) Week's favorite   3) Black and/or orange Raindrops grace a bare rose plant in the front yard. Leaves turn color on it, too.  Click. That's my favorite shot to share in this week's Friday's Hunt , hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills. Click here to see what other participants have posted. 

"You're a sweet cat," the Husband said. "I am not," said Molly the Cat. "Yes, you are." "I am not." "A very sweet kitty cat." "I am not! I'm a lion!"     "I'm a tiger!" "I'm a panther!"   "M-m-m-o-w-w-w-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r-r!" "So there, Mister the Husband." Missy Molly by Golly and I are performing the letter P for ABC Wednesday . Giggle. Purrrrrrr.  Click here to visit more ABCW participants. Thank you, ABCW team!

"Are you ready?" "Me?" "Susan?" "Yup. That's me." I pushed myself off the bench and grabbed the Mama's cane. "Take your time," the X-ray lady said. "No hurry." "I finally think of myself as old," I said, trying not to grimace as I stiffly walked into the inner room of the X-ray laboratory. "Is that why you gasped when I gave you the form to sign?" the office lady asked, as I walked behind her desk. "I wondered what it was on the form that made you hesitate." "Seeing my age, yes," I said. "I don't think of myself as being that old. 62!" "I don't think of myself as old either," said the office lady, who may have been a few years younger than me. The X-ray lady, who looked to be in her late 40s  agreed as well.  I felt like the three of us gave a invisible collective sigh. Since the beginning of August I've been hobbling alon

Late Friday night, we had our first rain. I don't think it rained too long, but it was enough to give us that shiny wetness the next morning. As I'm writing, I hear the plunkity-plunk of the rain on some part of the roof,  the swissshhhh! of water as cars drive by, and the general gentle fall of the rain.  This is our first rainfall since May. Hurrah! I'm linking up today with All Seasons , a weekly meme hosted by blogger friend Jeanette. Click here to check out her post and the link that leads other participants in the meme. You have until Wednesday, if you'd like to join in.

This week's prompts are:  1) Starts with P   2) Week's favorite   3) Whole My knees have been a hindrance this week, which means I haven't taken any photos. So I've chosen a photo I took a few weeks ago when the Husband and I celebrated our 20th wedding anniversary. Our present to each other was a soaring adventure! We each experienced a whole ride to ourselves in the glider plane.  It was a spectacular ride lasting about 35 or so minutes. In case it's not clear, P is for plane — the towing plane (the one at the bottom in the photo) and glider plane.  Heading into the sky is the Husband. It was a whole lot of fun!  Wheeeeeeeeeee! Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa of Eden Hills . Click here to check out other participants. Or, to join the fun.

Harvesting crops is hard back-breaking work. Every time I pass by a field of workers, I'm very grateful to them. How can anyone not want to give them a living wage? It wasn't until 1978 that farmworkers on large farms were finally included under the Fair Labor Standards Act, which required their employers to pay them minimum wage. Still, in some states today, farmers can choose to give their workers a piece-rate wage rather than a minimum hourly rate. It's not a high piece rate either.  For instance, if a worker receives 50 cents for every bucket of tomatoes she picks, she would need to pick about 2.5 tons of tomatoes to earn an equivalent minimum hourly wage for a 10-hour day. I think all states ought to mandate hourly wages for farmworkers. I've got a Mama story for you. She always laughed when she told me about her first year working in the fields of America. It was either the first or second year that she was living here, so that was 1950 or 1951. She decided

The cues for this week are: 1) Starts with O  2) Week's Favorite  3) Eyes Don't you think this tree's "eyes" look owlish? Ha-ha! O for owlish. O is also for opposite. On the opposite side of this tree is young growth. Very cool, which is why this photo is my week's favorite. Friday's Hunt is a weekly meme hosted by Teresa at Eden Hills . To check out other participants, please click here .

Scuff marks, cat tracks, and stains. I no longer could ignore it. The kitchen floor needed mopping. Because I am hopping along on a cane, the Husband agreed to mop the floor. (My knees are alternating between being painful.) All I had to do was fetch the tools—the bucket and mop handle out of the shed and the mop head out of the closet. Problem was we had no mop head. Sigh . Snap! Light bulb. I had the answer in my hand. The cane! The Mama's cane, actually. She rarely used it to get around. What she did use the cane a lot for was shining the kitchen floor. She threw a rag on the floor and danced it around with her cane. Yup. Like mother, like daughter. I dipped a rag in a bucket of vinegar, threw it on the kitchen floor, and danced it around the worse parts with the cane. Ha! I'm quite late this week for ABC Wednesday . As the saying goes, better late, than never. Which the latter I thought it would be for the letter M. Seeing the doctor about my knees this morning got