Dear Blog, For the past…mumble…years, the Husband and I tell ourselves, “We need to paint the garage door.”  At least retouch the peeling parts, we say. Each time, I say, “Let me have a go at it first. (Meaning let me have fun to do whatever.) If we (meaning the Husband) don’t like what I do, then we’ll paint it the normal way.” Of course the idea of painting the peeled parts of the garage door makes me gulp. I overthink it, I freeze up.   Methinks that after this morning, I am nearly ready to go for it. While watering a couple of potted spider plants, I noticed that they’d be better off sitting high off the ground. Looking around, I saw a sturdy plastic file drawer that set upright would make a perfect plant stand. It was a bit dirty and dreary, but nothing paint would hide. Voila! We’ll see if this is the year the garage door gets touched up. Truly yours, Septuagenarian Barefoot Susie

Dear Blog, I don’t understand chairs that have a front side higher than the backside. Those chairs throw off my body big-time. Lower back grouches, cheek muscles buzz, and knees say “You know better than to sit on this chair.” As for my dangling legs on those chairs, dang. I often perch on the edge of a chair so my feet can say hello to the ground. There you go, my complaint for the day, uncomfortable chairs.  In the otherwise department, I’m feeling quite chirpy. Three things that happened within the past several hours:  Uno) Paint brushes came out. The above photo is a peek of my painting in progress. Dos) We got a 10 cent/ per gallon discount at the gas station, 30 bucks for a full tank. Whooo-hooo! Tres) We saved 60+dollars at the grocery store, thanks to coupons. Plus the organic peanut butter, ground bison, canned bamboo, and juices were on sale. Score, luxuries! Today’s yummy homemade meal: Ground bison burger with deep fried tomatoes, fresh basil, and lettuce on a toas...

Dear Blog, I did some good work in the yard this morning. I transplanted the last of the basil seedlings and three milkweed seedlings, pulled out the going-to-pot carnations, culling the freshest to propagate, and pruned an overgrown pink geranium plant, which cuttings I’ll plop into a row beneath the eating room. (Ha! I wrote a long complicated sentence intentionally. Did it work?)  While sorting the carnation branches, I spied a snail perched on a branch. The little fellow gave a great performance. Yep, I made a video of it making its way out of the raised bed that included going by, over, under, and around a dried avocado leaf.  Snail seemed to be booking it, sliding three minutes to travel 12 inches or so. “Come outside,” I said to the Husband from the screened patio door. “It’s beautiful. I’ve heard four different birds singing.” And, he did, sitting nearby perusing the Internet while I played with the plants. Every so often we chatted, we sang, we laughed. I have a wonde...

Dear Blog, Life is good. Hopefulness and joyfulness are in bloom! Truly yours, Septuagenarian Barefoot Su-sieee! P.S. Three things I did today. Ran errands with the Husband. Doodled. And, rested to recoup energy from a fun, busy week of doing nothing. 

Dear Blog, Yesterday morning, I had in mind to visit a museum in Santa Cruz, then I began moving a piece of furniture in the living room after which I discovered a brown water stain by the kitchen table that led to moving more furniture, along with dish ware, cookbooks, and big plants. Ouchy, Mama. Hmm, could be why I’m tired today. Fortunately the stain was caused by the overflow of water from the plants. I need to finder deeper planter saucers.  Before all this happened I was already in the motion of making pickled cucumbers. Eight pickling cucumbers yielded a small jar of relish, two jars of dill pickle spears, and a jar of bread-and-butter pickles. All first time things to try for me. I follow recipes for refrigerator storage because I don’t trust my ability to can them safely. Besides, how many pickles can we, two old fogeys, consume? The Husband was a willing participant to all of yesterday’s action. The old guy can still lift and nudge a heavy object into place with the skil...

  “I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it./I’m about to lose control and I think I like it….” Who remembers that 1982 song and which group sang it?  Why am I so excited? Today I received an email from Baker Creek that my heirloom seed order, which I placed yesterday, is in the mail. Yi-haw!  Here’s what I ordered. Veggies 1. Blauhilde Bean (climbing) and Cantare Bean (bush, la la la la) 2. Abashi Bittermelon (from Okinawa) 3. Orchard Baby Sweet Corn (this with Blauhilde will be part of the Husband’s Three Sister plot) 4. Nagasaki Long Eggplant 5. Serpente de Sicilia Cucuzzi (a long, pale green gourd, which from the photo looks like the Filipino tabongow) 6. Job’s Tears (seems you can make rosary beads out of this grain) 7. Ishikura Bunching Onion 8. Banana Sweet Pepper Flowers 9. Canterbury Bells, rainbow mix 10. Candyfloss Red Cosmos 11. Twinkles Phlox 12. Ki No Mai Stock (butter-creme yellow, so stated the description) 13. Hopi Sunflower (supposedly the Hopi used the ...

I did it. Today, I did precisely what I said I will not ever do again, to randomly toss handfuls of wildflower seeds in the yard.  La, la, la may lupine be sparkling all over the front of the house this spring la la la la. Yellow coreopsis, too! 

I liked how today went. I did a load of laundry in our new washing machine and gave succulent cuttings homes. The Husband and I packaged and mailed persimmons to friends and cousins, got Chinese takeout, and went to an exercise class that focuses on balance for old people.  At the post office, I  talked with a happy guy who was there to get his passport in order because he was moving to Italy. He had sold his business and his home to live in a house he inherited that he didn’t know existed until an attorney got hold of him to ask if he’d like the house. The happy guy gladly said “Yes” before even hearing where it was. The house belonged to his grandfather or great grandfather and somewhere down the line family stopped living  in it. Now the house was his. So very cool!  The best news today came from the happy nurse at my doctor’s office. The results of my chest x-ray were negative, which (after she told me that was a good thing) I took to mean my lungs were c...

Double ugh. That was my first two hours this morning. Double ugh.  When I got out of bed later than usual, I decided to get my Medicare card ready to go for tomorrow. Be efficient, you know. I was going to say “anal retentive” but I couldn’t remember the term so had to do a Google search with keywords anal and efficient. And, what do you know, I am not anal retentive at all. After what I learned, thank goodness.  The Medicare card was not where I thought it was in the office, which took me half an hour to find that location and another half an hour to find out it was not there. I looked elsewhere. Nothing. Over there. Nothing. There. Nope. All the while, I took deep breaths to keep the panic away. Ugh. Then, I thought, maybe I could get a copy of my card at the Medicare website. Yes, you can, stated the site. You need to provide your Medicare number. I needed my card to give it. Medicare offered an alternative avenue to get my card via an online Social Security account. ...

Monday, Monday. What scintillating things did I do today?  A pearl choker wrapped around a wooded bracelet…voilà, a Christmas ornament in the making. The Husband and I moseyed down to the hardware store to purchase a package of packing tape, one six-outlet power strip, one surge protector, a bag of cactus and succulent soil, and a bag of orchid potting mix. When did the employees get so young? Even 30 year olds look like babies to me.  I finally read the operating instructions for our new washing machine. Nothing fancy, nothing smart. Simply turn dials, press button, and walk away knowing the machine will do its job correctly just like the old machine had for 18 years. With good fortune, this new machine will last for my forever. How was your Monday? 

Today’s adventure was creating a space in the front yard for tulips, freesias, hyacinths, and lilies of the Inca to pop up come Spring. Our yard is clayish, so we shall see what grows.  Dig, grunt. dig, groan. . . . I double dug the ground along with working in potting soil. It is, and will be, so very worth it. The tulip and hyacinth bulbs are guaranteed to grow, according to the package. I wonder what the company pumped into the bulbs to make such a statement.  Imagine, red tulips and red hyacinths mingling with yellow and blue freesias and pink lilies of the Inca (aka alstroemeria and Peruvian lilies).  Although, the lilies may bloom way after the others are done for the season. I’m fine with that.

I wore my first bikini top today. I made it this morning out of two cloth masks. Easy-peasy. Tie strings here, tie strings there. Voila, a halter bikini top.  “My gosh,” repeated the Husband when I modeled it for him. After  we stopped laughing, he said, “You’re clever.”   After showing off my creation, I retired it.  🙃

  My wise Mama liked to say, “If something doesn’t work, oh well. Try again.”  And that was my aim throughout 2022, The Year of Experimentation.  Try this, try that. Give that a try. And, if a try doesn’t work, try another way. Try until I am satisfied and then give another way a try. Why not?  Here are some  highlights of my 2022:  1.  Paints poured and roared over paper, canvasses, and other surfaces. 2.  Beads and buttons and bits of jewelry were strung into sun catchers. 3. Fabric, paper, pictures, and etcetera were turned into cards, collages, calendars  hangings, and a headboard. 4. I got over my fear of sewing elastic, as well as practiced patience ripping out worn-out elastic from pants and skirts. 5. I got back into writing poetry . 6. I’ve opened the folders of an unfinished project I started, oh my gosh, 40some years ago, about the history of Filipino Americans in my hometown and county, where I was born, raised, and returned....

(1) Tick. Tick. Tick. I asked the Husband to investigate the ticking sound in the L Studio closet yesterday afternoon. I hadn’t heard it before. “Hush,” he said, reaching for an item from the shelf way up high.  (2) He opened a small black case that held a polaroid camera once upon a time. Tick. Tick. Tick.  The green wall clock! I wondered where it had gone. The Husband asked, “Did you think a bomb was in there?”  (3) Nervous Nelly. She is me. I am her. (4)  It’s nearly very soon for my-new-knee adventure to begin. (5) I discovered on Sunday that we don’t have enough decent soup bowls, dessert plates, and other dining ware for a dinner party of six and more. That’s what I get for retiring a lot of Mama’s and my dinnerware to the garden and crafting bins. (6) Dirty gin martinis with eggplant dip and chia and quinoa chips. Orange kobacha soup with petite slices of toasted walnut bread and pastrami bagels. Carbonara bucatini and roasted Brussel sprouts. A trifle of lim...

(1) It’s raining, hurrah, hurrah! The weather experts predict rain until Tuesday, yippiee! (2) Rainy days mean soup is on. Today I simmered a huge pot of chicken backs and necks, with a big bulb of garlic. I ought to be able to freeze 4 pints worth of chicken broth.  (3) The past few summers we’ve been able to purchase 10 or so pasture-raised chickens straight from a farm, enough to get us through the next summer.  Definitely a difference in quality and taste from mass-produced birds, even after several months in the freezer. (4) I made corn chowder with some of the chicken broth. I sautéed onions in olive oil with pickled peppers and leftover roasted potato and leftover Chinese broccoli. Don’t you love it when you can turn leftovers into something else? (5) I’ve decided to stop counting down the days to my knee surgery and simply think of it happening soon, quite soon, very soon, and the day has arrived.  (6) With good fortune, nothing will interfere with surgery taking ...

For  Art for Fun Friday : Acrylics on tiny canvas (turned into a magnet) This week I’m sharing with  Thursday 13 ,  I Like Thursday ,  Art for Fun Friday ,  and  Friday Writings .  For  Thursday 13 and Friday Writings (prompt: ordinary) ( 1) Where oh where are my red reading glasses? (2) What oh what do I make for our main meal? (3) I’ll vacuum tomorrow. Maybe. (4) Dear Diary, says the Husband as he passes by me clickity clacking on the iPad. (5) What shall I do today? (6) I’m doing a load of bottoms. Do you want your jeans washed?  (7) Have you been drinking water? asks the Husband. (8) It’s garbage day. (9) Mail call! (10) Sniff, sniff, achooo. . . Really need to dust. (11) Jazz, rock, swing, tropical, what shall we listen to? (12) Going outside. (13) Kiss, kiss. I love you. Night-night. For  Art for Fun Friday : Acrylics on canvas For  I Like Thursday:   Mama’s Gravy LeeAnna, host of I Like Thursday , asks participant...