Zip, rip. Wrap. Zip, rip. Wrap. "That looks like fun," said the Husband. "Want to make one?" See the yellow butterfly in the above photo mosaic. That's the Husband's creation. I love it when the Husband plays artsy-crafty with me. Over the past few months, we transformed hangers and colored and patterned tape into four butterflies. The fourth butterfly was shy about getting its photo taken. We think it may be hiding near the back fence. I thought it would be cool to hang butterflies around the backyard. I was done after making three. I still have a lot hangers. What to do with them? What to do? A PLYWOOD BOARD Who has made a desk by setting a solid piece of plywood (or door) over two file cabinets (or something like that)? My canvas of a plywood board was once my desk top when the Husband and I lived in the big city area almost two decades ago. Pshew, wow. I wrote a whole bunch of good stuff on that desk. Before being my desk, the plywood board was the

This week Sunday Stealing , hosted by Bev Sykes, has participants musing over questions taken from Upstream Life . 1. Name 5 people you admire and why. • Daddy. Family was important for him. He took his responsibilities seriously. He made sure his children got the opportunities for a good life. • Mama was resolute, stoical, full of love and cheeriness, but oh so sad. Also full of spirit, spit, and vinegar, Mama didn't let her misery keep her down. She had more than her share, including living through war and losing two children.  • The Husband. My gosh. I'm not an easy person to live with. • Winifred, my mentor, my writing partner, my friend. She took a chance on me (#6). Winifred was an amazing, gifted, and giving person who taught me how to develop and create educational materials that respect and teach the learners. • Kathy, a friend from grammar school days. I love her humor, her wit, her intelligence. For years, she went back and forth, several times a year to visit her pa

LeeAnna of Not Afraid of Color suggested I give Sunday Stealing a try.  It's a weekly meme, hosted by Bev Sykes, that comes up with a different list of fun questions, from elsewhere on the Internet, every Sunday. I think of it as answering surveys in magazines, once upon a time. So, here I go with this week's questions. 1. If you could be a Muppet, which would you be? The Muppets came along when I wasn't watching TV, but I did get hooked on the Muppet Babies. Among the babies, I would be Skeeter. She didn't get much play on the show, but from what I saw, the girl had a lot of gumption and moxie. 2. Why is a chicken crossing the road in the first place? To see how a cow is out standing in its field. 3. What's your favorite muscle? Heart or brain? Brain or heart? Without the heart pumping away, the brain can't live so I'll go with the heart. 4. Cheerios or Rice Krispies? Snap, crackle, pop, please. 5. Is summer ever going to get here

   "Have we seen this movie before?" I asked the Husband. "This looks familiar." "I don't think so. But it seems like I've seen this scene, too." Two weeks later, more or less, another movie. Said the Husband, "We already saw this movie." "We saw the documentary about his life. But it does seem like we saw something else." "This movie." It turns out the Husband and I had seen the first movie, Olive Kitteridge but not the second one, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood . Two thumbs up for both of them. Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. Missy Molly the pinky-nosed (wild) Cat sleeps anywhere she wants.  So, I shall tiptoe over to Mosaic Monday .

"Summertime and the livin' is easy. . ." So it was, at least, yesterday. We watched a Mama turkey and her two babies amble through a hole in a fence. Not ours, though I wouldn't have minded. A deer stood still in the middle of the country lane we traveled.  We sipped a sappy margarita that I concocted out of tequila, triple sec, lemonade, and guava juice. It tasted like cough syrup but we drank it anyway. Next time, I'll leave out the triple sec and lemonade and maybe I'll come up with a guava margarita. We sat outside in the late eve, the Husband, Missy Molly, and I. What pleasure! The Husband plucked a ripe apricot off the tree for us to share. Deep in flavor, the kind that makes your tummy sparkle and you sigh into a smile.  Figs! Charlie, short for Charlotte, has borne fruit, at least six of them! That's a first for the "Little Miss Figgy" dwarf tree that friends gave us in 2018. Bean vines are twirling their way up and a

1. Next month the U.S. Post Office will be selling forever stamps that celebrate Hip Hop. According to the USPS website, the sheet of stamps features rapping, break dancing, DJing, and graffiti art. I don't know what floors me more -- Hip Hop commemorative stamps or that the first kids into hip hop are now in their 40s and 50s? 2. Our local library has been closed since early March due to the coronavirus pandemic. This month, the librarians decided that we, patrons, can check out books online for pick up. The pick-up process today was easy-peasy, even though I forgot to bring my library card. Nine new books to entertain me. Yippieeee! 3. A few weeks ago, the Husband painted this headboard, full of delight and whimsy, perfect for the Banana Room, once known as the Shady Room. The banana plants look to be coming back, and the bamboo, gardenia, and wongo-wongo plants seem to relish their move there. I also replanted a camelia shrub by the headboard. Does that all s

1. The Husband and I successfully fulfilled our monthly date for vacuuming, dusting, and mopping the house. Three months in a row. Definitely a whoop-de-doo! for us. The carpet feels so good beneath our bare feet. 2. Here's another thing I'm proud about doing today. I successfully pulled a curly dock weed, more than 60 inches tall, from the middle of a young butterfly bush. Poor guy. The two plants' roots were stuck together, but not entwined, so I was able to pry them apart. Hopefully the young butterfly bush was not too traumatized. 3. I need to go out and check the seeds I planted last week. They may need a drink of water. 4. But, first I need to go cook our main meal for us. I do miss not cooking. 5. Here I am again. The seeds got their sips of water. I saw two sunflower sprouts. Yippieeee. 6. After marinating locally produced grass-fed beef stew in a concoction of spices, vinegar, oil, and whatever else for a few hours, I sliced the meat thinly a

I finally got around to sewing face masks, two for the Husband and two for me. I only had one oopsie. The photo shows a collage of mask #5.   :-) I followed a pattern with straps, using bias tape to make the ties. The oopsie mask was made with elastic. Elastics elude me.  The elastic straps were like rubber bands. The mask flung forward each time the Husband or I put it on. The Great Elastic Escape.  Molly the pinky-nosed (wild) Cat likes to nap on the love seat in front of the patio window these past weeks. When summer comes, she'll scarf her last bite of breakfast, jump off her table, and scamper out the patio door, to come back for lunch or to use her litter box.  And, sometimes she'll wander back in to check on her humans. Sweet girl, her. Today I sat beside Missy, gazing out the window with her. I got to wondering how the world looks to her. Does she see the same thing that I see?  Perhaps the world looks like this. More than likely Molly w

1. What words convey the sounds of walnut shells ricochetting? 2. Crack. Obviously. 3. Zing. A shell flies into the air. 4. Zingg. A shell soars far. 5. Ping. A shell ricochets on something. 6. Thump. A shell hits something. 7. Tinkkk. A shell vibrates on a surface. 8. Crack. Thump. The shell hit a chair.   9. Crack. Zing. Ping. Tinkkk.  The shell ricocheted off the glass tabletop onto the floor.   10. Crack. Ping. Zingg. Thump. Tinkkk. The shell bounced off a chair and hit the wall. 11. Too bad we didn't have goggles. Across the table, the Husband shielded his eyes while he read on his iPad. 12. Could anyone intentionally hit someone with a walnut shell? 13. "A blue ribbon walnut cracker," said the Husband. Check out Thursday 13 for more lists of 13.

"Do you think someone might report our backyard as a nuisance?" "Nobody can see back there." answered the Husband.  "Snoops can," I said, thinking about that drone we saw one afternoon turning around above our house. I wondered if it had followed us home. The bastard. As Mama liked to say after I said something weird, but quite entertaining to her, "You have too much imagination." "It's nobody's business how our backyard looks," the Husband said.  I imagined him word-sparring with a snoop. The Husband, my hero.  At this particular point in time, the backyard looks like a colorful junkyard in the Spring. I find its look comforting. It's familiar to a time past. It gives me strength to keep on keeping on. I wonder if that's how Mama felt when she played out there, growing her vegetables and tending to her flowers.  It's my turn now to transform the backyard into a fantasy of my making. I have

1. Frost! I thought we were done with it. 2. Mama called the icy stuff snow. "There was lots of snow on Marie's roof," she'd say as I stumbled into the kitchen to fix breakfast. She'd be almost done with her big bowl of different cereals mixed together. 3. Now it's me or the Husband that opens the kitchen curtains on chilly mornings to see the icy roof next door. "Lots of snow." 4. Flutter, flutter, flutter. A whole lot of tiny birds flew out of the tree on our front yard. I watched them all fly as one up into the sky, circle about, then take off to the northeast. 5. Then I noticed the light of the rising sun. Wowza! 6. And, then I wondered why everything was drippy wet. I looked up at the roof next door. Frost! 7. For once I was wise and went back into the house to fetch a shawl. And, my camera. Of course. You never know when the fish may be out.   8. This afternoon I asked the Husband, "What kind of guy are you?"