Downside

          Here we are, over the hump of June and on the downside of 2023.

          What would you like to hear about this week? The critters I saw? The wildflowers blooming? The shopping trip we took? My crafts?

          “Peg, I wanna know how Mike’s shoulder’s doing,” you say.

          Sometimes, when things are going well, I forget to update you. The mantra in my family is no news is good news.

          The steroid shot Mike got in his shoulder worked wonders. After a couple of days, he had very little pain and was using his arm.

          “No restrictions,” the doctor told Mike. “Use it. If it hurts, stop.”

          Mike’s been using his arm, making extra effort so it didn’t freeze up on him.

          Things were going well until one night, at Vacation Bible School, a little girl tripped over someone else’s feet, landed in front of Mike who came crashing down like a giant redwood landing on the forest floor on his bad shoulder. Now it was hurting all over again. He had a couple of bad days, but not nearly as bad as the pain that drove him to the ER.

          He’s better now.

          Summer’s in full swing.

          Turkeys with their young’uns, foraging in the same field with deer.

          This little beauty is Cerceris Clypeata, more commonly known as a Weevil Wasp.

          If you’re wondering what she’s doing on the Oxeye Daisy, this would be your answer. All along the walkway were weevils on the daisies.

          They weren’t just on the daisies either. Here’s one on Yarrow.

          “Is the weevil her supper?” you ask.

          More like supper for the kids. She’ll entomb one or two with her larva.

          Water droplets on grass. 

          A closeup of my pretty Spiderwort. 

         A Red-spotted Purple Butterfly.

Musk Mallow growing by our little pond.

Speaking of our little pond...

          Look at all the little taddies! 

          Raini goes right in this little pond and I was snapping her pictures when she came tearing out of it like her tail was on fire!

          She couldn’t get out fast enough.

          When she was out, she kept nipping at her tail like there was a snapper hanging on it. I didn’t see anything and I don’t know what scared her, but she settled down after a minute.

          Deptford Pink.

          We made a shopping trip down to the big city. Can you say, “Road pictures!”

          Don’t get too excited. I was noticing the insulators on the poles. These look like glass with a couple of porcelain ones thrown in.

          These are weird looking ones.

          A huge mess of glass insulators and wires.

          “Peg, we didn’t need two pictures,” you say.

          I know, right!

          Look at the Day Lilies!

          This Jeep was the last one to get past the oversized load...

... before he took both lanes.

          Luckily, it wasn’t far until he turned off.

          Mike has been working on the sister-in-law apartment with a renewed vigor.

          “Why‽” I wanted to know. I thought this was going to be a putz-around project for him but he’s going at it hot and heavy.

          “For when your girlfriend comes to visit.”

          Mike has his moments. I told him I’d been talking with my best old friend in West Virginia and she said she might come for a visit before the end of the year. She’d like to see all the places I talk about in my letter blogs. I think he’d rather have her come here than make the trip to West Virginia and he wants to have the apartment ready.

          Our first stop on our shopping trip was Ollie’s for a piece of seamed carpet.

          “I thought you got one at a yard sale,” you say.

          I did but it was too big for the bedroom and Mike didn’t want to cut it off.

          It took some digging but we finally found one in the width Mike wanted. No choice of colors, which makes decisions easier, because they only had one! And everything was fifteen percent off.

          Our next stop was Sam’s club.

          “Wait until you see what Mike got you!” I texted Trish.

          “Now I’m curious,” she replied.

          “He got you a forty-three-inch TV for when you come to visit!”

          “It’s not just for her,” Mike admonished. “It’s for your sister or my sister or the kids when they come to visit, too.”

          Noted.

          We put the new carpet in the bedroom and started putting it back together.

          “You didn’t move the vacuum hose?” Mike said when he looked at the picture.

          “Nope,” was all I said. Mike is still working in there, still cleaning and arranging. It’s his labor of love for those of you who come to visit us.

          In the living room, Mike put down the yard sale carpet and hung the TV.

          Once the ceiling tiles are in, the place will be at least livable.

          “The bathroom needs a total remodel,” Mike says.

          Bathrooms are expensive to redo. “At least it’s better than peeing in the woods.”         

          >>>*<<<

          I’m trying to get Raini to hunt whistle pigs. My problem is two-fold. One, distance. They have to be far enough away from the road that they won’t run across it. Raini would follow. And far enough from their hole that Raini stands a chance of getting him. Second, I have to get her to see him. I think when all the conditions are right, she’ll nail one for me. With that in mind, I’ve been taking her out several times a day. But we're not having much luck. I might end up just trapping them. Especially the ones that are undermining the foundations on our barns.

          Nonetheless, walks with Raini are pleasant and a chance for me to take pictures for you.

          Most of my milkweed plants look stunted and the deer have been nibling on them. These guys found shelter in an Autumn Olive bush and are growing tall and proud.

          I have never seen so many, or such big, Mock or Indian Strawberries! You can eat them but they don’t have the flavor of our domestic strawberries. 

          Purple grass flowers.

          A Meadow Plant Bug. 

          I saw several stalks of grass all cinched together. For a second my brain couldn’t understand what I was seeing. A closer look shows it’s a dried leaf.

          I don’t know why this bee on a blade of grass caught my attention unless it’s because he was sitting on a blade of grass.

           Google Lens says it’s an Africanized Honeybee, in other words, a killer bee. I’ve compared it to pics online and I think Google’s wrong. 

Pickerelweed is blooming at the pond.

A Blue Dasher sat for a picture. 

           So did this Least Skipper Butterfly.

          Then he fluttered off and landed so you could see his handsome profile, too! 

          Across the pond I see a Tiger Swallowtail on milkweed.

          “Peg, those milkweeds look pretty good,” you say.

          I know, right! They’re growing up in the shelter of another bush. It’s my milkweed patches that don’t look so good.

          Heading back to the house, I hear the rat-a-tap-tap of woodpecker. My eyes followed the sound until I found him on the underside of a branch.

          I thought he was looking for food, then two other woodpeckers flew in to look him over. 

          Raini racing to catch up with me.

          Speaking of birds...

          Purple finches on a window hung on the side of the house. 

          One of the things I bought at a yard sale was a metal three-prong candle holder. I bent the spikes over and I’m using it for an Oriole jelly feeder. I found a dish that fit perfect on the little cup. I was worried the birds would knock the dish down so I got a saucer and put under it.

          I should silicone it, I thought. I uncapped my tube of silicone and couldn’t squeeze it hard enough to get much of the half-setup silicone out. I cut the tube in half and squirted a ton on the plate and set it in place. I didn’t care if it squished out.

          The finches used the new feeder as a landing zone before they went to the seed feeders. I didn’t know if they ate grape jelly or not. But ants sure do!

          How am I gonna keep the ants out of it? rattled around in my mind for a couple of days. I’m thinking of all kinds of possibilities when the obvious and most simple solution caused me to slap my head and say, “Duh!” I filled the saucer with water.

          It only took the Baltimore Orioles a couple of days to find the jelly.

         This one must not be his mate because he chased her off. Baltimore Orioles don’t mate for life but have one mate for a season.

          He let this female stay.

          Then I saw Purple Finches eating jelly! Who knew!

          Mike’s been working on his sculpture. We went up on the hill and brought down a couple of tilt hoods. Our little road up the hill has a mud pit right at the entrance. He got up the hill just fine but coming down with a hood on the loader, he got stuck. I used the golf cart to pull him out. Mike filled the pit with branches and it worked somewhat but the tire slid down between the branches and he still got stuck. I pulled him out again. I think we’ll wait until things dry up a little before we finish cleaning up the hill.   

     

Mike is handicapped because he doesn’t have the right equipment to move such large pieces around and put ‘em where he wants ‘em.

          “It doesn’t look like I thought it would,” Mike said.

          I encouraged him with the only advice I had. “Keep working on it. You’ll know when it’s right.”

          I finished a double-sided porch sign for a little cutie-patootie at my church. It’s a gift for her long-time boyfriend. Justin is crazy about the flag so we did his name in a flag font. And his favorite team is the New England Patriots. 

          I started my next commission. A jagged-edged Hillbilly BBQ sign.

          I was working on sizing my patterns when Spitfire decided he wanted to help. No matter how many times I moved him off the end of the board, he came back.

          Fine!

          I once saw a video about putting a square down and a cat will lay on it. I decided to see if that would lure him off the board I was working on.

          “Here!” I told Spitfire. “Lay on this!” and I put a couple of pieces of paper down beside the board for him.

          Sigh.

        

          Mike has his moments.

          Remember I said that?

          After twenty-eight years together, Mike did something I never thought he’d do.

          “What’s that?” you ask.

          He bought me a present, unsolicited.

          Every gift-giving occasion, Mike has gotten me whatever I wanted. But he always asked what I wanted.

          I have an Aero bag I found in a thrift store a hundred years ago. It’s perfect for toting the few things I carry and still has enough room to drop my camera in on top; I don’t like to leave it in the car. I can’t tell you how many years I’ve been using this bag but it’s been more than a few. It’s getting shabby along the top and the back has a wear hole where it rubs against my side.

          “I really liked this bag, too,” I cried to Mike. “But I guess it’s time find a new one.”

          I found a new bag at my thrift store but only carried it a couple of times. I hate it. I’d rather carry my ratty one.

          To my utter shock and amazement, an exact duplicate of my bag showed up in the mail.

          “How did you ever find another one?” I asked, grinning from ear to ear.

          “On the internet,” Mike said.

          It’s got a little yellowing which I’ll try to wash out, but other than that, it’s perfect.

          And I think that’s the perfect place to end it this week.

          Let’s call this one done!