Peggy's Jibber-Jabber: Movin' On

I’ve spent the last three weeks recounting our trip, meanwhile life continued to happen here at our mountain home. So, let’s move on.

I think Tiger missed us more than the others. He helped me paint my Halloween cards.

And he helped us play Skip-Bo.

Speaking of Tiger, just let me tell you, he came in the house wearing a hat the other day. I laughed but he didn’t look none too happy. I’ve been combing sticktights out of this cat nearly every day for the past week.

Talking about critters...

The weather is getting cooler here and the mice are moving indoors. I was at my desk and recognized Bondi was in mouse-hunting mode, sniffing around a little cabinet by my desk. I pulled it out, then moved a few picture frames, and there he was. Raini dashed in and snatched the mouse.

“Kill it!” I command.

Raini doesn’t always kill them but this time she did.

Yay Raini!

When she was done worrying it, Bondi walked up, sniffed it, and walked away.

The critters around here are bold, no two ways about it. Day or night, whether I’m sitting here or not, they’ll scamper right across the floor like they own the place!

Bondi’s started sitting behind me in the chair again sometimes, but not always, not like she used to. She must sleep with one eye open, though. Every now and then, she’ll spot one scampering across the floor, leap down, and give chase. That’s how she nailed this guy.

When she didn’t see any more signs of life, she walked away. I couldn’t see his tail so I picked it up by his little foot and offered it to the cat. Spitfire didn’t want it. I picked it off the floor a second time and realized it didn’t have much of a tail. I looked closer at his face and saw his pointy nose.

“It’s a mole!” I called to Mike who was sitting in the recliner watching TV.

“What?”

“Bondi killed a mole!” I clarified. “No wonder Spitfire didn’t want it,” I mumbled under my breath as Mike turned back to the TV. Our cats will not eat moles.

However, they do eat lots of other things. Things that give them worms, as evidenced here in this photo.

How would you like to come back to your desk, ready for another painting session, only to find that someone vomited in your paints and on your papers and left a big ol’ tapeworm to boot?! Yeah. That’s not a noodle laying there.

That got my attention, let me tell you! As quick as I could, they all got a dose of worm medicine and a renewal of their topical flea medicine. Hopefully, I’ll be more diligent in giving them a monthly dose and we won’t have this to deal with ever again!

Yuckidy-yuck-yuck!

I lost some paints and all the papers in the cleaning up process but that’s okay! I didn’t want them anymore anyway! And my mouse pad? I was thinking acid bath but settled for bleach. Parasites disgust me.

I opened a fresh box of dog biscuits this week and sitting right on top was one biscuit as black as sin.

Raini didn’t want it.

And yet another critter story is one of the critters I painted. This was a cat critter for my beautiful friend and feisty red-haired neighbor, Miss Rosie. I painted a gray cat in an orange witch’s hat for her Halloween card. A gray cat because her cat Flannel is gray. The hat on the cat in the reference was purple but Miss Rosie likes green or orange better and I thought orange was a better fit for Halloween, so orange it was!

I was going to mail it to her — who doesn’t like getting a pretty greeting card in the mail? — but decided I’d frame if for her instead. I went into the wayback and found a frame that already had a mat in it. I cleaned the glass and mounted it.

She likes it!

“It’s glare proof glass,” I pointed out when I gave it to her. Then, for a joke, I added, “Can I get that back?”

She laughed. She knew I was just kidding.

I painted Batty for another beautiful lady in my life, my sister Phyllis.

Phyllis has an affinity for dragons and gargoyles, but I was hoping this was close enough, since I couldn’t find a Halloween dragon reference.

“I love it!” she told me when she got it.

“I was hoping you would.”

While on our trip I picked up a couple of new commissions. One was from Mike’s cousin, Suzy’s brother, Dennis. He sent me three pictures of Gigi and we decided on her profile picture because she looks more regal.

I love watercolors but they go through an ugly stage where I start to think, “Oh no! I’m going to have to throw this one away!”

Then something happens as you keep working on it and adding layers.

I might not get everything right but if you want it to look like the photo, frame the photo. This is what I see.

And honestly, I’m still pretty new at this. I’ve done something like five pet portraits. Three dogs and two cats.

I sent Dennis a picture of Gigi when I finished it and he likes it enough that he asked for another portrait. This one is Charli, with no e.

I did an under painting and hated it! “I’m going to have to throw this one away,” I told my best old friend, Trish.

“I wouldn't be too quick to give up. I love the wonky eye!” she replied.

So I didn’t. I jumped right back in and painted the dark on the nose — and it was absolutely horrendous!

I washed it off as best as I could, shrugged my shoulders, and decided to keep going.

“I still might have to throw it away,” I told Mike. “But I’m going to keep going for experience sake.”

Then this starts to emerge!

Maybe I can save it yet!

Here’s my problem.

I don’t know what I’m doing.

I follow my instincts and just start, which, according to every watercolor tutorial I’ve watched, is against the rules.

“You have to learn color theory.”

“You need to do thumbnails first.”

“Turn your photo black and white to get your tonal values.”

“Plan out all the colors you’re going to use.”

Heck! Most of the time I don’t even know what color I’m using! I just look at my palette and pick the color I think I need.

There are so many rules in watercolors!

And here I am, just bucking them all!

Think how dangerous I’d be if I actually knew what I was doing!

Speaking of breaking the rules...

I made card holders for my grandson and daughter-in-law. While playing Phase 10 they had a hard time holding ten cards. I ordered material with their favorite football team logo and spent a few hours making them.

In the tutorial, they hand sew around the edge of the material, put the CD in and pull it tight. Hand sewing is tedious and time consuming, so this girl busted out the sewing machine, opened the stitch length as far as I could, and zipped around the edge of the material.

See! Breaking the rules!

Gathering the stitches is a bit tricky because if I pull too hard I break the thread, then you have to frog it and start over.

“Peg, what’s ‘frog it’ mean?” you may be asking, and I had to ask Trish when she first used that expression with me.

“Rip-it,” she said, imitating the sound a frog makes. “Rip it out and start over.”

And it did happen to me before where I had to frog it and start over. That’s no fun. I was being extra careful, but even so, it happened while I was making these, too. It broke right at the end after I’d done all the gathering and was giving it a final tug.

This is bull, me thinks to myself. I’m just going to hot glue it.

See! Breaking the rules again!

Hot glue worked so very well! I made another one using hot glue instead of sewing it, then I tried to pull it apart and couldn’t. I made the last three with hot glue.

The kids’ll have to tell me if they fall apart.

Speaking of falling apart...

I made lemon bars for movie night at church. I made it in my favorite pan and wanted the pan... gosh! Now I can’t remember why I wanted the lemon bars out of the pan, but I did. I always dump my Dream Bars out of the pan while they’re hot; I figured it would work with lemon bars, too. I dumped them onto freezer paper, my go-to for things like this, and they spread out and broke apart. They looked pretty gooey yet, like they weren’t done. Actually, I think they must finish cooking or setting up in the pan or something because I’ve never had a problem with them being under baked before. But these definitely looked like they need a few more minutes in the oven. But how was I going to get them back in the pan since now it was larger than my pan?

A cookie sheet!

I laid a cookie sheet over it, slid a cutting board under the lemon bars and gave them a quick flip.

It was only marginally successful.

I pushed it back into place as best I could and sent it back to the oven for more time. I’d tell you how much more, but I don’t remember anymore.

After I pulled them out of the oven, dusted them with 10X sugar (as they called powdered sugar in the old days), cut them into pieces, and no one had a clue about the mangled mess I’d made of these.

You know what I was just thinking?

I was just thinking that I’m glad stuff like this happens to me from time to time — it gives us something to talk about!

Oh my gosh—what a wind we had! It came roaring through like something unearthly, loud enough to rattle the windows and my nerves. It was scary! Even Raini, curled up in the recliner beside me, lifted her head, ears pricked forward, eyes wide. She didn’t know what she was hearing, but she listened hard, as if trying to make sense of the banshees shrieking around the house, their howls twisting through every crack and corner. And did I tell you it was scary?!

The power went off and on several times, long enough once for the generator to kick on for a few minutes, but the wind settled down and the power stayed on the rest of the night, as far as I could tell.

In the morning that handsome neighbor of ours called. “We have a tree down across our driveway,” Lamar said to Mike. “Can you help?”

Can Mike help?

Of course he can!

“Let’s go look first,” Mike said.

I grabbed my camera and off we went on the golf cart.

And we see that we lost two big branches from our Bradford Pear trees. Mike drove around them off we went to the Kipps'.

“Wow,” I said getting my first look at it. “That’s too big for your tractor.”

“Naw. I think I can push it with my tractor.” Mike sounded confident.

Me?

I had my doubts.

“But I need to push from the other side. Can I get around the house?” he asked.

“I don’t know. Let’s drive it and see.”

Up the front lawn we went and under the evergreen tree. The top of the cart brushed the branches on Mike's side. From there it was a clear path the whole way around the house.

Coming back out, the branch was on my side. I ducked my head as the branch swept by. I have to tell you; a little later I realized there was something in my brassiere irritating me. I discreetly reached up from the bottom and brushed breakfast crumbs out. Not that there was anyone who could see me. Later still, when I went to let my water down, I discovered pine needles in my underwear!

“Aha!” me says to myself. “It wasn’t rice cake crumbs in my bra after all!”

I let Mike off at the garage and he got the Kioti out. He pushed our branches off the driveway then went on to the Kipps'.

Guys, I seriously doubted Mike’s little tractor would handle a tree of that size, but he proved me wrong.

“Was the tree dead?” I asked Lamar.

“No, it had leaves on it.”

We walked around to the backside of the stump and now we know.

Mike used his little chainsaw to cut a few of the branches off.

Then used the tractor to push it over the bank where Lamar can burn it or maybe the creek will come roaring through and carry it away.

Only after that did we see that Lamar had another tree down.

“That one doesn’t bother me,” he said.

Sally, across the road, had a big ol’ pine come down across her old dog cages. Her and her husband Charlie used to raise German Shepherds.

I was still at the Kipps' when I saw the township tractor go by.

“There must’ve been another tree down,” I said to Miss Rosie.

After we left I went and looked. And just past our back driveway, I could see where another tree had come down across the road.

That was quite a wind that blew through!

We had to go out later and even though I knew we had a bunch of trees down in our area, once we got down off the mountain, we didn’t see any evidence of it.

What we did see was lots of dead deer beside the road. I counted five between here and Tunkhannock. Besides the bucks rutting, deer season is in. Archery. Then, during the week, we went to Sayre. More dead deer.

And I took road pictures for you.