NIAGRA FALLS

Yes, the falls are still there.  I had not been there in about 30 years so I thought that my grandchildren would enjoy the experience.  My daughter-in-law had never seen them so the 4 of us drove to Niagra New York, spent one night and drove home.  They really are spectacular.  We were unable to go to the Canadian side since I am the only one with a passport.  It was still a worthwhile trip.  Here are a few pictures.

JULY HEAT

Whew!!  It has been extraordinarily warm (some might say downright hot) over the last week.  With temperatures in the 90's it is hard to be outside for any length of time.  My golf has suffered.  I only play when required.  I prefer to be in the air conditioning if possible.  Yesterday I did go on a Garden Walk.  There were 4 gardens.  The first is a very compact terraced garden.  It has a full time gardener and part time crew working on it.  It was very unique and beautiful.  I found a tree that I loved.  It is a thin line buckthorn.  I will try to put a picture of it on the blog.  The next two gardens were more of a traditional garden found in our back yards but each set up differently.  Both had open air porches with pots and plants around the yard.  The last had let the yard go natural.  Unfortunately the heat had taken it's toll on the flowering plants.  I had seen this garden before in a quest to see owls and so I knew how different it was.  However, none of these gardens inspired me to go home and weed.  I lost my once a month gardener in May, have not replaced her and have not been weeding.  My yard will NOT be on any future garden walk.  Here are a few snapshots of the flowers, a garden shed and one of the porches.  I will put the picture of the buckthorn on a later blog.

4th of JULY

I have to say that the 4th of July is my second most favorite holiday.  The first of course is Christmas. But I do love this holiday.  First of all it is celebrated in the summer.  Second is that it is the celebration of our country.  I am very proud to be an American.  I am proud that my ancestors chose to come here long long ago.  I can trace back to the 1700's and I find great pride in that.  I love the festivities that goes with all of this.  Now please realize that I don't really go to the parades anymore but I do see fireworks every year.  I have a box (yes a box) with red/white and blue clothing in it.  I have enough tops to last the whole weekend (a 4 day weekend) and I am sure that some of my friends think that I am a bit over the top.  Oh well too bad.  I love the music.  America the Beautiful, I'm Proud To Be An American, My Country 'Tis of Thee, the National Anthem - all of them and more.  So if by chance you read this, please celebrate this very important holiday.  Yes, have your picnics and family get-togethers but celebrate the country.  We have our fair share of problems but we are still great.

ALMOST MID JUNE

My, My, My how time flies.  I am not sure how it goes by so quickly and why I still seem to have tons of projects that I want to work on but never seem to get to them.  I have just had a few stressful days (don't you just hate it when you get stressed in the summer?).  I volunteered to be a chair for an event for the sole purpose to get the committee members to meet and then they were supposed to do ALL the work. I must be a horrible chair person since I seem to be doing ALL the work.  The event is soon and add that to a snafu in another event and my stress level rose to the max.  I won't go into detail on what this level of stress does to my system but somehow I have to get through the next couple of weeks.  I hate it when you tell people what they are supposed to do for an event and then they just do what they want.  In the one case, I was out of town the day before, thought everything was in hand (wrong, wrong, wrong assumption) and come the day of and find things not quite perfect and people in an uproar, complaining and angry.  They sort of lambasted the wrong person about it (not me) and I feel bad that she took the heat.   Now please realize that the event while important and it did need to be done right is not life threatening.  With all the friends that I have that are having major health issues, I have a problem with the level of anger that followed this snafu.  The event was still a game.  Add that to the news this morning of the mass shooting in the Orlando nightclub and I have just a feeling that sometimes priorities are not in order.  However, it was still a snafu and I will have to monitor it more closely.  I realize that for the most part, no one reads this and my publicly airing a grievance it probably wrong, I feel somewhat better although my insides are still in a turmoil. I guess that is it for now.

IS IT MID FEBRUARY ALREADY?

Well, time certainly does fly by.  Last week I only worked 40 hours but the two weeks before that were 54 hour weeks and that left me very little time for anything else especially anything on a computer.  Today I am off (both Saturday and Sunday) and it is a glorious day today.  Temperatures will be in the mid-60's and sunny.  PERFECT!!!  I do have errands to run and I think JR and I might try to catch a movie this afternoon.  I am hoping to cash in on the great day and not whittle it away doing nothing.  I am recovering from a cold and still have a cough that I need to get rid of.  I don't feel bad but I do not have tons of energy either.  So lots of liquids, accomplishing tasks around the house, some outdoor time for fresh air and time with hubby.  It should be a great day.

On the food front, not much to talk about.  We had lamb chops one night and last night we had fish tacos again.  I am making a pasta dish for our Sunday gathering to watch one episode of Doc Martin and one episode of Downton Abby.  Both of these are on DVD's.  It should be a fun evening.  The weather will not be near as great as today but at least in the mid 40's.  Soon we will have March and then hopefully spring.  Yeah.