Not much is going on other than the dizzy thing and working hard. Work is good, of course. I could do without queasy and dizzy.
This will make it all better.
The liquor is a prop, as is the hat. We were celebrating a coworker’s birthday today, so we wore party hats, made signs, and brought celebratory beverages to our 8:30 am meeting. Party on Zoom! It made Lenna cry. That’s a good way to start sprint planning (if you don’t know what that is, consider yourself lucky).
Why didn’t you invite ME? Well, Apache, you don’t like hats.
Declan put a set of blinds that didn’t fit on another project in the tack room. This is the only one that worked, but it’s okay, because that’s the one that gets lots of morning sun and heats things up.
Ok. Later I will hang up the little art I’ve had since I lived in my first house in Illinois.
And since I was too woozy to exercise, I did a fun thing at lunch. Kathleen gave me one of those kid sun-catcher crafts to cheer me up. It was a paint horse, and I made it look like Apache. It’s got his mane and tail plus a white nose. I had fun, and it’s cheerful in a window.
I didn’t get a good picture. But I had fun cooking little plastic pellets.
And one more thing, I found yet another mushroom variety today. The puffballs are back! And yesterday’s ink caps are already fading. Maybe my mold issue will, too.
I kept having dizzy spells today but got my work done. Then I went to the really nice new clinic and talked to the nice PA about my symptoms. I love that he didn’t start me on antibiotics! While my eardrums are swollen, we’re just trying Mucinex first. That should fry up my poor Eustachian tubes.
I guess one chicken is also feeling poorly.
It was a fine day other than the dizziness, thanks to my ability to enjoy the animals from a seated position. I especially enjoy Goldie when she feels she MUST protect us from those treacherous cows. The cows who just look at you funny, in her opinion.
I’m watching you. I’m watching YOU.
And the horses. They tried to mow the lawn. Apache was gleeful in his role as weed eater.
I love my job.
I’m glad for this stuff. It’s been such a hard day for a lot of friends. A hard couple days for horse friends. It’s made me hug my guys so hard. And my human friends. I know I’m getting older when my friends are getting dementia falling into mental illness, and struggling. Hug your friends, too. And you family members who love you. Let’s look at some nature, shall we?
June bugs are BACK. Killdeer in the sky Birds on a wireNew life!More sproutsPoop shroomsMy favorite delicate shroomsGREENThe lawn mower eating Johnson grass.
That’s a song lyric from The Who. But I did get a sudden dizzy spell this afternoon that’s still with me. At least I’m not nauseated anymore. It has been unpleasant, though we’ve had more nice rain. It’s not flooding like north of here.
Fiona tried to kiss me and make it better.
I can’t explain, I think it’s love? No, that’s the song again. People have so many diagnoses for me. I should know that if I mention feeling bad, there will be theories! But it means people care, so I appreciate their kindness. Here are the theories so far:
Vertigo
Dehydration
Heat exhaustion
Low blood pressure
Stomach virus
Electricity in the air
COVID (took test, negative)
A-fib (added later)
Inner ear infection (added later)
Migraine from pressure change (added later)
So if it’s still here, I’ll go to the clinic tomorrow. For now I’m drinking lemon water. Maybe I’m allergic to lemons. Ha ha.
Grass. Yum. Note poop growing mushrooms in the foreground. No I did not eat them.
The horses were entertained this afternoon as the pond got de-silted. Both our backhoe and the regular tractor got in there. Lee had lots of fun making giant piles of rich, dark dirt, which then got to the clay layer.
Dirt. Or soil.
One reason there is so much nice black dirt is that when it rains, it all washes from the field across the road. I think we have half their topsoil. No wonder they have to fertilize.
Deep in the mud.
It was lots of fun to watch the digging. Even when I got extra light headed and barfy, it was fun. I even managed to get the horses fed before the rain arrived. Then I curled up in bed. Fun times. And here I remain, missing whatever fun activity I had planned for tonight.
More digging
Ah well. I’ll just make no sudden moves and it will be ok. I have much sympathy for my friends who deal with frequent vertigo. And on that note, I’ll leave you with two things I can’t explain, wasp edition.
I think it’s love. Or death. I think it’s death (of an ant?)
This is just to see if I can get my old Surface Pro to post using Bluetooth, because it won’t connect to my phone hotspot. News? It rained a little just now!
Well, it won’t let me post, but it saved the draft. It will be nice to have a keyboard to use in the tack room, anyway.
Some of my things from Austin I don’t miss at all, while others have left a bit of a hole in my heart. Today some of my favorite things returned and it feels good.
My petit point flowers from 1993
I had most of my needlepoint wall hangings at the Bobcat house. This one was in my bedroom (as were the other old friends). I made it in 1993 when Declan was a baby. Today he brought it back to me.
It’s so pretty
The six-sided frame was made by my ex and his friend. They worked so hard in the garage of our sweet house in Champaign, Illinois, ciphering the angles, cutting the wood, and staining the frame. This may be the only thing he ever made for me, so I’ll treasure it always.
More recent work
These two pictures I made after Anita got here, I think when we were in the casita. I made them for the Bobcat house, though. They were in my bedroom. The fun donkey has a yellow background to go with my old bedroom, which no doubt is white now! I really enjoyed making these, and I’m glad I’ll get to look at them every time I go upstairs from now on. Lee was very kind to hang them so quickly!
What’s this?
My knitting friends know that these two old friends are among my favorite things, and I’ve missed them! It’s an umbrella swift and ball winder that take loose hanks of yarn and turns them into pull-skeins, which we like to call “yarn cakes.”
Finished products.
You may recall that the yarn for the macho granny square project came in hanks. I wound the first two by hand, which my watch thought was an elliptical machine workout.
Before. These are hanks of yarn. Fancy yarn comes in hanks that you must wind yourself.
I mentioned that somewhere in the stuff from Austin were these useful items, but they were hard to find, since the boxes weren’t organized. Well, by gosh, they’re organized now and my equipment and art showed up! It’s going to make finding things for the pool house and another project that’s coming up a lot easier! Maybe I’ll find some old kitchen friends!
Squares in progress. This will be cute!
Meanwhile, we’ve been getting some pretty good rain. There is even some water in the front pond again, which means there’s been runoff. If the predictions are right, we’ll be back to green grass and full ponds next week.
Not impressed? Well there was just the barrel last week.
Or, knowing central Texas weather, it will flood soon. Our old friends, the floods. Better than droughts and fires!
It’s so nice to sit outside.
Off to start a fun weekend. Wow. I am becoming a little more social!
I heard it was recently International Granny Square Day. So glad I was working on some at the time. I have two rows done on the current project, which consists mostly of granny squares divided diagonally into two halves.
Goldie had to help.
It ends up looking like a quilt. I shared the yarn one day last week. To start, I colored in the pattern with markers. Of course I changed some.
My really messy doodles
I’m stopping here until the yarn for the heart arrives. I do have the other camo yarn I can turn into balls and swatch with. Sigh. The ball winder and swift are still packed up, somewhere. But I can wind by hand and it will count as exercise!
Time for wine by the pool
Speaking of which, it was literally like an OVEN outside today. Neither I nor the horses were up to running around. It was 102° and extra humid. So I got my exercise in the pool. I swim weird but it counts!
I didn’t have to save Suna.
The good news is real rain should be coming tomorrow or Friday. I will believe it when I see it, but it’s the most hope since early May. I think we need it, judging from the ground.
Cracked earth
Sorry I’m so dull right now. All the interesting stuff I can’t write about. Oh, here’s a tidbit: I’m officially renewed and get to stay at Dell another year. Income! Yay!
I hope you’re finding good things in your life. They’re in there somewhere! Today I enjoyed a sunrise. Ok. The sunrise. There was just one.
Southern sunrise
It was pretty in every direction.
Northern sunrise
I was surrounded by color!
This is the western sunrise! Huh!The east. With the actual sun.
That was my idea of goodness. No day that starts this pretty could be all bad. Even when you realize your pond has gone dry.
Ooh a barrel. Maybe Drew can pull it out!
There’s stuff blooming, though. And I found a passion fruit.
Things that are alive.
I even have a new friend, the garden spider who guards the henhouse. She decided to build her nest right across the door. I walked through it. Yuck. And she’d started rebuilding by the time I finished feeding the chickens. She’s good, though. I got to watch her deal with a grasshopper that got in her web. In mere seconds, it was all wrapped up and probably wondering what the heck just happened.
With a prized delicacy, the wasp.
One more bit of goodness was that I saw an unfamiliar bird land on the back pond, the one with water. Then another. It was big, but not as big as a vulture or heron. But it looked like a heron…something was different about its head. Sure enough, it IDed as a tricolored heron! Yay! Now I’ve seen five: great blue, great egret, green heron, cattle egret, and the tricolor.
Blurry, but the shape of the bill is distinctive.
That’s plenty of good. Plus I got out of the house to go look at houses this afternoon AND ate dinner out with Kathleen. So glad she’s recovering! To celebrate, enjoy dog photos!
This summer, I’ve been learning a lot about slowing down my life and being okay with not having to “do something” every moment of my life (says the woman blogging while waiting for her horses to eat).
We like to chew.
One thing I’ve been appreciating is tasks that are repetitive and require just enough attention that you can’t dwell on things, but little enough attention that you can “zone out” and bring your focus to the present. Shoveling horse poop is a great example.
Poop free but dusty pens.
I really enjoy shoveling the poop and taking it out of the pens, though it’s one of those tasks like laundry and vacuuming; you’ll have to do it again soon.
Darn you, Dusty.
It just feels good to have a routine. I feel like such a little ranch person going out every morning to care for the chickens and going out every evening to get eggs. And every day feeding horses. And getting the mail. Just having a rhythm to life.
I finished this project. It’s so ridiculous it’s cute. Random yarns that are no longer available to buy, and much patience. It’s Augustina from a Noro magazine. You, too, could buy a kit.
Mine is big. It’s ok. It’s soft and warm and I’ll enjoy it around the house this winter. The colors look great! Bonus surprise.
Note I’m missing a foot but another one showed up to make up for it.
Lee made fancy photos for me. I like that I’m wearing shorts and the dogs are inspecting it. enjoy my garment. I un-cropped the pictures do my head would not be cut off.
Oh yes. Yarn for the project after my blanket for Kathleen arrived! It’s for a very macho toddler. Camo and swampy green. Gonna be CUTE.
The green yarn is very interesting. Can’t wait to use it.
I’m visualizing calm and coolness. Neither is easy, since poor Kathleen is still racking up the challenges and trying to avoid the hospital, and it still hasn’t rained again.
Like this persistent variegated fritillary, we just have to keep going until we find our equivalent of a frogfruit blossom.
It didn’t go over 100° today so far, so that’s encouraging. And the cumulus clouds seem bigger today that they have been. So I’m patiently hoping it all turns around. Like I keep telling folks, I’m fine as long as I have peace and hermit time.
Vlassic and I both appreciate the cool tack room now, especially since I finally got the vent set to blow on me in my chair.
Yep. My she shed is working out great. I even have a stool that lets me write at the desk AND serves as a footstool. Classy. Unfortunately, the comfort and A/C droning make it clear that this could be a nap shed.
Ooh. I can even crochet or knit in here!
Things will get more settled soon, and I’ll be able to share some cool renovation stuff.
We are much cooler and calmer when we eat separately.
In the meantime let me share a cool tip one of my local horse friends shared: you can fertilize by dropping horse apples (poop) into the gaping cracks in the earth right now, then when it rains, the crack will close and the poop will help the grass grow back. Maybe wishful thinking.
The Hermits' Rest 