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Walkies!

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Yes, it finally happened.

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Lord Dudley Mountcatten…. walked. In the harness. On the leash. Of his own accord.

Be still my heart.

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After weeks of useless excursions when all he did was glance at me in disdain…. the other day he suited up and hit the door running.

Well, strolling is more accurate but I’ll take it. No fuss, no fight. He walked across the lawn, around the barn and woodshed, climbed the front stone wall, got tangled up in the bird bath and even lead me over to the apple trees.

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Which he found quite fascinating.

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I was happy to let him sit in the crook of the tree sniffing and scratching the bark, but then before I could react….

Bam!

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The little devil was scrambling up the tree with me still holding the leash. He wouldn’t come down, so I had to go up, and it wasn’t pretty.

Ever try to wrangle a leashed and harnessed cat out of a tree? It’s not a smooth process and I don’t recommend it.

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Upon retrieval, his Lordship was exhausted and happily plopped in the shade. I, on the other hand, examined my scratched arms, broken nail and twig infested hair.

And if that wasn’t bad enough? This morning I woke up with a wicked brown tail moth rash on my neck.

Needless to say we will be giving the apple trees a wide berth from now on.

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Wanted

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As we were leaving our small town’s festival I saw a sign pointing to a local artist’s collection of folk art carvings.

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The man and his art are well known in my town with one piece of this collection featured and displayed every year in our town hall.

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Three of the pieces were bought by private parties before the town decided to acquire the collection and were graciously lent to us for this event. It was the first time the collection has ever been exhibited together. Except…

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There’s one missing.

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The widow of the artist doesn’t know who her late husband sold The Raven to, but there’s been an extensive search … with no luck.

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You really have to see these in person to appreciate the craftsmanship.

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And my poor pictures don’t do the beauty of the wood carving justice.

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All the creatures depicted are native to our area. They are depicted with the joy of, and reverence for, nature.

So if you ever see that Raven? Please let me know.

😉

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In which River shows you yet another thing to do with a zucchini….

21 Comments

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The highlight of my little town’s annual celebration festival has always been this:

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Yes ladies and gentlemen…. we race zucchini here in vacation land.

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And it’s a definite crowd pleaser.

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That’s the pit crew getting the semi finalists ready.

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Some of the entries were quite creative.

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It’s hard to tell but the one of the far left is a whale… complete with tail and water coming out of his blow hole.

And in case you’re wondering how this works….

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I love my town.

🤣

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Sometimes you have to be ruthless.

31 Comments

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Especially when your closet looks like this.

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I spent 5 solid hours sorting, cleaning and trying on a shockingly large collection of things that no longer fit… but only managed to finish one little section.

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It was exhausting… as well as depressing and I called it quits when I hit the jean pile, mumbling tomorrow is another day in my best Scarlett O’Hara voice.

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I had to ditch multiple pairs of cute boots due to my I’m not 90 but my feet think they are bunions that have ruined the joy of shoe shopping and turned it into a loathsome chore I’ve come to dread. Gone are the days of fashionable heels… now? I live in sandals, sneakers and boots.

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Three garbage bags later my closet looked better… but I was more than ready for a consolation cocktail. Or two.

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Small town fun

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Our little town has an annual community celebration and more often than not we don’t go. But after a year of hermit like Covid living, travel plan cancellations and avoiding large indoor crowds… an outdoor festival seemed perfect.

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There was live music.

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And the prerequisite ugly craft displays. Bird baths made from repurposed antique glass? I’m picturing myself scrubbing the poo out of all those grooves. Hard pass.

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The husband lost me for a half hour at the library book sale. A dollar a book and we had to make two trips to the car.

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There was a tiny petting zoo.

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With bad hair day inhabitants.

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We bought ducks for the derby.

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But our sorry ass quacks were almost dead last.

To be continued….

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I love my town

21 Comments

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My town’s Facebook page was critter-centric with this week starting with this awesome visitor.

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We had one on our roof a while back but I wasn’t quick enough to get a photo. They’re such glorious fellows.

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I hear that on the zucchini. Everyone is trying to foist them on us lately.

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Outhouse shed combo. When you’re working on something and just don’t want to waste the energy it takes to walk back to the house.

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Our neighbors have lost a few birds to foxes. But I think we need to examine how #20 survived. Could have been an inside job.

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Alright, so it’s not a dog waiting at the door with your slippers. You still have to admit it’s sweet…

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Apple graveyard

39 Comments

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After my husband cut the wood and dragged off the small branches from his apple tree butchering….

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We were left with a veritable apple graveyard.

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I filled buckets and totes and gave a large box to our friend but there were still hundreds on the ground.

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I love to bake and will occasionally dehydrate but I’m not a canner. Which means we had too many apples. I tried to gift them to our neighbors but they all have trees loaded with fruit this year as well.

Enter our town’s Facebook page.

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I was immediately flooded with messages and let 3 women come over and harvest the bounty. They all filled big buckets but there was still more on the ground.

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Perfect! The porcine owner showed up with her kids, buckets, totes, bags and a wagon. She totally cleared out the area and I thought how nice… their pet piggy will be happily munching on sweet treats. I asked her to send me a picture of the cutie and sadly realized that little piggy won’t be happy for long.

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*gulp*

I thanked her, but declined the offer. Come on, if you name him? You shouldn’t eat him.

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Things for which there are no reasonable explanations.

32 Comments

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Have you noticed the new trend in flour? They make it out of everything now. Back in my day you had Gold Medal and the only choices were 1 pound or 5. Now? There’s rice flour, almond flour, spelt flour and….

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Good grief, don’t people know the only acceptable alternative use of watermelon is margaritas?

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I saw this coffee table in Home Goods the other day and it made me wonder….

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Has caging misbehaving children and dinner guests now become acceptable?Because I’m fine with that.

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Crocs…the hideous abominations are everywhere.

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They’re basically the Honey Boo Boo of footwear and people need to stop wearing them.

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And fruit themed Crocs?

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Do nothing to alter my opinion of these pathetic plastic horrors. Please… for the love of all that’s holy, let these things die the natural death of outdated ugly footwear.

Like Jellies.

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They were hideous, but at least they had the decency to die.

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Worst gift I ever gave him.

12 Comments

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After the landing rebuild fiasco, I thought my husband was done for the day….. but then I heard the chain saw.

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And went outside to find that he had cut off the fallen section of apple tree we just had an arborist look at.

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I wanted to pay a professional to trim the trees properly and what I got was this…

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I swear how that man hasn’t killed himself is one of life’s biggest mysteries.

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I sputter at him to be more careful all the time, to no avail…. but I figure I might as well video his escapades in case the life insurance company needs documentation for my claim.

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The afternoon was spent cleaning up the mess.

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And our poor tree did not look happy.

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But at least there’s a nice wheelbarrow full of applewood….

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