Guess what we saw today???/

We took a little round about drive today...my throat is scratchy and I did not feel like sitting at home. So, we stopped at Mansfield, and headed home via back roads. I had been watching all day for an turkeys and/or an eagle. No luck with the turkeys...but we were easing along a road between Bridgeton and Mansfield and this big handsome fellow took off from right beside our Rav...
I was so startled I could not react quick enough. He literally had flown right over the top of the Rav....he had to have been sitting in the tree right beside the road, but I had been watching the other way never expecting one to be right there next to the road.

I was literally shaking with excitement so bad I could not hold my camera still! I don't know why I do that sometimes...

Oh, and by the way, even though his mouth is open, he was not making a sound....

Blackberry blossoms...

I have been noticing the blackberry blossoms--I think they are so pretty. I love blackberry cobbler and blackberry jelly. Mom always made both.

When mom made blackberry jelly, she did not use pectin...I don't even know if she had heard of it. She always used just sugar to add to the juice and boiled it till it would set up. There was a ratio she used...I think one part sugar to 2 parts juice. One time we had been out picking--I don't remember how many of us had been picking...it might have just been the two of us or it might have been one of my brothers with me.

Anyway, we each had a 2 1/2 gallon bucket almost full. Mom cleaned them and boiled them to get the juice....then proceeded to put 2 parts sugar to 1 part juice--totally opposite of what it was supposed to be...before she realized what she had done. So off we headed to pick a LOT more berries...Mom was extra late that evening getting all that jelly made.

Just another little memory I thought I would share.

Not the greatest photo...

Edited to add: Mary just informed me that this is a Blue Grosbeak...thank you Mary!

This sure could have been a better photo, but still considered myself lucky to get it. I see these indigo buntings quite often, but they usually never let me get even half way close enough to get a shot.
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It is another beautiful day here in the Wabash Valley....I have not got any plans set. I need to do a bit normal household chores but that is the last thing I want to do. I had rather be outside. But I will take the time to do a few things till I won't feel guilty.

I wonder, does anyone else feel guilty about things they do or do not do? I feel guilty over so much stuff, and none of it really bad things. Such as I took off yesterday even and went for a little drive plus a little fishing...and got to thinking I should have stayed home and taken care of things here.

But the house will need to be vacuumed the day I die...and there will probably be dirty dishes...and laundry to be done.

Emmm-emmmm-mmmm Good!

If I had them, I think I could eat at least one of these bowls of tomatoes. If I had them, I would not want anything else the rest of the day. But I don't have them, so I wish for them. At one time or another every day, I have the thought that I cannot wait to be able to walk out to the garden and pick a fresh tomato.

Thinking of a BLT made with a home grown tomato makes my mouth water....or even just to sit out in the yard with a salt shaker and a tomato.

We don't have any yet, but we did plant tomatoes and bell peppers today at the end of the day. I chose a variety of tomato plants--a total of twenty. And thinking I will try to stop tomorrow and get 4 more.

And being that Roger got up feeling good again today, we did clean the gutters of the house. He has extensions for our shop vac and does the majority from the ground normally. Today, on one side the maple seeds were dry, with no weight to them and for some reason they stopped up the hose ever little bit. So, he got the ladder to finish that side from it.

We have a big awning over the front porch..it is a royal pain to clean the top of it...plus there is the actual guttering to the house over the top of it. I told Roger I would get up there and get the guttering to the house if he would take the ladder to the other end...he did and I got up there. I set on the edge of the house with my feet on the awning to clean the house gutter.

I got the bright idea and told him to get me two pieces of plywood for me to put on the awing and distribute my weight. Why two you ask? Well, I could work from one and when I wanted to move forward, I could put the other one in front of me and crawl on to it, work from it, then bring the original to the front. I did have Roger watch the awning the first time I put my full weight on it, but I did not seem to have an effect on it.

The awning is at least 26 ft in length and I think it is 8 ft wide...so I got the guttering done, and then the awning also. It fits up under the eave of the house and gets seeds and stuff back up under there...then on the outside edge, there is always gobs of stuff.

While I did that, Roger got practically the rest of the house done...and did finish it while I just sat and watched. That is one job we both dread...he usually does it all, with maybe a bit of help from me...but think we discovered a better way today. He still has the garages to do, but they usually don't get a lot in their gutters.

He has an appointment with the chiropractor tomorrow...probably a good thing after today. I was so afraid he would get his back/sciatica to hurting again, but so far it hasn't.
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I also did a little bit in my sewing early this morn...got the selvedge edge trimmed from the backing fabric for one of my quilts...now to get the time to go down there, make a decision and get it sewn together. Its been a long time coming...when I got that top made I was hoping to have it done by now...quilting and all.

Reflections...

An update....Roger is feeling much better in all ways...at least he was yesterday. We had planned to try to get to the doctor yesterday but he got up and felt like a new man. No fever. No over all worn out feeling. He ran errands with me all day yesterday...and still did not feel bad when the day was done.

How he will feel today is anybody's guess. I am hoping for the best. He just cannot stand to lay around all the time...he told me one day if he wasn't the might warrior that he is, he would be sitting in the middle of the living room crying. Even as bad as he feels, he can still make fun of stuff, himself included.

Now if we can just keep his back in shape. He was going hunting again today, but decided to stay home and clean the gutters...I wish he wouldn't even try that for a while. Or would let me do it...
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I am hoping I can get back to blogging regularly...the kids were here over the weekend and I just don't do much when they are here.

Lorelei, Sarah and I were sitting out back. She kept telling me I had a small island on my roof. I was thinking she was seeing the vent. She kept repeating it to me over and over, till I got up and looked where she was looking....in the gutter was a about an 8 inch space where maple seeds had sprouted and were growing enough till she could see them. I could plainly see why she would call it an island...just would not have thought she knew the word and what it meant.

Stop and smell the irises....

For those looking for my Friday's Fences it is over at my Time Stand Still blog....

I walk out my back door and if the conditions are right, the scent of a bed of white irises is so strong....not sure why it isn't like that all the time. Other times I don't even smell them....but yesterday, as I was mowing out front, I passed by these lovely beauties, and got a whiff of them. What a smell...though I love it I am not sure I would want to smell it all the time....they just smell so sweet.

I just had to show you one last shot of the wisteria...
I think it almost past its prime in the blooming, but still beautiful.
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It was another busy day yesterday, but just things to be done here. Roger and I both mowed the yard...and I scrubbed down my chairs on the front porch as well as the outside of the house that is under the awning....

I have to get ready to head to Terre Haute in a few minutes...Roger has another appointment with the chiropractor. He has helped him immensely with just two visits. And one thing there, we usually don't have to sit and wait and wait.

It is too bad, his fever has started to return...not as bad as the last time, it did for the first time day before yesterday....not sure what to think. I am thinking we will be heading to the medical doctor soon. But just got to get the back in better shape....he could not stand to go and sit and wait. Maybe after today...something about setting really gets to his back when it is bothering him.

Well, I need to get off here and get busy....the kids are coming tonight....though I have not told Sarah about Roger running the temps yet. I really am not sure it is the flu....

Too much going on....

I am too tired to think straight tonight...should be in bed but am just sitting....just to enjoy it.

Roger's back has been really bothering him...actually the sciatic nerve...started this weekend and just gradually getting worse and worse. He called our chiropractor's office Monday morn and no one in...left a message. We know he has been cutting down hours, so knowing he might not even be in for a few days, I called another chiropractor that our oldest daughter has used and liked.

He was able to get in yesterday. After we got back from there, and it finally quit raining I ran to our Walmart to pick up a prescription. While there, I figured I might as well stock up on catfood and a few other things. When I got in a line to check out, I got behind a young man that had a couple kids with him, and he was actually in the process of paying.

Something happened, and the cashier had to get the manager, who in turn had to do something that cancelled the whole transaction...so he had to take all the stuff out of the bags for them to be rescanned...so I was ready to be out of there by the time I got through. After leaving there, stopped at the grocery for just a few items, then home.

Well, we were thinking I needed new brake pads on the Rav4, so called the Toyota dealership and got an appointment with them for this morning...I was down there by 7:30 and had to wait between two and three hours...Roger just wasn't able to get in and out of the truck to pick me up....so just took my kindle and sat and read while I waited.

It turns out it is not my brakes, but the water pump is going out...and it is still under warranty...thank God. But have to take it back in next Tuesday for that to be done.

Also had to run Roger back to the chiropractor this afternoon. so, no time at all for blogging. Not sure if I will get any time tomorrow either...