Weekend Coffee Share 9/17/16

Posted on September 17, 2016 by Maggie C

If we were having coffee, you might ask why I haven’t been posting a whole lot lately. I would tell you I hadn’t really noticed until today, but it’s probably for the best that I post when I have something to share, and not just to meet self-imposed quotas.

I have many interests that seem to ebb and flow: blogging, stained glass, gardening and landscaping (a newly formed interest), home improvement DIY projects, reading, poetry, walking my dog and taking photos, binge-watching entire seasons of my favorite programs on Netflix, playing with my grandkids, playing with my (adult) kids, playing with my food… and probably some other interests that are so far into the ebb stage I have forgotten them for now.

Blogging seems to be ebbing for a bit right now. With the rainy season coming up and more time spent indoors, my posts will likely pick back up. Be forewarned!

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that I took my dog Chules to a doggy daycare for the first time this week. It tuckered him out and he’s been napping a lot since. The daycare streams webcams of their play areas so you can see what your pet is up to at any given moment. I admit I spent a lot of time checking in on Chules.

There were a lot more white dogs in attendance than I expected, but I had no problem picking Chules out of the crowd. While other dogs walked or ran around, there was one dog that literally pranced in and out of the camera’s view. That would be my Chules. Perhaps I should have named him Prancer.

I’d better sign off for now. It’s time to attend to something that is definitely not one of my favorite pastimes: house cleaning. Thanks for stopping by and allowing me to put off my chores for a while. If you want to hang around, there’s a pile of clean laundry that needs folding.

No? Alright then. Have a good weekend. Hopefully you will find time to enjoy your favorite activities.

Thank you Diana at PartTimeMonsterBlog.com for hosting the #WeekendCoffeeShare.

Weekend Coffee Share 9/11/16

Posted on September 11, 2016 by Maggie C

If we were having coffee, I would tell you that my demolition activities have now extended from do-it-yourself house projects to the great outdoors. Since realizing that the majority of my yard consists of plants that are designated as weeds and invasive plant species in my county and state, I’ve decided to take on the challenge of converting my lawn into – well, something other than lawn.

Granted, the plan is a bit vague at this point, but I bought a book , Lawn Gone! Low-Maintenance, Sustainable, Attractive Alternatives for Your Yard by Pam Penick, that may or may not be helpful (I haven’t gotten very far into reading it yet; I’ll let you know), but the title is promising.

I’m going to demolish my lawn and, as time, money, weather, health and personal inclination allow, turn it into something that doesn’t bring the term “noxious” into play.

So far, using photos from online publications, I think I’ve identified the following “weeds” in my yard: thistle (multiple varieties), Japanese knotweed, blackberry, St. John’s wort, sticky weed (catch weed), groundsel, dandelion, deadnettle, English ivy, London rocket, roberts geranium, wild carrot, prostrate knotweed, fox tail, cheat grass, and morning glory.

Obviously, there’s little room left for regular ol’ grass.

My goal is to use only organic methods of plant control, and try to use primarily materials and plant species native to my region to replace the lawn. I’m pretty sure that AstroTurf is native to this area. Or not…

If we were having coffee, I’d note that now I have dallied here so long, it’s too hot to go out and work on my grand landscaping project. Maybe I’ll just sit in the cool and read about how to get my lawn gone.

Thanks for stopping by, and feel free to pull some weeds on your way out. Bonus points for the “invasive” species.

Thanks to Diana at PartTimeMonsterBlog.com for hosting the #weekendcoffeeshare.

Weekend Coffee Share 9/3/16

Posted on September 3, 2016 by Maggie C

If we were having coffee, I’d tell you I can’t believe it’s September already! I suppose a lot of people are feeling that way. The weather has been pleasantly cooler this week, but I know there are still hot days to come before autumn settles in.

Autumn is my favorite time of year, and I have plenty of indoor projects lined up for the rainy season. More painting. More demolishing portions of the house and hoping I can reinstate them. And maybe more whittling:

If we were having coffee, I’d show you my “found art sculpture” that I’ve been whittling on and have decided is finished now. It is a section of wood that I pruned out of a tree, formed by two branches that grew together into a permanent knot.

Knotted branch pre-whittling.

I didn’t notice the unusual growth until I was gathering the cut branches to put them in the compost bin. Had I seen it before cutting it down, I may have left it to grow, to continue its bonding of two into one. But at least I spotted it in time to save it from being chipped up for mulch.

Knotted branch post-whittling.

I was going to put a coat of polyurethane on the wood to protect it, but I coated a sample piece of the same type of wood and I don’t like the look or feel of it. So this piece is going to stay au naturale.

I showed it to my sister in-law and she commented on how the feel of the smooth wood is calming. I hadn’t thought of it that way before she mentioned it, but I agree. And I’m glad I stuck to using only my utility knife for the project, instead of sanding it smooth. I think perhaps that affects the feel.

So maybe this is not a piece to be stuck on display and allowed to gather dust. Maybe it’s meant to be interactive. Handled now and again for textile calming and comfort. Admired for the complexity/simplicity of nature.

I know, I know. It’s just a piece of wood. But in that vein, one could also say that Michelangelo’s marble statue of David is just a rock.

And now that I’ve likened myself to Michelangelo, I suppose it’s time to come back to mundane reality. There are dishes to be washed, laundry to be folded, and whittling scraps to be swept up.

Thanks for stopping by and listening to my dissertation on the sublime qualities of a chunk of wood. Feel free to run your hand over the smooth branches on your way out, and have a calm, peaceful weekend.

#WeekendCoffeeShare is generously hosted by Diana at PartTimeMonsterBlog.com.

Weekend Coffee Share 8/20/16

Posted on August 20, 2016 by Maggie C

If we were having coffee… well, we wouldn’t be. Not yet. It’s barely light outside. I’m dog-sitting for my daughter and her sweet Bella seems to think my wake up time should be 3:00 a.m. It’s not.

Nonetheless, I gave up at 5 a.m. and here I sit, eyes half-mast, cold brew coffee not sitting well in my empty stomach, and plotting a very early nap. Like maybe as soon as I get the dogs fed.

I could go out in search of those golden hour photo ops I wrote about yesterday, but the morning sky is hazy today, and the only thing golden I see out the window is my parched lawn. I guess it’s more of a dark straw color, but “golden” makes it sound much more appealing. And almost intentional.

The postal delivery guy accidentally stuck my neighbor’s water bill in my mail box the other day, and when I took the bill over to the neighbor I joked that I guess I could have paid it for him. His response was, “You wouldn’t want to, I’ve been watering my lawn so much this month.”

Hmmm. Did I detect an unspoken “…and so should you,” clause at the end of that remark? Nah. My dead lawn just helps make his look that much greener. I’m actually doing him a favor. Maybe he should be paying my water bill.

It’s getting light outside now. I’d better go feed the dogs. Then I can take my nap. Who cares that it’s only 6:30 in the morning? Not I.

#WeekendCoffeeShare is hosted by Diana at Parttimemonsterblog.com.

Weekend Coffee Share 8/13/16

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Maggie C

If we were having coffee, I’d invite you to the back deck where we could enjoy the cool shade before the temperature soars later today. I’d tell you that things have been a bit slow around here lately.

After my fall from Grace (Grace being the name of my ladder, of course), I’ve been nursing a sore shoulder and haven’t been able to resume my outdoor landscaping/painting/general mayhem projects. So I’ve been taking on some more mundane tasks: sorting through stacks of paperwork that need to be filed away, organizing old photos, tearing my kitchen apart (with the notion of painting every single flat surface in the near future).

In the evenings I go out on the deck, and whittle away at my “wood sculpture,” a couple of tree branches that grew together in a permanent knot. At first I was just going to skin the bark off and maybe use it to hold and display a small stained glass piece or a framed photo, but now it’s kind of taken on a life of its own.

I’m working to see just how smooth I can make the surfaces using only my utility knife. The branches have multiple layers with differing densities, and the inner wood hardens as it “seasons” over time. I’m kind of doing this “being one with the wood” thing and letting the wood guide its own shaping. (In other words, if I slice more deeply into the wood than I intended to, I pretend the wood is telling me its true shape lies deeper within).

I think by the time I’m done with it, its “true shape” is going to be that of a toothpick. We’ll see what it tells me.

The air is starting to heat up now, so I would suggest we take our coffees inside. My dog has already retreated indoors to lay on the cool tiles by the front door. With no air conditioning except a heat pump/air cooling unit that isn’t worth a darn, I may be joining him soon.

Thanks for stopping by. I’m glad you whittled some time out of your day to join me.

#WeekendCoffeeShare is hosted by Diana at parttimemonsterblog.com.

Weekend Coffee Share 7/9/16

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Maggie C

If we were having coffee, I would probably break from my policy of avoiding politics, religion and controversial current affairs. As much as I want to sit with you and talk about how I got the baseboards put on in my living room this week, what’s really on my mind is racial tension, violence, gun control and stereotyping.

I am reluctant to discuss these topics, mostly because I can’t wrap my head around the entirety of the issues. I know I’m not alone in that incapacity, but I don’t want to become yet another voice spewing out my biased rhetoric on matters that I can’t even begin to understand.

I guess there are points of moderation between silence and ranting, and maybe those are the voices we really need to hear. And maybe that’s the voice I need to be. I don’t know.

I grew up in a small town in Oregon. A very white small town. Throughout my twelve years of schooling there, I remember there only ever being one black student in my class. It was in third grade, I think, and he wasn’t even there the whole school year. I don’t remember anything about him other than the color of his skin, but I don’t remember much of anything about those years at all. Or subsequent years. Or this year.

When I went to college, my first roommate was a black Jamaican woman. She told me I was racist because I made distinctions between blacks and whites. Well, there are distinctions. Skin color being the most obvious. And I’m pretty sure she noticed I was white, but I don’t think that made her racist.

I thought I was a racist, but it turns out I’m not. I looked up the word racism in the dictionary. It talks about believing that there are intrinsic differences among races that make one race superior to another. That’s not me at all. (I do think that animals are superior to humans, but that’s another matter entirely.)

I do have biases. I lack exposure to many ideas/cultures/life situations, which leads me to “fill in the gaps” with notions based on my own life experience (or lack thereof). And that’s probably the germ of many misunderstandings right there.

That’s something I can do something about. I can seek to broaden my own understanding and perhaps in doing so, I can cause a ripple that will expand to those around me. Will that stop racism? That depends on how far the ripple spreads, and on how many other ripples are created by other persons.

At the very least, it beats silence and it beats ranting. And it certainly beats killing one another.

Looks like our coffees have gotten cold, so I’ll leave religion and politics for another time. Today I’ll be filling in gouges in my old hardwood floor. And I’ll be pondering the nature of humankind and my responsibility in helping to improve understanding across racial/cultural/social/economic divides.

Sounds like a busy day. Thanks for stopping by and letting me practice speaking and hearing my own voice.

Thank you to Diana at ParttimeMonster.com for hosting the #WeekendCoffeeShare.

Weekend Coffee Share 6/25/16

Posted on June 25, 2016 by Maggie C

If we were having coffee, I would tell you to watch your step as we made our way through the house to the back deck. I’ve got a dozen different projects going and it’s an obstacle course in here right now.

One new endeavor – which has the kitchen looking like a disaster area – is that I’m trying out home cooking for my dog Chules. After his illness, he absolutely refused to go back on his regular kibble when I tried to wean him off the special diet the vet had recommended. Since I rarely even cook for myself, this experiment may not last long. We’ll see.

I’ve also been “helping” my daughter with figuring out how to get my two-year-old granddaughter to stop turning nap- and bedtimes into a battle of the wills. The great thing about grandparenting is that I can toss out all sorts of advice/ideas/wisdom without having to face any consequences if my suggestions don’t work.

Last night, my daughter (let’s call her “D” and my granddaughter “G” for privacy’s sake) and I were texting back and forth about the situation. Our conversation went something like this:

D: Did you have problems like this?!

Me: It’s not a problem. It’s a challenge 😀

D (tries to reach through the phone to smack me for my flippancy)

Me: G has a good imagination. Use it to your advantage. Make it fun to take a nap. If you give her imagination something to chew on she’ll forget about thinking up excuses for getting out of bed. Pretend to zip her into an imaginary sleep bubble or something…

******* [Long time passes.] *******

D: Just tried that. She’s been up three times since. I “put her in a bubble” to have dreams of us snuggling her. She gave me the bubble back, wanted to put it in her play teepee, and wanted to pop it.

Okay, so maybe that one wasn’t a great idea. Apparently G has an even greater imagination than I gave her credit for. I suggested my daughter put G in an imaginary pair of cement shoes, but it’s hard telling what G would do with that one.

Anyway, I had a good night’s sleep. I’m kind of afraid to call my daughter to see how the rest of her evening panned out. Maybe I should be serving her the coffee this morning. She might benefit from a “caffeine bubble” today.

I hope your weekend goes well. And don’t let anyone burst your bubble.

Thank you to Diana at Part-time Monster Blog for hosting the #WeekendCoffeeShare.

What Rhymes with Stanza?

Words at rest, words at play

Tag Archives: weekendcoffeeshare