Lavender loves acid; did you know?

OK, now we are getting somewhere I was wondering why mine never ever looked like the ones on those garden shows… all satiny shades of purple and mild magenta, and of course lavender willowy bending in the breezes!
Did you know that in your kitchen you have the best ingredient for flowering bushes and trees?
Coffee grounds!
You see that is the right type of acid needed to force those blooms!
I don’t know why since I am not a botanist but my Gardenia bushes love it too, and we have had a bumper blossoming month last month on both our shrubs in the front and in the back yards.

So now with the double dose of coffee grounds that is, one in the soil mix when we replanted the survivor plants and me assaulting those healthier looking shoots today I truly feel that flowering should be eminent.
I will let you all know when the big event comes to pass.

My house orchid lost its first bloom yesterday and anxiously I wanted to know what to do?
And so I surfed the net and found that it was a normal process, age, although having any fruits or vegetables nearby may cause a toxicity of fumes!
Now all the fruit that we had controversially could be considered a vegetable the only thing I had in the vicinity of my orchid would be our garden tomatoes, and so I moved them.
It’s more than likely a waiting game now to see if they still lose the remaining five blossoms? Hope not, since it would look real sad with just the green stem standing all alone.

Yesterday I bumped my head hard and it caused a dent in my far-head and has been sore ever since. I did put ice on it for some time and never got nauseous although my eyes have been not focusing too well, but that had been a problem before I hit my head.
It was really so stupid…I was sitting in a chair in the living room and had stowed my new walker out of the way under the kitchen bar that also goes into the living on my side of my chair. Any-who, my new ride so to speak, has a storage compartment and so I put the phone in there and it rang. I went to answer it and that’s when my head made contact with the rounded hard surface of the Corian counter top… boom band ding dent… BIG TIME … OW, OUCH! And the worst of it was that it was a computer voice reminding me that I had an appointment! I could have let it go to my voice mail!
You ever want to strangle the phone?
This was my one time, or maybe there were others, but you know what I mean?
I wish that I could use the excuse for my last two offerings here as the reason because of my head ding, well maybe last night’s but would you accept the night before one's also?

It is true that I have been way too clumsy over the years and have hit my head many times before and have had a few too many documented concussions, broken bones and bruises too. Now in retrospect I suppose most of the clumsiness could be blamed on this lovely malady called MS, which I can honestly call on to be of quite a bit to blame.

Day 51 of the oil spill and we here are fortunate to be able to say we are still in the clear of gunk and odors and messes which are now over three hundred miles away, but our beaches are just fine.

On that informative note I will bid you all a very good night and to all count those blessings and we will too!

Time marches on...

On the back burner is where I have stowed my emotional baggage for tonight.
And so onward I will go… to vent about more important matters…
Taking the high road in life, is also not for sissies, did I ever mention that?
I guess it all comes down to forgiveness of others and oneself, huh?

All those people who send those inspirational forwards to my email please forgive me for NOT passing them on!
You want to know why, I suspect, huh?
Well, those lovely warm fuzzy little ditties have caused many to send me back NOT such warm fuzzy comments, actually some people were annoyed, a few just were aggravated and even on occasion some were just plain nasty in their replies! Consequently I have lost some of my email pals, oh well, who said being un-censured is the American way?
I do on occasion admit to not having a proper editing device on my mouth therefore my brain or my writings…but I have been trying…really!

It’s odd how many of my so-called religious old buddies who even went to different sectarian religious schools and they ended up becoming Atheists?
I too have my own questions of not knowing who are there for us when we need or want that spiritual guidance, and so I have tagged-lined, myself, Agnostic, but in retrospect I do want to believe in something.
So I have taking that to believe in myself!
Perhaps the fifties were the age of Mom and Pop taking the kids to church, mosque, temple, and synagogue and making sure they received a proper religious education, but it seems to have backfired, huh?

A few very interesting friends of mine have found religion in new churches, which to be honest I don’t trust, since they seem to operate from strip malls and pop up whenever the wind changes, or as some do have amazingly enormous compounds that for the price of all your worldly possessions they promise that you will definitely go to heaven when you depart this level…just BELIEVE!
Am I too blasphemous my dear readership?
I sure hope not!
That would be too ungodly and not at all to able to be forgiven of me by you…huh?
Who said that people should forgive the bad behavior of one another, G-d?
Nah, other people, and what makes us so capable of being able to know that we have that power to exonerate others?
I thought that was whoever is up in those heavens job?
Therefore we are just here to cope and observe others and punish the ones who deviate too far from what is legal or in cases inappropriate behavior, correct?

Life is an interesting concept and this one your in is not a dress rehearsal folks!
But I am so sure you all do know that, right?
Let’s all take a deep breath and then do an exercise in self worth and think about the fact if you were to drop dead tomorrow who would show up?
If your answer is hundreds, that’s great, if your answer is more than a thousand that’s more power to you, wow and I am impressed! But if you can’t think of more than the fingers on your two hands or even one, then my friends you have a lot more work to do while you are here, and so do you know what I figured out for myself?
I figure I personally have a lot of work to do for at least the next few decades… bud dump bum. "And so can we talk?" Joan Rivers quote, PS Happy 77th Birthday Joan!
You see, I don’t want to be sued in this lifetime or any other, and so be back here tomorrow night same time and I will again divulge my unsolicited opinionated drivel for all the world to see!

Good night dear friends and count those blessings and we will too!

I was tempted to confess, but instead I will just...

And so I chose to discuss the snake in the grass and how it slithers…
Some people are not unlike the snake in the grass, they even sneak around in the world and are very nearly chameleon like and hide their true selves from the rest of us beings.
They act normal in normal situations and even fool the most intelligent of people.
Many don’t know the darker side of this creature how it hunts and kills its prey without remorse only with a precise single-mindedness to stay on the prowl to commit to what they desire to end the life of anything they so desire, but be damned the others who try to intervene who see the true self within the slimy reptilian soul or lack there of.

There are people who resemble these skanky reptilian beings not by appearance by how they maneuver throughout our lives. They come in and promise the happiness that you so truly want then spoil it with hate, contempt and anguish and take away your soul and reason for living… so foolishly never knowing that it was for them that you so desired to survive this horrendous life that has been destroyed by ill health and hopelessness!
Striving for happiness and wellness has been tough and not that much different from banging your head against the wall syndrome.
Brick walls cause pain insurmountable when you try to take two steps forward but end up taking thirty back!
Life seems so unjust at times… tell me why I should continue?
Being miserable and fearful is not how I saw this time in my life.
Where are my golden years of happiness and family and love?
None exists for me.
Please dear, larger than me being of the heavens where are you now?
Why is it whenever I need your ear you are deaf?
Why is it when I want your guidance you are never available?
Can you not see me?
I have grown into an enormous disgusting woman that I don’t even love…
Perhaps, that is why this is happening to me…I am unlovable, and cursedly poisonous with spewing my own hateful venous anger as well.
STALEMATE!

Have you ever not noticed something right before your very eyes?

Interesting provocative question, huh?
Maybe not to some who may think it to be lame.
But in my reality it speaks volumes to my own claims to being what I thought quite observant!

How would you like to be living in a home that you purchased years ago, in this case in 1998, and not think to look at the artwork closely enough to notice a signature on it and that, that particular artwork may be the reason that caused you to think how nice the house was in the first place and to purchase it?
You see, we live as I have mentioned before on a saltwater canal, therefore seaside for lack of a better definition of what that does mean.
Any-who, this little ditty of an unloved home at that time did have a few attributes besides being on the water, five minutes to the harbor by boat, and extremely cost effective, in other words CHEAP, it did have, I must say somewhat of an ambiance of interesting artwork scattered about it that I would soon find out was included in that very reasonable price point.

Folks that was nearly twelve years ago, and today I finally had the smarts to look at that sand-dunes and sea oats, an ominous sky foreboding the possibility of a storm in the winds, with seagulls ‘flying in’, a 24” X 36” picture and realized quite to my astonishment it did have a signature and it was from an artist that signed her name as Carolyn Blish and the date of the picture was ’68 the year Hubby and I graduated from high school, but also I attended school in NYC LIM and she was painting in the Village then, Greenwich that is!
And so I Googled her and to my surprise she has been quite prolific over the years with her artistry! And to this day is still selling paintings or Giclee on paper and online and I found that mine could not be since that is a medium that is fairly new from the 1980’s.
Her email was on her site and so I sent her photos of her picture and asked her questions but that was only a few hours ago, so I will let you know if I hear back from her!

Our lives have not been that altogether busy today after our very active yesterday.
I did manage to go into the pool for quite some time, longer than usual and accomplished my exercise program and then some.

Dinner tonight was homemade pizza topped with my own oven dried tomatoes from our garden, too many to not make a sauce with. Mine are similar to the freeze dried idea but done in the oven for hours on a low temperature, I did an hour on 300, then an hour on two hundred and then lastly an hour on warm, and then left in the oven another half hour while it cools down. I flavor them with oils and vinegars, canola’s and olive, and wine vinegar and apple cider although I do have balsamic too, garlic and basil! Hmmm that smell permeates the house and it is lush!
I think sometimes that in my other life that I was Italian!
How I do love that aroma!

These many tomatoes filled a large pickle jar more than halfway and will be added not only to pizzas but sauces and soups too over the few weeks, maybe not, it will last comfortably in my frig!

Anyway, we will say good night to you all now and remind you not to forget to count those blessings and we will too!

Busy, busy, busy day!

Hubby just asked if I had anything to write about today?
And of course he was this time being facetious, not that, that has ever been a problem for me, and since the above title says it all!
We had an extremely active day today, so much so that we both just spent the last few hours deactivating and stared at the boob tube for over two hours to chill out.

It was a cute older movie that we had missed somehow, called High Spirits with Peter O’Toole, Liz Smith, Darrel Hannah, Steve Gutenberg, Beverly D’Angelo just to name a few of the all star cast; it was circa 1988, and a ghostly comedy.
I made soup to eat while we relaxed, and since we ate out and had Grouper at one of our favorite waterside restaurants, Smuggler’s in Punta Gorda.

Any-who that was not our last stop for the day, but one of them.
We started the day off with me doing my ROM in the pool and Hubby dug up the lavender in the garden under our bedroom window due to the fact it was not doing well there at all, and so the idea was to pot it up and give it some TLC, which has worked before for other floundering floras.
So when I took my first break from my swim/ROM, Hubby found one of the spare pots that used to be down on the dock, but its occupant had long since passed on.
And so he cleaned and bleached the off white rather large specimen, and he went into the shed to get out the potting soil and top soil he had stored there.
But the potting soil was very minimal, and he had no shards so he stole some pebbles from the boat trailer pad, which I confessed I have done in the past.
Between the top soil and the soil from digging up the plant and the wee bit of potting soil left it was enough to mix in the wheel barrow and I suggested sweetening it with coffee ground and slow release Miracle Gro, and so he did.
The lavender plants which had three that seemed to be not that far gone from the main plant, which was all gone and put into the composter; the newly potted healthier specimens were placed on the patio in the corner next to the other potted smaller plants.
If I do say so myself it makes a fine display.
But when the lavender blooms and bumble bees appear I do believe it will have to be moved far from me since I am highly allergic to them, the bees that is!

After I exited the pool and showered and dressed we went over to the Cultural Center for they were celebrating their forty-ninth anniversary today, and everyone was invited to see their non-profit displays.
It was good for me because I met two other women who also had MS, and we could chat and exchange emails.
Connecting with people who have similar disorders makes it sometimes easier to communicate, but not always.

Hearing Impaired organization people were there too and Hubby used to be on their board so we bumped into a woman we both knew from that, it was like old home week.
And so many of organizations that were there were of interest to both of us, and the people were very friendly which made it all very pleasant.

The Cultural Center is only blocks from our house and that is where they have a live theater, classrooms for adult classes and hobbies, a cafeteria and tea room, and our branch of our library too!

From there we went over to Fisherman’s Village where we were to see first a pony from a horse ranch, animal rights people, animal welfare league with dogs and cats ready for your love, greyhound pets’ adoptions and wildlife organizations with a caged Florida panther, besides parrots, Macaws, Canurs, for rehabilitation to be adopted, natural pet food displays and even some veterinarians looking for business.

We passed all that on our way to the end of the covered mall of shops and restaurants with above timeshares, and at the very end this time we ate there at the above mentioned casual dinning place along the water.

Not done at this point because we had one last stop for this and that , milk, eggs and bread etc at our home away from home grocery, Publix!
And then we went back to the old homestead!
And as I said earlier we pretty much collapsed after the groceries were put away!

It’s a good kind of tired; if you know what I mean?
But it was a dreadfully hot day today!
On a few occasions the temperature in our vehicle said it was ninety- seven degrees outside!
Fortunately, we were only in and out of the car to either air-conditioning or sea breezed cooled areas.
And I found myself taking my Baclofen twice while we were out.
Those spasms are mostly influenced, it appears by extreme temps which I do think from air to heat qualifies!

Any-way, now I am ready nearly ready for bed to crawl into and lay upon until I peacefully awake tomorrow I do hope so!

And so I will bid you all a very good night and ask you politely to count those blessings and we will too!

The wee hours of the morning's sunrise was tarnished by its arrival...

Unfortunately, our city of Pensacola to our north, in our panhandle has become another victim in the oil glop disaster. They became a part of the nasty sticky goopy tar balls and occasionally in just droplets of oily substances by five A.M. this morning when they washed ashore onto their pristine sugar colored sand.

We are now a part of environmental history and how the failure of a few men to take care and think before doing affects the masses!

The majority of the beaches are still open to the public and the people feel the need to help, but caution to be safe must be of the utmost concern.
And NOAA has just opened the waterways near the Dry Tortugas for commercial fishing where there is no oil present. That area is off the shores of the Florida Keys, more specifically Key West.

Where have we all been in recent years to not realize what we had when we had it?
These gorgeous beaches are a part of my home state's appeal to the world. It’s been years, about five since we were up where the tar balls have touched down.
The landings up and down our inland waterways have always been something to share and brag about to the world!
Best shelling, fishing, sunning, and swimming, water skiing, watching those postcard sunsets, yep you name it, it’s here in Florida!

All of this, as most of us do, we took for granted that it would be here for us to visit at our leisure whenever. Sadly we now know that will not be the case.

Folks all I can say to you here, you out of stators, other country dwellers, please don’t lose the chance to see what we have to offer before it’s all gone.

Enough all ready you’re all saying, well I suppose my fears are the cause for my foreboding warnings being expressed here.

We all appreciate the fact that we are a tourist, snow-bird dependent state, and we do need you to remember all the joy you have had on your visits here.
Whether relaxing or being involved in sports and sightseeing, rushing from one amusement to another; we do love the fact that you come and do that!

Earlier today, we here, five hundred and fifty miles south of the spoiling soils’ drifting we saw some drizzle on this our fine morning, the first in days. We needed that, and do you know what?
It created a very pleasant beginning to our day here. The sound and sight of a gentle rain is actually delightful if you really think about it?
Not many have the time to, but I do.
And as my abilities seem to diminish I am trying hard to take advantage of those sights and sounds that many pass over others in their very busy days.
Life can be what you make of it and sometimes we need to make more of less, do you know what I mean? I bet you all do. Enough is not more than you need, as simple as that; it's just right!
On that thoughtful concept I will wish each of you a very good night and count those blessings and we will too!

PS Jamie, keep up the good work in this nasty situation!

The waves are coming in...

Tropical and windy waves are on our horizon and faraway.
We are in the beginning of the season, the rainy season that is and now all forms of weather systems are more than likely going to be considered to be a part of our daily lives for conversation.

Not one day will go by without notice of how the weather was for that particular one or what might be in our vicinity to have influence on said forecasts nearby or within our realm of possibilities.
It’s just so typical of our lives in this southwestern arena of this state of Florida.

The tropical waves are now appearing already off the coast of Africa where most of our storms begin, hurricanes that is, and so we must all pay attention to that.
The local just windy waves are less ominous and more than likely are just a preamble to a normal rain system or a minor thunderstorm.

Those weather systems this year will definitely not be our friends, not that they ever were, but more than ever before these unwelcomed visitors are our big time enemies, considering that they may very likely push that oil slick towards our shorelines not away from them!

Once all this begins we seem to have a situation with frequent power failures.
The longest being just after Hurricane Charley since that one lasted for two whole weeks!
Living in Florida is NOT for sissies by any means! We dare you to join this never boring state?

Sadly the rain storms off of the coast of Pensacola have pushed the oil slick ever so much closer now within just four miles of the shoreline. Tomorrow is considered touchdown day.
Booms have been placed strategically along the coastline, hopefully to prevent infiltration of that nasty gooey substance.

Here nearly six hundred miles away from there we can only wait and pray that we will be spared, but as loony as that may seem you never really do know what could be, stranger things have happened. But let’s face it; it is highly unlikely at this point with that amount of oil spewing significantly still!

Moving on… today was errand day and we did comply with our agenda and found that the gas here has dropped significantly in price at the warehouse store it was only $2.56.9, pretty good for this time of year! We had to pick up one of my prescriptions and hair supplies too, and then on to the home warehouse store the other one, this time the wood we needed to replace the curly ones on our dock were straight, less knotty and not oozing too much creosote, and so Hubby chose five decent boards, two twelve’s and three ten footers.
We ate lunch at our healthy choice restaurant that has an affiliation with our grocery would you believe, it’s called Crispers, and it has an association with the Publix grocery chain. They serve mostly soups and salads and ask you not to tip! But if you so desire to
show your gratitude; all of it goes to charity, how nice?
We have to continue to continue here that means try hard to live our lives even with these threats to life and limb.

Our local newswoman is doing an excellent job reporting from Pensacola with keeping us apprised of their moment to moment accounting of their horrendous inevitability.

On that note of uncertainty, which has tangibility in our reality we will pray that all will be done to prevent the devastation to become beyond our capabilities.

And so I will wish you all a very good night and to all count those blessings and we will too!