weekend eve ...

  Saturday is predicted to be hot and muggy with temps dropping on Sunday and rain coming it.  The rest of the week with be about 30-40 degrees colder than tomorrow.  I guess I will make the best of it and get a dresser out to the front porch to sand before painting.

  Sunday the art class and taking Charlie to see his besties.

I believe this is a Redbud tree in bloom outside the office window.
But I'm too short to actually see the blossoms and stepped in one of Charlie's land mines trying to get a close-up picture,
so, you'll just have to take my word for it.

This morning, I saw a potential new tenant checking out the rental bird house on the front porch. 
But couldn't tell what kind of tenant it was going to be through the sheers.
The temptation is great to become a peeping Cindi, but I'm afraid they would call PETA on me.

Wishing you a wonderful, relaxing weekend ... Ci💚

found..

   Kael had wandered around the exterior of the house for a week, trying to find a way inside.  He felt exposed and vulnerable outside of the house and frequently had night terrors of gnolls.  While he wasn't sure what he would find inside the house, he felt as though he would be safer within the walls of the enormous building.

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  Finally, the owner of the house returned followed by boxes and boxes carried off trucks by large unfriendly looking men.  Kael managed to slip in the open door while the men were getting more boxes and made his way to the second floor.  He could hear the owner directing the men to take the books into the library, and to be very careful with them.  He'd spent the past year traveling the world to various antique booksellers looking for rare first editions to add to his collection.

  Kael found a room at the far end of the hall that appeared to not have been lived in for quite a while.  A thick layer of dust was on everything, and he felt it would be safe for him to make himself comfortable under the bed to get some rest while the men downstairs discussed books.  The mystery of where he was would have to be solved in the morning because right now the softness of the rug and the muffled sounds of talking were lulling his mind and body to sleep.

📔📖📕📔📖📕

  It was afternoon when Kael finally awoke.  The rest had done him wonders and he felt less afraid than he'd been in several weeks.  Climbing up to a windowsill in the room, he was astonished to see a beach shore in the distance, with a large red and white lighthouse.  He really had traveled to the end of the world in his panicked run from the gnolls!

  So mesmerized by the sight of the waves crashing upon the shore, he hadn't heard the sound of the door opening behind him until the man spoke.  With nowhere to run to, Kael pulled an edge of the curtain in front of him.

  "Hello there little man.  I wondered whose footprints had been left in the dust on the rug, and now I see.  My name is Alexander, and you needn't be afraid of me."

  "Oh, but you should fear me," lied Kael, knowing that his small size posed little threat to the man.

  Laughing, the man backed out of the room, "Well, when you feel you can trust me, why don't you come downstairs and allow me to buy you a meal and perhaps a draft of ale."

  It didn't take Kael long to decide.  He was hungry.  Very hungry, and the idea of a good meal with some ale was more than he could ignore.  He made his way down the hall, and found the kitchen where Alexander was preparing sandwiches.  A chair and a stool had been pulled up to the table, and a small shot glass of ale was sitting by the stool.

  "Make yourself comfortable, little friend, and tell me how you wound up in this grand old folly of mine.  I love stories and tales if you hadn't guessed by the number of books in my home.  But I'm also curious to meet new friends.  It's not a practical way to spend one's life, traveling the world, but it suits me quite nicely.  Why don't you start off with your name and tell me where you're from?"

It's a new month of Words for Wednesday!

sunday ...

The weather Saturday was a humid 80°F.  I had four bags of mulch to finish putting out, plus ten live, bareroot shrubs to get in the ground in the back yard.  Forsythia, Viburnum, and Brightberry.  Since rain was in the forecast for today and early in the week, I decided to put off as much of the indoor chores as I could until the mulching and planting was done.  

But ... that didn't happen.  I needed to get cat food, and find a suitable garden cart, pick up a prescription I almost forgot about and ... maybe I'll get that stuff done today between raindrops.

Next project before refinishing the damaged veneer dresser (below) will be sanding, painting, and papering the drawer fronts of the old dresser I had, before putting it in the bathroom for additional storage.

I'm doing an upcoming art class in April to make a pet portrait.  I chose to do the girls because Charlie is usually so much more photogenic (see Lucy below) and therefore in most of my phone photos, and some of the wall pictures.  This is the photo I'm going to use for the portrait: 

Taken in 2017.

Gracie on Friday.
Why do cats always want to sleep on the bed when you are trying to change the bedding?

Lucy, also on Friday.

His Highness surveying his kingdom.

Snagged these two vintage pieces at a thrift store.
Unfortunately, the veneer is damaged on this one and will all have to be removed.
But I think I can replicate the pretty details with some washi tape decoupage and creative acrylic painting techniques.
Maybe.

This piece requires no repairs.
But I did have to order more wallpaper.

The Quince shrub is just gorgeous!

Charlie on his Neighborhood Watch duty.
He is really grateful for the sunshine.

Ever the rebellious one, I ordered two of these.
One for me, and one for a bestie who still works for the Forest Service in the Michigan Upper Peninsula.
She loved it when it showed up in her mailbox this past week.

Here's to empowered women who resist the patriarchy.  Stay strong.  Hugs ... Ci💚

did you ever wonder ....

   It had been a week since Thal had returned, and the excitement and shock in the community had died down.  Oddly enough, no one had mentioned Kael or wondered where he was. 

   Eldrin quietly looked over Lyri's shoulder at what she was reading, and whispered thickly in her ear, "T'was a hot midsummer's eve and a storm was brewing on the horizon."

   Lyri let out a scream and spun quickly in her chair to punch El in the face.  Stunned, El fell backward, holding his eye where her surprisingly hard punch had landed.

  "Why on earth would you do that, El?!?!  You scared me to death!"

  "Well, if I'd known you were going to punch me in the eye I wouldn't have.  I was just wanting to see what you were reading.  Didn't you hear me calling you?"

   Embarrassed now, Lyri blushed a red that would put a tomato to shame.  "No.  I didn't.  I was just reading this piece of paper that I found washed up on the creek edge.  It looks like a page from a book, and I wish I had the book now because I'm intrigued.  And I'm sorry, Eldrin.  I didn't mean to hit you.  I'm just a little on edge with what Thal told us about the gnolls, and you almost sounded like Kael when you whispered like that."

   "Wow, you sure know how to hit a guy when he's down.  I sounded like Kael.  What a horrible thing to say to me!"

   "I didn't mean... I meant... It's just that..." Lyri stopped when she realized that El was just teasing her.  "Well, I hope you have a black eye!  It would serve you right, scaring me like that."

   El laughed at how red she continued to blush.  "Aww, I'm just kidding, Lyri.  Look, if you want me to go look for more pages from that book, I can do that for you.  I think I still have some that I found a few months ago that had pictures of an island."

Newry Island borrowed from Lee

  "An island?"

  "Yeah, sandy beach, water, weird looking trees.  Flat boats."

  "Flat boats?"

  "Yeah, sort of like a wide canoe."

   Lyri looked thoughtful for a moment.  "El?  Have you ever wondered what it would be to live somewhere else?"

  "You mean in another forest?"

  "No, not really.  I mean, I've heard there are places that don't look anything like our woods.  Places that are so hot and dry that there are scarcely any trees.  Places like your island, that are green all year, and some places that have mountains so high the snow never melts.  Do you think that there are elves in those kinds of places?  Maybe island elves?  Or snow elves?"

  "I didn't know you were the adventurous type, Lyri."

  "I'm not.  Really.  I've just been wondering what we would do if the gnolls found our woods."

Oh, but to live on a tropical island ... with Words for Wednesday