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

unanswered questions ...

   What Thal had not seen before he lost consciousness, and what Kael had not been aware of before his panicked dash into the forest, was just how many gnolls had been waiting in the woods.  They had been packed, shoulder to shoulder, like herrings in a can, behind trees, bushes, and rocks.  The fact that Thal had not been trampled to death in the melee of the battle was nothing short of a miracle.

  Lyri had listened intently as he told her what he could remember of the attack and his long journey home.  At times, his voice would become nothing more than a whisper as he tried to make sense of that day.  She would ask gentle questions every so often, feeling like a detective trying to piece together the puzzle of his missing memories, not wanting to see the occasional pain in his eyes as he tried to answer her.

  When he had finally fallen asleep, she had slipped out of the house to find Eldrin and let him know that Thal had returned.  He had felt responsible for Thal's disappearance, knowing that if he hadn't told him about Kael meeting with the gnolls, Thal wouldn't have gone after Kael to find out what he was up to.

  Lyri found him at one of the small taverns at the edge of their community, trying to drown his remorse in a flask of beer.  Not wanting her parents to find out she'd been in the tavern; she managed to persuade another elf going in to give a message to El that she needed to speak to him immediately.

  El stumbled out of the door a few moments later, and Lyri almost instantly regretted asking him to come out to talk to her.

  "Lyri!  My besh friend's girl!  I'm so shorry for telling Shal about the ..."  Lyri quickly put her hand over his mouth before he could say another word.

  "Hush!  Oh, why did you have to get drunk tonight, El?  Please don't say another word.  Just come with me."  Dragging him by the arm, she took him the back way to her parents' house, hoping that the muffled sobs he was making wouldn't draw any undue attention to the two of them.

  She stopped just short of the house, realizing that her parents were at home, and she had no way to sneak El in without them seeing.  It would be hard enough to explain Thal being asleep in her room if they hadn't already discovered him, but to sneak a clearly inebriated Eldrin in right under their noses would be asking the gods for more than just the miracle they'd already done in keeping Thal alive.

  Thinking quickly, Lyri saw a basket of overripe peaches that her mother had put outside and shoved El's face into it.  When she finally let him up for air, the mask of gooey peach not only hid his identity but also covered up the smell of beer.  She pulled on of her mother's shawls off the line and threw it around his head and shoulders.  Now El's loud sobbing completed the disguise.

  "Shhh, shhhh, there, there now.  It will be alright."  Ushering El past her astonished parents, Lyri whispered to her mother as she passed, "You remember Mallys, don't you, Mama?  Her boyfriend just broke up with her, and she is heartbroken.  I'm going to take her to my room and see if I can comfort her."

  Without giving her mother time to answer, she shoved El into her room and quickly closed the bedroom door.

Hellooooooooooo!  It's Words for Wednesday again!

finally Friday ...

   If I were to say this has been a challenging year so far, I'd probably be talking about just this week.  Granted, there have been other weeks with more ... or fewer ... challenges, but this week has felt just a tiny bit more "extra" than others.

Quince buds budding!

  Whether it is Mercury in Retrograde, the lunar eclipse, or just "it is what it is," I think I am a little more grateful than usual for the weekend.  Quite possibly it is the fact that all the snow has melted, the weather has been warm enough to have had the house windows open three of the five days this week, and I'm currently wearing a pair of bunny ears that my neighbor put in an Easter basket for me.  Could be all of the above.

  The dumpster fire in the White House that the current administration continues to pour gasoline on and light with a flare gun aside, there are some interesting unrelated career changes in my future.  I recently decided it was time to make myself a priority for a change.  My last day with my current employer will be 1 May, and after taking the month off to "get my house in order," I'm going to see what else the Universe will put on my dance card.

  I'm toying around with opportunities for a podcast, or a YouTube channel, finding another work from home job, maybe a local face-to-face job, or a virtual bookshop that celebrates self-published authors.  Something like what I had planned to do in WV the year I didn't die after all.

  But whatever it is that the Universe has waiting for me around the next corner, you can be assured that I will drag you along with me for the ride.

Let the adventures begin ... Ci💚

Spring has finally sprung ...

 

Lost ...

 borrowed from ArcticFox

  Green vegetation whipped at his face, and Kael had put his arms up to protect his eyes, running blindly away from the gnolls and what had approached them from the other side.  His mouth was open in a silent scream at what he had seen, and every so often he coughed, choking on something that he had inhaled in his panicked run.

  Several times he tripped over something, sometimes soft and squishy, and other times hard.  But he had no curious desire to see what it was as long as he could still hear the dying screams of the gnolls around him.

  Finally, he could hear nothing but the pounding of his own heart and his own rasping and panting breathing.  Even the birds had gone silent.  Kael found a place to lie down with his back against a large boulder and pulled leaves and other forest floor debris over himself.  He thought he would be too afraid to sleep, but his body thought otherwise, and soon his eyes closed, his breathing slowed, and he was sound asleep.

  When he finally woke, it was dark, but he didn't know if it was night of the same day, or several days later.  His body ached from running, falling, and being pressed up against the rock instead of in his own soft down bed.  There were lights in the distance, and he could smell bacon being cooked over an open fire.  Occasionally, the breeze through the trees brought him the sound of harsh laughter.

  In more familiar forests, he might be safe to travel at night, but here among the unfamiliar, he decided it was no time to be gallivanting about without weapons or fire to light his way.  He would wait until morning when the light of the sun could guide him.

  He woke again with the hot sun directly overhead, and hearing no noise other than the birds in the trees, he felt safe enough to slowly crawl out from beneath the leaves and stretch.  Turning, he realized that the boulder he had been pressed against was actually a concrete wall, with an iron gate mounted on it.  In the distance, he could see a large stone house that was unlike anything he'd ever seen before.

It's Words for Wednesday again.

Mondays...

This was Spring Forward Sunday ... which makes Mondays feel like they arrive too soon.

Apart from a very windy Saturday, the weekend was beautiful.  I even took Charlie for a ride about town with the windows down.

Saturday, a trip to Lowe's for roses, soil, and paint chips.  I'm thinking of adding some pops of color in unexpected places.

The three on the left will be used in the bathroom.  The back of the door, and inside the vanity drawers.

A project for the fall, since the warmer weather has me wanting to spend more time outside and gardening.

The roses, yellow and pink climbers, have been planted in pots in the front garden.  This coming weekend I will clear out the rest of the front garden and decide what to put in.  The flippers had some annuals in there that did not survive the winter, but it looks like the gerber daisies did.  I'll have to shop for more perennials. 

My list of things to do continues to get longer.  I have a date for my last day with UHC.  May 1st.  Early birthday present.  I'm looking for another work from home position, but with my availability not being immediate, I haven't spent a lot of time looking.

This will be the bedroom color pops.  Back of the doors, and maybe the dresser drawer fronts.  I need to get more storage for seasonal clothing that I don't want to put in the basement.

I've come to realize that I'm going to have to put some things in the basement so I can utilize the shelves in the laundry room for all my craft stuff that is all over the dining area right now.

Maybe I'll spend the first few weeks in May just getting the house in order.

But first, coffee on the front porch to watch the sun come up ... if you're going to be impulsive ... wear purple!  Hugs ... Ci💜

thoughts on thursday ...

 

  It rained all day yesterday.

The view out the office window made me think of a cemetery I once visited...

On a winding, isolated road 

in the Michigan Upper Peninsula,

I saw a sign for the Irish Hollow Cemetery [<link] near Rockland.

It was a cold, foggy, October day, 

the trees were colored in reds, oranges, and yellows.

I was in Ontonagon for a meeting

at the Forest Service office there.

I made a detour into this old cemetery

on the drive home.

It was worth it for creepy atmosphere in the fading daylight.

But I wouldn't wanted to be there after dark.

luck of the Irish ...

   As Thal's strength returned, he was able to move faster on his journey home.  But while he jogged through the underbrush of the forest, his mind continually replayed the events of that fateful day.  The heaviness of the gnolls striking him to his knees, and then into unconsciousness.  The sounds of battle against whatever attacked them as each side delivered blow after blow, and the dying sounds of the gnolls around him.

  He tried to focus on what it was that had attacked them.  As far as the wood elves knew, the gnolls had no enemies, and he tried desperately to remember what he had seen and heard.  'The enemy of my enemy is my friend.' kept running through his mind with each step closer to home that he took.

  Finally, he reached familiar ground and stopped briefly at a creek to bathe and rinse the gnoll blood out of his clothes and hair.  He desperately wanted to see Lyri, but he knew it would add insult to injury for him to show up covered in blood.  Thal didn't want to frighten her or have anyone who saw him ask too many questions he was unprepared to answer.  He trusted her to have kept quiet about his whereabouts, but he still couldn't remember what had happened to Kael.

  Waiting until darkness fell, Thal made his way to Lyri's home, and quietly tapped on her bedroom window.  After a few moments, he tapped again, this time seeing a light come on in the room, and the edge of the curtain slowly pull away as she looked to see who was there.  Seeing Thal, she quickly opened the window and pulled him into her room, tears of joy streaming down her face as words rushed out in a whisper.

  "You're alive!  Oh, Thal, I've been so afraid.  I had a dream and there was so much blood and so many gnolls and I saw your face and Kael's face and when neither of you returned, I was so scared, but I couldn't say anything to anyone, and I didn't know what to do or who to talk to and ..."

  Thal shushed her with a kiss and held her tightly as she sobbed against his chest.  When she finally stopped crying, he held her at arm's length and looked into her eyes.

Image Source:  Etsy

  "I'm fine but am terribly hungry and cold.  Before you tell me what happened here after I left, can you quietly get me something to eat and some chicory coffee?"

  Lyri quickly nodded and left the room.  Thal slid to the floor in relief.  So, Kael didn't return, and it sounded as if whatever attacked the gnolls hadn't gotten here either.  A part of him was grateful that whatever had attacked the gnolls had thrown a spanner in Kael's plan, but he still had to find out who, or what, it was.

  The door creaked open and Lyri entered with a sandwich and a small handmade mug, glazed St. Patrick's green on the inside.   Grateful for the heat in his hands, Thal began to tell Lyri everything that had happened after he left her.

It's a new month of Words for Wednesday, with prompts provided by River.

on this day ...

 in 2022

Lots of challenges in the last week of February 2025.

In my life, in this country, and around the world.

That UN vote on Monday?  Unbelievable that we would side with Russia.

Followed by the OL getting caught in a flat-out lie?  Wow.  What reality is the OL living in?  

The Oval Office meeting on Friday?  Mortifying.  Not just the lack of diplomacy, but the unprofessionalism, and the bullying.  

Is this who we are now?  A country being run by an office of playground bullies.  If anyone is putting the world at risk for WW3, it's the OL.

I'd say I was speechless, but here I am.

My work week was ... also filled with unexpected events involving upper management and human resources.  A decision was made that I will share at a later date.

But on the good side of things, 99% of the snow has melted.  There is more forecast for the last two weeks of the month, but that is far enough aware to change to a no-show.

Hang on ... turbulence ahead ... remember to put on your own oxygen mask first.  Self-care is crucial these days ... Hugs,  Ci 💚