Wild Magnolia

The magnolias are starting to bloom and they are spectacular!  It's no good cutting them and bringing them in the house, they just turn brown.
The Gardenias have also started blooming and thought they make me sneeze my head off they're among my favorite flowers.
I put in some new Gladiola bulbs this year too and the first has bloomed, though my picture is a little fuzzy you can see that the color is spectacular.
Mac has been busy cleaning the pool and has all the leaves out of the bottom and he says it's time for me to go in and vacuum up the rest.  If you hear a loud scream tomorrow don't be alarmed it will just be my very white body, wish I had a wet suit, going in the pool for the first time this year.

Gardenia

Gladiola



Update on the Polter-mouse, no sign of  him/her anywhere and we suspect the attic got too hot and he left the house for a cooler spot, sure hope so.

Perhaps It Wasn't a Poltergeist After All

From time to time since we moved into this house I've complained that I thought there was a poltergeist living upstairs.  China cups sitting on shelves would be knocked off, doors moved, things left on tables were found on the floor.  Miss Kitty swore it wasn't her and though she can be an enterprising feline she really doesn't act like a disturbed adolesence--isn't that supposed to be what causes poltergeist activity?
Well the other night sitting upstairs watching tv I saw something scurry across the hall rug running towards my craft room, reversing course and heading towards the bathroom.  Mac checked it out, couldn't find anything, but we were pretty sure it was a mouse.
There is a door in the bathroom that leads to some attic space and Mac puts his paintings in there to dry when he's working on them, it's nice and warm there.
When he went to pick up his painting the next morning guess what he found on it----teeny, tiny mouse tracks.  So a humane mouse trap was acquired. peanut butter gotten today and the trap is set.
I read some where that mice are rather territorial and will travel up to a mile to return to their home, so Mac says once we get him we'll drive him down to the park and let him go.
What does Miss Kitty think of all this?  During the 2 sightings we've had of the mouse she lay in the tv room sleeping, definitely not a mouser.

Getting Older

I've been reading Nora Ephron's (she wrote Sleepless in Seattle, When Harry Met Sally, Heartburn, Julie/Julia and sadly died last year)  I Remember Nothing: And Other Reflections, and having a good giggle on aging and memory.  I've said before I have little long term memory and now I'm wondering about my short term.  Ephron tells how when she can't remember the name of something she starts working her way through the alphabet hoping that will jog her memory or thinking about how many syllables the word has or if all else fails she Googles it because having a Google moment is so much better than having a senior moment.  Oh dear, oh dear, been there, done that.
She writes that at 69 she likes to think of herself as older, but not old, well I'm not that old, but I sure know what she's talking about.
When I got up this morning I decided that instead of giving in to my aging body's aches and pains (and Lord knows there's more than a few of them) that I'd get busy.  So we did our 2 mile walk before breakfast, wrapped another painting for shipping (Mac sold another one), did a load of laundry and hung it out, mowed the front and back lawn, Swiffered all the downstair's floors and sat down to blog.  Now I have to do my aerobics.
I maybe getting older, but I'm not giving in.

Happy Mother's Day

This is the 17th Hole, I "borrowed" the pic from the Net

Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms out there, you have the hardest and most rewarding job in the world.  I wish my Mom and Mother-in-Law were still here so I could  say it to them.   I could thank my Mom for all she did for me, how she encouraged me and wanted me to do better than she had.
I'd like to thank my Mother-in-Law for raising such a wonderful son, I don't think I ever told her that and I should have.  Some Mother-in-Laws make their daughter-in-law's lives miserable, she didn't, she was wonderful and though she's been gone 24 years I miss her still.
Mac asked what I wanted for Mother's Day and I told him that I wanted to go to the Player's Golf Tournament in Florida, I'd watched it on tv and I loved that one of the holes was an island and I wanted to see it played.
Yesterday we drove down and it was a beautiful day, the course was gorgeous and a bit of a surprise.  All the golf courses we'd seen were flat, not Sawgrass where the tournament was being played.  In addition to there being water hazards every where there were moguls, small hills around many of the greens.  It made for some very interesting shots.
Overlooking many of the Fairways there were many private pavillions for corporations and other special people, but best of all there was one for the military, including retirees.  Lovely shaded porch, free water and soft drinks, with lunch served at 11.
We stayed till it got too hot and then headed home.  Enjoyed it so much we'll be going back next year.
This morning while talking to my daughter I opened the presents she'd sent and found 2 books I'm looking forward to reading:  Queen Victoria's Book of Spells (An anthology of gaslight fantasy) and The Map of Time.  She knows my taste well.
Miss Kitty, working with Mac, gave me a Godzilla candleholder, it's sitting on my piano now.
We'll finish the day with bar-b-qued ribs and potato salad.

Missing in Action This Week

Not wounded, just miserable, it's spring allergy time and I'm enjoying it so much.  The weather has turned warm and beautiful, but when I'm outside for any length of time I pay the price.  Some years it's the sneezing, some years it's the coughing, this year it's the eyes.  Not just red, burning and itching, but aching, as are my sinus.
When Mac has trouble with his allergies he takes medication, I can't.  Anything I take dries my eyes out so bad I'm beyond miserable.  The medication I take for my glaucoma makes my eyes dry anyway so allergy medication just exacerbates the situation.  So I've mainly stayed inside.  Lots of reading, a bit of crocheting, piano playing.  Then I run outside and pull a few weeds just so they won't think I've forgotten them.
Outside it's gorgeous!  The Bee Bushes are in full bloom and the bees, both the honey bees and the bumble bees are a bit drunken, as are the wasps.
Mac has been busy putting our new bar-b-que together, we use them a lot and seem to go through them at the rate of one a year.  He's also been cleaning the pool too, we can see the bottom again, and if this weather keeps up we'll be in it before too long.

Electricity

Our electricity went out about 7pm last night, not the first time it's done that lately.  Even though we have underground utility lines it seems like whenever we have a bit of rain we have power outages.
What can you do without the electricity?  Well Mac sat and played his acoustic guitar.  He has loads of music stashed in his head and can sit and strum forever.  His playing made me want to play the piano, but I have next to no music stashed in my head, I mean how many times can you play "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" or "Mary Had a Little Lamb"?  The music I like to play is rather complicated and I need the music in front of me as I play.
Mac suggested that Beethoven played by candlelight and I ought to give it a try.  Well Beethoven  might have done it and I've certainly seen Schroeder doing it in Peanuts for years, but even with my nose pressed up to the page it was hard to read, I would have needed a half dozen candelabras set around me in order to see my music.
Thankfully the electricity came back on and I could see again.  Mac suggests I learn some music by heart, but I'm too old (can't memorize anything any more) and too lazy.

While looking for candelabra pictures I found this one with Godzilla, my hero!  He would definitely light up my piano.

We Went Out Last Night

For the first time in forever we went out last night and did a little dancing.  When we first moved here we were going out 3 and 4 nights a week, but we've definitely slowed down.  Too much traffic, too many folks  texting while they drive, not as much energy and the cat complains when we leave her alone at night.
But last night some friends were playing at a local Tapas Bar (not that the people running it have a clue as to what tapas are) and because it was so close to home we decided to go see them.
The food was ok, we had calamari, shrimp and lobster ravioli.  In Spanish tapas bars these would have been small plates just right for sharing.  These were huge and mostly came home with us.
The music was great, the guys playing actually have a full-sized band, but also play as a duo, calling themselves The Twinz, as unlikely a set of twins as you'll ever see.  They played such a variety of music:  Sweet Melissa (originally by the Allman Brothers Band and a real favorite of ours), Jet ( a Paul McCartney song), Guitar Man (Bread), a song by Lady Antebellum, It Don't Come Easy (Ringo Starr), Domino (Van Morrison), Smooth (Santana)
It was definitely a trip down memory lane.  Seeing as our knees are not complaining too much, just a squeak here and there, I guess we'll have to do it again before our joints lock up like the Tin Man's.