"How about now?"

Why is a procrastinator like me sitting here writing this before 9am when I usually do it way too late in the evening?  Well it has been pointed out to me by certain persons overseas that I've been falling down on the job.  :-)

Actually, I read an article yesterday on the subject of leading a "better life."  This article, Three Magic Words for a Clean Home and a Better Life: Not a natural tidying and organizing whiz? Take hope in one short phrase that can change your life forever.

Now I'm assuming you can read the article.  I can because I'm signed up to get the Houzz emails, but I'm not sure about you.  Anyway......  It says there are basically two kinds of people.  NOs and NNOs, which are Naturally Organized and Not Naturally Organized.  If you are a champion procrastinator like me, you fall into the NNO category.  The Tramp argues with that analysis, saying he finds me to be a very organized person.  Heh.  So he decided I am a Procrastinating Organizer or an Organizing Procrastinator.  Isn't it nice to have some affirmation from your nearest and dearest.  :-D

So the basic suggestion put forth by the author of said article is to go about your day saying, "How about now?"  This means when I had a bad dream at 6am I said how about now and got out of bed.  The bed sheets needed changing, how about now?  Oh geez, the bin of off-season clothes are still spread all over the guest room bed, how about now?  The fabrics I brought home from quilt symposium needed to go back into the cabinets, how about now? The tomato plants needed to be tied up, how about now? The chicken for the dog's stew needs to go in the slow cooker, how about now?  The weblog is woefully behind, how about now?  You get the idea how my morning has gone so far.  :-)  How long can I keep this up?  I guess that's the magic!

Since this is catch up (again) I'm just going to work backwards.

This morning I did go out and tend to the vegetable garden.  This requires armor.  The mosquitoes are horrendous.  So gumboots to protect my already bitten up feet and ankles.  Ouch!

And repellent for the rest of me.

The trellis is 6ft tall.  It must be summer now, the tomatoes are growing like weeds.  (The weeds are growing like weeds too.)

Radishes.  But I don't know when they are ready to harvest!  I have a lot to learn.  :-)

The above mentioned mosquito bites were gained a couple of days ago when I added some herbs to the garden.  Parsley, basil, sage.  No rosemary and thyme yet.  ;-)

A poor showing of carrots.  Hmmmm.

Arugula.

Parsley and beets.

Red, yellow, green and purple peppers.

Bush beans and behind them, peas.

Cucumber.

The morning glories have found the trellis. :-)

The castor beans will be desperately needing planting very soon!

As I was puttering around the vegetables a great quacking came from next door.  Yes indeed, the neighborhood ducks were swimming around in their pool!  Lousy photo, but you get the idea.

Moving backwards to yesterday.  We had procrastinated and procrastinated on our upkeep chores down at the Other House.  No fun.  Sigh.  As The Tramp says....this is North Carolina.  Things. Just. Grow.  Weeds are taking over the property!  Embarrassingly so.  While The Tramp weed whacked the edges and ditches I crawled along the front of the house uncovering the new shrubs.  The whole walkway behind me is covered with the piles of stuff I've pulled out.  I'm sure I've left the roots of much of it behind so we will be spraying too I'm afraid.

Smile, he says.  Look like you are enjoying it, he says.  Good grief!

Better now.....until next week.

It was a long day, and when we got home we discovered Charlie had never been closed up into his cage.  Oh my!  Lucky for him....and us.....nothing caused him to flutter to the floor or some odd perch in the room.  And crazy Maisy was shut up in her crate.  She is far to interested in Charlie.  He bites back...hard.  But why take chances!

Thursday through Sunday was the North Carolina Quilt Symposium.  This year it was hosted by the Tarheel Quilters Guild at Methodist University in Fayetteville.  Four of us paid a bit extra to share a four bedroom apartment.  That's me, Dawn, and sisters Kathie and Anne.

Another friend joined us at some meals and turned out to be in both of my workshops.  Fun!

More photos of the quilt show and stuff later.  Yesterday I finished up this t-shirt quilt.  It's very attractive.

Before the weekend I finished up these.  A two sided one with pretty batik borders.

This one was a little different with the white inner border.  First time I've worked with white on one of these quilts.

And a bright one!

Charlie keeps an eye on me.  :-)

Oh!  And look at this.  Dad scanned a whole lot of slides and photos.  Yep, me.  Sewing.  No surprise there!

And my first Singer.  I'm guessing it's Christmas 1961.  :-)

Ok.  Time to get up from my desk, look around and say......how about now!  :-)

Wild Kingdom

Wild?  Here?  In our semi-urban setting?  Oh yes indeedy.  Since it's nearly midnight the birds are nice and quiet but the peepers, toads and their friends are filling in nicely thank you very much.

Earlier in the week, Thursday as a matter of fact, as I was slowly driving around the pond towards our house I spotted something new.  New to me anyway.

Yep.  More snakes.  Not venomous this time, thank goodness.  As far as I can tell they are northern water snakes.  (Another link.)

Not having my camera in the car, I grabbed it from the house and walked back to see what was going on.  The red arrow is pointing to the snake.  They were apparently having a party in the pond with the koi and the turtles.  If you click on the photo you may also be able to see at about a dozen koi and at least as many turtles.  The snakes that appeared to be playing with each other when I drove by, quickly dispersed when I walked up so these were "lucky" photos.  I had no idea until I imported to iPhoto that I'd actually captured them.  20X zoom from the safety of the road is plenty close enough for me!

Also this week I decided to be brave and tackle the front flower beds.  Clover was taking over. It looks much better now and just needs a good layer of mulch......and nothing bit me so it's all good.  :-)

I pooped out before I got to this one but it's mostly just a matter of leaf litter out and mulch in.

While I was working the bluebirds were busily feeding their brood.  Mama chattered nervously at me when I got too close but she bravely flew back and forth bringing dried mealworms from the bird feeder.  Dad seems to prefer hunting for "real" prey.

Peekaboo!

This weekend is the county library system's book sale.  It was held in the Jim Graham Building at the state fairgrounds again.  The building is used for livestock shows, car shows, boat shows, gun shows, you name it.  It's 95,000 square feet and was full of books.  This quick shot with my cell phone is only showing about 1/4 of the room.  It's amazing really.  We were smart this year and brought along a small trolley.  You never know what treasure you might find for a dollar!

Today was devoted to the home front.  The garage got an initial cleaning and a car-load was taken to the "dump."  Then I decided to make our (ugh) pollen coated porch usable again.  All the furniture was scrubbed down and I hosed down the floor, walls and screens.  A huge improvement.

I even resurrected my lounge chair which hadn't been cleaned or used for several years!  Once I get a new cushion for it I'm looking forward to naps on the porch.....when it's not too hot!

It was hot enough for bugs today.  Something from the Wild Kingdom bit me good.  The welts aren't even that itchy but they sure are big and ugly.

This evening, while The Tramp treated us to several episodes of The South Bank Show I puttered with triangles.  The making of the Sgt. Pepper album was very interesting.  The Pet Shop Boys not so much....for me anyway.  And lastly a show about Danny Kaye.  It was nice to have the entertainment while I finished cutting and settled down to sewing more geese units and half square triangle units.

A bit tedious I'm afraid....but at least I did a better job cutting these triangles than the original set!  :-)

Happy Mother's Day!