§ To Blog or Not to Blog...

Let me begin with a bit of humor!
I need it!!!

I haven't been blogging for a while. Nor much of anything. A bit of winter depression has set in over the last week, and being outdoors seeing all the winter kill of our 'tropical' plants just sets me in a foul mood! And I have been trying to avoid the Chinese Spy Balloon news...wondering if this was really legit...so many questions arose while reading news online from several sources. Why on earth, if it was a spy balloon, did it take so long for the USA to shoot it down?!! Another thougt came across my mind was that China owns a lot of land in Montana...did they actually launch it from THERE or was it really a weather balloon. Waiting forever to blow it out of the sky while all along China is collecting info through the onboard computer?!!? I just can't get myself to trust our OWN government any more.

I've actually taken my word of not doing any interior painting for the past week or so. I am still recouping from back pain and kinks in my neck. LOL That's my excuse and I'm sticking by it!

This past week, little, disruptive of a day, tasks were in order:

pulling weeds

getting my driver's license renewed since it expires on my birthday, the 9th of February, it's good until 2031!

making a pot of baked beans from scratch [a day's job]

grocery shopping for the month

reading

a little decorating around the house for Valentine's Day

catching up on laundry

walking in the park

online jigsaw puzzles

dusting, vacuuming, scrubbing, etc.

watching the series 1883

...things like that!

I have gone, and did a small limited time of, walking. It finally warmed up on Sunday, near 80 degrees [F] as it should be here...but another wintry cold snap is predicted. Went around the flower beds and even in the lawn and pulled thistle Sunday enjoying the sunshine. Tried to watch the Pro Bowl Flag Football...what a waste of time money and effort televising THAT!

Went to the bookstore and picked up my ordered book [cheaper going through the bookstore than ordering from amazon!] This book I've been searching the shelves at the store for some time now, and not finding it...finally ordered it....the book? Well, a memoir of a Holocaust survivor and her CAT!!! I've only read about 6 chapters, but it will, I think, become a page turner. What can go wrong with an added guardian angel feline?!!!

The incredible true story of a young girl who navigated dangerous forests, outwitted Nazi soldiers, and survived against all odds with the companionship of a stray cat. Growing up in the Polish village of Tarnogrod on the fringes of a deep pine forest, Mala Szorer had the happiest childhood she could have hoped for. But at the age of twelve, as the German invasion begins...
read more of the synopsis HERE

PS...at the park, looking for birds, I spied the very first Texas Bluebonnet for the season!!!

Be like a flower waiting to bloom despite winds and storms.
~Anne Nolette Andre

§ Silent "G"...

I have had nothing to blog about lately; instead of wasting your time and mine, I decided to just not write a blog just to be blogging.  We've had some rainy, drizzly, gray days this past week. A few days I've gone walking in the mist; Friday was partly cloudy with fog and drizzle in the morning hours.  So, I've been a home-body for those wetter times, trying to figure out what to do to entertain myself. I started two pastel sketches only to crumble them up and filing them in file 13 [trash bin]. I'll try again in a day or two.  Bud and I are working on our last puzzle for the season...in February we start our annual Spring Yard Cleaning ritual before the heat and humidity builds up.  Still, I was bored so I decorated our dining room table for Valentine's Day already. The table is the only area I decorate for the season. The gnome was a gift. And he's a special gnome. I'll show you more of him in a bit, but I'll take some close-up shots and share them first...

This first one is of the scarf I bought at the dollar store that I'm using as a table runner. I tossed some pink and red hearts as table scatter, used the wooden bowl [made by my son in wood class many years ago] and added some shredded red mylar. My traditional mice, red glass heart containers [I took the cork stopper out and added some more mylar and added white candles, making the hearts into candle holders.

Now, showing you the 'special' gnome a bit more closely...


...it becomes a nightlight!

§ Valentne's Day at Anni's...

...and these are not showing well on the table or hutch, but a long time ago I crocheted 4 heart coasters like this one:


Here is a rebus puzzle [also, a play on words] for you...can you figure it out?

from my

Have a day filled with love...from your fur babies to significant other! Enjoy the ambiance and company!!!!

§ A Craft, A Beauty, and a Beast

Even with Isaiah in our life, I wanted to bring out something for Valentine's Day. But, most of what I have on hand, in storage, is a bit too dangerous for a young cat. So, off to Dollar Tree I went. I bought a small -very small- teddy bear they had in their holiday displays and a small metal tin mail box with a Valentine's Day theme going, some pink artificial tulips. When I got home, Bud went right to work on making a mail box post Once he had it put together on a wooden stand, I painted it. This is the result. Not the best, but the best I could do on such a quick project. I do know I will have to keep my eye on our kitty with the pink and red heart table scatter. So far, he's left it alone. I'm hoping that will continue...

- - - -

I believe I mentioned a couple weeks ago, that Bud and I watched the 'human version' of Disney's Beauty and the Beast, with Emma Watson. It's one of my favorites. Anyway, after the movie it was bedtime for me, and the following morning I had to look it up on Google to see who wrote the original story, 'cause I had no idea. And to my surprise, it was written by a French woman author....get this....in 1740!!!

From Wikipedia: Beauty and the Beast (French: La Belle et la Bête) is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins (The Young American and Marine Tales). Her lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and published first by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 in Magasin des enfants] (Children's Collection) and by Andrew Lang in the Blue Fairy Book of his Fairy Book series in 1889, to produce the version(s) most commonly retold.

Of course, I had to order the original story from Amazon.  It was delivered last week, and I am now reading it.  It's amazing how different it is than the versions of today [in movies].  Tho, a bit of a challenge reading it, I'm getting along pretty well...but the broken English from the translation is somewhat 'stuttering' for me...in other words, I have to stop and re-read some sections to get the correct gist of it all.  If you want to learn the 'real' story, I suggest you find a copy of the original, and be on the road to a surprise story.  I haven't finished it  yet...but, it's keeping my attention...

- - - -


Now, I'll close with MY Beauty





...and the Beast

§ Flowers and Peanuts

If y'all know of Jeff Dunham [the ventriloquist], then you know one of his puppets is Peanut. All the past season and part of this recent season of NCIS New Orleans, there is a character played by Derek Webster, the FBI director. I pondered and pondered over him for months, thinking he looks like some celebrity I know! It finally dawned on me...if he had the green tuft of hair atop his head, he's the spittin' image of Peanut!! You decide...

Peanut.......................................Webster

- - -

It's Valentine's Day!

A bouquet of yellow roses in my ruby cut glass vase -I collect ruby glass. My first piece, a covered candy dish, Bud bought me on our honeymoon....50 years ago in May. I'll try and get a photo of it to share on our 50th anniversary if I remember. In the meantime, enjoy the yellow roses. [Yellow Roses mean: Giving yellow roses can tell someone the joy they bring you and the friendship you share.]

...and speaking of yellow. Once again, I wake up to a foggy morning. (55 days of it with maybe 10 hours of sunshine...all the rest--gray!) I so want the sun to come out. And, not tomorrow! It's been weeks. Gloomy days and skies...it's depressing!! So, I need to see some warm smiley sunflowers....how 'bout you?