MOTHER'S DAY FLOWERS

How long ago was Mother's Day?

Here in the States it was three weeks ago.

Take a look at the flowers which arrived here from my son three weeks ago.  They are Freesias...very beautiful and very long lasting.

The day they arrived.....

One week later...

Two weeks later...

Three weeks later!!!

Wow!  They really lasted a long while.  Think I'll add some more water and see what happens.

CREATIVE TUESDAY -- CANDY

I am hoping to join Creative Tuesday on a regular basis from now on.  Every two weeks a topic is given and we who like to think we are creative post our interpretation of the theme.  This week's theme is, 

CANDY.

Being a bit of a sugar freak this topic was right up my street, so here is my rendition of one of my favorite candies, Reese's Peanut butter cups.  Mmmm!

Please visit CREATIVE TUESDAYS at this LINK to see what others have submitted for their interpretation of candy.

PHEW !!!

My brain has been on overload for the last four months -- what with buying a new home, moving, garage sale, fixing up, and now selling our old home, I used up all my creativity and had none left for blogging.  We have been in our new home for two months now and it feels like two weeks!  Still have to finish putting up pictures.  Moth is sorting out his workshop/tool shed so he can find where everything is and I would like to make a couple of changes in the back yard when that's done.

I still love our new home.  It is bright and airy and everything is so convenient  -- and all on one level. The flowers have been coming out in waves.  When we first moved in back in April, the vibrant purple ice plant was in full bloom.....

FRONT.....

...and BACK

The darker green plants behind the little Mexican man in siesta mode, is the vibrant purple ice plant. The light green on either side of him and far right is the next wave of ice plant in more of a lavender color like this...

I caught this lizard resting on top of the flowers taking a shower, as it was a hot day and I had the sprinklers on.

As the purple ice plant in the front of the house began to die back the red ones started to bloom. The spreading palm on the right was a bonus.  It was just a stump when we moved in and I thought it was dead, but after I started to water it, it shot up in about two weeks to this pretty palm.

After the red ice plant died, the rather odd shaped tree next to them suddenly broke out into full bloom with masses of flowers that were both red and yellow.  I think it is a lantana bush.  The bees, butterflies and humming birds love this bush.

So now we are holding our breath to see what will come up next!  My plumeria made the transition from the old house quite well, but now I see it has little orange colored specks on the leaves, so we are keeping an eye on it.

Next time I will tell you a little about the wild life (non-human!) that is around here.

I have also decided to join Creative Tuesday since I've been stuck in the zentangle mode for too long and haven't tried any 'normal' drawing for months.  I will soon post this entry and also the tangles I have done over the last month.  

So now I think I'm back to blogging more regularly, you must come visit and see what new things are happening in our lives.

We are so thankful to the Lord for the way everything has gone so smoothly -- if a bit busy and somewhat stressful.  It hardly seems possible that we have done so much and now feel so settled in our new home.  The Lord is good -- all the time.  Now we are praying for a buyer for our old house.  It was only listed this Memorial Day weekend.

See you soon!

POPCORN CEILINGS

What in the world is a popcorn ceiling?  The above photo shows what one square yard looks like.  It is also derisively call the cottage cheese ceiling or more accurately, stucco.

This type of ceiling became popular all over the U.S. in the 1950's through the 80's. It was used in newly built tract homes because it was easy to apply and supposedly reduced echo and enhanced sound. It also, so they said, gave rooms a bright and airy reflective light.  What they didn't know back then was that the mixture which was sprayed on, contained asbestos. 

In the 70's asbestos became The popular reason for all kinds of health ailments and so the use of it was made illegal.  However, contractors or others who were using it as part of making a living, were allowed to use up any existing supplies they owned.  Consequently its use continued on into the 80's.

Another negative to this past popular feature was that it collected dust  and very soon became a marker of a dated home, making it a difficult to sell a home or having to reducing the selling price. So the next logical step was to remove such ceilings before selling.  But this was (is) a very messy, expensive and hazardous procedure.  Removal of popcorn ceilings entailed first, very carefully removing a sample and sending it away to a lab to be analyzed for traces of asbestos.  Then if it was positive, the process of removing it could cost up to $5,000 dollars per 100 square feet, (smaller than most rooms,) done by a team of specialists who would be dressed in protective suits from head to toe including rubber boots and specially designed face masks.

Some companies came up with ways of just spray painting over it, which in turn became just a temporary measure because great clumps of painted ceiling would eventually fall off.  It seems the 'popcorn' was not too difficult to actually remove.  Others simply sprayed the ceiling with water, waited a while and then scraped it off . Still a messy job.  Yet others came up with the idea of  installing a false ceiling over it thus lowering the ceiling and removing the airy feeling -- this in a time when cathedral ceilings were a selling feature.

To cap the whole venture, the word spread that it was illegal for the owner to remove the ceiling himself.  I haven't been able to determine if this is true or not as the web sites detailing this caution are also the ones who stand to make a lot of money by providing the costly and complicated services of asbestos removal.

Even so, having grown up playing with the asbestos on my mother's ironing board and lived in houses that had sheets of asbestos installed around gas stoves, water heaters and ovens, I am not particularly alarmed at the thought that I may have been living for 40 years surrounded by asbestos in our old house. I'm also suspicious enough to suspect that all the alarm surrounding the topic is a very convenient way to build another whole industry.  I'm quite sure all kinds of plastic, vinyl and fireproofing, not to mention nylon, polyester, and PCP will eventually be declared hazardous, just as lead products and mercury, x-rays and even vaccinations have been in recent years. I wonder how long it will be before the new-fangled coiled light bulbs will be discovered to emit harmful substances, not to mention all those cleaning items we use to keep our homes safe.

Our world seems to propelled by alarms and fears of all kinds but since I have already lived beyond my allotted threescore years and ten I think I'll just muddle along using as much common  sense as I may have been given to live my bonus years.

So don't ask what we did about our popcorn ceilings, please!

******

This is my entry for ABC Wednesday, that popular project set up by Mrs. Nesbitt and is now in the midst of its 11th round.  Please click HERE to see the many other original and informational presentations.

BLOG BOOKS

Before our household went crazy looking for, buying, and selling a house, I received my copy of last year's blog book from Blog 2 Print.  That seems like a long while ago now, says she, sitting in her new living room with large windows, now with Levelor blinds closed and my rejuvenated cat trying to get my attention by scratching on the back of my recliner.  (All he wants to do is play, eat and sleep -- hmm... sounds good to me.)

I always try to put a photo of the most significant event of the year on the front cover.

Here is the sum total of my six years of blogging.

Guess what will be on the cover of the 2013 year of blogs! 

It will be a special bonus to have all the photos of the goings on at our old home recorded in these old blog books.  Gives me a different perspective for future blogs.  Already the flowers in the front and back yards in our new home have have changed in the six weeks we have been here.

O IS FOR...

The 'gi-normous' Garage Sale is over ! 

It took us a week longer than we anticipated to get it all together.  Poor Moth was up at the Old house preparing it every day, all day, for two weeks.  We had the help of two very garage-sale-savvy ladies, who worked harder than I ever worked in my whole life!  Cheers and bucketsful of gratitude to Carole and Laurie without whom we'd still be muddling our way through for the next month. 

We had stuff all over the driveway, next door's driveway, our front yard, inside the garage, part of the back yard and the whole of the living room. Thank goodness the weather was perfect.

Oh my!  It would have been a lot more fun if we hadn't been so exhausted!!!

But the important thing is that we made more than enough to cover the moving costs -- and we made some people really happy, like the newly married couple who bought our sofa and couldn't get over how clean it was; and the man who bought our large pair of binoculars from the sixties, and a camera buff who bought Moth's old Agfa camera not to mention countless others who saw things they wanted.

This is my entry for ABC WEDNESDAY  Overseen by Mrs. Nesbitt and Roger Owen Green and assisted by several Other talented participators.  Please do take a look at all the Original entries for this week, now in its 11th round.  See you next week!  CLICK HERE

A MOVING EXPERIENCE! SCRUFFY'S MOMENTS.

They kept talking about moving a few weeks ago.  Well the only place I got moved to was the kennels.  But then after a few days Dad came and picked me up.  When we got out of the car  I knew we weren't at the old house because I didn't hear the electric garage door open.

Little did I know it but this was going to be a very moving experience for me.

So they dumped me in the middle of the floor and I'm complaining "Let me outta here!"

Finally they let me out and I had a good look around.  It didn't look like the old place and it didn't smell like it, but some of the furniture had the same smell.

Okay, so what's down here?  Some more rooms I guess.  There's Dad's old desk from his upstairs office 

But I kept on going. Hmm...a bedroom.  It has Auntie Kay's bed in there, but I was more interested in the next bedroom.  It has patio doors.

I wonder what's out there.

Wow!  A covered deck!  Bet they won't let me out there.  I keep hearing them tell people I'm an indoor cat, because there are coyotes out there.  I wonder what coyotes are. Maybe I'd like them -- maybe I wouldn't.

Wait a minute!  What's this???

Phew! For a moment I thought they'd got another cat, but it was only me.  Couldn't help admiring myself.  Pretty handsome fellow I am too.

Ah well, back down the hall again.

Oof!  All this wandering around exploring is tiring me out.  Got to get some zzzz's and then start looking the place over again.

******

Moving mostly done.  Many Machinations over Multiple items going up for sale hopefully this weekend.  Much debate over what to sell and what to keep.  Memories making some decisions difficult.  There should be a Mandatory Month's rest after Moving house! Hit and Miss blogging for a while.

The Letter M for ABC Wednesday.  I think I'm back to participating again.  Thanks to Mrs Nesbitt and Roger Owen Green.  To see more entries, please visit HERE.