Just stuff for July

Hello and happy July.  It is toasty here as in other places but hey it is Summer and it comes every year.  No, really it comes every year and usually the same time of year also.   Sometimes a slow starter and sometimes it lets go of the heat later but that is a fact.  Now I can remember way back in the olden days when kids played outside until it was darker than a starless night and we never thought of it as being dark.  Well until someone tells you it is dark.  It was Summer and you were playing.  That was a job for you---playing.  You were having a good time playing Cowboys and Indians,  (taking turns who was what ), making mud pies or playing hide and seek.  Yes back in those olden days.  Now this may come as a surprise but Autumn or Fall will be coming also and then Winter.  My favorite time of year is Fall, everything is pretty and we have gotten past the ugly stages some plants go thru and it is a tad cooler.  Just a pleasant time of year. xoox

As you may remember we are here on a "vacation" so to speak.  After Harvey we could have left but felt like we needed to stay, be it to explore this area more or just get the feel?   I wonder why ? Are we here for a reason?   I feel like we are and maybe after August our little vacation here might have fulfilled as to why we are here.  You never know.  I think often that we are here in this little town to learn some things about ourselves maybe and also for a reason, maybe to be here for someone or just impact something?  We never know whose paths we will cross in life do we?  Maybe meeting someone you didn't even know was in the world and that would be worth it for sure.

I have a good excuse to stay inside and enjoy the cool air conditioner is the heat.   AND AND I get to paint, which I laugh at because that is my "job" now.  Sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do.  I feel like I am growing in this field and maybe on a path to something or just to keep me entertained and not drive hubby nuts.   Could be.  I am doing lots of portraits and will just see what my next step in this art adventure will be.

  

This is one painting I just finished.   The sweet lady doesn't have my blog address  so I can let y'all sneak a peek. She loves my colors so I thought I will just surprise her with not such a stuffy portrait.  A fun and light painting.   It is in acrylic and seems like I am enjoying that medium a lot.  It does dry quickly and I don't have to raid the cookie jar or anything like that while waiting for it to dry.  Well truthfully the cookie jar is full of the candies Eldon likes, so I could raid it.   Hummmm a thought.

Now here is another portrait I finished in charcoal and no one in particular just a magazine gentleman.  I have been on a charcoal kick so kick away Annette.   Love the dark dark around him and it really makes his white beard pop doesn't it?  I am doing these while watching TV at night.  I don't have much of my Crazy Quilting going on at the second so why not sketch and just dilly dally?  I laugh because if I don't do art or stitching while I watch TV I go to sleep.  What kind of a TV watching partner would that be?   Kind of bumish I think.   

 Now a little up date on Hurricane Harvey goings on and cleaning up.   I might have shown these pictures or something similar but just refreshing your memory of all the debris in the bar ditch of Highway 35.  Well it is all gone, every tiny bit of it, maybe a little mulch still hanging around but nice and clean and the highway department as madethe bar ditch just as smooth and pretty as ever.

 A wonderful thing is happening right now  and you don't realize what you miss until you miss it.   We are getting highway signs up now.  Yea and if you don't know where you are going, you don't know where you are going.   There are still lots of street signs not up so we are in just a wandering bliss when we drive around.  Not knowing where we are just by landmarks.   You know though that is how I find things, buildings etc by the landmarks.   I use to tell people in a neighboring town go down highway yatta yatta and when you get to the tree on the right ( there was only one tree there ) you can use that little road on the left and get you to this back road everyone used.   Guess just a country direction.  Those are Annette directions.   It was called Telephone Road and everyone drove quite speedily on it.  Well very speedily is more like it.

Everything is slowly coming back to normal and one particular apartment complex has it roof on now and some  just have tarps on them.   Now for the inside work on the new roof complex.  The did have a TV story that one particular complex got a giant grant or funding and will get to start on it's repair.

This little guy was strolling across our yard the other day.  I stood and watched him like a tourist or something and then thought ANNETTE get the camera.   He was hooking it but did get him before he got out of my camera range.   He was full of business and love to watch them walk.  

One thing have learned while here is we don't need an acre or 3 1/2 acres for a yard.  When we start hunting for our home with roots for us I may have to do some talking to hubby about this.  Maybe a little more than this but certainly easy to tend to and fortunately for me it is not big enough for both of us to work in it at a time.  Awe shucks what a shame.  No just joking I do enjoy working in the yard, something about getting the hands dirty and just the pride of it all.   We have made this little area, added rocks and pots and plants.   A friend in Florida says she likes plants in pots that is what she has and I love it.   No weeding at all.  Now if I have shown this before just say well she wants to show us how much things have grown.     The one yellow bell on the right  came with the house so we bought another one and planted in the ground. Our gift to the yard and will stay when we leave.  Oh if you notice the plastic zip lock on the little grill?  Fill with water add a penny and the flies stay pretty much away.   We have done this trick for years.  Once when at a restaurant with an outside patio they had these all over everywhere.  So I guess we are doing good with our plastic zip locks 

No CQ for today but coming soon.  Thank you for stopping by and seeing what is going on in my world today.  

                                             

                                                            XOXOOX

                                                             Annette