Looking back~~~And wishing~~~

(Pic from my blog, in July, 2009~~~See  how beautiful our Hydrangeas were, way-back-when...)

Guess I'd better ask....  Does my blog, show up too wide, on your screen?  If so, when did it begin doing this?  Please...

I was just told that mine, is too wide, on one Dear Reader's screen.  Any others????

A while ago, one of my Dear Reader's blogs, began to be too wide, on my computer.  I mentioned it to her, but guess I'm the only one......

So, I ask here.  You are reading my blog.  Does it fit your screen, or is it too wide?  Please and thank you.

You who are fans of Elizabeth Goudge...  Have you ever read "The Little White Horse"?  I just saw it here, and it sounds delightful.  So I'm getting it, from the library.

Looking out, at our back yard, and beyond...  TREES...

Again, looking from Patio, across our little back yard, and  across half of my son's back yard, next door.  TREES...
 Too damn many TREES...

When
we built here, nearly 50 years ago, we could see across a number of back yards, to the next street over.  Yes, trees were planted, here and there, over the years.  Nice ambiance plantings.

Then!  The woman next door, got herself a boyfriend, who "had a thing" for grabbing any old tree he could find, and planting it in her back yard.  With never any shaping of them!  Just a bunch of scrub trees, which he let grow and grow and grow.

The BF is gone, but his damn trees remain, and get bigger every year.  Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr...  I so want my nice, normal view back.  -pout-
    

Found a cute, new-to-me, book blog.  Very interesting concept.  It's written "by" the characters, in some favorite cozy mysteries.   Isn't that a cute and novel idea, for a book blog????? 

 

The blog name is (click)   "Killer Characters"....

More pictures, from my blog, in summer of 2009.

Silly me, I was complaining about a lot of rain.  Hehhhh.....  Little did I know, what a lot of rain, could do to my husband's lovely flowers.  -sigh-

Do you ever choose to be still?  Even for a moment, at a time?  I came across a lovely writing, titled "Be Still."
Please take a minute and click here, and enjoy this relaxing post.....  Please....

Weather~~~Words~~~Meaning~~~Moods~~~Music~~~

Gabe and Daddy...  "Making" faces, sitting together, at edge of the pool...

 -chuckle-  Just noticed that the above picture, should have been rotated.  :-)  Oh well...

Gabe (3 years) seems to have discovered a "new" mood, and how to "display" it.   SAD...

"Pop" ran out of cookies, in his work-shop stash of Cookies.  Now this isn't earth-shaking.  But seems as if Gabe latched onto this fact, and became SAD. 

Here is another example, of Gabe, showing SADNESS.  He would come in, stand there, just look SAD...  :-)  I DID NOT just tell him; "Oh you don't have to be sad."

Children have a right to "own" their feelings/emotions.  I don't like to tell kids, they *should not* be/feel this, or be/feel that.  I told him it was OK to feel SAD, sometimes.

"Nana" is a great believer in watching what one says to small kids.  At least, I try to be.  Think before one speaks, etc.  "Listen" to the message, we are REALLY sending, to a child.

Our understanding of words, and their understanding of them, differ greatly...  Especially when very young.  Care-givers need to keep this in mind.  In my humble opinion.   

Another steamy weekend...  On Sunday, we had A/C on inside.  I went out to take pics of family, in the pool.  My camera lens got fogged up.

Cold camera + hot outside = steam-effect.

This picture, shows how our weather pattern has been going.  Sun - Rain - Sun - Rain - Sun - Rain.  When the rain is heavy, it knocks the flowers down.  -sigh-

Ever  start reading a book, and decide you can't really read all of it?  But you have to know "what's going on"  and "what happens"?  So you keep skimming ahead, until you have answered those 2 questions?

Hope so....  Because then, you can comprehend what I did, with "Room."    If you are intrigued, and want to know more about this book...  You can click on the click-able link....  "Room" .

Actually, this book, is an excellent example of what I said above....   That small children's understanding of "words," depends on what they have so-far-learned, in their short life-time.

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Happy New Moon!  Or Happy Dark Of The Moon!

Tonight is what is referred to as the New Moon.  A New Moon occurs when the moon is positioned between earth and sun.  The entire illuminated portion of the moon, is on the back side, the half of the moon, that we cannot see.
From: Lunar Phases Explained

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Remember the old song...  Which goes like...  "No moon at all, it's so dark, ..."  :-)

Click here, to hear Nat King Cole sing it...

INNNNNNNTERESTING night, I say... :-(

On the 4th of July, there were lots of other desserts, for rest of the family.  But I made these, for my daughter-in-law and myself...  We who are staying Gluten/Free.  And mostly lactose free and sugar free.  

Yes, that is fruit and real whipped cream, layered.  And if we *pay* some, for ingesting lactose, so be it.  :-)  But we had our own yummmmmy loooooking parfait!!!!  -grin-

One of those "Surprise Photo Ops"!!  -grin-  I added some clear dish washing liquid, to the little bit left, of the pomegranate (pink) dish washing liquid.

The pink on the bottom, started rising up, through the clear.  I was mesmerized.  And I kept clicking...  -grin-  A "Because-I-Can" photo op!!! 

 Well, last night was interesting...  :-(  At 2am, our alarm system went off.  And when I say "went off," I mean loud enough to wake the dead, and nearly fracture ear drums.  Between ourselves and the Alarm Co., we deduced that no break-in-attempt had occurred.  But the system said; "Front door was violated." 

Nope.

The Co. has to come over and check it out.  Some glitch in the system...  Some low battery or something...  Well, we know it makes a helllllllll of a lot of noissssssssse!

 Whole lot of Phish-ing going on, in town, this weekend.  Ugh...  Ugh...  Ugh...  Guess what?  I'm not a fan. 

Nor am I a fan, of all the illegal substances, which are floating around, during this annual occurrence. 

Yes folks, "Auntie" is "Olden".  She may have fun with some Hollywood Soap Operas.  But this Phish-stuff, is beyond her/me. 

Let Freedom Ring...!!!

Please click on the following....  Let Freedom Ring

For more information ...  Please click on the following...
Start Ringing Those Freedom Bells Again...

And "Why at 2pm", is told when you click here.  I admit, I never knew this...

Imaginative decorating........

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Oh my gracious!  I want to jump into that illustration, above.  -happy sigh-  And follow those Faeries to the 'Pixie Dust Tree'.  Oh I do.  I do.  I do.

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I love all such....  Fey, Pixie dust, Faerie dust, sparkles, fireflies, lace curtains, lace table cloths, sheer white curtains, blowing in a breeze, magical, imaginative, more sparkles, garden paths, deep woods (without mosquitoes), etc., etc., etc.

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 But ordinary reading of my blog, one might not know it.  MY home decorating, doesn't have aspects, of many of those things. Unlike the lovely blogs, I am showing you pictures from...     

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 And I don't think, that many of my Dear Readers share such likes.  :-)   Yes?  No?  Maybe?  Please tell me...
  

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We each have our own tastes.  It's interesting to see how our tastes, match up (or not) with our Dear Readers, though.  

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 Not that I am creative enough, to do much "Magical Decorating" in my own life.  Nope, I'm not.  I love it, in the blogs of others though...  -sigh-  Like in the lovely and magical blogs, from which I borrowed these pic.  With click-able links back to the blogs, of course!  

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So how come I don't try to incorporate more, into my own home?  How come?????  ~~~  Well for one thing, one has to consider the tastes of others, living in our homes.  I'd love more, more, more Faerie Lights...  But 'Uncle A.'s' eyesight, makes them difficult, for him to live with...

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So I have one string of Faerie Lights, on the mantle.  I'd have more of them, hanging here and there.  But they would bother his eyes. 
    

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 So, do I need a separate blog?  Where I could *drool* over such?  :-)  A blog for all-things-Fey-and-shimmering-and-softly-white-and-twinkleing...?  And with the separate blog, go out to find other bloggers, who love such...?

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Oh sigh...  Separate blogs can get so difficult though...  -pout-

I have one now...  My "Auntie's Reads 2013" blog.  But I simply post reviews on it.  No comments allowed, so I don't have to deal with checking comments for SPAM, etc., all the time.  ~~~  But that (no comments) feels cut off, from Dear Readers...  -sigh-  -pout-
~~~

What to do?  Go for more lace myself?  Even without more Faerie Lights?
~~~ 

Your ideas??????????

Please?

And thank you...

Musing~~~Pixie Dust~~~Book review~~~Etc.~~~Etc.

Peonies...  Peonies...  Peonies...  :-)

I understand the logic of...  Less Blog Traffic, in Summer.  But....  I tell ya', it's not that simple.  :-)  On Tuesday, from posting time to now...  I got:

 57 Visits
9 Comments

See?  That doesn't work out, to "say," that less people are looking at my blog.  I think 57 individual Visits, is a healthy number of people-looking.  (Individual Visits means, I do not count the times that the *Blogger Picture Seeker* "visits."  Nor do I keep counting my continuous Visitor from Albany NY.  Who comes all the time, but never Comments.)

But only 9 of 57 Visitors , bothered to leave a Comment.  Interesting.

48 just-passing-by-Visitors, seems like a LOT.  -chuckle-  And it certainly does mess-with the theory, that LESS people are on the Net, in summer.

Oh I know....  I do read/skim a new-to-me blog at times, without leaving a Comment.  Sometimes one is just seeing if a new-to-me blog, resonates or not.  And I don't want the blog owner, to think they have a new Follower, when I am just "passing through."  I suppose a lot of the foreign Visitors, fall into that category.

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It's time to play in "Pixie Dust" again!!!  -grin-  Couldn't stand, trying to let my hair grow out, any longer.  So I had Patricia give me a "Pixie", yesterday.  Not a "Judy Dench cut".  Just a "Pixie".

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 I thought I'd be *bummed out* about cutting off, what had taken me so long, to grow.  But I'm not *bummed out.*  It's soooooo easy to care for.  And stays fine looking, all the time.  Coooooool!!!!  Yessssss!!!!!  :-)  

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Just for fun...  I found this delightful picture...  Of a Parisian Dining place.  Mmmm, dreamy hu?  :-))))))

"A Death In The Small Hours"
by
Charles Finch

Trying to catch up, on posting reviews of books read.  You can read what I thought of this book, by clicking here please, and going to my "Auntie's Reads 2013" blog...

"Who wants to feed that to your kids?"~~~plus other stuff

Wondering if you can *see* my New Hair Style?  :-)  I never can get a pic, to show what I see in the mirror, but.  Anyway, I had Patricia cut it very short, on the right side.  And I've been letting, from the (right side) part, to the ends,  grow for a while.  Since it was layered very short, for the "Judi Dench" look, it's taking a long time to sort-of-grow-out.  But by now, with 1 side cut short and the left side growing, it actually looks like a *new* hair style.  :-)

And all I do is blow dry with a big, round brush.  The left side of my hair always wants to flip-up.  So, I like to go-with-it.  And I'm happy with the look.  :-)

We 3 families share one lawn mower, here on "The Compound."  The other day when our daughter-in-law was cutting our grass, it began to SMOKE!  Eeeek!  Something wrong!  Ask "Pop" (aka "Uncle A.", aka "Dad")

Seems there was an oil problem.  Which took some "babying," to get fixed.  "Pop," son, and 2 youngest "Grands" had *fun* with getting it working again.  :-)  Son and "Pop" worked...  "Grands" watched... "Nana" kept "Grands" from getting into-the-"gunk"!  ,-)

(This Juice looked a bit pink, due to strawberries and etc., in it.  :-))

From: "Greenpoint" A Schenectady Gazette community blog...  Ideas on greener living

""Why are you growing potatoes when potatoes are so cheap?" a friend once asked, and the answer is that potatoes are good at absorbing whatever pesticides they are grown in, and that commercial potatoes are also run through a fungicide bath before being bagged.  Who wants to feed that  to your kids?"