Blog: Ten Days of Little Celebrations - July 2015

Noticing something worth celebration each day is an easy thing for me to do. The habit of writing it down reminds me to be grateful for these and a myriad of other things in my life. Here are my top 10 for July 2015.

Fireworks on the 4th! -Fireworks are often use as a ‘symbol’ for celebration….I like them in small doses and not too frequently. Somehow the 4th of July is always my favorite event to enjoy fireworks and this year is was so simple - walking about a block from my Parent’s house after spraying myself with insect repellent. It was 15 minutes of summery celebration.

Goldfinches - We have goldfinches that are frequenting our bird feeder and the plants on our deck. I always celebrate seeing them - both for their color and their loopy flight pattern.

A new Coursera course after a hiatus - I had about 2 months of absolutely no Coursera courses….and celebrated starting a new one about Geodesign this month. I’ll ramp up again in the fall probably - but I’m setting three as a maximum. I enjoy the courses tremendously but more than three concurrently is overwhelming.

A day at home - Now that I am post-career, I look back on the time of my life when I left home for work every weekday and some weekends…and I wonder how I did it. I find myself frequently celebrating a day at home these days…it is my favorite place to be!

Hydrangea on the desk - I like having flowers or something else from outdoors as a focal point on my desk even though the view from my office window is wonderful. When I close the drapes to block the afternoon sun - the piece of outdoors that I’ve brought in side sustains me until I can see outdoors again.

A new computer - Not for me…for my Mom.  She has had hand-me-down computers before…so we both celebrated a new one just for her (and that I was there to configure it the way she wanted).

A hike to the Patapsco River - I hiked to the Patapsco River from Belmont with summer campers. It was a hot day and we all celebrated wading in the river before we hiked back. I celebrated when I got home and discovered I’d already gotten the 12,000 steps for the day!

Bug Blitz - Another activity with Belmont summer campers. It was a warm (not too hot) sunny day - perfect for finding bug. The elementary school aged campers were very good at capturing the insects for a photo into iNaturalist. Their enthusiasm was contagious! My favorite was a small moth with orange markings - a chickweed geometer.

Blue jay feather - I found a blue jay feather. It was mostly black but has a rim of blue and black on one edge - unusual looking. I celebrated finding it…and realizing what it was.

Red highlights - We painted a concrete floor - base coat then sprays of green and copper. The final touch was some streaks of dusky red made with a paint coated marble. We all celebrated how great it looked!

Wishing you something to celebrate today!

Hydrangea

I cut some hydrangea flowers from the bush in my chaos garden yesterday and brought them up to my office in a milk glass vase. I like the hydrangeas on my desktop - the physical rather than the digital one!

I remember taking home-grown hydrangeas to work almost 30 years ago in the same vase. I’d inherited the vase when we bought the house and it was large enough to hold even the largest flowers. The plant was one that produced blue flowers and grew in the shade of American beech and oak trees that towered over the house. It was one of the few times I took flowers into work; they were spectacular visually…and they lasted longer than most flowers.

The pink hydrangea bush that I cut these flowers from was purchased within a year of our moving to our current house almost 20 years ago. They grew well until a year ago when a late spring freeze destroyed almost all the leaf buds….and then the deer decided the plants were well worth eating. This year they seem to be recovering.

My mother likes to bring cut flowers and plants inside to enjoy. She has something just about anywhere that the eye passes frequently. It’s a good idea. During the summer I have enough flowering plants that all I need to do is walk around the yard with some scissors!

Updating my Home Office

I’ve finally replaced the window treatment in my home office. It is a project I had put off for way too long. The action now was prompted by the knowledge that warmer days were coming and the west facing windowwould - as always - cause the room to be hot in the afternoon.

The 25 year old mini-blinds had started to fall apart last summer - and never provided very good insulation. The pocket sheers (sheer fabric with pockets for keepsakes) were probably my favorite sheers but they were 20 years old and beginning to tear; I put off taking them down as long as possible.

My first thought was to take down the mini-blinds, replace the pocket sheers and buy insulated drapery to go over the. I immediately had to revise the plan because the pocket sheers are not available. Pooh! What will I do with all the mismatched earrings, unusual buttons, name tags from my daughter’s high school activities, and other small items I’m not quite ready to discard? Right now they are in a box. I’ll keep them for a little longer but they won’t be in sight.

I opted to implement the rest of the plan. Ordering the drapery was easy and I was able to use the same rod as I already had for the pocket sheers. They look very light weight but have an insulated backing that will make them more effective in the summer than the mini-blinds every were. I’m ready for the first warm day!

There are still ‘clean up’ parts of the project: filling in the holes from the mini-blind brackets, donating the pocket sheers, and deciding what do to with the broken mini-blinds. I’d like to find a way to recycle them but they are not something that can go into the normal weekly recycle bin pickup.Pocket Sheers folded/ready to donate

I’m pleased to have completed the first ‘Spring 2015’ home improvement project!

Coming Home

I enjoy traveling…but coming home always feels good too. This past weekend was no exception.

The flight from Texas was smooth until just before landing in Baltimore when gusts of wind started buffeting the plane. The pilots did an excellent job getting the plane to the runway; there was applause in the cabin. All around us on the runway snow was swirling and the runway was just as white as the air. There was a little delay getting to the gate so we all had time to notice how bad the weather was and realize that there was a 50 degree temperature difference between the Dallas afternoon we had left and the Baltimore evening. Walking through the jetway to the terminal gave us a hint of the cold. When I got to baggage claim, it was even colder because of doors opening and cold air coming up with the luggage which was delayed in arriving due to wind and snow challenging the baggage handlers. Before it came, an announcement was made that the airport was closing. After that - the situation improved for me: my baggage came, my husband arrived just outside the terminal, and we got home without incident (even though we saw cars in ditches along our route). It was scary enough that I didn’t think to take pictures.

When I got home there were piles of books I’d requested from Paperbackswap - using up my credits. What joy to have them just in time for the really cold days of this winter!

And the snowy scene from my office window is appealing too.

Another joy - plants at the kitchen window that survived the 10 days I was gone (my husband watered them).  The green leaves sprouting from the celery cores and the pleats of the red potato leaves are like a little spring garden with the snow and ice of hard winter in the background.

Last but not least - I actually enjoyed shoveling the driveway yesterday. It was the first time for this winter and was a very light snow that was easy to shovel. I am still celebrating the winter season!

It is so good to be home again!