Last Week of June Review

Sweeping off the patio is now my full time summertime obsession.  I feel like the old man in the cartoon from years past who in the fall tracked down every fallen leave from his lawn and bagged it immediately, even desperately catching them as the wind blew them from the tree, leaf by leaf.  The husband thinks the old cottonwoods out back perhaps need more watering, so he has taken to that task of the evening.  The dogs tool around in the back looking for squirrels and I putter with the sweeping as the sun lowers in its sphere.  And the days are now getting shorter, so I hear, making earlier bedtimes easier to explain...people don't understand when you lie down before the sun does.

Liking an entertainment area free of dead cottonwood leaves, this week we will have entertained with friends and a few repasts.  A luncheon, a neighborly get together, and a couple friend tonight: all outside on a fairly leaf free patio.  Tonight I will be making a new salad with sweet potatoes and a rice vinegar dressing that is tossed together with the sweet potatoes and grilled corn cut from the cobs.  The cobs were grilled last night and are safely tucked away in the fridge for their glorious debut today with the sweet potatoes, black beans and a cilantro vinegar dressing. I'll let you know how it turns out.  One other sort-of recipe for a tea punch that was refreshing and tasty was equal parts brewed tea, pineapple-banana juice, orange juice and ginger ale.  That went down fairly well.

Powerful Mary Kay

On the fishing front, we caught nothing this week other than a photo of a blue heron that let me get pretty close to where he was scouting trout.  There are lots of these blue herons around the water.  Last week I caught a 12 inch trout, my largest haul so far.  And he was delicious!

This morning after her walk, Libby SweetPea and I will be making our hospice visits.  Here is an older picture of Miss Libby posing.

She is on a walk right now with her sister Mercy.  Every morning the routine is that they dance around, pulling and tugging at their leashes, waiting for their old dad to get on his hat and retrieve his walking stick. Libby gets the leash in her mouth, and it takes a bit of cajoling to get her to release it so the walk can commence.  Once the 25 minute exercise is finished, she is ready for a nap.  But today she has to gear up and make her visits to her assigned patients.  Two are in an Alzheimer's facility and two are in a nursing home. Libby is pretty easy to handle on her visits since she is an old pro at being quiet and sitting on my lap while being petted; that and she is already worn out from her prior walk.  Staff people at the facilities usually comment on her good behavior, but they have not seen her at home where she tools around like hell on wheels, barking at every neighbor she can view out the front door window.

On the knitting front, I have now ripped out the lace scarf at least three times.  This will not get the best of me.  Here it is in progress, yet again.

Disappointment from Sunday last (this post): that beta test was a semi-ok trial, but it only allows 15 pictures per slideshow on Photosnack.  I am still trying to get pictures downloaded from the Cloud to my computer, following all instructions to the letter, but just cannot get albums downloaded back on my computer.  After googling many answers to this question, the process is still not working for me.  It seems that once they are in the cloud, they stay there.  And there is no putting more than 15 pictures at a time on a slideshow or movie if they are not still residing on your computer's hard drive.  Any feedback on this issue would be greatly appreciated.

And for Paint Party Friday, the Sun is finished:

Ya'll have a great weekend, ya hear?