It's been a while since my last post and I deeply apologize. I am not a dedicated blogger and my hat goes off to those who are. Summer seems especially hard for me. We have had a constant parade of visitors, which I might add, I have loved. Unfortunately, it really didn't give me much time to find my subjects to photograph and then post. So today my rant might be a little shorter than most of my other posts. Recently we had my sister in law Anne come to visit for a few days. I love having her here. She is certainly a hosts dream visitor. Does her own thing, doesn't expect anything from you and cleans up after herself. I often tell my guests to help themselves to whatever they might like in the way of food, drink or towels etc. I know it's hard when you visit someone to take advantage of that offer but Anne is great. Makes her own breakfast and looks after herself. Hank always tells me I am a bad host. That may well be a true statement as I like it when people look after themselves. My fridge is your fridge philosophy. So that being said, I'm a happy camper when Anne visits. Anne also brought us a gift when she came here this time. The picture above is the gift from her and Ron. He is apparently making them and so we sort of all got one. We love anything for the garden and I really like that it is ocean related. I always wanted to live closer to the ocean but I don't see that in my future. If I can't go to the ocean then I'm happy when I get something from the ocean brought to me. It's a nice addition to the garden and it's new. That is suppose to be my subject for today. Something new in this house is a relatively easy subject but I had to think of something that was new and interesting. Ta-da......I found it. Well my subject for tomorrow or whenever I get back here is "Technology" . That should prove interesting and a little daunting. Have to think about that for a while.
So good bye for today and thank you for bearing with me in my hit or miss blogging.

I know, I know, it's been a month since my last post. I know what they mean when they say life gets in the way. My life has been a flurry of stuff. Not really important stuff, just everyday stuff. Stampede got in the way first, then a steady stream of guests, Monica and Jack had visit and then the Garden's West interview. Everyday I kept thinking how I should just get my picture and blog. Tonight I got my picture. Someone I love......well that's a no brainer. Put a beer in his hand and he's a cheshire cat, smiling from ear to ear.  We had a wonderful supper on our new deck. Hank finished it last week and I mentioned that I wanted to put curtains up. He wasn't a fan of the idea so it was a hard sell. I've never steered him wrong yet have I? He just said if it didn't look good he would take them down. It looked great. Gave the patio a feeling of being an extension of the kitchen. I think the funnest part was that I actually had to sew. Sewing and I don't exactly see eye to eye. If the enemy ever wanted state secrets from me, they would only have to threaten me with having to sew something. It really is torture. It's not like I haven't tried to be a sewer. (That's pronounced sower, not suer) I took home ec in school and failed sewing. I didn't give up. The next year I took a course called "Home and Child Care" There was no word that even resembled "sew" or " sewing", in the title. I figured I could ace it. NOT. They insisted we sew a baby ensemble. Yep, you guessed it. I failed. Still not a quitter I decided to accompany a friend to a night class on sewing. I thought, I'm older, more stable, married with children, I can do this. Nope. I failed. So I never looked at another sewing machine until I needed one for general mending. Even that was not something I looked forward to. I stored the machine in the basement and haven't really had it out for years. I would rather sew something by hand that lug that thing out and fight with the thread and tension. So, as I looked at the curtains for the outside patio, I noticed they were about 18 inches too long. I got out the needle and thread and began to figure out how I would proceed when Hank suggested I bring out the machine. I relented. The seams are a little crooked but at least it only took me an hour to cut off three curtains and sew the bottoms. Made three tie backs with the material I cut off. Hank was impressed. I did look like I knew what I was doing I have to admit. So he carted the machine back to the storage room and I'm wondering what I might sew next. If I can get on a roll again with the blog, tomorrow's subject is "a childhood memory". Until tomorrow. Ciao.