Tugboat Alley

Tugboats on the Hudson were at the annual Tugboat Roundup in Watervliet, NY this weekend. It was great to be able to go on the tugboat tour and see these little boats that have powerful engines that push barges up and down the Hudson.

Fireworks after were something to witness. One of the best shows we've seen.  Next year look for it and come down for family fun. The weekend after Labor Day every year!  food vendors available or bring a picnic lunch, the kids will love it, and it's free!

Thanks Ron and Michelle for inviting us to the Tugboat Roundup. It was great fun and educational.

They Ate My Garden! The Deer Little Things!

Sweetheart worked preparing and planting a garden for us this year only to have the deer eat everything in it, so disappointing. We managed to salvage a few squash and looked forward to some pumpkins.  Then the deer went in and ate the pumpkins, tomato plants, eggplants, cantaloupe, and the corn, overnight, are you kidding? Vegetables that the deer do not normally eat were all eaten overnight.

It was as if the deer stumbled upon the garden by accident and invited all their friends for an overnight  buffet.  Everything was gone by morning. Senior was not happy.

Then a couple of weeks later a doe and her three fauns appear by the garden in the early morning.  Senior watched as the fauns frolicked and played, kicked up their heels and jumped over each other with their mother nearby feeding in the field.  It gave him such joy to watch them all together he pointed them out to me to see them frolicking, it was cute to watch, he said, "I'm glad I could feed them."

Next year he plans to build a fence.

Thankful to see the deer having fun being free in the yard. Makes them "endearing" to the heart.

If You Wait Long Enough You Get Unexpected Surprises

When I was in nursing school I must say I loved microbiology because of the colored cells.  The colored cells were not from the body but from drawings and slides that were colored with dyes to differentiate the parts of each kind of cell.  In one textbook I had so many beautiful colored cells I wanted to cut out the pages and frame each.  And then on to the rest of school...

Then by universal accident I recently stumbled upon fluid painting with "cells" in it!  What? I always wanted to draw and color my own to frame but never got around to it.

I am hooked!  I am studying this and cannot wait to try it soon with my artist daughter!  I have decided these are so beautiful I am making these as my holiday gifts for the ladies this year.

Be still my heart, I love creating art more than anything!

Thankful to have eyes to read, enjoy colors, study new art techniques, and hands to make these beautiful art pieces.

It is fun to be alive! These are real human cells colored...

Play Me A Song Charlie...

Working on the house and cleaning the car, organizing, the usual weekend day we stopped to see a shed for sale and returned home.  While organizing our thinking for the rest of the night, things to complete, I sat on the couch and asked my Sweetheart to play a song.

He grabbed his guitar and played Bob Dylan's 'Shelter from the storm'  his voice is wonderful and that he played for me... well life doesn't' get any better than this to me.

Thankful to have a talented guitar playing, velvet voice singing husband.  He brings me much joy and comfort. 

Our Parents Were Right, "Never Talk Politics or Religion"

When you are young you hear many things at home growing up.  My interests lie in letting go of anger with forgiveness to be free, art, nature, meditation instead of medication, our children, making good food, writing, reading, being kind...and yes I have opinions about politics and religion however I am not interested in fighting anyone over either so I have decided to do what my father told me as a wee lass, "It takes two to fight and one to walk away." A religion of kindness should be talked about, we should live it,  and face it, you have no power in complaining and disagreeing with friends, this talk goes nowhere.

I'm walking away from giving any opinions about politics to others. Conservative by nature, liberal in opinions. I really am not any party. I vote for people across the board that I believe are good.  One thing I am very sure about, I do not like ongoing angry people speaking ill of anyone constantly.  We have a life, let's go live it and stop putting down others.  Life is too short to keep being so contrary towards everyone over everything said.  Opinions are like noses, everyone has one.

What happened to minding your own business, focusing on your work to be the best you can be and stop judging everyone that you have no direct influence over?  Criticising and complaining is stressful and non-productive, do something different, accept the situation, find something to be thankful about and move on with your life. Vote a person out of office when the time comes, and choose your religion but stop focusing daily on things out of your control, choose to be grounded in your life. Life is beautiful and we are lucky to be living in the USA today.

Find a way to be better at your own job.  Find a way to help others around you, volunteer, do something positive in your community.  The people constantly complaining about politics and religion need to get a more interesting life. Turn off the TV.  Find a life that demands your excited attention more than your daily political speculation that changes nothing.

Moving on, walking away from negative angry opinionated people, life is too short. Thankful I am not a counselor, public servant, government worker, minister, etc.  I like my peaceful mind. I noticed successful people I admire most, don't talk about either, there is a lesson in this for me.

It's Not My Painting!

I get a kick out of my ego. I watched acrylic painting on YouTube and I was so amazed at the artist and their techniques.  So I relaxed and enjoyed quite a bit of this flowing abstract art and found the pieces quite remarkable.

So after watching and getting the hang of it I would start to talk to the screen and tell the artist stop, stop, I love that line, leave that shape, it's good as it is and the artist would move the painting and blow it with a straw all techniques again and again and in my opinion lose the painting.  I am familiar with blowing paint, turning the canvas to move the paint but it was overdone until I felt they lost the beauty of it.

As I watched and wanted the piece for my house but lost the want after the artist would not stop moving the paint and lost the beauty of it to my eyes, I said, "It's not my painting!"

I need to have an opinion yes but keep my judgments out of it.  If I did the painting I would have stopped, it had such interesting shapes however she did not stop, she overdid it and the finished piece lost the interesting shapes with colors that I loved. It was ok.

I need a day creating art.  Time to make my own painting and back to minding my own business.

Thankful to be aware to stop myself and get back to minding my own business.  I do appreciate the art lessons on YouTube. Anyone can create beautiful art with this method. Holly we have to do this when you come for a visit. The cells are unique, what is up with Rain-X? I have to GTS.



 

You Caught Me!

Love always knowing who is my date for Saturday night comedy show.

So I dress up in a new pant suit for our date.

We go see Andy Woodhull at Funny Bones and he is hilarious, another clean comic with a great sense of humor like Ryan Hamilton.

After the show we buy his CD and we ride home and talk about the show and how much we loved it.

In the closet hanging up our clothes my husband says, "You wore that tonight? That's nice."

"Yes, it's a new outfit. You just noticed it as I hang it on the hanger? I thought you'd notice it on me."

"No, I didn't."

I go to bed and he goes into the bathroom then he comes out, "Ok, what did I wear tonight?"

I say, "Green cargo pants and a black shirt."  He had this on earlier this evening.

"No, I had on khaki cargo pants and a navy shirt."

"Ok, you caught me."😉

If you want to hear Andy Woodhull go to Pandora, make a Andy Woodhull Station and let it play the rest of your life. He gets royalties every time someone plays his show. Let's help a comic out.