Right, wrong and strange

Right...lunch with friend Elena

In the past couple of weeks, there's been the right, the wrong and the strange...

Wrong...scaring hikers at the start of the trail

Strange...Mikie pushing a boulder

Right...Hiking with friends Mary and Stan at Salt Lick Point Trail on bluffs of the Mississippi

Wrong..."limb pickup every week".  Tree limbs or another kind?

Strange...blue fiberglass frog covered with apples. Even the eye is half an apple.

Right...finding a beautiful butterfly on our hike

Wrong...repairing the fire house door.  Glad they respond quickly but...

Right...camping with friends Gretchen & Craig in Knoxville, IL

So Wrong...a snake in my new flower garden...I am still having nightmares!

Strange...Why not 7 or 8 mph?

And so life goes. Right, wrong and strange.

Have a great week.
Diane

GUMBY goes to Goodwill

Ok, it's a known fact that I go to Goodwill. A lot.  If you've read this blog the past couple of years, you've heard me talk about tons of donations as I readied my house for sale and as Mike and I fit two households together.  And Goodwill has also been a great and inexpensive source of raw materials for making purses and bottles that serve as my canvas for painting.

So last week I was cleaning out a closet and I came across GUMBY.  Ah yes, GUMBY...I still sigh when I think about it.

During my last job before retirement my boss and I didn't exactly see eye to eye.  Let's just say I had a bit of an attitude during my final months since I knew I planned to retire soon.  And when I didn't agree with him, I let him know.  

And as those things go my boss spoke at my retirement party.  And he presented me with GUMBY.  Why?  It was his practice to give this award to people who demonstrated great flexibility.  He said he was giving it to me because I was flexible and performed whatever work he assigned me.   Seemed a bit strange given my attitude and lip in my final days.   Oh yes,  and this was accompanied by a kiss on the cheek.   SERIOUSLY???   You can only imagine my horror.

Now I don't really have anything against GUMBY.  He's a cute little chap and fun little toy.  But you know it's almost been 2 years now, and I just need to let it go.  Gumby AND my feelings about my boss and last job.  It's over, and it's time to move into my new future.  Took me awhile to get here, but it feels pretty darn good!  Opportunities.  Bring them on!

And I hope some little kid happily leaves Goodwill with Gumby in tow!


Diane

The days melt together

Me in Challenger window, Indiana corn in background...

and I lose track of whether this is Wednesday or Thursday.  And what is the date?  And how did this happen to a person who project planned for a living anyway?




We have had a couple of unscheduled weeks, and I'm finding that the day and date don't matter much.   Mike has been busy designing and building a bike storage rack for our garage, and I've been building our nest.  And all the while wondering if I should be "nesting" or out in the world volunteering or working or doing something of more meaning.  I'm a bit restless lately, wondering what the next steps should be.  As I've mentioned before, I believe I'll know the right opportunity when it knocks.  But as our friend John said, maybe that's true, but wouldn't it be more likely you will find the opportunity if you are out in the world looking for it.  Food for thought, for sure...

So here's a pictorial view of the past week's activities...

We have limited space in our garage and way too much stuff.  So we need a place to store our bikes so they're available when we want to ride.  And Mike is good at building things, so he put together a prototype "C" structure, modified it with pulleys when I couldn't lift the bike without hurting my back, and now the construction is underway.  And finally I "get" the importance of prototypes in the software development world.  Wish I would have known this during my program management days...

Mike with C frame

Pulleys on the prototype

And then there's my decorating streak.  Of course I still have the need to accomplish something each day, and so goes my attempts to dress up our home...

Amazingly clean laundry room!  And yes, that's an Eli Lilly lab coat in the back!

I cleaned out the laundry room, removing a huge amount of Mike's clothes which were on hangers and laying on this shelf.   And no, the paint isn't new.  Mike and I painted this room several years ago.  It's "rubber glove yellow".

Family room with new curtains.

And I wanted to soften the family room with curtains.  So after dragging Mike to Penney's, Lowe's, Target and a few other places, and him admitting he "didn't really care" about curtains, we finally found the perfect rod and grommet curtains.

The room looks totally different now, and Mike is getting over his fear that the curtains are encroaching on the room...













And I added some of my pottery to the hearth.  Hey, a couple more things out of storage!

My new pouf.  Mike hates that word!

I finally found a "pouf" or "cube" for the porch.  At last a place to perch tired feet while drinking a iced tea (or wine!).

First the balloon, now the CD's...

And we  hung old "CD's" to protect our ripening raspberries from the birds.  They move about in the slightest breeze and hopefully will scare the birds.











We spent an afternoon at the Eiteljorg Museum to view the Guitars Exhibit.  It was an amazing pictorial history of guitars.  We would cue up each exhibit on an iPod and listen to music from that instrument (think Stephen Stills and Jimmy Hendrix).  Amazing!

Mike playing a chord.

And I LOVE the flowers in our yard...

Notice the honey bee in foreground...First time we've seen honey bees in several years!

Don't you just love this texture?

Fig growing at center of leaves

Blue petunias! Really?  Hey, on sale after 4th of July!

And I finally got back to some crafting...pulled out the sewing machine, fought thread tension problems and broken needles to sew a couple of new purses...

"Pink is my favorite color..." 

Bling!

And so goes it.  Days that fade together, choosing how to spend each day, and wondering if there should be something more I'm doing with my life.  Restless, yes.  Enjoying the days?  For sure.

Hope you are having a great week!
Diane

Busy summer

We've been so busy lately it's been difficult to find time to write.  So here's a quick catch up...

First, some things that just can't be explained...

Just another afternoon on the Monon Trail

We were sitting at the Monon Food Company having lunch on a very hot summer day, and along comes a wagon train along the trail.  No signs of protest or signs showing what they were doing, so we never did figure this one out.

This just in...duck with dark glasses in front of bank

And as we drove into Evansville this week, we saw a VERY LARGE RUBBER DUCKIE sitting outside a bank.  Who knows?


















And as you have come to expect, here are the latest plant and flower photos...

Hibiscus

My beautiful hibiscus plant finally bloomed!

Summer squash

And we have garden produce!  After all the travails of planting squash (building a garden because containers would be too small, setting up irrigation for the garden and building a fence to keep out rabbits), we finally picked our first squash.  It was wonderful, sliced and baked with a dusting of oregano, basil and garlic powder.








And it continues to be a great summer visiting friends and family.

With Ruth on Monon Trail

My friend Ruth drove over from Des Moines to visit for a few days.  We enjoyed biking at Eagle Creek Park, along the canal from the Art Museum to the Monon Trail and around  the neighborhood.  We also enjoyed some wonderful meals including long evenings sitting on the porch with some wine and lots of stories!  It was great to have some quality time together to catch up on life.






And we made a quick trip Southern Indiana to visit family.  One of the highlights was a sightseeing tour with mom which felt like days when I was a kid and our family went for a drive on Sunday afternoons.  We saw the new Mt. Vernon waterfront, Hovey Lake and the locks and dam.  And of course we got to update Mike on a few stories along the way...







And while we were enjoying a great family meal at my mom's house, we got to see a great storm move in...

Wheat field before the storm

Killer clouds

Strange evening sky

We also spent some great pool time with our friends Kevin and Kathy during a quick weekend trip to Illinois.  

And then there was an amazing Ian Anderson Concert at the Murat in downtown Indy.  He played music from Thick as a Brick I and II albums (the second album was just released in 2012).  This is our third Ian Anderson/Jethro Tull concert over the years, and he is simply an amazing flautist and song writer!

So now we're back home again with some garage work underway...namely creating room for cars and bikes by organizing and moving stuff.  And as you can see there is a lot of work ahead!












Hope you are enjoying a wonderful weekend!
Diane

Discovering Indy-The Ruins at Holliday Park

Races of Mankind sculpture at "The Ruins"

We discovered a great little gem in the city last week.  Holliday Park.  Last Thursday our friend John asked us to attend a free evening concert by  at Holliday Park.  The weather was fantastic, it was live music and it was free.  Of course we said yes!

The story of "The Ruins" in Holliday Park starts in the late 1800's.  International sculptor Karl Bitter designed the "Races of Mankind" sculpture in the late 1890's which was originally installed on a building in NY city.  When the sculpture was later removed from the NY building, there was a competition among U.S. cities to design a home for the sculpture.  Indianapolis won the competition with Artist Elmer Taflinger's design of "The Ruins",  complete with columns, pillars, statues and fountains.

As Mike and I walked around the park, standing next to "The Ruins" transported me back to college days of exploring the Acropolis and other Greek ruins.  Not only were there the requisite pillars and columns, but the area was overgrown with trees and bushes, and the fountains weren't working.

"The Ruins"

But come to find out, it isn't supposed to look that way  Ironically "The Ruins" are now in a state of ruin due to neglect and lack of funding over the years.

So there is a capital campaign underway , and the Friends of Holliday Park are well on their way to funding an endowment to restore and maintain this area.

What an amazing gem tucked away in a little known city park.  I can't wait to return as work progresses on this revitalization project.  And the concert was awesome!  The band Living Proof played a lot of cover tunes, and the crowd was moving and dancing to the tunes.

Removing the trees

And on the home front, part our own property has been a bit of a demolition site this past week.  We removed three diseased and dying Austrian Pines that were located between our house and our neighbor's house to the South.

Don't know the name, but it was effective equipment

Sunlight between the houses!

Since Mike bought the house about seven years ago, this area has been "no man's land" of pine trees, volunteer trees, poison ivy and weeds.

But as we made the decision to remove the trees, we've been thinking about alternate uses of this land.  First of all, it was always shady and dark.  Now it is a bright sunny spot!


So visions of a raised garden are floating through our heads.  It's too late for this year, but next year I envision a bumper crop of vegetables!  And another benefit of the tree removal is that our neighbors are now cleaning up their side of the property which was also very overgrown.  Major progress is underway!

Mike fixing the desk

And the next big project is Mike's study.  He made some revisions to the desk top,  and then we moved it out of the garage and into the house.

I'll save you from my ravings about how many times I cussed under my breath while trying to avoid denting my car door on that desk since last September... but suffice it to say I'm thrilled it's out of the garage.

Desk is finally in the study!

So Mike is now setting up  his study and getting things in order.  Again, major progress!

Beautiful evening at Holliday Park!

Have a great week! Diane

Beauty of nature

Beautiful petunias

By now you should know me well enough to expect lots of pictures of summer flowers.  And with recent cooler temps and low humidity, I've been living outside.  And my camera is never far away...









All of these flowers are part of our yard except for the yellow lily.  Ok, I snuck into my neighbor's yard for that picture.

Geraniums on the deck

Rose bush from my mom's garden

Neighbor's lily

Pink petunias on the deck

Gorgeous pansy

Bird of Paradise

And I am experimenting this year with container gardening.  So far the tomatoes, bell peppers and squash are looking good. Can't wait for some fine eating ahead....

Cherry tomatoes on the deck

Bell peppers on the deck

Squash garden, aka "Jumanji" squash



And our feline friends are enjoying the great outdoors via the screen  porch.  They definitely have the right idea!

Wendy enjoying the porch

I hope you are enjoying the beautiful outdoors this summer!  Have a great weekend!

Diane