It’s viewed almost year round because deer and pansies live in both hemispheres, thus this post is popular in both the spring and the autumn wherever you might live.
Who’d of thunk it?
And while I’m asking rhetorical questions, would you like to know why I was thinking about my most viewed post?
Soooo that’s what I’m doing today. Repurposing old content like a social media guru, sort of. Wondering if this idea will work on a personal blog, even kind of sort of.
Yep, I am your personal blogging dominatrix reusing that which is, to engage with &/or command influence over those readers who find this blog and read this post, ostensibly about deer and pansies.
Last week was a troublesome one for me. It was rascally and I got scattered and I lost focus on my one word of the year, streamlined.
I had dreams of getting it together last week, doing the things on my to-do list in a smooth and centered way like the organized lady of the list I long to be. But the Universe scoffed and instead, beleaguered by annoying things, I was distracted me from my true purpose.
THE WHINING PART
Nothing bad happened, only small RIDICULOUS annoying things happened that began to slow me down and wear on my very last nerve. Here is a list of those annoying things:
• tornado warning with winds gusting to 60 mph that took down a piece of our house’s gutter;
• smoke detector battery went chirpy during the day when I was here by myself, without anyone to spot me to climb on a ladder to change the battery, so the smoke detector sang all stinking day;
• the water department turned off the water to this subdivision because of a nearby traffic accident, thus in one day our water was off for 6 hours, on for 2 hours, then off again for 4 hours;
• landscape crew arrived without advance warning to do spring cleanup, then piled mulch in such a way as to trap my car inside the garage;
• laundry service lost one of Z-D’s shirts and told me such when the delivery man came to the front door, handed me the laundered unlost shirts and asked me if I could tell him which shirt was missing… as if I pay any attention to Z-D’s extensive collection of mostly white or pale blue button-down Oxford cloth dress shirts; and finally
• doorbell got stuck on meaning that the button, after being pushed in, connected with the bell box that rang its melodious ding, then the bell box started to buzz… loudly and ceaselessly… until I got a screwdriver and dismantled the doorbell separating the wires to make the stupid thing be quiet.
AND IN CONCLUSION
Pretty hot pink geranium harbinger of better days.
At this point, if I were an inspirational sort of blogger, I’d share with you a pithy lesson, succinctly put, so that you might learn from my experiences too and say to yourselves: what a wise Bean is Ally for sharing her troubles here and showing us, through her example, how to live better lives.
However, I’ve no such conclusion to this post.
Other than to say, I guess, it’s rather empowering to acknowledge setbacks, complain about them, then get over your sorry self while you carry on with another week as if you’ve got it all together.
Over the weekend we went to a garden decor center to look at birdbaths for my butterfly habitat. There is no end to the exciting things we do here. In fact I sometimes hesitate telling you, my gentle readers, what we’re up to because I don’t want to make anyone jealous.
We didn’t find a birdbath that’ll work for us because it’s early in the outdoor season here so the selection was minimal– and because the ones available required electricity which we don’t have where I want to put a birdbath.
But we had a nice time walking around the property in the sunshine. YAY SPRING! 😎
+ • + • + • +
In the parking lot of this garden decor center is a sign that directs you one way or the other. You can either meander down the Scenic Route that wraps around the front of the property where there are displays of ponds + fountains + birdbaths to give you an idea of what you might want to do in your yard. This path is kind of artsy fartsy.
Or you can use the Main Entrance and go directly to the merchandise in the back of the property where it’s organized in large quadrants of similar items. This is where the helpful sales people are ready to get you all squared away. This path is fast and practical.
Scenic route or main entrance? Those are your choices at the garden decor center. And it seems to me, an English major who can find meaning in anything, those are often your choices in life. Which begs the question:
WHICH WAY IS YOUR USUAL CHOSEN PATH: MEANDER OR DIRECT? Hmmm…? 🤔
+ • + • + • +
On a whim yesterday afternoon I created a free survey about this blog using SurveyMonkey. Having never done anything like this before, I followed their suggestions about the questions to include.
There are seven questions that according to them will take you 1 minute to answer. Trust me when I say that it took me longer than 1 minute to make this survey– learning curve, kind of steep.
I have my *fingers crossed* that this is going to work. Also, you’ll be anonymous. There are no demographic questions and I won’t know your IP address.
Click on HOW AM I DOING? to be magically transported to my survey, should you care to take a minute of your time and answer my questions. Thank you in advance for your kind participation in my first online survey. 🤓
Hence I shall show you the above photo of two pots of ivy immediately after they had a shower in the kitchen sink. One is silver bells ivy, the other is jubilee ivy.
I can’t tell you which is which but I like ivy, and I especially like these two varieties because they have great names and are easy to grow.
That, my friends, is a win-win.
May you heart be like holly and your words be like ivy.
[An Irish blessing, not sure if I got it quite right, but you get the idea.]
Anyhoo, the real reason I’m in a great mood today is that once again I’m waiting for St. Vincent de Paul to get here to pick-up some furniture that we’re donating to them.
Everything but the kitchen sink.
[A nice idiom that lends itself to this post.]
Slowly, ever so slowly, we are divesting ourselves of that which we don’t need but someone else can use.
Another win-win, I believe.
Thus I’ll end this jotting-style post in which I prove that I can and will show up on Tuesdays. Because unlike most of the peoples I know, I like Tuesdays.
Today I’m joining Thursday Doors, hosted by Norm Frampton, so that I can share with you photos of the following doors plus a little more.
On a sunny winter’s day we went to Rowe Woods which is part of the Cincinnati Nature Center. Within Rowe Woods is Krippendorf Lodge.
Built in 1898-1900 and originally owned by Carl & Mary Krippendorf, this large home is on the National Register of Historic Places. Krippendorf Lodge sits on 175-acres of wooded land that was once called Karlsruhe Gardens [meaning Carl’s Place of Peace], but is now called Lob’s Wood [I know not why].
Today Krippendorf Lodge is an event venue, available year-round for rent. From the outside the building itself appears to be in perfect condition, as are the adjacent outbuildings that include a unique water tower.
I was unable to get a good pic of the front doors to Krippendorf Lodge, but I took a few other door photos while wandering around + a few artsy-fartsy photos for perspective.
Look closely. The above is a photo of a butterfly landing on salvia. I took it, while standing on our stone path by the side of the house, last August.
Seeing the butterfly then made me happy because I’m working on turning one quadrant of our garden, by the stone path, into a butterfly habitat. So far, this is a project in its infancy having attracted only a few butterflies.
But I have dreams. Big Butterfly Habitat Dreams.
And now, not to put too fine a point on it, I have a cheerful photo, perfect for sharing here today, whilst we’re in the midst of the Polar Vortex.
People, it is cold outside.
Yesterday it was 7ºF in the early morning and I thought that was cold. I had to go to the doc’s office for routine blood work so I bundled up and navigated the plowed, but still slippery, streets to get there.
It was an interesting drive.
Today, at the same time in the morning, it’s -3ºF outside and I’m going nowhere. Nowhere I say. Yep, I’m staying at home inside, being the reasonably prudent slacker that I am at heart.
Why? Because I can [the obvious flippant answer that we all know and love].
And because you, my gentle readers, are out there in the world wide web, waiting, I hope, to comment on this post so that I have something meaningful to do with my time today.
Over the weekend we went to a garden decor center to look at birdbaths for my 
