FRIDAY FENCE POST #63

It's Friday! Seen any good fences lately? This is the place to let us see it, and it's easy: Post your fence photo on your own website/blog, and then paste the URL to your post in Mr Linky, down below. And please grab my button, in the left sidebar and post it somewhere on the page so others can join the fun, too! (Highlight the photo, right click, and select Copy as HTML from the dropdown menu that appears. That will give you the code.) I promise to come by and see all your posts, and leave a comment!

The picture above shows only a part of a fence. I took it because I liked the rickrack effect of the curving brick edging the path. Ceili is clearly interested in a visit to that inviting door!

I really liked this aging, interwoven fence, and wish only that the several other photos I took had actually turned out. They're worth clicking on, to see full-size, I think.





And now it's your turn!

FRIDAY FENCE POST #61

It's Friday, so time for a Friday Fence Post! Join this meme--it's EASY. Just grab the Friday Fence Post button in my left sidebar, and put it on your own blog. That's first. Then make your own Friday Fence Post on your blog, come back here, and drop the link to it in the Mr Linky. Be sure the link is the perma-link to that particular post, and not to your general blog, so that we'll be taken to your fence(s) when we click on it.

I promise to come see every Fence Post you drop and leave a comment!





This new routine of walking a couple of miles every day has had a side benefit: Lots of fences! I've got a whole collection saved up now, for use in future posts.

As I've walked and checked out the neighborhood fences, I've pondered the question: What makes a fence interesting?

Answer: The decision to photograph it!

Granted, there are some boring fences out there. Brand-new, spiffy fences are generally harder to capture, for me, anyway. They simply haven't developed any character yet. But if you look carefully, and experiment with camera angles and range, it's amazing what you'll see in a lot of fences that strike you, at first, as not worth the effort!

Here are today's fences:




And one fence I couldn't get, because my little friend refused to stop blocking it:


And that nasturtium at the top of this post? It was on top of a fence!


It pays to looks up, over the tops of the fences. You just never know who's watching:

WALKING THE CAMERA, WITH DOG

What? You want to see the dog, too? She can be hard to photograph! (Unless you want to see her little hiney trotting along in front of me, lol.) Here's what she's like when we're trying to get out the door:

And some of the sights we saw:




This was our first "spooky" sighting, but I'm sure it was unintentional on the part of the owners. This rocking horse has been outside long enough that most of the paint is gone, and the underlying plastic has faded to white. The sun shining behind and through it made it look positively spectral:

Other Halloween-ish views:





We walked rather farther than I'd realized, and the day was warmer than I realized. By the time we were a few blocks from home, we were both thoroughly ready to Be There. About a block and a half from the house, Ceili took advantage of a handy lawn, and lay down.

I told her, "We're almost home, baby. Let's go home," and she gamely got to her feet and trudged on, but the next house had another lawn, and she lay down again, panting. So I stood there, and let her rest for a few minutes, and then told her, "We're almost there. You want to go home? Let's go home." That time we made it all the way to our own back yard, where she promptly walked up onto the grass, and lay down, tummy pressed against the cool lawn.

I decided she was on the right track, chose the nearest bench, and took off my socks. Ahhh.

Ceili was So tired.


I mean, Really tired.


She was not the only tired "dog" in our yard, either!

I'd been sitting there for a few minutes, enjoying the late sunshine, when I looked down at the base of the rosebush I was near. What is my little cherub doing there?


Doesn't she look like she's resting her nose on the base of that wire table, and sighing?

POOR SICK PUPPY!

Okay, so my head is full of my little dog Ceili today. (Say that, KAY-lee; it's gaelic for a musical gathering or party.) Ceili had surgery on Tuesday, to remove bladder stones. Poor little baby! I couldn't believe how big some of the stones were--one was bigger than a robin's egg!

She's been very quiet since I brought her home yesterday, but her appetite is picking up, and I finally figured out she'd get her antibiotic down if I pulverized it and mixed it with a little of her food. Here she is, in her own little parking spot:


And I figured as long as I was doggie-brained today, I'd see what I could find in the way of Scotties on Etsy. Aren't these great?

Pin The Tail

Beth's Bagz

Dogs In Pastel

Sharkman 123

Gibscot

Karen Laneart

Last, and not least! My two Sweeties

IN MY ROOM, IN MY ROOM

This post is MizMollye's fault! She got me thinking about our bedroom, and how I feel about it, and the answer to that is, I love it. It's a work in process, and only in the last couple of months have I added curtains, three styles of lace in two colors and three lengths, but the light shining through masks the different patterns, and you can't see how long they are because the bed hides the bottoms of even the shortest panels. (We have high windows, so very few worries about privacy.)

Our bedroom has, technically, two owners, my dear husband, and me, but you'll notice a rug on the bed. Somehow or another, our dog, Ceili, has decided it's also her room, at least, if we're in it! She will sit, mournful-eyed, on whichever side of the bed has the occupant currently deemed "Most Likely to Respond to My Entreaties", gazing steadily at either Bob or me. If that doesn't work to get her lifted up, she'll try the other side. She has strict instructions to, "Stay on your blankie!" once we've put her up on the bed, but given the slightest perceived excuse Ceili will edge her way up the bed until she has her chin on a knee, then a thigh, and finally is snuggled right between us, at which point we give in and move the rug instead.

(By the way, Ceili is Gaelic, and is the word for a musical gathering or party. You pronounce it, "KAY-lee".)

Bob and I spend a lot of time in this room.


Every weekday at five, the political talk shows come on. Well, actually, they're on most of the day, but our favorites come on then. We plant ourselves in front of the set, and see what we can learn--which politicians are saying and doing what, who's telling lies about which bills or actions, who voted for or against what legislation, which mega corporations are ripping us off this week, and who thinks it's perfectly fine for them to do it. I almost always have my laptop open, reading blogs, editing photos, or sometimes checking what they say on TV against what I can find on the internet.

During commercials, I trot to the kitchen and get dinner ready, which we usually eat in front of the set. We're good for maybe two political hours, and then maybe an hour of something else, and then my early bird husband turns in for the night. I stay until he's asleep, and then get up and do crafts, or housework, or computer, until I turn in at 10:30 or 11.

This is the view from my side of the bed--our dressers, and all the clutter we each accumulate to put on top. It's a dusting nightmare, which is why it so rarely gets done!


My clutter runs to angels and jewelry. There are angels all over the room, but the jewelry is pretty much confined to the dresser and wall.



This is the dear husband's brand of clutter:


The green book is a collection of Dick Francis short stories. I occasionally read one aloud for the two of us. I particularly like the card he keeps prominently displayed on the red and gold box. I gave it to him years ago:


The inside of the card reads, "I am."

FRIDAY FENCE POST #48

I spent Wednesday back in kindergarten! It was my granddaughter's last day of school, and I had the sweet pleasure of attending her class for the last part of the day, eating with her and my daughter at the school barbecue, and then playing for the rest of the afternoon.

On the way home from school, we scanned the passing homes and streets for fences. We traded, "Look at that one!" and "Oooh, that IS pretty!" comments for several minutes as I drove through Newberg. It's a little town, with lots of well kept turn-of-the-century homes, and there were lots of spring flowers to draw the eye.

In the end, it wasn't really a pretty fence I elected to photograph:



Closer:


Doesn't it look great with some filters applied? I just love all the texture!


The last one is a "freebie". I looked out the kitchen window this morning, and ran for the camera. Ceili was standing on the top step of the deck, and drinking from the highest saucer of a six-saucer plant stand. I don't know. Maybe I'm just ga-ga over my little dog, but I thought it was cute.

FIGHT HEAT WITH A CREEPY SALAD

It's still hot, though not quite a fiery as yesterday, which topped out at 106.3 degrees F (41.28 C). I'm trying to get work done, but trying to stay cool at the same time.

Ceili keeping cool under the bed

Somehow, hot weather seems to call for Jell-o, so I went looking for a package, and also some fruit to stir into it.

I came up with a small package of apricot Jell-o (yes, it was even that brand). Now then, fruit. Grapes? That didn't sound too good. Ate the last pear and banana yesterday. One slightly shriveled Red Delicious apple in the 'fridge, a donation to my lunch at an art show, of a variety I find inedible. (Which makes me ask: What has been done to the family of Delicious apples? They were really good when I was a kid, and we had them in our orchard.)

Anyway, I stood at the cabinet, shuffling cans, searching...cranberry sauce? Okay. Sure. That could work. Maybe.

I took pictures, so here's what you do:

Fix the Jell-o as per box instructions, and put it in the refrigerator to partially set up. While you're at it, put the can of jellied cranberry sauce in the 'fridge, too. An hour and a half or so later, take them out again.

Open the cranberry sauce, and cut four slices. Put a slice in each of four small bowls.


Divide the apricot gelatin (there, used a different word!) amongst the four bowls with the slices in the bottom.

Cut two more slices of cranberry sauce, and cut them into sixths.


Stand three wedges in the Jell-o in a line at the rim of each bowl, and your dessert/salad is done. Unless you have whipped cream or topping, which would be yummy on top.


The color combo is a little dark, a little creepy, but hey, marigolds come in that color combination, so it can't be all that bad. I'm SO looking forward to dinner tonight. Which reminds me to say: Put the bowls back into the refrigerator until you're ready to eat them.

Bonus Picture: Sandie and Coco surveying a flower bed full of Mega Blossoms at the Cracked Pots show.

*Click on any image to see it full-sized.*