***Tuesday's Tip***

Today's tip has a bit of a story...a bit of a winding path...

If you have been reading my blog from the start you would know that I am in love with swimming....if I could be a mythological creature I would be a.....



mermaid....

Well, it has been a bit of a struggle for me to swim this year...actually every summer I deal with some pain from an old injury that took place back in 1981 when we built this...

Yes! that is he and me...there is a bigger story here...I will tell that at another time.  Today's tip has to do with swimming.  During the building of this cabin I lifted too many roofing shingles and hauled them up the "cliff" we lived on...the land had no flat areas...this was the best spot to build...we paid $4,500 for 10 acres of slope back then.  Anyways, on one of my shingle lifting trips I picked up a few too many and my left shoulder went ###YIKES!!!  It has never been the same.  I have seen all manner of doctors and healthcare practitioners...but no one could do anything to "cure" it. 

So I have learned to do things in a way that keeps the 'old log cabin building injury' from flaring up.  Swim stroke have been a constant bummer...until....

This photo gives you more of a feeling for the slope and height!

...I found flippers!  Recently I was bemoaning the fact that my shoulder caused me trouble while at the beach with a friend.  She suggested flippers!  They have changed my swimming loving life!!!  I don't use my arms at all and with the mask and snorkel it is even more meditative.  I do have a stronger right leg so my laps may have a bit of an arc to them...but who cares, there is no one to bump into...except occasionally a turtle...I am having so much fun!  No Pain and Gain!  I highly recommend flippers as a swimming fitness tool for the shoulder impaired!

I think it is time for a swim now!  Not sure if I should confess to this...but I am a skinny dipper...quite a look~~~mask, fins, & snorkel~~~only!  Hey, what's the point of a private pond if you have to wear a suit!? 

~~~Gratitude~~~

 Lazy Sunday

Today I am having a Lazy Sunday.  So far I have made a list of what is needed for renovating/finishing our bathroom.  Just a list, not actually doing anything.  Then I took a nap.  Now I am writing this blog.  Next I will go for a swim ~~~ maybe another nap? After that make an early dinner of lo Mien noodles, sauteed tofu, and stir fry veggies from the freezer.  Then spend the rest of the day doing nothing until it is time for bed.  Lazy Days are very rare around here ~~~ so I am grateful that I am in the mood to do nothing much and that I am "doing" nothing much!  So what do you do when you get to have a lazy day? 

 It is my intention, each Sunday, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your gratitude moments. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~

---Shop News---

http://www.etsy.com/treasury/MzM1ODA4MTN8MjcyNDc4Mjg3OA/maine-gardens?ref=pr_treasury

 Well, my life has been mostly in my gardens these days.  So when I managed to get on my computer yesterday I made a treasury celebrating the garden!  All  items come from members of the Maine Team on Etsy ~ handmade in my wonderful home state of MAINE!

I do have my new stand-up computer station ready to rock-n-roll and it is doing my wrists wonders!  But I forgot to anticipate how tired I get after gardening all day...it is hard to list items while I am asleep on my feet.  So not working as late as I once was...which is a good thing...more needed sleep.  The stand up computer desk has not only been good for my body but my mind as well.  I am spending less time goofing around on the computer (I do have an iPad...so some goofing going on with it...but less overall)  I always want to get more done in a day than I do but, I am at peace with how thing end up flowing.

I am very happy in the gardens this year which maybe the results of last summers sabbatical.  I am enjoying the quiet and solitude I experience here.  I feel very in balance this year with the growing and goings.  Even the Japanese Beetles are not getting me down.  Enjoying the little pleasures of small garden wonders.  It is good to be alive with the growth of summer not to mention yummy too!

cute little cuke

"pond view garden" tomatoes trying to ripen

what I call the "big" garden

"south garden" full of garlic and potatoes! (duckingham palace & asparagus)

Before you know the winter winds will be blowing and there will be time for renewed focus on creating arts and crafts.  In the meantime I am going to relish this summer time to it's fullest.  

I do get some sit down time when beans need to be snapped!  

Life is Good ~~~ Wishing the same for you! <3

***Tuesday's Tip***

I bought this boogie board for a dollar at a yard sale about 5 years ago.  I had every intention of it becoming my beach buddy.  But rather than ending up here....

It has only been afloat here....

Each summer I intend to spend more time at the beach.  My record is 3 times.  I only went twice last season during my Garden Sabbatical, how sad is that!  I have been twice this summer already...so there is hope!  In the meantime my boogie board has become one of my favorite garden gadgets instead, of my beach buddy.  Let's face it I will always spend more time in the garden than at the beach.

My boogie board is like my garden couch.  It is a fantastic device for kneeling & sitting while picking and weeding.  Great for a garden stretch too.  Very comfy in yoga child's pose or for lying on your back to stare at clouds for a bit of a break.

It also has this very nice webbing strap with a Velcro loop on the end.  I can hitch it too my belt loop and drag it along when my hands are full.

Maybe a boogie board in the garden reminds me to get to the beach and enjoy the waves before summer's end.  I want to be clear, I love the beach but, I love the work here more.  It is the everyday pleasure of accomplishment that feeds my soul with an emphasis on pleasure.  The work may be hard at times but, even a tired body is a reward when felt with relish and satisfaction.  There are so many sights to see if one just takes the time to look.  I do not seek the BIG reward...I don't even know what that is?  It is the everyday JOY that sustains me and fills me with the feeling of satisfaction.

Like an early morning with my coffee, boogie board, hand tool, and weeds...

....to a job completed before the shade was lost, with ducks in the distance and time for another cup of coffee enjoying what I had just done.

A fresh poem find....

Pleasures

BY DENISE LEVERTOV

I like to find   

what's not found   

at once, but lies

within something of another nature,   

in repose, distinct.   

Gull feathers of glass, hidden

in white pulp: the bones of squid   

which I pull out and lay

blade by blade on the draining board—

       tapered as if for swiftness, to pierce   

       the heart, but fragile, substance

       belying design.               Or a fruit, mamey,

cased in rough brown peel, the flesh   

rose-amber, and the seed:

the seed a stone of wood, carved and

polished, walnut-colored, formed   

like a brazilnut, but large,

large enough to fill

the hungry palm of a hand.

I like the juicy stem of grass that grows

within the coarser leaf folded round,

and the butteryellow glow

in the narrow flute from which the morning-glory   

opens blue and cool on a hot morning.

http://www.poetryfoundation.org/poem/171229

~~~Gratitude~~~

"Summer Heat"

In the summer when the days are hot,
I like to find a shady spot,
and hardly move a single bit
and sit, and sit, and sit, and sit.

unknown

It has been HOT~~~my cat, Vern, is a good example of what I have been like this last week.  Oh summer! Weeks like this last week are a true struggle for me.  Even though I had another wonderful beach day...by Friday I was spent.  Catnip would not have been enough for me to get going!  

Summer is to me when the heat & humidity reign:

THE

ITCHY

SCRATCHY

SWEATY

SLEEPLESS

HOT

BUGGY (Yes~the Japaneses Beetles have entered my dreams...sigh)

TOO MUCH LIGHT

TOO MUCH WORK

TIME

But then the HEAT broke

~~~sound of trumpets & hallelujahs~~~

I now remember the blessings of summer. I am filled with GRATITUDE and Rejoice!

Besides weed whacking and weeding ~ I harvested this today!  

~~~all is well, all is well~~~

 It is my intention, each Sunday, to share something that fills me with Gratitude. 

I write ~~~Gratitude~~~ with the wavy lines to represent the gratitude ENERGY~~~~~! 

I hope you will join me and share your gratitude moments. 

~~~Amen, Blessed Be, Namaste'~~~

***Tuesday's Tip*** or The Beetle Battle

 
Ahhh...the Japanese Beetle...it is really quite a beautiful creature.  A fine example of a scarab beetle.  I love insects as a rule, I find them fascinating.  Every year I see an insect that I have never seen before.  But, I must admit I would like to see a "few" fewer of these beetle buggers.  If it wasn't for this.....

....I could love these little critters.  So what is an organic gardener to do?  I try to take the path of co-creation whenever I can.  Gardening for me isn't about me vs. "them".  But the Japanese Beetle does feel like a battle at times.  The season has just begun so I haven't started seeing them in my dreams yet!  This year is not as bad as some.  As a matter of fact, the beetles seem to be declining since they first appeared here about 6 years ago.  One factor maybe the rise of the Tachinid Fly, the natural predator of the Japanese beetle.  See those little white dots on the thorax of the beetle...those are fly eggs.  I have never seen so many eggs in past years!  YEAH!

So what do I do?  I collect beetles...but this isn't your high school insect collection!

Each morning before the sun gets really shining I take my coffee outside and a gallon bucket with a couple of inches of water.  The beetles are solar powered, impossible to catch in the heat of the day.  They are groggy in the morning and slip into my bucket easily.  I do try to liberate the white dot beetles...but I give them a toss away from my plants so they have to fly back for breakfast.

I use plain water...NO SOAP...you'll see why in a minute....

When I have collected as many as I can find I take my bucket to my Tanglefoot Beetle Trap. (see Amazon link on the sidebar)

Now there is a lot of advice against the use of a beetle trap.  I think that may be wise in a town or suburban neighborhood because then you may be just attracting your neighbor's beetles.  But I am pretty isolated and I only put out the trap (or traps) once the beetles have arrived.  I have been using the Tanglefoot Trap for 5 years.  They have held up very well and they have a reusable can vs. plastic bags.  So meanwhile, back to my beetle report...

I dump my beetles into the trap.  Last night I have switched cans putting the full one in the freezer.

NEXT~~~

Dump the beetle~sicles on the ground and.........

Duck-licious! 

My girls come running when they hear me banging the frozen beetle can...a great treat on a hot day...if you are a duck!

Organic Gardening is the only way I would grow.  You win some, you lose some.  I always say, "I don't gamble, I garden."  I actually feel for the beetles and their need to live and flourish.  So I take my loses in stride and plant lots of what I want so I can "survive" "sharing"!

So a poem...of course!

Japanese Beetles

Shimmering, crawling, rolling in flight,
They eat up my rose bushes by day and by night.
I scarcely could count to number them all,
An insatiable appetite from a beetle so small.

Like the locust they arrive never making a sound,
Emerging from hideaways deep in the ground.
Unerring, uncanny they hone in and find,
My lovely rose bushes leaving dead stems behind.

2/1/05 

Gary Bryson

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/japanese-beetles/

Restless

Transition makes us restless +++ we work too hard and needed to take a day off.  So my guy and I hit the rowdy road with no particular plan.  He drove and I navigated with the handy Maine Gazetteer.  Drove down the Bailey's Island side of Harpswell until we ran out of road.  We enjoyed a light picnic and all the beautiful sights to be seen!  Mostly, we enjoyed each other's company!!!  The car is a great place to dream and scheme about our future.  Here is a little photo journal of our day.  Plus, a poem by Robert Service~~~who is not my favorite poet but one my guy enjoys. <3  

HAPPY SUMMER!

The Rhyme Of The Restless Ones

We couldn't sit and study for the law;
The stagnation of a bank we couldn't stand;
For our riot blood was surging, and we didn't need much urging
To excitements and excesses that are banned.
So we took to wine and drink and other things,
And the devil in us struggled to be free;
Till our friends rose up in wrath, and they pointed out the path,
And they paid our debts and packed us o'er the sea.

Oh, they shook us off and shipped us o'er the foam,
To the larger lands that lure a man to roam;
And we took the chance they gave
Of a far and foreign grave,
And we bade good-by for evermore to home.

And some of us are climbing on the peak,
And some of us are camping on the plain;
By pine and palm you'll find us, with never claim to bind us,
By track and trail you'll meet us once again.

We are the fated serfs to freedom -- sky and sea;
We have failed where slummy cities overflow;
But the stranger ways of earth know our pride and know our worth,
And we go into the dark as fighters go.

Yes, we go into the night as brave men go,
Though our faces they be often streaked with woe;
Yet we're hard as cats to kill,
And our hearts are reckless still,
And we've danced with death a dozen times or so.

And you'll find us in Alaska after gold,
And you'll find us herding cattle in the South.
We like strong drink and fun, and, when the race is run,
We often die with curses in our mouth.
We are wild as colts unbroke, but never mean.
Of our sins we've shoulders broad to bear the blame;
But we'll never stay in town and we'll never settle down,
And we'll never have an object or an aim.

No, there's that in us that time can never tame;
And life will always seem a careless game;
And they'd better far forget --
Those who say they love us yet --
Forget, blot out with bitterness our name. 

Robert William Service