A lazy day in the backyard

Let's just say that yesterday did NOT turn out as I planned. Instead, I was a slug and spent time in the gazebo and bonding with Murphy! I'm happy to report that she seems to be feeling much better, and I think I mentioned that she even came into the house on her own in the morning to hang out with me.

Then she lay at my feet while I was blogging, so it was hard to type! But that's OK. 

MOM - I need to be with you!!!

I was in such a relaxed mood that I even forgot to make an appointment with the vet and the physiotherapist. So those are on the must-do list for today. 

It was such a glorious day that how could I stay out of the gazebo? Before I know it, the summer will be gone, and I'll be lamenting that I didn't spend enough time out there. And of course, my trusty companion was right there with me. 

MOM - I love spending time with you!!!

Now that the backyard is fully "done," at least for the moment, it's nice to just take some time and enjoy it. While I don't mind working, it's also nice to just relax and enjoy. 

A glorious day in the backyard

I've decided, and I had better write it in my agenda, to spend one half hour each week maintaining the backyard. I see a few weeds are sprouting up again between the flagstones, so if I keep on top of it, it won't be a big deal. And I need to tidy up the shed, and there are a few things to hang on my back fence. So I will pick a day and get out there - once a week. 

I had a chuckle yesterday as a friend was flying to Toronto and I was in the backyard. It's so nice to be able to communicate with people on a plane these days. Not that I want to, but if I need to, it's possible. Anyway, she was looking to kill some time as it had been a long flight. She was 30 minutes away from landing. I told her that they would likely be landing on the east approach to the airport, not the west, since I wasn't seeing any planes land. In that gap you see above, we can see planes approaching the airport on both east/west runways! 

Thankfully, our house is far enough south and west of the airport that we don't hear the planes unless the cloud cover is just right. The best of both worlds - close to the airport, but not close enough to disturb us. 

Murphy was feeling so much like her old self that I found a toy out of her toy box!!!

Hmm- someone wants to play with her toys.

I also bought some plug-in calming devices. I had noticed them in the exam room at the vet, and someone mentioned them in a comment. So I have two of them on the way. We'll see how they work, but the sleeping outside thing seems to be working. She is venturing into the house much more than she was a week ago, so that's a positive. And she is now safely ensconced in Lexi's raised bed beside me. And she was downstairs with me this morning while I was sewing. She can go down with supervision, but she can't make it up by herself, so I use a towel under her tummy to support her. I doubt she will ever feel comfortable on those stairs again. 

I had put carpet treads on them, but even that isn't enough to secure her, and she slipped even with those. But I am OK with helping her up. We just need to be diligent about blocking them so she doesn't even attempt it. 

Speaking of getting up the stairs, I was chatting with a neighbor yesterday, and they had a chair lift installed in their house because their in-laws live with them and they need assistance on the stairs. It cost $15K to have a custom (curved stairs) chair lift installed. Yikes!!! The way our stairs are, I don't think that is even possible because the staircase is open (no walls) on both sides at the very bottom. I told DH - he better get doing some exercises! I am NOT moving. 

I was at the gym yesterday, and I'm doing OK on my own. I miss the spin classes, but I get on the bike and do half of what I would in spin class, then spend the rest of the time stretching and doing some other exercises. I am trying to get in the habit of doing the exercises I got last week. 

Did I mention that these are mostly for strengthening the hips, but it's also the legs. So Chair Squats - we all know how to do those, and they are easy. But there were two step-up exercises that were challenging. But they are simple and good because they work not only on your strength but also on your balance. 

One of them is to find a step - use your staircase if you don't have an exercise step. Stand on the floor and take one step up. Then bring the other foot up, step down with both feet, and repeat. 10 repeats, 2 - 3 times on each side. You can actually raise your heart rate with this one. I like to add to it by lifting my free leg up, like high-stepping, then back down. That increases the heart rate even more. If you don't hang on, it helps improve your balance. Another important factor of staying independent!!!

The next one is the reverse of the one above, and it's darn hard! Simple but deceptive! Stand with one foot on the step and bend that leg so that the heel of your loose foot touches the floor. OH MY --- that was a challenge for me. I was finding that I could touch the ball of my foot, which I then used to push myself back up, but that is NOT the way to do it. You need to touch the heel so that only your leg pushes you up. Yikes --- I'm going to have to work on that one and, of course, try to remain upright (not leaning forward) while doing it!!!

If you want to see videos of the exercises I was given, you can find them here. 

Scroll down until you see this. You can download the paper that I have, and the videos are there as well. It's hilarious because it's really for someone who has had a hip replacement! But I'd rather do this now and not need a hip replacement! My joints seem to be fine - but my muscles are not!  

One of my neighbors has this GIANT hibiscus in her front yard, and I grabbed a photo yesterday. The blooms have to be at least 6 or 7 inches across. It's beautiful, and when we had so much rain the other day, I thought the blooms were toast, but nope - they dried out and popped right back open. 

A giant hibiscus

It looks like there are a ton of buds on it. Perhaps I can see if I can find one and plant it somewhere in my garden. WAIT -- I have a perfect spot in the back beside the gazebo. 

Over the last couple of years, we have been compiling a list of tasks that require an electrician. DH is not handy (hey—I have to inflate the car tires if one is low, which I did yesterday!). And I don't want to deal with electricity. 

One complete set of ballasts in Studio B has gone, and of the remaining light fixtures (6), half of the bulbs are toast, so it is getting a tad dark in there. 

Three dead ballasts

The remaining ballasts are sketchy.

I think only one ballast has two working bulbs. 

So after much "nagging" on DH's part, I finally decided to bite the bullet and sent my list to our electrician. They have always been super busy, and I knew it would take some time before they could get here, so I might as well start the process now. The list was LONG. 

Imagine my surprise when I got a call from them asking if I would be home as they would come out and assess the situation that afternoon. Yikes!!!! I happened to be at the sports store buying shorts, but I was almost done. 

We walked around the house (inside and out), and I showed him what needed to be done. He offered suggestions, and we worked out the logistics. And can you believe that the first thing he spotted when he walked into Studio B was that one of the bulbs had NOT been inserted properly (by myself) and that the end was bent. 

The prong is bent

Or did he bend the end when he tried to fix it? Anyway, I didn't put the bulb back in, so there goes another light! 

After assessing everything, he put my world in a tailspin when he said, "We can come on Thursday and Friday to do the work." Yikes—that would not normally be a problem, but we want a bunch of new lights installed, and I do NOT have them. So guess where I'll be today? Shopping for lights. I've got a couple of places in mind, and I was searching their websites last night, so I think I'll be OK. I'm not super picky - I want it to look nice, but I don't need something so specific that it has to be special ordered. 

I need 17 devices installed, but thankfully only 5 styles. As long as they have them in stock, I should be good with what I saw on the website. 

That doesn't include what is going into Studio B, which they'll provide. Then the thought occurred to me that it would require moving a lot of furniture to get those lights installed, but then I took a closer look this morning, and the moving will be minimal. 

I asked him why they had free time. They are waiting for some parts for a big job, and I got lucky! It was meant to be!!! And now we will have proper lighting all through the house! I can't wait. I think they also have a few more electricians than they did the last time we hired them. 

And can you believe he accused me of having OLD light switches in my house? The one in question was installed less than 20 years ago!!! By their company! We still have some of the old toggle switches—we have a huge variety of electrical things in our house. He even noticed a cracked faceplate. An eye for detail to be sure!!!

And as part of my lazy day, I sat down and finished that puzzle. Throughout the day, I would sit and get at least five pieces in place. And sometimes that required taking one piece at a time and trying it in multiple spots. I didn't do a lot of that, as it's very time-consuming, so I tried to go by color (though that was a challenge) and then by shape, which proved challenging as well. It is done!!!

Puzzle complete! 

Now I'll put it back in the box and in the giveaway box, and I won't start another until the electrician is done since that table is near one of the lights. 

And then at last, I did get some sewing done! 

Remember my horses in Down on the Farm and how I didn't like them? Well, the horses were fine - it was the colors in the locations I had that I didn't like. So I decided to move the horses around, and I had only two choices. 

This is the before. So lots of white/grey animals in this block. 

Too many white animals - before

And two darker animals in this block. 

Two dark animals - before

I switched the brown and grey horses, so this is what it looks like now. 

This looks better

And the other block with the grey horse

I like this much better, so I'm good. I still have to remake the turtle, and perhaps I can get that done today and then move on to the final four blocks.

Other than that and a bit more on the pattern testing (counting the number of pieces), I didn't get much done. So far, I've been able to match the actual number of pieces in the blocks with that in the cutting directions. Except for these last two blocks - the numbers don't match, and my anal brain won't let it go, so I'm going to attempt it one more time. Out of 250 pieces in those two blocks, I can't account for three! 

An update on the class signups -- the Scrap Class is now available for signups. And OH MY -- did you see how fancy the information was laid out? I was so excited that even I wanted to sign up for the class. LOL!!!!!

I have a feeling that a wee bit of AI went into making that, but I'm good with that. I see that quite a few people signed up yesterday. Remember, the class has a limit of 99, and if we go over, we may have to do some fancy work to accommodate everyone. Here is the link for you to sign up. 

An update on the 40 Shades of Grey patterns: 30 patterns have been ordered by the Out of Hand quilt shop, and if you are signing up for this class, please use this link and select the NOTIFY ME WHEN AVAILABLE button so when the patterns arrive, you will get an email alerting you to that fact. I will try to put together the distribution list to alert you as well, but since most people have probably only seen this class information on my blog, I'm telling you here. 

And again - here is the link for the class list if anyone still wants to sign up for something. 

On that note, I'd better get myself organized. I have to tell you about my short shopping, but that will have to wait until tomorrow. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!