I Have A Good Reason For Posting So Late Today

Ta-da!  I got Fifi the 9-foot tall flamingo's lights replaced with LEDs and put her out in the yard.  It was a nice day, not sunny but not too chilly, so I could work comfortably in the garage in just a hoodie.  I have a 12-foot tall palm tree too, but it's way too heavy for me to carry to put it up anymore, plus this house's front yard isn't flat so it's a real trick to getting the tree and flamingo to stay up AND there were no green or yellow LED lights at Target yesterday anyway (only $8/string, I couldn't not buy them).  When people ask (as our renter did today) why the flamingo, I tell them that I'm rebelling against traditional Christmas themes.  Besides everybody and his brother has Santa or reindeer or Frosty, even gingerbread men.  I like to be unique.  Nobody else has Fifi; too bad for them.  Yesterday I took some kohlrabi leaves over to Henny & Penny.  They like leaves; they come out of their roost clucking and kind of purring when you give them yummy leaves.  That also gave me an excuse to play with Porter for a while.  Since DS & DIL1 have stopped asking us to come over to let her out when they're at work I don't get to play with her much, and I've stopped borrowing her for walks.  I need to get back into the habit.  I'm sure she misses me, or maybe it's just the treats in my pocket she misses.  There was a home Packer game today (I hear that they won) and two lovely Navy F-18s from California flew by nice and slow and LOUD.  It said in the paper that they put a "pilot cam" on one of the planes and broadcast it on the jumbotron in the stadium.  I told DD about it hoping that they'd broadcast it on the TV too.  Don't know if they did.  I'm really counting the days (26) until DD & DIL2 come home for the holidays.  We don't get to see them often enough, not often enough at all.  I saw a young woman in Walmart yesterday who looked kind of like DIL2 and I'm sure I was staring and smiling at her enough that she thought I was some kind of loon, but I'm not, well, not too much.  I just wish I could see them more.  I miss them.  Yes, DD and I talk every Sunday but it's not the same as being able to just spend casual time together. Today's Photo a Day theme is "peace" and the first place I thought of is the new labyrinth up at The Clearing.  It's tucked in a circle of trees with old stone walls describing the original homestead's yard.  It's a lovely peaceful place.

December 2--Stefano da Verona, Three Standing Figures.  Gillian always had a book in her hand.  Her mother was sure that she would grow stooped like an old woman but Gilly was tall and strong.  Eleanora ran everywhere.  No mater where she was or how she was dressed 'Nora ran.  "Ladies don't run," Mother said, but 'Nora didn't care to be a lady she just wanted to run.

And that was that last night.  I was good and tired when I got to bed.  It felt great to scribble just a few words and then snuggle with Durwood and fall asleep.  Now it's just getting dark and Fifi's lights just turned on (they're on a timer) so the whole neighborhood can bask in her tall pinkness.  Next weekend we may just put up the tree.  It's not traditional either.  Are you surprised?  I didn't think so.
--Barbara Sue