hello october

It's hard to believe it's October already. It's a temperamental month where I live, not really knowing what you will get in any given week. There are mostly nippy, windy days with a few warm ones thrown in. There can be abundant sunshine or endless days of rain.

I'm relishing the flowers that are still blooming ~ gerbera daisies, hydrangea, Russian sage. This is the last of them. Same with the cherry tomatoes. I picked the last few today. The dried up stalks and leaves will go into the compost bin.

I take daily walks around the neighborhood, relishing the last of the blue skies and sunshine, and picking up fallen red maple leaves to use in decor. Squashes and apples are in abundance at the farm stand and make beautiful displays until eaten. I love all fall and winter veggies...acorn, butternut and delicata squash; turnips and rutabaga; carrots and parsnips; pumpkin and sweet potatoes; cabbage and cauliflower. 

It's also soup weather again! We love soup and I make many kinds during the fall and winter. This one is Kale, White Bean & Squash soup. I used butternut squash in this recipe instead of the kobucha squash that was recommended. I couldn't find kobucha squash and the recipe said butternut would work just as well. This soup has everything going for it...easy to make, warming and filling, delicious ~ and it's even vegetarian/vegan, if that's what you're looking for.

I'm still worried about Monkey. (That's him on the left, cuddled up with Zippo.) He's had about four or five cold laser treatments on his bladder to relax it so any stones would break up and he could urinate without any problems. He seemed fine...eating normally, usual activity level. But last night I was able to observe him in the cat box again (very hard to catch your cat "in the act"!) and saw that he was still squatting for about eight minutes to urinate. I called the vet this morning, but he's at another animal hospital this morning. I left a message asking what the next steps should be, so I hope to have an answer soon.

Happy weekend, everyone.

six years

This past Friday ~ September 25th ~ was the six year anniversary of my oldest son, Philip's passing. Those of you who've known me for awhile know his story. For those of you who don't, I have a Dedication to Phil tab underneath my blog header. In the meantime, here's a photo of my sweet boy from when he was around 14 years old. I had this photo on my computer and it's not dated, so unfortunately, I can't remember exactly how old he was in this photo. He had the sweetest, gentlest, shy smile.

As usual, Brian, Tim and I spent part of the day at the cemetery. It's a beautiful, peaceful place ~ more like a park setting. It's one of those cemeteries that only allows the flat headstones and there's plenty of trees. Most of Phil's ashes are in an urn which is buried at the foot of my dad's grave. Brian keeps three folding chairs in his car trunk so we parked ourselves by Phil's burial spot and sat and talked for over an hour before we went out to dinner. 

As we were leaving the cemetery, I noticed the stunning cloud formation above us and took a photo. It wasn't until I got home and uploaded the photo to my laptop, that I noticed the cloud was in a heart shape with a crack down the middle. WOW. How's that for a sign?

Now, if you'll indulge me for a moment, I'd like to share some words with you from a newspaper column that I just read this past Sunday.  It's from the September 27, 2015 edition of the Chicago Tribune. A man named Matthew Walberg wrote an article called, "What 9 Years Since My Son's Death Have Taught".

"I am not without hope, and I know I will see him again someday. But who knows when that day will come, so I've had to learn a lot about grief in these years - or at least learn a lot about how I grieve. I've learned that you don't get to practice how you'll handle something like this....

I've learned that life can be fun again, and I can laugh and enjoy it. At the same time, grief is like a giant block of granite: The sharp edges may have softened with the passing years, but it remains as hard and as heavy as it was the day it first crashed into my life. But I've discovered that sorrow has its own beauty. It brings depth and context to all the blessings in my life."

monkey update ~ and hello to autumn

 Thank you for all your good thoughts, prayers and lovely messages for my cat, Monkey. He's doing much better after several cold laser treatments on his bladder. That technology is amazing! He's still not 100%, but he has one more laser treatment next week. This morning, I was in the backyard and happened to capture this photo through the screen. That's Zippo (my 16-year old kitty) on the left and Monkey on the right. Kiss-kiss!

 We said goodbye to a beautiful summer and autumn slowly slipped in, leaving us with stretches of blue, sunny skies and fields tinged in gold. Temps have been in the 70's. Just perfect.

 Most of the summer perennials - purple coneflower, black-eyed susan, phlox - in my gardens are drying up now, which always makes me kind of sad. Now the autumn sedum takes over.

Every fall, I photograph the color change of my neighbor's maple tree, simply because it is one of the most beautiful trees I've ever seen. It ends up turning a bright orangey-red. I noticed this morning that the leaves on top and on the right (in the photo) where the sun hits are just starting to change. Can you see it?

As for fall decor around my house, I'm keeping it simple. The front porch got the obligatory pot of mums...

and a new welcome mat from Target. I might add some pumpkins in October, but that's it.

 

 

In the living room, I decorated the buffet with the old window that I had outside all summer (rescued years ago from a rehabbed house in my neighborhood). The runner is really a scarf. I was going to donate it since I never wear it, then realized the colors matched the colors in the bird wall hanging. Ta da! The two vintage books in the middle are from our recent getaway to Galena. One is a scrapbook of brief sermons and poems and the other is the poems of Henry W. Longfellow.

Of course, every vignette looks better with a kitty.

 

The console table in the living room entryway...

Edited the day after the original post...I was just looking through the photos on my laptop and saw that I missed posting the photo of the ladder bookcase in my living room. So, here it is.

 

In the kitchen, I kept the china cabinet simple, too and added just a few decorative fall items that I've had for years. That little painting in the background is from one of those paint-and-pour classes I took last year. I know...it looks like I had too much pour and not enough painting instruction. ;-) In reality, I only had one glass of wine - and no instruction. My friends and I were not too pleased with that venue. But, I digress.

Some of the owls from my collection in the downstairs family room came upstairs to add a touch of autumn whimsy to kitchen shelves.

 

 And, that's it! The living room and kitchen are the only two rooms that I change up a little bit. How about you...do you go all-out with fall decorating or just add a few autumn touches here and there?

 

a quick post about monkey

My Monkey boy isn't doing so well. I happened to be downstairs by one of the litter boxes yesterday evening and I noticed Monkey was squatting in the box for a long time, but it didn't sound like anything was coming out. He had a glazed look on his face. I immediately knew something was wrong.

 I called the vet and they were closing in half an hour, but they said to bring him in immediately. I know that male cats can be prone to urinary blockages, as their urethra is narrower than in female cats. This happened to my oldest cat, Zippo when he was younger, too. If not taken care of immediately, this blockage is fatal.

The vet examined Monkey and said he could feel a little bit of urine in his bladder, which was good. He used a cold laser to stimulate his bladder and ease the inflammation. He also received a shot of vitamin B12 and was sent home with oral Valium (!!).

 I hardly slept at all last night due to a severe headache and getting up to check on Monkey. This morning, I noticed Monkey was worse. He was lethargic and his tail was dragging on the floor. I gave him Valium (which was a huge struggle) and he threw it up five minutes later. I called the vet in a panic, and they once again told me to bring him in immediately. They did another laser treatment, plus were able to catheterize him. The vet said when he did so, urine and grit sprayed everywhere! Gross. But good. They are keeping him there all day for observation and another laser treatment. We're to pick him up in a couple of hours. And then I have to bring him back to the vet for another laser treatment tomorrow, and then possibly another one-two times later in the week.

Of course, all of this treatment is expensive, but we can't put a price on our fur baby's health, can we? We are here to be these beautiful creatures' caretakers. Though sometimes, I think the opposite is true.

 

anniversary getaway

This was us in 1983 - a year before we got married. We were just babies!

And here's us now, celebrating 31 years of marriage. A little less hair and more wrinkles, but at least we're in this aging thing together.

We took an overnight getaway earlier this week to the town of Galena. Galena is a small, historic town in the northwest corner of Illinois, right near the borders of Iowa and Wisconsin. One of the many things I treasure about this little town is the rollings hills and open farmland. Most of Illinois is flat, so to see hills and valleys in our state is quite exciting. I learned from Wikipedia that the reason Galena's land is like this is because it escaped glaciation back in the Ice Ages.

We didn't get into town until the early evening, so we just had a leisurely walk around the main shopping strip. Love the beauty of the historic buildings and the church steeples reaching towards the sky in the backdrop.

I have no idea what's going on with the horse in the window, but I found it creepy-amusing.

The next morning, we hit the main street again and browsed in the many stores. I have no idea what my honey was looking at in this antique shop, but obviously something piqued his interest.

Maybe this derby hat?

This is what piqued my interest. ;-) I was a good girl and only got a few pieces. I even still have one left!

We did the wine tasting thing, too ~ and it being a weekday, we were the only ones in the place. We had a nice, leisurely chat with the two employees. And we bought a few bottles of wine, one of which is a delicious strawberry-rhubarb. A nice sipping wine while sitting out on the patio in the evening.

 

Now here's an enterprising elderly woman in town! She stood right in the street in a parking spot, selling her doggy jackets. And she smartly parked herself right outside a pet goods store. My first glance was one of pity, but then as I observed her more, I began to think that she was actually enjoying herself.

To wind down the day, we had dinner at a fun restaurant. 

This is the waiting area. Someone has a great sense of humor and knows what attracts customers!

The inside had a lively, fun vibe, too. We originally wanted to have dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant in Galena, but we were disappointed to find out it's closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

 

After dinner and before heading home, we drove around the town looking at some of the pretty houses. The architecture and beauty of these houses are just stunning.

This mansion is a B&B. I looked online for prices and it said to call and inquire. My thinking is that if it's not posted and we have to ask, we can't afford it. Like when it says "market price" on restaurant menus.

 

When we slowly drove towards this house, I spied two deer in the lawn. They were parallel to each other and standing perfectly still, so my first thought was that they were lawn ornaments. Then one began to move and I yelled to Brian to stop the car so I could take pictures. They were so sweet, taking turns washing each other. I talked to them out the car window, cooing, "Hello, pretty babies!" Please don't tell me I'm the only one that does this. ;-)

As we were heading out of Galena to return home...

Hope you enjoyed the little virtual tour of Galena. Have a fantastic weekend!