A Place to Bloom

July 27, 2025 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags: ,

Lantana is one of my favorite annual flowers, and I often plant it under the mailbox. This year I added some variety by planting hibiscus, which is one of my daughter’s favorites, and mandevilla. The lantana grew much more robustly and crowded out the others to a large extent. I noticed on Thursday that the hibiscus had one large yellow bloom, framed by lantana above and mandevilla below. I took a photo for my daughter.

Photo of annual flowers under the mailbox.

She was happy that I sent the photo to her and that the hibiscus had found a place to bloom. Even though it produced only one flower on that day, there was enough space for it.

Well Prepared for Weather

July 15, 2025 · 1 comment · Categories: Musings · Tags: ,

The home standby generator, which had been on order since April, was delivered two weeks ago and was connected Friday morning. It is just behind the backyard fence at the end of our driveway, where it is out of the way but not far from the house. There was a small grassy area between the fence and the driveway, now mostly dirt after the power and gas lines were run underground there. I’ll probably plant a few mums there in the fall while deciding how best to landscape that area in the spring.

Photo of newly installed Generac home standby generator.

The installers from Wells Electric were quick and efficient; they came out early in the morning and were finished by noon, although it took some time to dig the trench for the power and gas lines. The electric installation on the wall looks very neatly done.

Electrical installation for Generac home standby generator.

We had to move a large boxwood that was too close to the electric meter. It was mismarked as a dwarf plant when I bought it about 20 years ago. After a while, we realized it was instead a full-size boxwood. I should have dug it up years ago, when it first reached the height of the meter; but I didn’t get around to it, which made extra work for me (and for my husband and son; the job was too big to do by myself). The boxwood has now been relocated; this photo shows its height, as we have a six-foot fence. My husband set up a sprinkler on a timer, and we hope that such a large plant will survive being moved in the heat of summer.

Photo of boxwood planted next to fence.

Thunderstorms rolled through on Saturday, and it was nice not having to worry about power. It stayed on in our neighborhood, but there were high winds across Ohio. Our daughter’s house lost power, and she came to visit for the weekend. Because severe windstorms have become more common in the past few years, we have begun to strap down the chairs on the deck when strong thunderstorms are forecast.

Chairs strapped down on the deck.

The house now feels like a place that is well prepared for weather.

Improvement in Progress

March 26, 2025 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags: , ,

There is a new neighbor on my street, who owns a landscaping company. Soon after he moved in, my next-door neighbor hired him to clear away the overgrown, mismatched hedge (shown in this 2014 post) along our property line. The work is still in progress, but it’s already looking much better. Other than a redbud at the front (which I like) and a few other trees left standing, it has mostly been cut down. I took a photo of it this afternoon, and the open space felt pleasant and inviting.

Landscaping in progress, with most of a hedge removed.

I don’t yet know what will be planted there, but I am sure it will be an improvement, whatever it is. My husband told our new neighbor that we’d like to have some landscaping work done, too. After all the time I spent last summer cutting back some neglected bushes, which had to be gotten out of the way before having new windows installed, I definitely like the idea of contracting out this season’s yard work.

Deciding what to tag this post gave me some indecision. I had in mind that leaving space for improvement invites good things to show up, but I couldn’t think of a word that seemed quite right to express that idea. Looking in my list of previously used tags, I chose “Attraction” and “Positivity,” which came close. I tried putting the question into an AI prompt and got “Manifestation” in response, but I opted against that one because I hadn’t visualized anything in particular for the landscaping.

After pondering over it a little longer, I added “Places,” which is a tag I use for how my surroundings make me feel. At that point, I decided three tags would be enough—no need to be a perfectionist about it.

Many More Adventures

October 31, 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags: , , ,

My husband recently had a birthday, and I gave him a card wishing him “many more adventures” as we were leaving for the Head of the Charles regatta. We were given a great parking space for the boat trailer when we arrived in Boston. It was right next to a dock, and the weather was sunny and comfortable. We rigged our double and went for a practice row.

Photo of a small boat trailer in Boston next to the Charles River.

Then we visited the Hydrow office, which was lots of fun. We’ve been using our Hydrow rowing machine regularly since we bought it almost five years ago in a Black Friday sale; it’s connected to an online library of workout videos featuring athlete instructors rowing on rivers across the world. Also, there are “journey” rows without an instructor where you can just watch the scenery go by, and other options that include yoga, Pilates, and stretching and mobility exercises. Hydrow always has something new and interesting to find.

The company invited us to take part in a panel discussion with other customers and with some of the athletes, and they also filmed my husband, who is very active in the Hydrow users’ Facebook groups, for a commercial. That was all very cool! On race day, the weather stayed good, and the river was calm. The Head of the Charles is the largest rowing regatta in the world, with many high-level competitors, so my husband and I were just in it for fun. That was all right; just being there is exciting.

Last week, after returning home, we did a 5K Halloween running race, and now we’re off again for another rowing regatta in Chattanooga. So much traveling and racing takes a lot of energy, and I’ll be ready to wind down and take it easier when the winter comes; but it’s good to have future adventures to imagine.

In with the New

September 5, 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags: ,

My living room has been much improved this week with a new couch. I had been wanting to replace the old one for many years, as I mentioned in this 2016 post, but I never could get my husband interested in going to a furniture store to look at potential replacements. When our daughter put a pretty green armchair in a corner of our family room earlier this year, after she moved and couldn’t find space for the chair, it got me thinking about other possibilities.

Photo of chair with end table.

The idea that I couldn’t get a new couch without first dragging my husband to a store was long since out of date, I realized, in this age of online shopping. So, I visited the website where our daughter had bought the chair, picked out a couch that was available in the same color, asked my husband what he thought, and he was fine with ordering it. Easy peasy!

Photo of the new couch under my living room windows.

The old couch wasn’t in good enough condition to donate to a thrift store because of a broken spring, so it had to go to the county dump, alas. To give it a suitable farewell on this blog, with gratitude for its many years of faithful service, I took a photo of it among some rubble, awaiting its final resting place in the landfill.

Photo of my old couch at the dump.

My husband’s boat trailer got some use as a utility trailer to transport it. Kind of sad, as with letting anything go that has been around for many years; but we’ll definitely enjoy the new and improved living room.

Mismatched by Design

August 28, 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags:

I had mentioned in a post in March that I was looking for new dinnerware because I’d gotten a ceramic splinter from the chipped edge of a worn-out plate. My old Corelle set had lasted for many years, and some of the pieces were still in good condition, such as my teacups and saucers. But the pattern, called Old Town Blue, is no longer made, so I couldn’t just replace some of them unless I wanted to buy used. That wasn’t my preference; I wanted something new to bring fresh energy into my kitchen, but I also felt reluctant to let the old set go entirely.

Corelle is a much smaller company now, alas, with fewer choices. When I found a blue pattern that looked like a suitable replacement, it had only basic pieces and none of the platters, teacups, saucers, and other extra pieces that filled in my current set. Interestingly, though, the patterns were not identical. As a result, when I put the new set next to my old set, it was not an obvious mismatch. One of the pieces shown below came from the old set—can you tell which it is?

Photo of a white bowl and three plates with different blue patterns.

The large and medium plates are from the new set, as you probably guessed because their patterns are similar. The white bowl with the blue rim is also from the new set, and the small plate is the old pattern. So, it’s the best of both worlds; I kept the old pieces that were in good condition, while replacing the large and medium plates and the bowls (which were the most worn), and I got some “new stuff” energy.

The kitchen cabinet now looks like a much more cheerful place, which is why I tagged this post “Places.” I’m generally using that tag for posts about how my surroundings make me feel. What I have in mind is similar to feng shui decorating, also called the Chinese art of placement, in which items are carefully placed within and around a home to improve the occupants’ well-being. Sometimes I use the tag when I write about emotional imprints from places I visit. It reflects that I am still a work in progress, and my home and blog are too.

Clearing Space

July 13, 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags: , ,

My windows are scheduled to be replaced at the end of the month. I’ve been cleaning up neglected shrubs to make sure the installers can easily reach everything. In particular, some junipers under my dining room window got overgrown by a large yew that I didn’t cut back for several years because, like most people, I was feeling blah during the pandemic and wasn’t motivated to do much in the yard. The junipers died, and now I’ve removed them, leaving a bare window and mossy bricks that need a good scrubbing.

Photo of a window in a brick wall with bare ground under it.

After the new windows have been installed, I plan to have a landscaper put in more junipers this fall, and hopefully I’ll take better care of them going forward. For now, though, the area in front of my dining room is nothing but clear ground, open to possibilities, which leaves me feeling happier—as if I’ve made space to welcome unexpected blessings.

A Fun Trip with a New Toy

June 27, 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags: ,

My husband’s new toy is a mini trailer for our rowing boats, and we used it traveling to a regatta in Oklahoma City last weekend, which was a lot of fun. We parked it at the venue when we arrived on Friday, taking our boats down for a practice row. On Saturday, we rowed the standard Masters sprints 1K distance in the morning, and then we did a 500-meter dash in the evening. It was nearly sunset, and we decorated the boat with glow sticks matching our colorful unisuits, in addition to the usual safety lights. Then we put the glow sticks around our necks when we stepped up on the awards podium.

Our dash was the last event, and fireworks were going off as we derigged our double and put it back on the trailer. My husband had planned the trip well, finding an Airbnb with a long driveway where the trailer could be kept overnight. I took a photo Sunday morning as we were getting ready to leave.

Photo of a small boat trailer hooked up to an SUV.

I don’t have a “Travel” tag on this blog because the vast majority of our travels are to rowing regattas, so I thought it would be duplicative of the “Rowing” tag. For this post, though, I decided a “Places” tag would be appropriate because I’ve been thinking about the imprints left on us by the places we visit. After returning home from a trip, sometimes I wake up and still have the spatial map of the hotel or Airbnb in my head, and it takes me a minute to reorient myself to being in my own house.

Earlier this year I read the classic novel “Rebecca” by Daphne du Maurier. The narrator carefully observes the small details of her surroundings, while feeling haunted by thoughts that each moment is soon lost forever. I vaguely remember starting to read it when I was in high school, but I never got through it because I didn’t have enough life experience to make sense of what the author was saying. The past didn’t feel lost to me; it was just a little farther away than the present. Now, I have more understanding of how fleeting the moment is. But, even so, I still don’t look upon the past as having been lost. There’s always space for something new and fun to replace each moment.

A World Full of Beautiful Things

March 7, 2024 · Write a comment · Categories: Musings · Tags: , ,

When I last did my favorite “four directions” meditation, in which I visualize myself turning to each of the directions and asking it what advice it might have for me, the message I got was, essentially, that the world is full of beautiful things and I should embrace them.

I filed that advice away in the back of my mind, telling myself to look around and appreciate beauty whenever I thought about it. Meanwhile, our daughter asked if she could store a few things at our house because she is moving. We told her there was probably enough space, but she should tell us what she wanted to bring. We didn’t hear anything more from her for the next few days.

While we were on the way home from a Super Bowl party, she texted us and said she had brought her things to our house. We were glad to find she had put everything neatly away in her bedroom, except for a large comfortable armchair in a corner of the family room, which never had been furnished with anything except a rocking chair in another corner, as shown here in 2016.

My living room with open wooden blinds on a hazy day.

I always enjoyed the view from the large windows and didn’t want to put anything in the way. Because the corner on the other end of the windows has only a short half-wall separating the family room from the kitchen, there didn’t seem to be enough space to do much.

After so many years, I had gotten used to the minimalist look, but the armchair felt right as soon as I saw it. After putting a flowery blanket over the top to brighten it up, I browsed through end tables on the Kohl’s website and soon found one that matched the chair nicely.

Photo of chair with end table.

The room feels so much more cheerful now, and I smile every time I walk past the newly decorated corner. It’s like an object lesson in appreciating a world full of beautiful things. While I expect our daughter will want the chair back eventually, I hope she takes her time!

Deep Blue Monday

January 25, 2021 · 4 comments · Categories: Musings · Tags:

A few months ago, when I was browsing through the online library collection for the digital art display in my dining room, an image of a quaint faraway city captured my attention. Deep blue shadows on a stony hillside framed the city’s rooftops.

City rooftops framed by a blue-shadowed hillside.

I put it in my favorites folder, wondering, as I did so, just what I was going to do with it. Usually I try to match the image on the art display to the ambient light coming in through my windows, so that I can trick my brain into seeing it as a “window” onto a new landscape or cityscape every day.

“Maybe in the middle of winter,” I said to myself doubtfully. That blue was quite striking, but it didn’t look like any natural light that ever came into my ordinary suburban house. Sure enough, it sat in my favorites for months, without coming close to looking like a good match.

This morning I woke up to a gloomy Monday sky that couldn’t quite make up its mind whether it wanted to snow or rain, so it split the difference by leaving the ground coated in an icy bluish glaze. Something about that color looked familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it until I opened the art display’s app to choose an image for the day. There it was—the deep blue cityscape—just perfect!

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