Category Archives: hobbies
Bullfrog glamour shots and garden pictures
Posted by doggonedmysteries
After accepting a bribe of worms, Goliath obligingly sat still for several photographs tonight. He stayed still even with my use of a prop (a one pound coffee can) to show his size. Goliath frog is fat! I then downloaded his ‘glamour shots’ and the garden pictures I took last week. You will find them on our garden and pond page.
The garden pictures are from August. I’m always on the look out for black flowers and foliage. (I have a thing for them.) One of my favorite pictures is of my black elephant ears. We lost our black bearded Iris to the mice a couple of years back and we haven’t found another one to replace it. This year I purchased a couple of daylilies that are quite dark but not black. I like the black flowers and foliage because they make the other colors in the garden pop. They also go well with all the gargoyle statuary. 😉
I did forget to take a picture of our torch wielding gargoyle. Yes, the torch does work. I’ll get around to photographing it one of these days.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, my garden
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Photgraphy, Pond, Ponds, Writer, Writing
To can or not to can
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I can’t believe it. We’re halfway through our second jar of my Cousins’ homemade jam. The first jar we finished was his raspberry jam what a heavenly delight! This one is sour cherry-raspberry and all I can say is wow. I’m sorely tempted to open all the others to taste them but I will restrain myself and go one at a time. I’m not certain as to which one we’ll try after this jar is empty.
We have a number of choices. There’s the blueberry, the strawberry, the strawberry rhubarb, and sour cherry sitting in the cupboard waiting for us to dive in. My cousin and his daughter make tons of jams for the family every year. Another cousin makes a wonderful salsa.
I’ve also been hoarding a jar of my Aunts’ tomato relish—it’s my last jar.
I’m sorry to say that I haven’t done any canning in several years. I used to make this wonderful tomato pear chutney, a port wine jelly, an apple ginger jelly, and a jalapeño jelly. Dear Hubby misses the jalapeño jelly most of all. I quit canning when my dishwasher died, it was a portable, and we never replaced it because it took up too much room. It had a sterilizing cycle that I used to sterilize all my jars, lids, and rings. It’s too time consuming and too much work without it.
Posted in Food, hobbies, Misc, My blog
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Cooking, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Doggoned, Family, Fiction, Food, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Writer, Writing
Sun and flowers
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I couldn’t resist the tug of the sunny day we had today. I bought some potting soil and flowers for the planters on my front porch. The planters had been alongside the driveway for several years. However, last year, when we had new, very nosy, and noisy neighbors move in directly across the street, I removed our chairs and moved the planters to the porch. I can’t wait to see how my petunias, pansies, and snap dragons will look once they begin to grow and fill out the planters. (I didn’t get them planted last year so this should be fun.)
While I was filling the planters with soil and flowers, a pair of mourning doves decided to work on their nest above me. Mourning doves aren’t the greatest nest builders, but this pair tries. They’ve been nesting in the same spot for a couple of years now and are used to us coming and going. I enjoy hearing them so they are welcome additions.
Even though we lost the neighborhood camaraderie we used to have while sitting out on our front porch, we’ve found something special. We have our own sanctuary in the yard on summer evenings and enjoy the pond along with the wonderful peace and quiet.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, my garden
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Pond, Ponds, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
March, an amazing month
Posted by doggonedmysteries
A few days ago, we had snow on the ground and today the mercury hit seventy degrees. I love the capriciousness of March. It’s the Yin and Yang month of the year. Winter and spring battle for four weeks. We root for spring to win since by March we’ve had enough of winter.
Tomorrow spring will rule for most of the day but winter will make a raid on our evening. We will wonder if spring will rally in the next few days. My budding gardens say yes. Grass is slowly showing signs of life. Faster would nice so I don’t have dogs tracking in mud.
The Koi are hungry they beg for food now, and our frogs are beginning to creep out of the pond to hunt, more signs that spring will soon win the battle.
It won’t be long and I’ll be digging in sun warmed soil planting flowers and vegetables. By my back door, my chives are starting to peek through the mulch in their pot. The mint and lavender will soon follow suit.
Posted in hobbies, Misc, My blog, my garden, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Fish, Gardening, Gardens, Home, Humor, Koi, Life, Love, MS, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Pond, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
A place for everything—well, at least some of the things.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
We’ve collected Bull Terrier figurines for twenty-eight years but have had no real way to display most of them. Nearly all of them I’d carefully wrapped in bubble wrap packed them in boxes and stashed them in our attic. We kept telling ourselves that one day we’d be able to unpack them and set them out in a curio cabinet or something. I don’t like clutter, things scattered about on bookcases and tables, collecting dust, and, with OUR DOGS getting broken.
Yesterday, on a whim, we went bargain shopping. We managed to find a bargain basement priced curio cabinet. A local high-end furniture store is going out of business and has a huge sale going on. (Who can resist that?) This morning our curio cabinet arrived, much to our surprise, we really didn’t expect it for a few days since they had to bring it in from one of their other three stores. Dear Hubby and a neighbor went and picked it up. I woke to find our new cabinet all set up except for the glass shelves. They left that to me. (Smart men!)
Unfortunately, it didn’t take me long to fill it and I think there are still a few stray Bull Terrier figurines hiding in the attic. However, it looks wonderful. Instead of clutter, I have a beautiful cabinet filled with our lovingly chosen Bullies. We purchased most of them at dog shows where I was showing our dogs, so they all have wonderful memories connected to them. A few were given to us by dear friends. One little one is very special to me since my baby sister gave it to me two years before she died and I’m glad to be able to see it every day now.
Posted in Dog related, hobbies, Misc, My blog
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Books on writing, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, gifts, Home, Humor, Life, Love, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Novel writing, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
Beads and bedlam don’t play well together
Posted by doggonedmysteries
I wanted to sit down, listen to my French course, and work on a necklace for which I had an idea. I needed to get my mind off my book for a little while and relax. It didn’t happen. When I pulled out my boxes of beads Gavin started shaking his head repeatedly. This is not a good sign since he’s subject to a chronic ear infection.
Gavin’s ear was bothering him again so I spent some time cleaning it out and babying him. Poor dog hates having his ears cleaned but with a few cookies to aid me, I got the job done. Tomorrow we’re making an appointment to take him to the vet. He hates going there so this should be fun-NOT!
Once I settled Gavin down, I started to get out my beading board. Then I looked at the clock, realized that Dear Hubby was hours late returning home from his pain management appointment, and began to worry. Trying to call him on his cell phone didn’t help since all I got was a busy signal.
Then DH arrived home, he hadn’t made his appointment, instead he’d been in a minor fender bender and sat for over two hours waiting for the police to arrive. Don’t worry he’s fine and his truck only had some paint transfer on it.
It’s no surprise that at this point the whole idea of working on a new necklace design escaped me.
Posted in Beads, hobbies, Misc, My blog, Writer, Writing
Tags: Author, Beads, Bones, books, Bull Terriers, Care giving, Caregiver, Coffee, comedy, Craft of writing, Crafts, Dead, Disability, Dog humor, Doggoned, Dogs, Family, Fiction, Home, Humor, Life, Multiple Sclerosis, Murder, Mysteries, Mystery, Pet humor, Pets, Rescue Dogs, Writer, Writing
I work with beads when I’m not writing.
Posted by doggonedmysteries
A while back, I began to make my own necklaces because I fell in love with those lovely chunky ones I kept seeing but couldn’t afford to buy. Whenever I saw an interesting necklace on TV, (Bones wears some great ones by the way) I would think of how I could make something similar.
It got so that people I knew were asking me where I bought mine. When I told them that I made my own, they began to ask if I d sell some. I hadn’t thought of that, but soon I was making and selling a few necklaces. I didn’t make any money at it but I did enjoy having something to do with my hands when I wasn’t writing.
Dear Hubby has no manual dexterity left due to his MS. However, he did help me invent a combination ID tag holder/necklace. At my last writers conference I ran out of them the first day. Now if only my books sell as well….
Recently an extraordinary friend sent me two hefty boxes full of beads of all types and sizes along with some tools I didn’t have. What a marvelous treasure they are. I know she reads this, so here’s another thank you, Elena. An additional thank you goes to another wonderful friend. She owns the shop on my blogroll, and she has permitted me to put some of my necklaces and earrings in her store.
Doggonedmysteries 