Art restoration with eye shadow

water color: didn't need restoration but needed a good cleaning

this Renoir poster had several scratches but worse, when I took off the price tag, it was left with a big white splotch. What to do?  Color in the scratches and splotch with various eye shadows blending them

I was going to arrive at the Moms group too early so I stopped by briefly at another nature preserve

very pretty sky

There is a pond in there somewhere. I will go back and find a better vantage point

Where that bald faced hornet came from that stung me a month ago

Since I hate being stung, I have avoided the exact spot that the bald faced hornet landed on me while searching for its nest. Yesterday it finally was uncovered hanging about 50 feet away suspended over the intersection of the two roads I run on almost every time. Huge. But is tiny compared to the monster nest that grew in one of the Moms storage boxes outside. She showed this lumpy thing the shape of a hubbard squash (hornets go for the football shape) and the volume of two beach balls. It is probably a yellow jacket nest as they use paper too but usually have underground homes. She said she doesn't know the difference between hornets, wasps and yellow jackets though she is a beekeeper. She did harvest another crop from her 'nice' hive. This time the honey is darker  and more viscous. Bees were feasting on clover in the summer and now she thinks goldenrod for the fall. She has left the mean hive alone, who aren't productive and will need help from the nice hive to survive through the winter. One good side of the killing frost hopefully means less yellow jackets to pester us. We have two full bags of decaying wasps in our traps but it hardly made a dent in their population. It is sad seeing many of my pretty flowers dead.

 

I tend to get to places early rather than late but I try not to be too early thus my side trip to yet another nature preserve. But when I got to the Moms group, I saw that everyone had been there for some time and were quite settled in. Did they tell me one time and everyone else a different time so they could have some blissful Sue free moments? Depression will make me see things this way no matter how irrational I know I am being. This too shall pass...this too shall pass......

 

And there was the ten seconds of infamy that we all knew about even though the big game was off. Another example of it's not over until it's over. I didn't want to open up Facebook to not look at gloating as I do have some MSU fan friends. The groan heard across the country and the poor kid that fumbled the kick.....

 

I did eventually come out of my pity party mode (who wants to be around someone in that?) to enjoy myself.

 

Home decorating. So far it has been me putting items of the same color in rooms painted that color and filling in the gaps with thrift store purchases At some point, I will make things nicer and lose the stuff that really doesn't work. I come home the other day and see this tiny brightly colored poster in our living room. violating my admittedly poor sense of style. WTF Steve?

Well you have things in this room this is blue...

His purchase has since been relocated to a bathroom where I still cringe when  I look at it but not so much.

But I guess he could point on that at least it was new and not covered with scratches. I do think I did a good job covering up the damage with eye shadow blending where appropriate. And its in another bathroom, one that only I use except when we have guests staying over.

 

On Sunday morning I am usually out bicycling. It is pretty outside but brrrrrr. I will go out this afternoon on an organized ride when it's a bit warmer. Meanwhile Josh and Allie will be here shortly. Steve asked what did he say about the game?I  said that I won't rub salt in the wound. I could hear his groan 50 miles away.

Vultures

Vultures waiting for Steve to leave so they can get back to that deer. He parked behind several cars, rare for this deserted road. When he asked if they were there to see the vultures, he was told that they deal with plenty of vultures already in Detroit though there they are called lawyers. They were viewing some vacant land.

They can look pretty

or not

from my short bike ride Stiff winds caused me to abort. I've been biking plenty though.

Last night was the first hard frost. It is hard to see my beloved flowers all covered with the killing frost though I rescued some last night. I was hopeful that the forecasted temp of 32 might save them but I think since we are in a depression (in more ways than one), it is always colder here than the surrounding areas. Where we lived before, the opposite was true.

Ah that house. Still waiting though lots of bad news came in. They want more time for more inspections that will cost money, money, money. We might still go forward but it all makes me so sad and I am seeing things through a very dim filter plus I have hurt feelings about another issue which normally I wouldn't give a second thought to.

On the slightly brighter side, the State decided no longer to hold our money hostage. They had disagreed with how Steve figured things and kept giving us different dates to review our case, the latest was sometime in December, but they reversed themselves and sent us our money.

Waiting.....

Where we were a year ago: Lazise on Lake Garda. We spent the day on a boat going from town to town

I posted this in Throwback Thursday on Facebook yesterday. Josh is 2 (his daughter's age) and Shanna is 5 sitting on my brother's motorcycle in Troy, NY. Josh loved to snack on raisins. It is one of my favorite photos of Shanna. She looks so dreamy. I was constantly trying to capture her beauty by photo

A recent photo of my niece. I was at her birth



She and her friends recently visited Chicago. I have a similar photo of Naomi suspended over the city

One of the many ill-marked paths through the Cherry Hill preserve. They gave a map with one set of numbers but the trails had letters on them. When it started to rain, I just hoped I was on the right path to return to the car

Unlike the wide path above, this path was narrow and obscured by leaves. . The strong winds probably knocked a lot of the leaves down in the past 12 hours

Waiting for it to get light enough to run. Waiting to hear whether the house sale is still on so we can get on with our lives. Waiting for a some other  more important things too. When can we travel again?

 

A frost advisory is tonight. I need to pick the remaining vegetables though kale and Brussels sprouts will survive frost. Harder, to make a decision what lives or dies in my various pots My various succulent gardens and orchids will live around my tub surrounded by3 walls of glass. The tropical hibiscus can be in the breakfast nook. All others will be on a rack in the basement under a window. Might not be enough light. At some point, we need to drain the pond. Where will the frogs go? They usually burrow at the bottom of ponds but that is not possible here.

 

Moms group tomorrow. I bought a tasty dessert but if I feel guilty, I might make another one.

More fall color

Cold winds are blowing. It will frost tomorrow night so I will have to bring a lot of stuff in and say good bye to a lot what is out there. Yesterday I biked through such prettiness but didn't stop as it was drizzling and I was cold. I would chill if I weren't moving.

Our township  must have the most nature preserves of any township. I went to the biggest one today before it began to rain.

I have an eyeball bleed again, this time in my other eye. I look very hideous.

Waiting impatiently for news on our house...

Looking for vultures

maples

didn't realize  there was a pond there. The egret bolted as soon as he saw us

Springhill Nature Conservancy: can we get closer to that distant stand of maples?

yes

Steve's charge yesterday morning. She again was running a fever. She did ask where I was

Tessa was healthy. Her mom was volunteering in Daniel's class

After we both finished watching separate granddaughters, I asked Steve for the big lens so I could go photographing vultures on my running route. Deer car collisions are more frequent this time of year and there were 3 separate dead deer on a 1.5 mile stretch alone. Two were off in the wetlands. Turns out vultures don't like to get their feet wet but one was right on the road attracting about 20 vultures. Vultures are amazingly skittish flying off when I am 100 feet away but they land in the trees right above where with a telephoto lens, I should have no trouble photographing them. As these creatures are right above me as I run by, I carefully devise a path so I will not be in the direct line of fire. I can't imagine anything more disgusting than vulture poop.

I have been pooped on by a bird bigger than a vulture: a peacock. Years ago, I was running in Stanley Park in Vancouver BC, a beautiful run surrounded by sea and mountains. I went into the interior for water where a small zoo was. Above me in a tree was a peacock. Soon I was covered with peacock poop. I tried to get as much as possible out of my hair in a public restroom and with soap from a dispenser. It was a long drive back to Seattle for a more thorough cleaning.

Peacocks eat grains; vultures eat decaying meat so being hit by a vulture would be extra disgusting. According to this bird rescue group I used to take the Girl Scouts to, a vulture's last line of defense is to vomit on you. This has happened when they have attempted to rescue injured vultures.

Maybe Steve was nervous about me taking the 'good' camera out but he said he would go with me. The deer carcass was there but no vultures. Maybe they migrated since I saw them 2 days ago? They will leave eventually. We saw a few circling way above. On to take photos of leaves instead. Earlier that morning on my run, my tunnel of trees looked so beautiful with the sun shining on them. I wanted to capture that but now the lighting was all wrong. We walked around the township park nearby. They do have a stand of dense trees, not maples,, we started to walk through but I was wearing sandals and I could see I narrowly missed poison ivy.

On to the Springhill Nature Preserve further down on my alternate running route. I take it now when the early sun hurts my eyes going east but the downside is that there is a very steep hill and I need to cross a very busy road. I had taken a small break on my route Monday and from a viewing platform overlooking a large meadow, I could see a stand of flaming maples in the distance. We walked to them. After a long stretch around the meadow, the path went through  a dense maple forest on a hill overlooking a pretty pond. Too dense for poison ivy to survive (they need light). Although it was very overcast, we did take some pretty photos. I wish I had worn more appropriate footwear.

It is bicycling day. The winds are at a minimum today though stronger than last week. When the traffic clears, I will be out there. Then off to be fingerprinted and then my cooking class for survivors. Yep I should just be eating foods from that class but cheesy caramel corn tastes so good.

 

Maya at the farm

riding the pig

Almost 4 feet with hair Maybe 46 inches tall?

This was her favorite

Since her father has her on weekends and she is in school all day during the week, we don't see Maya as often as we used to.  We did get to take her to the farm nearby last evening.

This weekend was annoying. Naomi borrowed our car because hers had a few things wrong with it, now fixed. While she was at work, thieves broke the window to get at her make-up bag that looked like a purse. While police investigated that, the thieves broke into another car in front. Presumably there are security cameras and they have a palm print and some fingerprints. Now we get to go down to the station and give them our prints to exclude them. Fun. Mobile glass people came yesterday to give us a new window. Meanwhile, the police to the north want to have Shanna prosecuted for leaving the scene of an accident even though there was no visible damage to either car (a witness saw her tap the other car while parking and called the police.) Such BS. She will of course fight this.

A stressful week as our house selling goes forwards: inspections, radon tests, surveys, appraisals. I keep those podcasts on all night so I don't mull over the many things that can go wrong. I will be so happy when this chapter is finished.

Allie is sick yet again though it was Steve's turn to watch her. I had already committed to watching Tessa, clearly the easiest of the five. Such a sweet little girl though she is feisty. We were going over shapes and she slurred the word 'rectangle'. I repeated it enunciating each syllable and asked her to repeat it the way I said it which she did. She then proceeded to slowly enunciate all the other shapes in the same manner. I think I was being mocked by a 3 year old.

Sundays are for bicycling

Not sure what this pretty yellow plant is

maples

and more maples

behind the pink bat covered mailboxes is a friendly reminder that there is armed security

The road behind the house we are trying to sell. I went there this morning to see the maples. The small ones have lost their leaves already. Photo below is what it looked like last year

lake near us in the very early morning sun

same lake looking north

looking south

our old road last year

The early morning sun casts long shadows. I appear to be riding a bicycle 20 feet high. My usual Sunday morning route is no longer safe due to the very low sun and more traffic due to me having to start later. As I was not going to see Allie today, I didn't need to rush home to fit her visit with her rigid nap schedules. Nothing scheduled today at all so I could stop to take photos. I did take the busy road with the wide shoulders to Ann Arbor to my old neighborhood hoping to catch the maples in their glory. Going back, I took a very deserted dirt road, fortunately in good shape. Going east, the drivers would be blinded by the sun but for 5 miles, none were going  in my direction.Flocks of noisy black birds cawed; geese honked and the weird loud trills of the  cranes. Everything very pretty and peaceful.