Random Tuesday

Just a few random things to share today...


I love my eye doctor. Not only is he amusing, he also gives me lots of free samples (contacts, solution, replacement nose pads for my glasses, and two bottles of allergy eye drops today!) and he always shows a real personal interest in his patients.  Dr. Hobbs, you rock! :)

It's cooling down outside. I've noticed a few dogwood and sweet gum leaves beginning to change colors. I love watching the seasons turn, especially in a new place because you never know what you might see. The cooler weather is a relief. Last night I watched the sun go down from the hammock in the backyard, glass of chilled white wine in hand. It was soooo nice! I saw a beautiful sight right before dark, Venus shining like a small jewel in the pink western horizon. I wish I had had my camera with me.

I have a three day weekend coming up over the Labor Day holiday. Husband and I will have two of those days off together, which isn't a common thing! We're looking forward to it.

Marco has been wild lately. He had clipped wings when I got him, and his flight feathers are slowly growing back in. He had some problems as a baby bird (but that's a story for another day) and so it's taken a while for him to gain some ability to fly. But all of a sudden, he's been able to glide around the house and he's been a cocky little guy since then! Whenever he's on top of his cage, on his playgym, you can't leave the room without him trying to fly after you, and getting into a little temper if you take him back to his cage!

I only look sweet and innocent.

That's all that's up in the Burning Moonlight household this week. Happy Tuesday!

Welcome to the neighborhood

It's been a nice few days for me. Lately every time I go out and walk with Ginger I end up meeting neighbors for the first time! We just moved to this house back in June and until this weekend I really hadn't met anyone. In fact, Husband commented just the other day how no one seemed especially friendly here. He had waved at the man that lives across the street, and the guy just stared at him and then continued mowing his lawn. Nice! A few folks walk their dogs past our house early in the morning and most have refused to even make eye contact. I was just getting ready to be resigned to the fact that we had just not moved to a friendly kind of place.

Well, all that changed in the last few days! Maybe we just hadn't landed on the right neighbors. I took Ginger to a small park down the road on Saturday, and ended up meeting and chatting with two neighbors named Joe and Arlene....and their sweet dogs, too...a Boykin spaniel named Morgan (that Ginger has fallen in love with!) and two mixed breeds named Sallie and Max. Then, on the way back home an old woman named Diana walked to the end of her driveway as we passed by and introduced herself. I also met her little granddaughter, Bailey, who had started first grade last week and wanted to tell me all about it.That was sweet (and Bailey loved Ginger and petted her half to death!)  Diana also had dogs...4 of them...but I can't remember their names. During our conversation she told me the names of the people that live in several houses on our street and a little fact about each one. "That's Mr. and Mrs.--, they used to own that one florist shop downtown, and that's where Mrs. So and So used to live, she's in a nursing home now but her kids keep the house and yard up....and Mr. -- lives there, he has a dog and a cat..."  It made me smile, and Ginger loved all the attention from the people and their dogs.

So my weekend got off to a good start. Then I went to work Sat. night to the retail store I manage, and found out we made our sales target in the second quarter and I will be getting a bonus! That made me incredibly happy, not just for the money but also because I am so proud of my team and what we were able to accomplish!  Everyone has worked really hard these last couple of months.

Then today I was actually able to leave work a bit early, and get in some blogging/reading/knitting time. Happy happy day! I plan to make a "Garden Tomato Pie" for dinner. It's kind of like a quiche, and it has tomatoes (obviously), green onions, 3 cheeses, fresh basil, and crumbled bacon. mmmm! Then we'll settle in and watch a movie. And then we might even take a nighttime walk with Ginger...in our new neighborhood.

No, I'm not your friend!

Forgive me for a quick rant here.

I have to get this off my chest: Facebook really irritates me.

I admit,it can be lots of fun with people you are actually friends with. In real life. Or people you genuinely like and would lose touch with otherwise. But what I hate about Facebook is the friend requests from people that I don't care about. Or, worse, people that I dislike, but am embarrassed to ignore a friend request from. Like the Christian Conservative Rupublican Glenn Beck/Ann Coulter/Rush Limbaugh-lover....who happens to work for the same company as me (we're on the same level, just work in different towns). Like the guy that "likes" things like "Barack Obama= Bullshit" and "Work harder! Millions on welfare depend on you!"  Dude, I am not your friend. I'm your arch nemesis. You offend me. And now I get to scroll through the bs you post every day to read the stuff I actually like. You know, that my friends posted. Sigh.

I constantly consider getting rid of my facebook page. Occasionally I hear from someone I care about, or get to watch a funny video someone posted on my wall, etc. But there is so much juvenile stuff that I rarely get on anymore, much less post anything. Then there are the increasing numbers of my "friends" that aren't, really. I'm really thinking about just deleting my page and forgetting about it.

So there's my Friday rant, not very interesting but it was nice to get it off  my chest! :)

Late summer gifts

Last night we got to see the full moon after all! The cloud cover of yesterday began to lift late in the afternoon, and by the time I got off work (at 9:30pm) it was shining golden overhead. I hurried home, and did a little moon gazing before bed. Here in our new house, the windows in the master bedroom make a lovely frame for the moon when it reaches it's full phase. I opened the blinds and drifted off to sleep with the silvery light shining in.

I don't have to work today, so twilight will find me sitting on our back patio, glass of wine in hand, waiting on lady moon to make her appearance. It should be a great night for it...the heat has finally subsided a little over the past couple of days.  Husband keeps telling me that I should enjoy the summer weather while it lasts, and he's right. I will be sad when winter comes and the earth is cold and sleeping. I will long for green leaves, warm breezes, flowers, and long days and will be counting the weeks until summer returns. Thinking of this keeps everything in perspective and makes me mindful of living in the moment and enjoying each season's special gifts. Even if it is hot.

August Full Moon

I just love full moons.

Every month I try to make time to sit outside under the light of the full moon and bask in her glow. Today has started off with some serious cloud cover so I don't know if that will be possible tonight. This would annoy me ordinarily, but it's been so hot this summer that any cloudy, cooler day is welcome...even if it does deprive me of moon gazing!

I always make up my own "moon names" for each month that have meaning to me in my part of the world. The farmer's almanac calls this the "sturgeon moon"..........which doesn't mean much to me in here in South Carolina. So here are some moon names for August that I've come up with:

Hot Moon
Thunder Moon
Moon of Shooting Stars
Rainy Moon
Scuppernong Moon

That's all I can come up with for now. Next month will be one of my favorite full moons of the year, the Harvest Moon! I am also beginning to make plans to invite some lady friends over to celebrate the Chinese Mid-Autumn Moon festival, which falls on the full moon in September. More about that later!

Lazy Sunday

It's going to be a lazy Sunday afternoon for me, and I plan to spend it with my two best buddies! First off, the sweetest little love-bug ever:

Marco

And the best dog ever, my very own Spice Girl:

Ginger

It's going to be a happy-at-home kind of day! During the worst heat of the afternoon I'm going to chill out in the a/c and listen to NPR and knit (is that nerdy or what?!) Then I plan to make a quick run to the grocery store to get a few ingredients I'm missing to make a from-scratch chicken pot pie!  Mmmm! I've had a craving for one for weeks now. Then when Husband gets home we'll have a nice Sunday night dinner and probably watch a movie....then take a moonlight stroll with Ginger around the neighborhood (the moon is almost full!)...then off to bed :)

Happy Scents

I read an interesting thread this morning on a forum I frequent. The topic was perfume and favorite scents. It got me thinking of my own personal favorite (and not-so favorite) smells.

First off, I'm not much of a perfume/cologne fan. This is due, at least in part, to my allergies. Most perfumes make me sneeze and my eyes water, and my nose immediately gets all stuffed up so I can't smell anything anyway. I also have eczema on my knees, feet, and wrists so my dermatologist recommended that I only use unscented gentle soaps. So perfume isn't a huge part of my life. I don't mind, because I'm not a big fan of artificial fragrances anyway. There are, however, lots of things in life that I love to smell!

So, in no particular order, here are some of my favorites:

Lavender, sage, basil, (most herbs!), freshly mown grass, ocean air, ripe peaches, citrus-y things (especially limes), pine woods after a rain, apples, spearmint, baking bread, Marco's feathers (he will hold up his wings and let me kiss underneath, and he has a sweet, clean bird smell that's hard to describe), old books, libraries, freshly laundered sheets, honeysuckle, jasmine, burning leaves, tomato foliage, tobacco warehouses where tobacco is being cured (there aren't many of those left these days), suntan lotion, good coffee, popcorn, and some strange things, like fresh paint and gasoline!

I thought it was fascinating to read some of responses on the thread that inspired this blog post. People listed their favorite/least favorite scents in life and it was so incredibly varied! I plan to be more mindful of the scents around me as I move through today....I wonder what I'll notice?

Wordless Wednesday ~ Alight

Another sleepless night...

I have really been "burning moonlight" this week. For some reason I haven't been sleeping, which is most unusual for me. Normally I'm out like a light and I sleep hard for 7-8 hours and wake up feeling fine (despite the name of this blog I'm actually a morning person). Not this week, though. I toss and turn, get up, get something to drink, then back to bed to toss and turn some more. When I do doze off I've been sleeping very lightly and waking up easily. I have no idea why this is going on.

I have, however, been doing some moon gazing. The first quarter moon has been bright and beautiful, and the air outside is cool and sweet at night. Then I get up super early and take the Ginger girl for a stroll, which we both enjoy. So it's not all wasted time. But I sure feel rough about halfway through the work day!

Maybe tonight I'll try some chamomile tea and a warm bath before bed. We'll see how it goes!

Sad

Today is the last day of my vacation. Back to work tomorrow (sniff!)

Why does time off go by so fast?

Friday the 13th

"I'm not superstitious. But I'm a little stitious."  -Michael Scott, from The Office

So it's Friday the 13th and so far the day is living up to it's reputation.

First, I forgot to put out the trash for today's pickup for the second week in a row. Nice. I woke up to the sound of the garbage truck lumbering down our street and my first thought on this fine morning was, "Oh sh*t!" So I threw on some shorts and sprinted outside....only to see the truck cruise past our house and continue on it's way. Sigh.

Then, I came in to face the wreck that is my house....the house I spent all day cleaning yesterday in anticipation of one of Husband's friends coming over. I cooked a ton of Mexican food, we drank beer, a good time was had by all, but now I'm left with the aftermath. Again, sigh.

What should cap off the morning is that Husband and I are headed to the Verizon store to get new cell phones and a new plan for our phone/internet/etc. Should be loads of fun, given how the rest of the morning is going!

Well, off to see what kind of bad luck I can find! Happy 13th!

Perseid meteors peak tonight!

Tonight should be a great night for stargazing! Don't forget to make a wish on the first shooting star you see!



http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20100812/sc_space/spectacularmeteorshowerandrareplanetalignmentcoincide


Enjoy the show :)

Signs of autumn

This morning when Ginger and I went for our daily walk around the neighborhood, we had a surprise. Morning glories are beginning to bloom on our back fence!

Morning glory photo taken last September at our old house.

I always think of morning glories as a sign of early autumn here in the south. In a few more weeks the roadside ditches will be covered in them. Such a gorgeous sight on a cool September morning (or a hot August morning!)  The ones here at the new house are sky blue--my favorites.

I've also begun to see the trees in our neighborhood turning a gold-green color. I hope our trees have good color this year. Not that we ever have the dramatic hues of the Northeast, but the South Carolina lowcountry has a subtle beauty in the fall all it's own.

Peaches and Lavender

As summer begins to wind down, I am slowly filling my chest freezer with fruity goodness to see us through the winter. We moved into this house in June only to find a wonderful surprise.....nine mature blueberry bushes loaded down with fruit! We have frozen about 3 gallons of them in quart containers, to go with the strawberries I picked at the U-pick farm back in April. In fact, the bushes produced so much that we were able to give away probably 5 gallons to friends, and we enjoyed watching the neighborhood birds bring their fledgling babies to enjoy the bounty.

Today is all about PEACHES! I bought a big beautiful basket of them at the market on Monday, and I'm going to add some quarts of sliced peaches to the freezer. They smell absolutely divine. Could anything on earth smell nicer than a sweet, ripe peach?

Well, one thing might....the bundles of lavender flowers I've been drying! I have fallen in love with the scent of lavender this year. I have one big plant that I am hoping will thrive despite being dug up and moved in May (I harvested the flowers right before digging). Yesterday I took TWO baths with the lavender salts and soap I bought from HMS at the market. Lavender is supposed to have calming, soothing properties and I believe it. I slept like a baby with the gentle scent of it surrounding me!

What are you harvesting this summer?

August Heat

When I was a kid, I had a collection of my parents' high school textbooks. My favorites were the literature books, and today I am trying to recall a creepy short story entitled "August Heat". If I remember correctly, it was about a guy taking  a walk on a steamy hot August day, and meeting a tombstone maker working on a tombstone....which turned out to be HIS stone, with that day's date listed as the death date. Scary!

What made me remember this today? Taking my dog Ginger for a walk this morning. It was 7:30am and the temperature was already above 90F. With high humidity to go with it every thing looked steamy, like a sauna. I was drenched in sweat after 30 minutes. Ugh. It's enough to make you feel like you're about to die! Hence the story popping into my mind.

Oh, August, I have such a love hate relationship with you! On the one hand, I always seem to be able to take a vacation in August. I am on vacation this week (hooray!) and last year I took a week off in August as well. I love that there are still lots of wonderful things to buy at the farmer's market. I went yesterday and bought corn, tomatoes, watermelon, a big basket of peaches (I plan to freeze some), zucchini, eggplant, peas, okra, peppers and squash. I met an 81 year old potter named Elijah and admired his pottery. I went to Harvest Moon Soapworks and bought lavender bath salts (with the cutest little wooden scoop!) lavender soap, sage soap, dried rosebuds and petals, and a mortar and pestle made of stone. I got the best peach ice cream cone for lunch, and also bought organic milk and eggs. August is just made for rambling around having those kinds of adventures. I plan to go to the public library today and spend an afternoon browsing the shelves. August is also made for summer reading and library books.

BUT, there is another side to August. I live in South Carolina, and the heat makes everyone want to hibernate inside with the a/c cranked up and the blinds drawn. I haven't worn makeup to work in three months (because I'll just sweat it off getting into my car!) Everyone is cranky. Doing anything outside for 10 minutes or more leaves one soaked with sweat. Add to the fun that this has been a hotter than normal summer all up and down the east coast, including here.

The other thing I dislike about this month is the fact that the days are getting shorter already. I always feel like I haven't had enough summer yet when it starts to get dark noticeably earlier. Of course, I haven't had much summer....I've been hiding inside to escape the heat!

Then there is the "back to school" feeling. I know some people love this time of year, the shopping for school supplies, the feeling of new beginnings.........but for me the "new beginnings" feeling happens in the early spring, not now. I just have a kind of "back to school/work/responsibilities" feeling!

Well, I'm off to enjoy the day, despite the August Heat! This vacation was very needed, and I still have the rest of the week to enjoy. Life is good right now!

This is a test post

Hello to all future readers who may find this post! :)

I am attempting to make a blog here for your enjoyment. This is the first post for Burning Moonlight and I can't wait to get out into blogland!