Holly Doyne

Our visitor today amply demonstrates that all is not symmetrical in the Cervidea kingdom. Deer , my friends – deer.  To add to the confusion – the sub-family for the New World is called  Capreolinae. With me so far? Happily reading the Wiki article, it appears that the ancestors of the modern deer camping among my metal flamingos are also out-wanderers from Asia.

Our particular invasive species is locally known as black-tailed deer as apposed to the white tailed deer of New England and the mid-west. Some expert somewhere has decided that they are a sub-species of mule deer. I don’t think it really matters to the deer. Around here, they are just considered an invasive species.

Look at him, look at him closely. Click on the picture if you need to see him better….

No clue what happened to him earlier this year – but he obviously survived….

Have I mentioned that I have numerous pairs of glasses floating around. Most of which are several years old. The prescriptions in all of them are similar, but some are a lot better than others.
Last year about this time, I got a new pair of glasses. I really liked them. They fit even when wearing a mask. They let me see well enough for stitching that I wasn’t spending my entire life with them somewhere else while I peered through a magnifier or squinted at what was in my hands.
And then I couldn’t find them. I looked all through my craft room, our bedroom. Suitcases, closets, bathrooms. I looked.

And then this morning, when I got around to heading into the guest bedroom to change them bedl linens, I happened to glance over at the built in bookcase. There is this pair of glasses sitting there..

I brought them out to my craft room and spent time looking at them.

No question – these are the missing glasses. 

Today started out less than auspicious. Of course, I didn’t know about my contribution to destruction  until I returned home. When Amazon dropped off a package in the middle of the driveway (after dark I might add) is it any wonder that it got flattened as I drove out on my way to the SFVA at 0dark30? Apparently it was small. Barely a bump that was grazed by a tire and went Squish.

Noah asked me on my return if I had noticed a small package on my way down the driveway. Had I gone out early? Yes. But something in the middle of the driveway? Small and flat? No, hadn’t seen it. He called Amazon – reminded them of the delivery instructions (NOT in the driveway, NOT abandoned on the public stairs leading up to Keith – next to the number sign at the big tree was fine) and whatever it was will be replaced.

Otherwise – dental appointment. A bit more garage organization.

meaning that it is actually possible to walk to the back wall in one of the three bays.

and then there was the evening visit from one of the nearby nature preserve residents.

This was a cleanup day. I had mentioned to George several days ago that we really needed to tackle the garage. He promised right after his first two morning conference calls. And I promptly forgot all about it.

I was just back from running an errand or two and was headed upstairs – stitching was calling me. And then I was reminded that organizing the garage had been my idea. The next couple of hours were spent sorting, consolidating, re-organizing. We made serious progress. Tomorrow I am washing a couple of loads of clothing that need to be donated.

Feeling full of energy, I grabbed the heavy duty clippers as I was headed up the stairs and back to the house. I had been watching some of the plants along the stairs. Those on our side were getting well out of control. Imagine my horror –

when I discovered these babies growing along the stairs and into our upper lawn. I haven’t ever seen thistles here before. They are really nasty suckers and are more than willing to tear up hands and shed little spikes into any and all clothing. The only positive thing I can say is that their roots are very shallow. 

I will try and remember tomorrow to get pictures of the sightly cleared stairway and the garage…

Does anyone really know what time it is? (Here you have your choice between the classic song by Chicago 

I think we should start with the fact that time and time zones are an artificial construct agreed upon by various international organizations in order to standardize the whole “what time is it?” and enable international commerce (more information on Wiki).  In fact, the specific time may have no particular relevance to you personally if you are not doing much interaction with the world outside your door.

Or if you are on a cruise ship where that pesky time defines food availability or when you need to be back should that particular bit of confusion be on a day where the ship is in some port or another. But obviously I am digressing.

Over the last seven + weeks, I went from Pacific Time (GMT – 8 in March) to Miami (GMT -5) to Barcelone (CET) to Edinburgh (UTC) and then daylight savings time kicked in at various points which made a total mess of all the entries I had made of various ZOOM CME events in my calendar.

Heading toward my ship leaving from Lisbon I went to Zürich (one hour ahead) to Lisbon (dropping back an hour) and then there was the ship which had to turn back those hours, on a sea day and in synch to whatever ports were on the schedule. By the time I arrived in Miami there had been about 5 hours gained back. Add in 24 hours almost awake to travel home and you can start to see that I don’t have a clue about time.

It might be why I woke at 0430 local time this morning. The house was quiet. I was able to stitch for several hours before anyone else was stirring. By the end of the day I had managed 1643 stitches which completed the large motif and most of the next one. I have just under 500 stitches to go on this project for now. Means I am running out of excuses on a few other things…