Saturday Afternoon Chat: A week of cool temperatures, art, and wild roses

/ Lisa R. Howeler

A temperature in the mid to high 60s is perfect for sitting under a blanket and reading a book and that is where our temps were most of this week despite it being summer. I have absolutely loved it.

It’s made me want to jump up and down, but I can’t since my knee is still healing. I have, instead, been doing some dancing in place while grabbing my grandma’s blanket and running to the couch with my Kindle.

If you didn’t read my Sunday Bookends, post, you might not know that I fell on my sidewalk last week while trying to take groceries into the house. My foot caught on the curb, I went flying, and my left knee took the full brunt of the impact. When my knee made contact, I had a horrible feeling that this was not going to be one of those falls you shake off and move on from.

So far it hasn’t been. I’ve been stiff and sore all week. My entire body reacted to that fall, and I’ve been a bit of a sore mess all week. Not a big of enough mess that I couldn’t have a fairly good week, though.

No ER visits this week despite that fall so that’s one good thing.

There were other good things about the week, though.

Little Miss attended an art class all week with the local 4-H group. Well, Tuesday through Friday.

On Monday, the kids and I drove 45 minutes north to visit with our homeschool evaluator and family friend. She learned about our school year and interviewed the kids and then wrote evaluations for both children for me to hand in to our school district to show they had a good education this past year.

On Tuesday we started the art class which was for four hours a day.

It was only a week long but there will be other 4-H events throughout the summer, including the horse and pony club which meets a couple of times a month, and a baking club which will be meeting every Monday in July. I also found out yesterday that there will be another art class like this one in August.

The building the classes were held in is an old shoe factory that built in the 1940s. It now houses a state representative office and offices for various community or county organizations.

My grandmother once worked at the shoe factory. She’s been gone since 2003 and was two weeks shy of 94 when she passed, so that gives you an idea how old the building is.

The building has, obviously, been remodeled and I love the mural that is on the walls when you first walk in.

The mural was painted by Kat Badger, who paints murals all over the world, but was thrilled, according to an interview with the local TV station (WNEP) to paint a mural in her own hometown. The mural features all the different aspects and features of Sullivan County – the waterfalls in the state park near here, the covered bridge in a tiny town near us, the people who worked in the shoe factory.

It’s truly beautiful.

The building is only about eight minutes from our house and all the other parents left their children there, but I was somehow asked to pick up the lunches each day, so I stuck around and mainly sat in the car and read books or worked on my book. In other words, it was relaxing in many ways, sans having to get lunches.

The plants outside the building in interesting “pots.”

On Friday I usually get our groceries, but I had to drive to the town we live in to take Little Miss to class, then back to where we live to pick up lunch. The problem was that when I got there, the business that was supposed to provide lunch never made it, saying their manager had denied the request to make a lunch for the local 4-H group. They did not, however, let the local 4-H group know this so at the last minute the local, family-owned supermarket was called and made subs for the group like the small town heroes they are.

After having to wait another half hour for that order then going back and waiting another hour and a half for the class to end, and then driving back home, I was glad I had decided to wait until today to pick up our grocery order since it is a 40-minute round trip to do that.  

Next week, so far, looks to be a lot slower week. It is supposed to get very warm so we will probably be inside or in the sprinkler most of the time.

My dad has had a lot of health issues this year, so we haven’t been able to get the pool at his house going. Some things are going to have to be laid to the side this year, I think. There aren’t a lot of public pools near us but maybe we will find one to go to later in the summer.

There is a lake but Little Miss insists something touched her leg last time we went so she resists visits there. I still insist it was just some seaweed-like material and not some sort of lake monster but she doesn’t want to believe me.

I did enjoy looking at our wild roses this week. I was disappointed that some of our peonies didn’t bloom, but I think the frost at the end of May might have destroyed one of them. I missed their hot pink blooms but I was able to admire the dark pink blooms of the other peonies. Sadly, my knee issue didn’t let me get as many photos of the flowers as I wanted this week but I was able to get a few of the roses at least.

How was your week last week? Do anything interesting, exciting, or simply relaxing? I’d love to know.

Discover more from Boondock Ramblings

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

22 thoughts on “Saturday Afternoon Chat: A week of cool temperatures, art, and wild roses”

  1. Wow, temps in the 60s? We’d be lucky to see that even two months ago. Then again, I live in North Florida. One day, in the not too distant future, we will move north.

    Like

    Reply

  2. I’ve been terrible about staying caught up on reading blogs but I plan to catch up here and there, slowly but surely..this post was a good place to start with all the sweet little treasured activities you guys always seem to have going on.
    I’m sorry about your knee!! And I sure hope your dad’s health improves!!

    We are to have a high of 62 on Wednesday and I’m very much looking forward to it!! Blanket and a book…and maybe even grilled cheese with tomato soup!!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  3. I’m new to your blog and have been catching up on your recent posts. We homeschooled for several years when our three kids were young. It does keep you busy!

    My husband and I have been empty-nesters now for a decade or more, and we took up dancing, which in turn took over first just one night for class plus every Saturday night, and now is most nights of the week and often our vacations and weekends away, too.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  4. Sure hope your knee heals up soon, and that your Dad will be able to get some kind of pain relief. It’s so hard when we have new limitations. I’m keeping you and your family in my prayers! Love those beautiful roses!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  6. I hope your knee is soon back to normal. I need my right one replaced, but I’m putting it off for as long as I can. I do hope someone touched base with whoever was supposed to provide those lunches. That’s just wrong. Thank goodness for your grocery store.

    We are beginning a hot and humid streak…highs in the 90s with humidity probably the same. Why can’t they mess up those forecasts like they do snowfalls?

    I went to a wedding Saturday. It was one of Mike’s nieces, and it was so nice to catch up with people I hadn’t seen in close to a decade/

    https://marshainthemiddle.com

    Like

    Reply

    • I am not looking forward to this hot week, that is for sure, but we are grateful for our AC units.

      The wedding sounds so nice! I haven’t been to a wedding in a long time. No one I know is getting married 🙂

      Like

      Reply

  7. That mural is beautiful!! Out of my 3 peony plants only one bloomed this year and it only had 1 bloom on it. I think they really didn’t like our colder spring. So many of my other plants are really thriving this year though so I’m sort of taking my garden as it comes… as I usually do because I know and understand so little about the plants I’ve planted (and am a lazy gardener that doesn’t really like gardening and have zero desire to learn more about them!).

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

  8. Pingback: Sunday Bookends: Juggling four books (I can explain!), and a little vent about Kindle Unlimited for authors – Boondock Ramblings

Leave a reply to Lisa R. Howeler Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.