Nox Waiting for Pills, Bats Flirting with the Moon

July 28, 2025 On Friday (July 25), I did my daily fight with the squash bugs. I picked off the eggs, sprayed soapy water on the nymphs, and squished any full-grown squash bug. It was cool enough in the evening to sit outside on the front porch and watch the sunset. Nox was sitting outside […]

The Driveway Project Is Complete!

July 23, 2025 Yesterday, Tuesday (July 22), barely after 7 am, the driveway work commenced! The truck at the bottom of the driveway is bringing in the first load of crusher run gravel, which the driver dropped off in front of the garage. Bruce and I watched most of the work from inside the house. […]

“Autumn Wind” Is Back!

July 15, 2025 Today, after I woke up from my nap, I saw “AutumnWind” had been delivered back to us. I was so excited, I went to get the box. I started to pick it up, then reconsidered. I was unsure how heavy the box was and I am not supposed to lift more than […]

Random Picture

June 13, 2025 I have no idea what this picture is. I found it on my phone when I was looking at the pictures to decide what to post. It looked very artistic to me, so I decided to share it. Updated June 13: Serval of you suggested turning the picture to get an early […]

Blackberries Are Getting Ready to Bloom

April 16, 2025 On a walk around Blackberry Homestead, I noticed the blackberries are starting to bloom. I noticed some pink on these flowers. The ones I had seen before were all white. I looked them up and they are Philadelphia fleabane. Here are some pictures of the dismembered pine tree that I took on […]

New Style of Artwork, “Abstract Sensualism”

April 5, 2025 Surprise was expressed at how much we were willing to spend to ship and have our DeRubeis’s artwork “Autumn Wind” repaired. (We were both sick to realize it had been damaged.) I want to explain why we are willing to spend so much to ship it and have it repaired. Bruce and […]

The Damaged Artwork Shipped for Repair Today

April 4, 2025 After carefully packing the entire four panels of the damaged artwork, we packed it into the large art moving box from U-Haul. We used bubble wrap and U-Haul styrofoam corner proctors, along with bubble wrap corner protectors. We used a lot of tape to keep everything in place. The styrofoam corner proctors […]

Update on Repairing Our DeRubeis Artwork

March 25, 2025 I received another email from DeRubeis’s office. “I spoke with the artist and he does believe that scratch is repairable. The cost for repair is $200, plus shipping. He does want to note that if you send back just the panel that needs to be repaired, it will be shinier than the […]

Return Contact from DeRubeis’s Office on Scratch

March 20, 2025 I received an email from DeRubeis’s office manager about the scratch on one of the artwork’s panels. she wrote back: “Hello Julia Thank you for reaching out. It is usually possible for a panel to be repaired but to look into it further, would it be possible to have you take a […]

A Gift from Jeanne

March 1, 2025 While in Colorado, my lovely friend Jeanne from ajeanneinthekitchen.com, presented me with a beautiful vase that she made. I was thrilled and look forward to having a place to display it with some silk flowers. (Water will cause the buttons to come off.) The vase was the first item I unpacked from […]