I hope you had a good Thanksgiving and enjoyed a bit of down time. The weather here in The Ozarks has been mostly mild for the time of year and begged for a stroll around the lake near our house. It was a good MS day so I chanced hiking halfway up a short trail for a few photos.
The natural stone path was easier to climb up than down.Stone wear.I’ll have to remember to bring a lunch next time to enjoy the surrounding views.There were several people fishing along the bank. I think Santa went incognito and took the afternoon off to drop a quick line 😉.Canadian Goose warming it’s beak.There were several male Mallards clustered together along the shoreline and let me get awfully close.There were also a few female Mallards waddling here and there.It felt very mellow to see the remains of summer’s decay floating in and on the water.The sky was full of migrating geese.
A few members of our family shared a cozy, delicious turkey dinner with all the fixings on Thanksgiving Day.
Waiting for the last bits of the turkey to arrive before digging in.Our very own smoked turkey guru. Apple-sage 😋The kids enjoyed making all manner of things from pipe cleaners.
As the title suggests, the energy expended to hike and walk around the riverbank as well as to cook all the sides for Thanksgiving was worth it. They cost me a few days of serious rest and struggle walking, but I am incredibly grateful to still be able to do these things. So many people who have had MS for 30 years no longer have the choice of doing these seemingly mundane, everyday things. The blessing that I still can do them, no matter how many days I pay for it, is not lost on me.
I took the final three photos below over the last few days as I’ve been recovering. I am so happy the juncos are back for the winter, they are one of my favorites.
Though I hope to write again soon, I don’t want to miss the chance to wish you a very merry, festive Christmas season! ❤️Amy
I’ve got a case of The Blahs, not to be confused with The Blues – which I don’t have.
MS has been busy fatiguing me of late without allowing me to pursue much sewing or exploring around to enjoy photo taking. The weather has turned cooler so most of my bird watching has been through the windows instead of on the back patio. I did get a few snaps with my phone of the cats doing cute things. Well, they’re cute to me, anyway.
This doesn’t happen very often so it was worth documenting.Pip’s position and back legs up in the air crack me up 😹!
After a long 35 year battle with breast cancer, my stepmother passed away a couple of weeks ago. She had suffered so much that it was a blessing to know her pain was over and she had gone to her heavenly reward. Of course, my sister and her family came up from Texas for a few days in two consecutive weeks. They got to say “goodbye” the first week and were here for the funeral later the following week.
My nephew and Pip are good friends.This kid is so talented!Puppy K.C. came up the first week. She’s a hoot!Doing 9th grade online while they were here the 2nd time. My Dad always gets his Model-Ts out when my nephew is here.My sister brought some hot chocolate bombs for the kids to try out. The verdict was unanimous – 😋!My angelic niece savored every drop.My nephew in his Halloween finery.Covid made Halloween kinda different this year.A vampire angel. 😂Lollipop lips. 😂I did get this sweet finch one sunny afternoon a few weeks ago.
I’ve been putting a lot of puzzles together while listening to Charles Dickens novels. So far, Bleak House and A Tale of Two Cities (both of which made me cry) have been my favorites. I just finished Great Expectations and am only three hours (out of 23) into The Old Curiosity Shop. I have A Christmas Carol, Nicholas Nickleby, and The Pickwick Papers waiting in the wings. I’ve read some of these before but am enjoying how they sound as audiobooks with wonderful readers speaking life into the characters as they do all the different voices.
(American) Thanksgiving will be a much smaller affair than usual but we’re looking forward to seeing my Dad and my step-sister’s family. In the true spirit of the holiday, they are each bring a couple of dishes while hubby and I do the rest. Despite all the troubles in the world around us, we have so many blessings for which to give thanks. I hope you find many blessings to be thankful for too.
This past Friday I got in the car and drove to an opening in the woods just down the road from our house. Although the spot was less than a quarter mile away, and any other person would have walked, I drove in an effort to reserve as much energy as possible so I could do a bit of exploring. With my trusty cane in my right hand and my camera around my neck, I entered the forest along a well-maintained track. I’d never been to this area before, though I had been planning to check it out since noticing it after we moved earlier this year. The first half of the pictures below are some of the things I discovered. I wish I could share the smell and sound of the leaves crunching beneath my feet; the birds calling and flying in the canopy above; the babbling of the small, mossy spring where dragonflies were sunning themselves; and the joyful feeling that I had stepped out of the real world and into a children’s fantasy book.
These wild turkeys were sunning themselves inside a cleared and fenced off, old, private, family cemetery.I like to stroll through old cemeteries and imagine what kind of lives the inhabitants had. They lived through the Civil War era and were loved and missed by someone.I found this old plow laying in another clearing in the middle of the woods. I wonder if it belonged to someone in the cemetery.Though water from the mouth of the spring was definitely bubbling up from the rocks, it clearly wasn’t in any hurry to go anywhere. I was lucky my shoe was the only thing that got wet. Wobbly, unbalanced, cane-carrying walkers should not try to walk from rock to rock in order to discover the source of a spring!Once out of the woods and heading back to the car parked along the road, I noticed this and the following lovelies basking and enjoying the last remaining fruits of the summer.It was such a beautiful day that I drove to the river and walked on the bridge for a few minutes. The only cloud in the sky reminded me of a leaping frog.These guys allowed me to take not only their photo but also snaps of the drone they were figuring out. They were flying that thing absolutely everywhere!I love the color of these berries. Honeysuckle berries, I think…?A little family of turtles warming themselves.Leaf detritus on the bridge.
I hope you have a chance to enjoy the changing seasons wherever you call home.
Welcome to another photo collection of life in the Ozarks!
TitmouseThis blue-tailed skink was FAST!Autumn has come to our river birches.Beautiful yellow mum.Bringing the season to the front porch.Cooler weather means it’s time for soup 😋.My mid-afternoon snack as I enjoy the leaves falling all around.The last Pineapple Whip of the year 😢.I made these little pajama bags last month 😹.It took two weeks to finish because my MS wasn’t very cooperative, but I finally finished my new robe yesterday 😻!I guess Laudy approves.A couple of weeks ago, I finished reading Andrew Carroll’s My Fellow Soldiers about General John Pershing and his leadership/relationship with the American troops during World War I. Unlike most of my generation, my grandfather was a soldier in WWI (he and my grandmother didn’t have my dad until late in life). Grandpa Frank fought on the front lines with a Browning Automatic Rifle during the six-and-a-half week, bloody Meuse-Argonne in the last major battle of the war. My Dad has a lot of his memorabilia including this photo showing him missing a button on his woolen uniform coat. Grandpa Frank shown among his fellow soldiers of the 89th Division, 354th Infantry, Company I.Ready for Mess somewhere in France.Grandpa sailed on this requisitioned passenger ship to France in April of 1917.Grandpa’s pocket watch survived, just like he did.I don’t know what he used this little box for, but it looks like it was well loved.Y.M.C.A. receipts after he got home.
No post is complete without my two favorite cats!
Laudy, our blue crx girl.Pip, our chocolate crx boy.
We did a few days of dog sitting for family over Labor Day weekend. I discovered I like dogs better than I thought I did but, WOW, they are a lot more work than cats.
“What are we going to do now? Huh? Huh? Huh?”
This little beauty had a ton of energy and needed to go on walks as well as run around the backyard. I dug deep to find the energy to walk her around the neighborhood a couple times per day for three days in a row. I can see why people with MS might want a dog. Their basic needs trump even the emptiest of MS energy tanks because when they gotta go they gotta go 😁.
She’s a runner! Those floppy ears 😂.This is more my speed.
Hubby loves dogs and they always seem to gravitate to him. It’s a good thing we kept poochie over a weekend and we could tag team watching her since we had to keep her on a leash when not in her crate. We wanted the cats to still feel like it was their home and they were safe from well-intentioned but unwelcome bouncy-flouncy invitations to “play” chase.
Just a little excited to see hubby ❤️.“Hey, look! Did you see who’s here?!”Touching base with me between runs.Watching the birds from my lap.The first interspecies meeting.They both used their best manners and no one was traumatized.
After the doggy went home, it took a few days of solid rest to recover. I didn’t do much of anything but enjoy these beautiful, freshly fallen leaves from our River Birches.
Autumn is coming 🍂
As I mentioned in my last blog, I had my third Ocrevus infusion in late August. I self-isolated at home for a couple of weeks both before and after the treatment for a bit of extra assurance that I didn’t get sick. I’m pretty used to staying home a lot but I am certainly glad that is over. During my confinement I practiced various lessons from Dorling Kindersley’s Digital Photography Complete Course: Learn Everything You Need to Know in 20 Weeks. Naturally, I used my two favorite muses 🐈🐈. The photos below were taken as I practiced shooting from various angles.
LaudyPip
The big, orange bouncing ball that is MS has been all over the place: up, down, out of bounds, in play, and even deflated. Some days I’ve been able to enjoy a walk, sewing projects, baking, and even a little gardening. Other days I’ve barely been able to step out of bed, take a shower, feed myself, or muster the energy to sit in a chair. It is so bizarre, I can’t describe it. It feels like I am disconnected from myself and am living someone else’s life because it doesn’t feel like me.
I treasure the good days or hours of the day, and sometimes just the minutes of the day, when I am motoring along and feel like I have sovereignty over my body to do the things I want to do. I know God has given me every blessing in Christ so that whether it is a good MS day or not, I can give thanks to Him and live a contented life.
August has provided us several opportunities to enjoy time outdoors, as the pictures below document. We had a few unseasonably cool days for this time of year that allowed me to get out of the house and explore a few outdoor spaces close to our house. I ramped up my own self-isolation the past couple of weeks in anticipation of my next Ocrevus infusion. Matter of fact, I am writing this in the hospital while the O-juice goes in. The drug was supposed to start dripping at 8:00 but it got held up in the pharmacy until a little after 11:00 😖. It takes about five hours to infuse then I have to wait an hour before I can leave, so it’s going to be a long day. Even so, I’m thankful to be getting it at all since so many others with MS don’t have any options this late in the game (#30yearsofMS).
Hubby had a couple of weeks off between semesters so he tackled restoring the fence around our backyard. The days he worked on it were boiling!
It took three days to rehab but it sure looks pretty spiffy now. He had to trim back a sizable portion of our lilac tree to get to the part of the fence in one corner of the yard 😢.
We always keep cookies in the freezer for a sweet treat. I love baking days because any time you get to eat a warm chocolate chip cookie is a good day.In no particular order, Pip and Laudy have become my favorite muses. I am still enjoying my new hobby.
James River near our house.
Yellow is my favorite color and these flowers look so happy in the sun. All of them were growing wild along the river bank.This bee probably thinks the center of the daisy is as big as the moon.I think this is a strawberry clearwing. I found all the following insects around the lake park in our neighborhood.I can’t believe how good the pictures turn out in sports mode, very clear images in motion.Buckeye butterflies are plentiful around the water and are a personal favorite.Swallowtail
Dragonflies come in a multitude of colors and sizes and these are everywhere near the water in our neck of the woods.I especially loved finding these amberwings ❤️.Jimmeny Cricket!Ugh, I stepped off the path to get a good shot of a flower and ended up being covered in these little burrs 😖. It took 30 minutes to pick them all out of my hair and off my clothes. How they got in my hair I have no idea!
Mind you take the narrow path in life, it’s the only one going anywhere real and eternal ❤️.
The road back home from the river.
I have had a lot of things floating around in my mind to write about, but I haven’t decided if I want to share them or not. Writing is very pleasurable and cathartic for me and I want to guard it so it remains that way.
Amy's Axons 