Time for a personal update!
We are doing well. Stan and I being apart this much just sucks, but we knew what we were in for we decided to divide and conquer. Stan will be here again in about two weeks.
Work is steady and predictable for him. He is very much looking forward to his well deserved retirement in about eight months! In the mean time he’ll be getting our house in NH completely painted and he’ll put in a standard kitchen to replace the cabinets and double island we brought here to PA from NH. There is some other work for him to do on the house, but it should be ready to sell sometime in summer next year. I’m really excited for him to be here permanently and looking forward to getting to spend our new life together here in PA!
Getting a lot of rain, so trimmed the grass and did some weeding before it hit. I’ll probably need to cut the grass one more time, twice at the most? The frost did not do anything to the garden, so I think I’ll have everything to look at for at least another ten days or so.
For the rest of fall will do some outside painting here in PA and work on some art pieces outside before it gets too cold to do such things. We have plumbing people coming to do some work in our basement next month. Around then I’ll start to decorate for the holidays for us. Stan will be here for Thanksgiving and also for Solstice/Christmas. We’ll celebrate my b-day early, in December, when he is here and we’ll celebrate his early, in January, because he won’t be here for his actual b-day.
I have new glasses! It was time for my annual eye exam and I knew both my long vision and bifocal lenses needed to change. The appointment went well at the new eye doctor. It is a much, much bigger facility than our old one ,with many more doctors and specialists. I think it took a shorter time to get my eye exam with this doctor and less time to get my new glasses than at the place in NH. I’m showing some sign of early cataracts, but nothing I have to do anything about right now.
I also got my Covid and Flu vaccines. We normally use Rite Aide, but of course they are all gone now, so we switched to CVS. There is one downtown in Pittston, very close to where the Rite Aide was. They were very friendly, efficient and fast, even though they were very, very busy. That pharmacy is hopping!
I’ve now seen my new physician here in PA and I really like her. My annual exam went well; no new surprises, so I’m happy. This practice is also much larger than the one in NH and it has a lab in the same building, which I think is very convient. Again, everyone was very friendly and efficient.
Some of the sunrises and sunsets have really been spectacular this year. My favorite was this sunrise above.
The solar array we installed this summer already has knocked off our electric bill and we’ve stored some solar credit. It won’t be like that for winter, but it will still reduce those bills some.
Around our area there are so many things to see. Above I have photos of two bushes I love from my walk around the neighborhood and the memorial to the miners that died in the mine disaster here. There is also a picture of coneflower from a front yard that is nothing but pollinator plants.
Speaking of the neighborhood, we have some terrific neighbors! Above are some photos across the street to the other corner house. Mary Jo is a great gardener and I enjoy talking to her. her garden is so neat and manicured! Her husband Walter is also outside often doing things in their yard.
In the center of the photo above is a deer grazing on some of the weeds on the shoulder. We were coming home from the UU meetinghouse, and there she was!
Stan is bringing more of our houseplants each time he comes to PA. Above are the Asiatic Lillies I planted for him. We love them, but got tired of trying to deal with the pests that plague them when planted outside. I’ll need to let them die back and put them in the basement. They need a cold/dark cycle to bloom.
Our harvest was good, especially for the small space I devoted toward food. 34 cucumbers and 23 Cortland summer squash. Had enough strings beans to eat them four times and give some away. Haven’t harvested the potato crop yet or the carrots. I think we will have many potatoes, but I only planted five multi-color carrot plants, so that yield will be small. I was really just trying to see how easy it would be to grow them from seed. It was so easy! Stan also grew tomatoes in NH.
Next post will be the summer flower garden post!
