Saturday, September 10, 2011

Sad times

Yesterday I was going to post something rather happy, along with a couple pictures, but the day went from wonderful to bad with a simple phone text. Turns out the family sheltie, named Pikala, had to be put down. Out of the current dogs at my parents' house she was the one I looked forward to seeing. I always gave he first greeting. Whenever I sat on the porch while everyone was out she would sit right next me and watch everything as well.  She was the only dog that would give me a kiss when I would give her one.

In essence she was like a younger sister to me. Grendal loved her dearly as well and was heartbroken by the news. Pika was young for a sheltie but had medical issues and had to be put down. What hurts the most was that it had been 2 weeks since we saw her, and at that time she appeared to be rather healthy. We never got to say goodbye and it hurts to wonder if she had missed seeing us one last time.  All we can do is be happy in knowing there is no more pain and that she has gone to a better place.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

It's the most Wonderful Time of the Year

It's already September, which means it's close to my birthday and closer to my favorite season: autumn! I never really experienced the color extravaganza that come with season when I lived in California and Georgia. Sure trees changed but it's nothing like what I've seen here in northern Illinois. The first time I saw such a lovely display was actually in the backyard of my grandparents' house(my father now owns it). I'm not too sure what type of tree it is but every autumn, for a few days, the leaves are a beautiful crimson. After a point, though, they turn brown and fall. :P

One of my favorite places is a stretch of road not too far from a community college. Trees create this nice tunnel effect as they loom over the street, and once autumn hits the place looks similar to this, but with more reds:
When the sun begins to set the whole place seems to glow! It always takes my breath away. I love the place so much that it inspired an area in my novel-in-progress. The forest always has autumn colors, which just makes it a dream place in my head.

Grendal's father had gone around the yard last month looking at the oak trees in the yard and decided to figure out what kind we have. From what I've been told we have three different kinds, which makes the whole lot of us happy. I've also taken notice that they're producing a nice amount of acorns and have decided that I'm going to try and harvest some! While it seems too early for me to start feasting on nuts, I can't help but want to harvest them. Acorns, walnuts, chestnuts, and almonds, all in their shells, was something my mother bought me every winter when I was kid. We had a nutcracker that I was able to use to crack 'em open, though I stopped using the poor guy when I noticed his jaw was loose(I also liked watched The Nutcracker, so I I thought mine came to life at night and wouldn't appreciate a wiggly jaw). When we moved up here to Illinois my little winter tradition stopped mainly because I couldn't find that array of nuts together and for a reasonable price. So I'll be keeping an eye out for the right harvesting time and the grocery store whenever they get their own nut harvest.

On the mead front, its drinkable and yummy!! Grendal and I are happy that our first batch came out so well and we plan on not only making another small batch but saving up money so it can be our drink of choice at our joining/handfasting/wedding thing. I think we had agreed on two 15 gallon jugs. The big thing is figuring out flavor. We've thought about spiced mead and even a berry kind but nothing is set in stone yet. I think I'll nab a book on mead making before all of that gets underway.

Other than that not much has happened in my corner of the world. I'm trying desperately to save money but it seems to be harder than I thought, mainly because I've had to empty my account twice to help pay the electric bill. This coming Friday, though, I will be getting that money back since the electric bill isn't really what was agreed upon when it came to me paying for stuff. It also helps that Grendal's father has gotten a job, so there will be a little more money coming into the house! Grendal is still trying to focus on the home business but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere, which frustrates everyone. Grendal has mentioned that there needs to advertisement and his mother shunted that responsibility to him, which probably wasn't the best of things. He's at a loss on what to do and that seems something like his mother would be a bit better at accomplishing.....to some degree. All that really needs to be done is create a flyer with the phone number and the etsy site url, along with a brief description of what they do! Put it up around town and business bulletin boards and there you go. Online advertising, though, might be a little harder.

That's it for now. I'll be back whenever something exciting happens! ;)