A Beautiful Morning, Ahhh!

After the last couple of dreary, wet days, we awakened a beauty this morning.  I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again.  Whenever we put up with weather-related misery, Mother Nature rewards us.

 

And, she rewarded us well with today AND the next several days of dry weather and temps in the 50s.

This is the “morning after,” so to speak.  I haven’t really followed politics on a national level this year, but I must express great disappointment this morning with both the Idaho and the local election results.

The good news:  Sen. Shawn Keough pulled out a significant victory.  That made me happy, as did seeing that Cheryl Wooden Piehl, our county treasurer, once again tallied the most votes in the county---more than 10,000.

I like to talk about friendships and former students on this blog, and Cheryl certainly fits in that friend and former student category. 

For those who don’t know, Cheryl’s  sister Cindy is the longtime Vatican reporter for Catholic News Service, who has traveled the world with Popes for 25 years.

Here at home, Cheryl has served very capably for several years as our county treasurer, and it’s always nice to see her acknowledged so positively in elections.

Anyway, it’s all over but the shouting, and, as my friend Cis said in her overnight blog posting, we still get up every day, put on our clothes, drink our coffee and move on with life.

I’ll add one personal thought to Cis’ comments.  When I went outdoors this morning to a beautiful day, my Border Collies issued me the same smiles they do every day.

It’s nice that our animals are apolitical because, to them, it’s a good day every day.

And, that’s how I view the day ahead.  The scene as I walked back to the house with the papers this morning was beautiful----actually, both the house and the manure spreader are love-hate scenes during this time of year.

 

I love golden leaf covering on the roof and the spreader but hate the thought of how much work there is as all those leaves take their time falling.

It might not be so bad this year, though.

Besides peeling apples and cooking up five quarts of delicious sauce yesterday, I spent some time out in the shop, re-attaching the bag to the lawnmower.

Seems they never make things easy for the lay people when it comes to yard implements.  The bag is attached to the frame of the lawnmower in different spots by bungy cords with hooks that need to go through holes in the metal framework.

Well, most of those re-attachments are fairly easy to re-attach, but the one bungy and hook that Tony told me was “a bit” difficult when he brought the lawnmower was sorely misrepresented by his mild characterization.

Big difference in the strength of a lawnmower repairman’s skilled fingers and Marianne’s lifelong fumbly fingers.

I spent at least an hour or two of exasperating sessions over two days’ period of time, trying to figure out how to hold the bag hose in place and, at the same time, manipulate my fingers into a tiny spot where they needed to latch on to that hook and thread it through the hole in the deck frame.

The air was blue, too, as my dad would say.

Finally, yesterday, I attached everything with the exception of the bungy cord, prayed a lot and took the lawnmower and bag out for a spin (yes, in the rain), and the bag stayed on the mower AND worked (in the rain).

So, with more “Hail Mary’s” maybe I can get my leaves picked up before the bag decides to jump ship.  Time will tell.

Speaking of telling, will someone please tell me if the bottom picture is, indeed, edible mushrooms.  We ran across the patch on our Sunday drive.

 

I’ve never had the nerve to pick a wild mushroom, let alone eat one----too many scary stories.  If these are safe mushrooms, though, I can tell people where to find them----a pretty good drive is involved.

Anyway, the sun is shining, the dogs are smiling and it’s time to get on with a new day.  Bill says we might go up to Ball Creek this afternoon to see the fall colors up there.  Yes!

Happy Wednesday.