Thursday This and That

One more significant day in the family today as Mary, my sister-in-law celebrates her 70th birthday.  Most of the celebrating occurred over the weekend; nonetheless, the actual transition deserves recognition.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MARY.

My celebration yesterday was pretty laid-back and quiet along with a couple of eating occasions, including dessert with my sisters and Debbie and Debbie's POAC assistant Kaori at Trinity and a quiet dinner with Bill at Sweet Lou's. 

In the morning, my usual flower watering expanded a bit, thanks to the beautifully restored wheel barrow full of flowers which my sisters brought over the night before.

There's a story with that wheel barrow.  Barbara and Laurie got a new wheel barrrow, thanks to the transformed model they gave me yesterday.  That was a few years back.

When they were out of town for horse shows, I'd help out by cleaning stalls and feeding their horses left at home.  

Well, at the time, that wheel barrow wasn't exactly all shiny and yellow; plus, it missed a few essential parts.  

Every time I slowly and prayerfully directed it, with a wobbling full load from the barn stall toward the outside manure pile, the damn thing would do weird contortions, thanks to certain weaknesses in its structure.

Enough finally became enough one day, so I went to town and bought them a bigger, better wheel barrow that stayed intact while doing its job.

This week Barbara and Laurie pulled it and another old, idle model out of their barn, got the spray paint can, along with a bunch of screws, bolts and washers and fixed those old relics up.

Once the restoration project was complete, they loaded them with flowers and brought me the yellow model.  

They have a green one at their farm, and one of their friends, upon seeing the finished product, figures she might paint her soon-to-be-restored wheel barrow turned flower pot turquoise. 

I love the new addition to our home flower show, along with the solar lamp Bill gave me, which is now also filled with flowers.  

After watering posies yesterday, I grabbed a paint bucket and continued what is going to be an ongoing project this summer---applying new coats of paint on all the board fences.  

I had just gotten started with my brush on the east barnyard fence when I heard some tapping.  It was coming from the north, and the more I listened, I knew there was a woodpecker somewhere near.

Listening and looking, I finally spied the beautiful big bird above pecking away at the cherry tree, which is about half dead anyway. 

The brush went down, I headed to the house, put the dogs in the garage and slowly, quietly walked toward the cherry tree, snapping photos all along the way, lest the bird fly off.

Well, it remained fairly oblivious to my presence.  Cherry wood must have had a stronger draw than worrying about some nosy woman interfering in a good meal. 

The bird let me snap several nice photos and then leisurely flew away.  

What a nice image to remember on a birthday.

I loved the day and especially loved hearing from friends and family; that's always the best part of any day.  

And, soon it's time to hope it starts raining so I won't feel too guilty sitting on the couch, glued to the television set, like millions of others who have caught soccer fever. 

USA vs Germany at 9 a.m. with preliminaries probably starting a little earlier---either ESPN or ABC.  

Hope they can continue their run and move on through the competition.  I'm sure we'll feel the ground swell if they do.

GO USA!  Happy Thursday.