Day 184 of Week 27 for 2026

 Mid way of 2026 was day 182.5 July. You can feel the year is half over or celebrate another half is left to enjoy. Summer 2026 is 93 days from 21 June to 23 September. There are 81 days left of summer 2026. 

If the passage of time interests you, then keep a journal that numbers the days. Instead of floating on your future as a background always there, enjoy the your view, the one you create for as much as you are able. 

Shape your weekend well

Celebrate the 4th of July 250

Create a deluxe potato salad

Read about New England

Sing to sourdough bread

Draw a picnic basket

Make peach ice cream

Decorate your front door

What’s going on with the heat waves?

In mid to late July this year, I expect those weeks to be scorchers. 

This is July day one. There is a high heat advisory posted already! Out my door it is 95°F ( 35°C).  I will not be surprised if the ambient temperature hits 100°F ( 37°C) this week. 

Please, pack an emergency kit for the heat. Check out the government CDC and National Weather websites for extreme heat safety.

 Think. Freezer packs in a thermal bag plus water. Walking, I keep a blue freezer block on the inside of my baclpack where it rest on my lower spine.

🌞🌞🌞🌞🌞

About me. I’ve not mentioned this before. I’m not OCD. I think it is normal to have a few (not many) silly things that bug us.  One such bother for me is frayed threads, little pieces of thread sticking out of a seam, for example. I clip them off. Bother gone. 

I saw a video where in an Asian factory, there’s a quality control person that clips off stray threads. 

Anywayz, I am happy to have seen that happen. So, as fate goes with its well developed sense of humor, the stretch fabric over my cast, after a thorough clipping of demon strays, now has three more for me to clip. 🤣

. 

I found a fourth one. 😱
(top left horizontal)

Summer is being summer

This summer has an observation vibe early on. A feeling of what is going to happen next plays in the background of my mind along with the frequent chant, No Scotland, No party!

There are things I hope to do. For this year’s warm weather months in this northern hemisphere, not making plans is the theme I’m going to go by. Once the cast is replaced with a splint, my confidence doing more will kick in. 

For now, I’m in awe that after 4 days not wearing earrings, I put in a pair of French wires using one hand. Yesterday I scored my 5th Wordle on 2 out of 120 games. I’m so scared about tripping and falling, I went barefoot. Having to use my right arm more, I ache more from sore muscles than the broken wrist. 

Meanwhile, I’d like to paint today, sit outdoors under an umbrella with a no sugar ice tea, and glue something fun. 

Tissue decoupage on an Altoids tin takes
several layers to obscure the raised lettering.

Adding fabric over the tissue, the raised lettering
still shows through. It adds a homemade vibe. 

On a catch up day

 Yesterday, a  thing happens out of nowhere. I tripped on the new door mat. Seconds later, I’m assessing the situation and going for my phone, just in case. 

Unreal, just like the TV ad, I couldn’t get up. My neighbor helped me. Another neighbor drove me to the ER and picked me up almost 6 hours later. 

Staff at Porter Hospital, Middlebury Vermont are impressive, very caring and tuned into the discomfort. The folks in the nearly full waiting room were so nice, I believe the atmosphere helped calm me. I wanted to cry really bad. Instead, I was talking and even laughing sometimes. 

Lucky I am that no surgery needed. My wrist has two small breaks. I saw them on the x-rays. I didn’t want to think about the damage because that can increase stress. At a time of  injury, calm is the focus. The body is upset enough. Shifting attention from hurt person to caring for that delicate self is calming. I learned that from reading about the physiology of child birth. 

In a cast for a week and then to ortho doctor for a splint. A surprise to me is the decrease of soreness. My fingers can wiggle without pain.  I can peel a banana with one hand. 😁 A good part about is I don’t need pain meds. Ibuprofen is sufficient if needed. Alas, the cast adds weight on my scale. So, no weigh ins for a week. 😂🥳

Oh, I discovered that twirling around to help pull up your pants with one hand doesn’t make them rise faster. 😂 A quick jump up does though. 

The Green Mountains
View from Porter Hospital ER
parking lot, Middlebury, Vermont

Day 177 in Week 26 June 2026

 Friday’s subject of this week: 

The one above the rest

Painting subjects on Day Two

Here I am on day 2 of painting subjects’ week starting out with sneezing bouts, hunger grumblings, and a weird sense of lightness.

Food we digest takes time to process through our bodies. It can take days, weeks even for it all to be sorted out. Changes for me. For 3 weeks +/- Greek yogurt is part of my daily menu. The limit foods I have are mainly plant based. I start my day with spring water, eggs or a banana. Weight loss has been light ( 1 lb.), due to taking it easy for a while. 

The themed weeks will help me move around more as well as reduce stress. I now see food and activity as partners in healthy living. 

Staying with, what I know, selecting common objects as subjects is rather intriguing to me. The spiral notebook has to be included this week. 

The light enhancing the texture showing wear in the cardboard is a challenge. Thinking watercolor feels right. Alas, my masking fluid, I think, is so old, it’s probably gummy by now. Pencil is my first thought. Acrylic, though, will help along the abstract story of the curving metal. 

Today’s subject: My spiral notebook journal

Digital photo, spiral notebook detail

Theme of the Week: Painting Subjects

Welcome to Summer! 🌞

Changing your mind about a theme for the week is a good part of the idea as flexibility and creativity are cousins. Music was the planned theme first this week. Why change?

A documentary on YouTube, “Wyeth,” 2018 inspires me to select this week’s theme:  Painting Subjects. 

In art and writing, the high priority is to create what you know. The film set me to exploring how I chose subjects to paint. What do I know?

Flowing with the moment. Clutter comfort turns into a shop of painting subjects, so much to choose from. I would define myself as mainly landscape and abstract artist. Attention to still life will be an interesting path to follow this summer. 

First Subject: A banana peel

A Banana Peel
Digital photo 2026

Day 170 of Week 25 June 2026

This week has had a Saturday morning vibe. I thought today that will change. It has, to an atmosphere of summer is ending instead of Juneteenth and Midsummer Night’s Eve. 

Overcast skies with rain in the forecast help set that stage.

What plays on the mind with impish moods braided through the stream of my life? Is there a key to open the mystery? Probably. The hints I’ve been noticing are through links bloggers post to amazingly creative websites. 

It is possible to be in a rut without knowing that’s where you are? Who wakes up everyday right off analyzing who they are? Not me. 

In a recovering from a health issue flare up, my menu has changed. I no longer have a hot coffee, tea or other beverage in the morning. I no longer have milk. My dairy source is Greek yogurt. Gone are citrus, spicy and rich desserts. Cheese is no longer my go to snack. 

Hmm? Could the fun Saturday morning cartoons vibe be due to my eating differently? Methinks yes. It could also be an emotional isostatic rebound thing after suffering through episodes of 8-10 pain levels. My spirit is embracing the absence of pain by giving me a Saturday morning vibe all week. I shall not complain about that. 😎

Have a painless weekend!

Plan a camping trip

Attend a local event

Draw a statue wearing a traffic cone

Dance to bagpipe music

Read about the neurology of joy

Bake sweet potatoes

Design a floral fabric

Have a nice thick coffee shake

Almost
(a capturing raindrops attempt)

A Sunny Day in June 2026

New Haven River up stream 

Rock roses by the riverside
Eagle Park, Lincoln Vermont

Down stream
The New Haven River in June

What are you going to do with good weather?

Get outdoors!

After errands this morning, realizing I am up early enough for the McD breakfast menu, I go that way. 

The thrift store is open. I stop there.

On my keep a look out for list is a dress, a casual style for summer to dress up or down. The dress I considered before (a few times), finally made it with me to the checkout desk. There were days my closet had many dresses.  

After the thrift store, I visited the New Haven River in Lincoln, Vermont. Heavy rains cause the water to be running fairly fast. The sunny weather is ideal for a picnic lunch next to a sparkling river.

At home now, I can hardly keep my eyes open.

Hilarious, typing, at home now, through spell check editing, stated something that read like, I’m high now. No, I am not high nor do I take anything to get high. Spell check combined with keyboards not fat finger friendly is becoming a constant source of laughs as well as moments of sheer horror. 

Eagle Park, Lincoln, Vermont
along the New Haven River
fishing platform

Magazine Week

What fun a theme is! 

Having a purpose, an enjoyable thing to do as part of my day is proving to be wonderful. As I gather up a few summer editions of “Yankee Magazine,” (dating from 2021-2023), up pops a 2004 edition of the “American Art Review.” (The local library use to have loads of great magazines at their book sales.) 

My feast of reading about art starts with the article, “The Western Massachusetts Art Trail.”  The border to Massachusetts from here in Vermont is about a 2 hour drive (200 miles +/-). I feel giddy with dreams of going on an art excursion someday.

As it goes, it is a learning experience to select a painting from which you paint your own similar scene from life, in the style of that artist. I did that once using as inspiration a tree painting by Van Gogh. Below is my painting of a local tree.

Be inspired, read about art.

The Tree 
9x12 inch acrylic

 

How about a themed week?

Thinking again. 

A week with a theme, something light, fun, uncomplicated. A color, a fruit, a flower, a tree, a math symbol, spend less, collect pennies.

You can select a theme for each week of the month or decide when the week starts. With a mini festival vibe, a theme topic can be a mental health enhancement. 

If the theme week gets boring, then change up your focus to subjects that serve you mood best. 

Thinking into summer, my first theme is Magazines: Old or buy new, read every article, and look through it during a sit outdoors. I prefer old magazines. “Yankee Magazine,” is a favorite. Gathering the June editions I have will be an intro view of summer.

The week after will be music. In fifth grade I could read and play music on a clarinet. It has been years since I’ve read music. Time to relearn that skill. 

Moving into July 2026, colors, stripe colors. A sprinkle of stripes on a beach towel, umbrella, tee shirt, dress, sandals, or a shirt are cheery. I can browse online; and, paint my own stripe fabric designs.

A simple diversion from the routines we fall into might turn out to be more fun than anticipated. 

There’s a Way
Digital photo circa 2008

A Saturday Out & About

It happened. I did not want to go to a tag sale because I don’t want to bring anything else into my home. Today on half price day, I stopped by anyway. What surprises me is at the location known for good rummage sales, there were no clothes for sale.  It was an items tagged only sale.

I had a good browse around. I bought a towel and some drawing tools. I hope this blah feeling doesn’t last. Garage sales will be boring without that traditional find a bargain sparkle.

Afterwards, I had lunch out, shopped, and arrived home just in time to catch a nice power nap. It is the kind of nap where the morning I spent feels like yesterday.

Awake, I have a small stack of spiral notebooks to entertain me. If I get a bright idea in a daydreaming session, then I might write it down for a story. Editing those gems, I don’t always recall what the original idea is. The several paragraphs present as something new. 

How has your Saturday been?

The Plume Moth

Every year a Plume Moth shows up on my deck  or the porch. One year one was on my vehicle. 

There are various shapes and coloring of the plume moth.  This one, I believe, is a Common Plume Moth.

Common Plume Moth 
June 2026

How do you feel about wrinkled clothes?

This is true. I read an article many years ago that mentions how wrinkled clothes in the summer shows off an out-of-a-suitcase vibe. Wrinkled fashion speaks vacationing tourist. What a refreshing way to think, and, a freeing one as well. Oh! That slob is just a fashionable tourist. 😎

As you may guess, under the spell of the mighty pen, wearing wrinkled (but not badly) summer clothes entered my life shortly after reading that article. I rarely ironed anything. There was one blue camp shirt (worn until thread bare) that had to be ironed. 

Now that I’m an old lady (age wise), I speculate that folks might look at my wrinkled clothes thinking How sad. She needs a care giver. 

Despite the paranoia, I continue to appreciate the wrinkled traveling tourist summer look. If you want to give it a tree, (I typed try) then get dressed and roll around on your sofa like golden lab rubbing its back fitting into a nap nest. 

Day 163 of Week 24 June 2026

The Heat Advisory out of KBTV issued by the National Weather Service station, puts a summer vibe over the day here in Vermont.

 Outdoors, I put up the small umbrella to shade part of the concrete deck. Indoors, the cool A/C air is much appreciated. It is muggy out there. 

Please, review hot weather safety tips at weather.gov. Update your vehicle’s hot weather safety pack. 

Spruce trees up ( i typed only spruce up) your summer wardrobe with light shirts, shorts, for gals flowy skirts, sundresses and loose linen tops. After all, shlepping across the parking lot in the brutally hot sun, you might as well look stylish. 

Have a Styling Cool Weekend!

Make a mango smoothie

Draw your favorite bird

Write yourself a note to open in a year

Read about door knob history

Browse online straw hats

Search for an old tin tub

Start a new collection of something 

Looking good to be sunflowers

Update 15 June 2026: whatever flower it may be, today I found the plant drooping over near dead. The flowers nearby are upright and appear to be fine. I have no idea why one plant fails while others don’t. 

It looks like a broken stem, but I’ve found none.

Muggy city days are upon us

Heat is exhausting. I went outdoors briefly this morning. The air feels thick. It is muggy city out there. 

If you are elderly or of frail health, and can tolerate air conditioning, then consider having it installed. Please, don’t underestimate the impact heat has on your health. 

Last night thunderstorms rolled by. The sky in the south lit up bright white. I shut off the TV to create a sort of 1950s vibe. I’m hoping this Summer is a Summer’s Summer with heat, thunderstorms, beach and picnic days galore. 

Yesterday I visited Lowe’s in South Burlington. Wow to their gardening section! It is full of gorgeously healthy plants. The annuals are a good price as well. 

Petunias

Earth, Heat & Cooling

🌎🌎🌎🌎🌎🪐

I was pondering the flow of life around me when enters the question: Are the planets aligned right?  To me, it feels Earth’s vibe is in turmoil.   From dropping little things to major health issues, there is a lot of things going not so great.  

Online, I start to read about Earth’s magnetic fluctuations, the geomagnetic field to see how it’s doing. All of us, all animals are to  some degree affected by Earth’s geomagnetic field. In past blog posts, I have written about this line of thinking. 

Instead of blaming or boo-hooing somebody put a curse on me, I look to the beauty of science that God created for understanding why things seem to go wrong so often. 

Karma does not always balance.

Today, I took action to make my life better. Already weakened by Very limited bland menu,  I felt really lousy. I had an errand to run that had to be postponed all morning for fear of having an episode of pain while out and about. After a tiny meal and walking around to see how I feel, a window opens where I have energy. Setting out felt wonderful having control back, and a nice cool air conditioned space to enjoy. My errand finished without problems. 

The temperature in my apartment was regularly 78°F-80°F. I felt all right with fans. I attributed feeling lousy to my health issues (that includes sporadic severe pain). The heat was draining me, in addition to my woes. 

Ah, what a difference a few BTUs makes

 

Thinking about food

Green lentils
because I don’t  have a photo of black beans

Imagine this. If you cleared your food consumed cache to start over with a new menu of things to eat, then what food would you add first?

I’d add fruit and vegetables first. Second, I’d add bake, broiled or boiled meats in limited kind and quanty. Lastly, I’d add dairy and eggs.

That is what I think of as good food. The issue is that not all fruit and vegetables are good to me by taste, allergy and/or digestion. 

When I have an upset stomach, slow down portions and go bland, I think of dairy first. I want a grilled cheese, macaroni & cheese, chicken with rice soup, and lots of water. I don’t think fruit or meat. 

Foods provide different things, different nutrients for us. In a case of for survival, fruit and vegatables are nice, but I’d want meat before a carrot. 

So, I search the Internet with this question: Can black beans provide the same nutrition as steak?

The AI results state the two have similar amounts of protein; and, black beans has more fiber and other nutrients. I ask for survival which is better and the results are that black beans are better.

When I clear my food cache to create a new menu, I realize I might be a non practicing vegetarian in real life. Switch focus to the logistics of food, how to have good food daily, then my new menu becomes more complicated. 

Bottom line, I think it is time I go back to learning how you make a good black beans burger. The last time I tried, I only ate what I made because I knew it was food. 😂

What’s been going on catch up

Under the chin?

A recent health condition flare up slows things down for me. I stress out worrying if this the beginning of my elderly decline. Careful what I eat is a struggle to balance stress and eating right.

The point is that we know our bodies better than anyone else. We may not have the knowledge depth medically trained people do, conditions, treatments and such, but we know us. I think there are times when we forget that as well as how all of us works when facing issues, conditions, illnesses that life throws at us. 

Paying attention to our health can prevent  situations from getting worse. Write things down, ask questions, and be vigilant about symptoms no matter how small. 

If you see on a label, Zero Sugar, read the ingredients to know the sweetener used.

Have a wonderful week