Quick Check- In

 Hope everyone is well.  I haven't been online that much.  I didn't bring my computer with me as I really want to enjoy the time with my sister and family.  I'm writing this from my phone which isn't quite as easy!

We're having some lovely walks.  Saturday we went to Felixstowe to visit Mum's bench and take some flowers.  It was lovely to be back there again.  Sunday was a walk along the Waterfront in ipswich,  up to Holywell's Park and then back to the Waterfront to listen to some love music.  Monday was a blustery walk at Brightlingsea, Tuesday Walton-on-the-Naze, Wednesday an Ipswich walk with both my sisters and today a really windy walk at Woodbrisge.

Lots of walks but some lovely cake eaten too ha ha.

A few phone photos

 If you are on Instagram I am posting a few stories there on my account

My instagram

I'm going to try to check out some blogs in the morning!

Packing

This week has been extremely busy. I've had two additional meetings for the Asylum Lake board I'm on and I've been trying to get ready for my leaving tomorrow. Yes, Yikes, Tomorrow! As I write this I have not started packing. I do have clothes sitting out wondering what I should take with me. I hate this part of getting ready for a holiday. I shall be alright once I am on my way. I have checked in online with the airline so things should go a little easier. I leave from Kalamazoo and fly to Chicago and then Chicago to London. There is a lot of waiting in between as flights only leave from our little airport a few times a day. It makes things a lot easier though as the drive to Chicago and back is just horrible. It's such a small airport here that the queue waiting to get through security is usually empty or maybe has (at most) 10 people in it lol. So different from the larger airports. I have loaded up my kindle with books to keep me busy while I wait. I also have a few audio books ready to go. 

I am really excited to be able to spend some time with my sister. We shall have lots of long walks and a few ice creams and glasses of wine! 

Well, I'm off now to pack. 

Morning Walk

Sunday Adventure

Today we went to the lakeshore. Husband went to his friend's house yesterday and somehow invited them along on our trip today! It didn't turn out too badly. His friend's wife likes to take photos too so nobody was rushing me as I walked along. It turned out warmer than I thought and it was quite beautiful as we walked along.

There were quite a few people on the pier and a few of them were fishing. We watched as a couple of young lads caught an absolutely massive salmon. They asked me to take a photo with their phone of the three of them with their fish. It was huge! I think the more seasoned fishermen were quite jealous. 

The second State Park that we stopped at was lovely. I honestly can't understand why this beach is never full. There is so much parking and lovely sand and the water is beautiful yet there are hardly any people there. I shouldn't complain as it is nice to have a summer beach mostly to yourself! 

As we walked further along reaching the channel we looked up and spotted a plane writing in the sky

We didn't realise until a bit later that the air show was going on later in the afternoon!

Quite a nice day. 

When I got home I did start to look through my clothes. Sigh. Never know what to take. I suppose I should really think about it lol. 

Hope everyone had an enjoyable weekend

End of Another Week

Had a lovely walk this morning. The sunrise was lovely and the clouds - oh my - I loved them. By the time my friend had come down to the lake for the walk the clouds had all gone and the sky was just blue. I think she missed the best part of the morning!

I sat on one of the downed trees that I usually sit on, felled by the beavers quite close to their lodge and enjoyed the quiet of the early morning. There were Cedar Waxwings flying over the lake trying to catch flies, two Kingfishers competing for fish in the lake, a Green Heron flying over to land on a nearby log to fish for breakfast and there were the beavers coming into the lodge from their night beavering around in other parts of the lake. It's really lovely sitting there most mornings. I enjoy waking up there. 

Friend and I had a nice walk around. The temperature was just right.

I had one errand to do before going home where I did some house stuff and went up into the craft room. It was nice up there with the window open and the breeze blowing in. I plan on going up there again tomorrow for a bit. 

I chatted with sister this afternoon. This time next week I shall be there in England. I'm really excited! I am looking forward to long chats and walks and lots of just relaxing and enjoying time together. We get along well. 

What's up for the weekend? Not a lot. I have to look through my clothes and things and make sure I have everything I think I'm going to need. I'm not sure about tops and things as I tend to wear the same things over and over and just wash. I think there are things buried at the back of the wardrobe, but we shall see! 

What are your plans? 

The Week is Plodding By

The days are plodding by. I actually feel as though I'm getting things done. Well, sometimes I feel as though I'm taking two steps forward and one back. At least that means I'm making progress however slow. I have been making lists and getting most things done.  That's progress too! Once I get back from my trip I am going to start working on time management and getting rid of things.  I thought I might as well start this year, but next year is going to be The BIG purge. We shall see how well that goes! I like my things, but sometimes I look around and think I wish there was less, then I wonder why I'm holding on to some of it. What is the point of the things? Craft things, am I going to use them? Can I use them when there is so much of it? Aarrggh. Too many thoughts running around in my head. 

Anyway, back to this week. The heat and humidity have finally broken. The last couple of days (temp) has been really nice. It fell down with rain yesterday, so I didn't walk. Today I got out early and it was lovely and sunny. The walk was really quite pleasant. I'm hoping tomorrow will be the same! I have a haircut at 11.30. It hasn't been that many weeks since I had one, but I wanted to fit another in before I leave, and my fringe is getting a little long. I know some people cut it themselves, but I can't cut a straight line even with a ruler and I don't trust me to keep cutting and cutting until there is nothing left lol. I shall have a trim and she usually lightens it up a bit as I have quite thick hair. It's one more thing to check off the to-do-before-I-leave list. 

I did finish the shredding the other week. There was a lot of it, but it's out of the way now. I have quite the pile of magazines to send with husband this weekend. Hopefully I'll have a few more too! 

I did sort through some of the photos I took at Shiawassee on Sunday. I was pleased that I got quite a nice photo of one of the eagles that was sitting up in a tree. It's one of the young ones. It was huge. I didn't realise quite how big they were!

Pretty Productive Day

It's a good start to the week - at least a good start to getting things done. I went out early this morning hoping for my usual walk. At first it was fairly nice but then the clouds rolled in and by the time my friend arrived to walk there was thunder in the air. I had walked a bit but then we ended up walking back to the car! 

A little bit of sun

As the storm rolls in. 

I got home fairly early and just in time as I had barely got inside the house and it absolutely fell down with rain! 

While it was raining, I cleaned out the fridge and wiped down the shelves as this was something I had put on my list to get done. I checked all the condiments (and there were a lot of them thanks to husband and son) and unfortunately had to throw out some as they were expired. To be fair, they had mostly been used. It felt good to get this done!

By this point the rain had stopped so I went and did a food shop. Ouch! Yikes! Not happy with prices or money spent but that's for another post! 

I took a nice break in the form of having a bath and listening to a bit of my audiobook. In the afternoon I pulled out my new shredder and started on the massive pile of things that need to be shredded. I was really impressed by the new shredder. I'm not sure how long I've had the old one but the paper shreds were rather large and took up a lot of space. This one the pieces of paper are smaller and take up a lot less space (not to mention it could actually eat the whole page as it's not blocked lol). I got quite a bit of it out of the way. I'll be doing more of it tomorrow. 

I also read several of the magazines in the to-be-read pile, which is huge. Sigh. Husband says he is going over to friend's this weekend (whose wife likes photography) so I'm hoping to palm some of them off to her!

Not a bad day if I do say so. Quite please with all that was accomplished! Let's hope the rest of the week continues in the same way.

How was the beginning of your week? 

Sunday Adventure

We got up really early so we could drive the 2+ hours to the only National Wildlife Refuge in the lower part of Michigan - Shiawassee National Wildlife Refuge. The drive is only open from June to October and we haven't been yet this year. I wanted to go there before I left for England and I'm running out of time. 

I'm glad we got there early, as when it started to get later in the day and get hotter there were less birds to be seen. My favourite thing of the day had to be seeing all the Egrets gathered in one spot. I took a short video. I never knew they made such grunting sounds lol. I imagine they weren't happy having to compete with one another for fish. 

I took quite a few photos with my camera that I have to sort through. I also took a few phone photos of the lovely scenery. 

There were lots of lovely reflections. I love the waterways there. I wish we lived closer so we could visit more often, but I suppose it wouldn't be a treat then!

It was extremely hot again today. I think tomorrow is supposed to be a little cooler and then cooler still on Tuesday (when it is supposed to rain all day). I must admit that I'm looking forward to the cooler weather. I need to start getting things organised this week. I leave on the 15th!

Hope everyone had a good weekend!

It's the Weekend

I did go out this morning for a walk. It was ok. It got hot and humid pretty quick, and I think there were others who had the same idea as I did about getting out early and beating the heat. I did stick around for a while - took a walk in the woods and it was quieter (people ways) when I was heading back to my car. 

A couple of phone photos from my walk

The plan today was to have no plans after my walk. A somewhat relaxing day. 

I did (TA-DA!!) find up my cross stitch that (ages and ages ago) I'd been working on and did some of it. Sigh. I don't mind getting older, but I don't like the result on my eyesight! It used to be I could stitch really easily, but I struggled with light and threading the needle lol. I did find it enjoyable though

Hopefully there will be more progress to come!

I also (finally) finished a book I've been struggling with. It's done and in the donate pile! On to the next one. I've been doing really well about not buying any new physical books. I have bought a few (on sale) Kindle books but they don't take up space

Do you have plans for the weekend? How's the weather where you are? 

Making a List and Sticking to it?

Well, I've been making lists, doing really well, except for the one item yesterday which reminded me to write a blog post. Ha ha. It was THE only thing not marked off. Sigh. I suppose missing just that one thing is forgivable.  Today, I wrote another list and the only thing left on it is the blog post. This time I am writing the post before checking out the other blogs I read. 

The last few days have been really hot and humid. I think the humidity was something like 90% when I got up the other day. Not fun. I've been going out in the morning for a quick walk, but I'm not walking as much as I usually do. It is just too hot and sticky. I barely walk just a little bit, and all my clothes are wet through. Not nice at all. You would think that would mean getting more done at home, but even at home moving around a lot seems to make me too hot and sticky. I definitely have not been up in the craft room. I think the goal still is to get it sorted into a space where I can spend time creatively. IF no WHEN I get it sorted to that point, I am going to treat myself to a window air conditioner.  At this point I think this is going to have to be more of a project for when it gets a bit cooler. It's August now and I'll be gone from the 15th through September 8 and by then (hopefully) things will have cooled down a little by then. There really is no point getting an air conditioner now, besides I need something to get me motivated and treating myself to that might be the goal I need!

Not sure what the plans are for the weekend. I'm going out by myself tomorrow before it gets too hot.  I would like to get the wildlife refuge on Sunday, but it's a couple of hours away and I'm not sure I can get up that early lol. It's always better to get there early as the birds and wildlife are up just after the sun. I'd like to go one time before I leave and once when I get back. The one close (ha!) to us is only open from June through October. We shall see whether I make it up that early lol. 

Any plans for the weekend? 

Photos for the day - Fungus. It's been so hot, humid and wet that there is a lot of fungus around in the woods. I'm not sure why I associate it with Autumn! Anyway, I really need to google lens some of them and find out the kinds. They are all different shapes and colours. Always fun to see!