Queen

 About a year ago I found a housekeeper via a local group on Facebook. She agreed to clean once a month.  

C is a mom to 3 kids, a boy about 8, 2 girls about 3 & 5. 

Occasionally, she has to bring one of the kids along when she cleans. 

This week, she brought all 3.  It doesn't matter to me, the house always looks sparkly when she has been here. 

I have decided I might give up groceries before I give up C.

This week, I left a stack of construction paper and suggested that maybe her kids could put it to good use. This was paper that I bought to make Danish hearts, but now I only use a specific paper, this construction grade does not meet my requirements.

When I came home after C and her tribe left, I found the nice note on the refrigerator.  

I am thinking that's C in the crown. She is royalty to me.

👸

Little kids have the best imaginations.

Cousins on my Mom's Mom's side

 Today I met up with Glenn & Kathy and our cousins on Mom's side of the family.

Willard & Dory, Jerry & Nancy, Glenn & Kathy, Richard & Dorothy and me.

Thanks to Dory for remembering to take photos!

It's always fun to visit with the Shell Lake cousins.

Glenn & Kathy

Cousin Richard and wife Dotothy

Cousin Willard and wife Dory

Cousin Jerry & wife Nancy 

Me

We spent a couple of hours catching up, hoping we do it again before too long.

Rain and more rain

 It seems like it has been raining for a week or two or three.  If the sun does come out, everything is going to grow like crazy.  My hanging baskets look about the same as the day I planted them, but they need some sunshine to get going.

There is flooding along the shore of Lake Superior and other places along the rivers.  I'm glad to be living on a hill, without a basement.  I'm guessing that the sump pumps are running steadily.

There were straight line winds in the Milltown area and several big trees went down.  I heard that there were lots of branches down at the West Denmark Cemetery, I have not been over there to be sure that Dad's bench is undamaged, although Ev's Granddaughter, who told me about the wind damage, also indicated that the bench was okay.

Peonies are done, but these Oxeye Daisy patches are popping up all around the yard.  I know that they are a weed, but I do love them.

About 3 years ago, a volunteer Hop Vine popped up next to the deck in the backyard.  Last year I put up an 8 foot cedar post for it to climb up and this year, it is really doing great.  It is an ornamental, so no hop cones are produced, just a small flower.

I'm disgusted about the Ten Commandments having to be posted in classrooms in Louisiana.  Sometimes, I am thankful that I am 71 years old and do not have 50 more years to live in this world.

Bluebirds

 What fun to see these Bluebirds up close.  

They came and sat in front of the living room window several times during the day. 

The female posed and then caught a green bug, lunch?  

The male came and stretched out his wings in the sunshine.  

Got Vitamin D?

I have seen birds going in and out of the Bluebird box, I'm hoping it was this pair and soon we will see fledged baby bluebirds. 

I wish Dad and Ev were here to see these beauties.  They loved Bluebirds so much!  

I remember one Spring when they opened Gus's cabin in the Barrens for the summer, they found several Bluebirds that had made their way down the chimney into the wood stove and then could not get out.  Dad and Ev were traumatized by finding these dead birds.  It wasn't long at all before the problem was fixed to never let that happen again.  

I'm enjoying these Bluebirds all the more, knowing how much Dad and Ev would have loved to see beautiful birds in my yard.

It is a nice thing to do. It costs nothing to say thank you.

 Years ago when I was working at the Coors brewing company, we started a program amongst the first layer management and hourly workers to recognize safe behavior. Each employee would carry a card with them and if they saw a coworker doing something safe, they would comment to the safe worker and also write it on their card. Once the worker received a number of good comments, they would then receive a token, worth a minimal amount, at the company gift shop. But, IMO, it was really worth more than that. It started employees, now this is in my memory, talking to each other about safety, recognizing good work and in many cases coming up with better ways to perform a task to make it not only safer, but potentially much easier. And it was fun to do. On a normal work day, where the work was quite repetitious, it gave an employee a reason to be thinking out of the box and try to find someone doing something in a safe manner worth commenting on.  I think I still have one of the silver coins / tokens. I suspect few were cashed in, most were probably kept as souvenirs.

Some of my fellow management team at Coors didn't approve of my relationships with my employees in that I was quick to offer a thank you for the completion of mundane, daily duties. The comment made to me was "that is what they're getting paid for". But my response to that was, it costs me nothing to say thank you and sometimes it even puts a smile on the employee's face to realize that I noticed that they're doing those mundane, daily jobs, that they are being paid for.  One of my mentors at the brewery suggested to me too keep a file of good stuff, thank yous, or recognition. Then, on a day when you feel like things are sucking, open that file and read those notes.  It kept me balanced.

I think most of us like a little recognition in our lives. I've always been a proponent of thank you notes, handwritten is ideal, but even a text message or an email is appreciated.  I still have a few handwritten 'job well done' notes that I received while working.  If you are in the working world, I highly recommend it.

Getting snail mail is a treat these days, as most communication is done over the airwaves. Receiving a handwritten note or letter is always a nice surprise and a real treat.

Over the years, I have kept most of the snail mail thank you notes that I have received from friends or family.  I don't look at them often, but it is a good to know that I could. 

Today, I got two nice thank you notes. One via USPS. 

Every year, my Colorado pal, KS, walks in the Furry Scurry to benefit The Denver Dumb Friends League.  I don't know how many years I have donated to her fundraising but it was for many years while I was still working so that puts it at more than 20. Every year, I get a handwritten thank you note from Kristy.

I like sending notes to family and friends, if I've taken a photo of them or something that is meaningful to them, or if I want to say Thank you. I use a program on my phone called TouchNote. It makes it easy to design a card, using one of my photos and have them put it in the mail for me.

Today I got a text message from Evelyn's mom. I had sent a note thanking the girls for coming to RL to have lunch with me.

Take time to send a note, a text or an email.

 You never know, it might make someone's day, this sure made my day. 💕

Everyone loves getting 📬 .

Another ensemble completed

 This afternoon. I finished up the ensemble for great niece Charli.  We are celebrating her graduation on Saturday afternoon.

A wallet & matching card case, extra large Adventure bag, medium Adventure bag & small scissor bag with Fiskars scissors. I also experimented with a bucket hat.

The Adventure bags will contain some little trinkets and ideas for use, the blank journal go in the xl bag. 

This was a fun and cheerful set to work on.  I hope Charli finds use for the bags as she heads off into life after high school. 

I learned more tips today about the features of my new sewing machine. Using the embroidery feature gets easier with each try.

I'm so delighted to have such a great machine to work with.  I know that I have only scratched the surface of what it can do.  I'm glad I took the plunge 💰.

Life is good.

LeRoy

 LeRoy was the Uncle of my good friends, LeAnna & Rochelle. LeRoy had a house built into the ground, the roof was a flower garden, on Hwy 35, the River Road, near Alma, WI.  Not long after I moved here, he invited me to come down and get some plants as his wife had died & he was thinking he would have to move.  I brought home a cart load of plants. I can't remember exactly what I brought home, but I do know for sure, I brought this Iris.  LeRoy is gone now, but his Iris is a fancy, beauty.

Several years ago, when I went to visit in Colorado, I split the bulb and gave half to LeAnna.  She is a much better gardener than I am. Her Iris is blooming now too.

Thanks LeRoy.💜

Bear & peony

 Another visitor at our cabin. Black bears are very common in Northern Wisconsin now. When I was a kid, Black bears were only seen at the far Northern border of Wisconsin.

Black bears are hunted now, something I don't care to think about.  I hope this yearling finds a good safe place to live around our cabin, and I hope he gives the camera another chance to capture him. 

My peony variety, 'Nice Gal', is open now. 

The wind was gusty today, not the best for these lovely blooms. 

Uncle LeRoy (the uncle of my good friends) gave me a rhysome of a beautiful, fancy Iris about 14 years ago. It doesn't bloom every year, but it is blooming this year. 

My yellow peonies are nearly done for this year. Their color fades as they age, but they continue to be glamorous.

So it goes.

Trip to the Castle

 Sunday afternoon I took a run up to the cabin to replace the alkaline batteries in the trail cam.  The solar panel does a good job, but the batteries were finally to low to help during cloudy days.  I think the last time I put batteries in was in September of 2023.

It was a nice day for a drive.  All the trees are completely leafed out now and the sky was nice and blue with some puffy white clouds.

I got the batteries changed and then sat on my lawn chair on the deck and enjoyed the breeze, the fluttering leaves and a cold beverage.

While I was sitting there, the birds were very busy.  

I got one photo of an Eastern Phoebe from quite a distance.  

The drive was uneventful, Sunday traffic is heavier than most days, but it wasn't too bad.  

This morning I got a video from the cabin of some tiny turkeys.

Click here for YouTube video.