BLOGGING QUESTIONS

One of my blogging friends, Terri Tiffany, asks three questions on her blog today, which is her third anniversary of blogging. Congratulations, Terri! Her blog is designed to help writers and has lots of suggestions, encouragement and discussions concerning writing and getting published.
I had to stop and think how long I had been blogging and finally realized that I have been doing this for almost a year and a half. Although I am involved in memoir writing, my blog has not been specifically designed to help writers. On my blog I tend to write about the things that are important to me and that I want to share with family and friends. I love the new dimension that blogging has brought into my life with the ability to share pictures, stories, and advice with those who read my blog! I also love the new friends across the country that I have "met" through blogging. My newest "blogging acquaintance" (also named Pat) has just about succeeded in nudging me back into the quilting I have neglected for several years.

Here are a couple of Terri's questions that I will pose to you:
1. How long have you been blogging?
2. What do you enjoy most about blogging?

I left out the following question that Terri poses because my blogging is not specifically about writing. (3. How do you give back to other writers on your blog?)

PAINTING AGAIN!

I continue to enjoy oil painting. This coming week I will begin a new series of landscape painting lessons. The instructor's literature says that she promises to teach me how to really paint an oak tree. That should be fun since the picture I chose to paint is a desert scene from our trip to New Mexico. Anyway I am looking forward to learning a new technique in the way of oil painting.

In the past few months I have been working on my first portrait which still needs a few finishing touches. I am not ready to photograph it yet, but I did finish my water lily. See the picture below.

I also finished a picture of the misty Oregon coast which makes me cool just to look at it.

And today I added a few finishing touches to a still life of some pots that my brother has in his kitchen. See the picture below.

Recently I have been working on a desert cactus that I saw blooming in New Mexico. I guess that is appropriate since we are hot and dry as a desert here now. The temperature was 105 today and temperatures have broken a record every day of July--so far. The weatherman promised it might be cooler tomorrow--only 96! I can only hope!

FRUGAL FRIDAY

My sweet husband took me out for lunch today for my birthday and we each ordered an appetizer. He got crab cakes and I got Ahi Tuna. Both came with salad and were ample for a meal. We tend to eat lighter at lunchtime anyway, so it was very satisfying, not to mention the fact that both were delicious!

Recently I have found that appetizers are quite filling and are much less expensive than entrees, so I often order the appetizer for my meal with, perhaps, a small dinner salad. This works especially well when we go to an expensive restaurant. After the meal I don't leave the restaurant feeling stuffed either.

Perhaps you might want to share some Frugal Hints for eating out.

PEACHES

The peaches are in the stores now and they are beautiful and taste delicious! I bought some this afternoon and could hardly wait to get home and taste them. I might even want to paint them they are so beautiful!

Coincidentally my daughter-in-law, Kara, published a delicious-sounding recipe for peach cobbler on her blog today. In addition, she is giving away a copy of Jan Karon's Hardcover Mitford Cookbook where she found the recipe. You can go on over to http://eskimokissesandairhugs.blogspot.com and enter your name for her excellent give-away this week.

HEAT WAVE

We are definitely in the midst of a heat wave and the weatherman says the worst is yet to come. A couple of days ago it was 107 and today it was 105. That makes me wonder what is yet to come--especially as I see so many of our plants struggling to stay alive in this heat.

Please share with me the ways you stay cool in hot weather. I stay inside as much as possible but I long to be outside working in the yard. Today, though, the heat felt like it was pressing me into the ground. I guess that is the high pressure system that has been sitting on top of us for more than a week creating our above-normal heat.

I am praying for rain and a break in this heat wave!

FRUGAL FRIDAY

It is so hot where we live that our A/C is running much of the time although I have it set pretty high. Luckily, my husband and I don't mind it being somewhat warm in our house. However, all this heat has made energy consumption sky rocket in our area this past week or so. That set me to thinking about all the ways I might save energy around the house.

*For starters I don't put my hot car in the garage when I come home during the day, but I leave it out on the driveway until it has cooled off in the evening.
*I hang my clothes outside to dry rather than allowing my clothes dryer to put more hot air into our already high temperatures.
*I am hand washing my dishes (like we did in Chaco Canyon--no dishwasher there) and letting them air dry. That way I don't have the dishwasher running for a long period using up water and electricity.
*I shut down my computer at night to save energy.
*I unplug recharge cords for phone and camera the minute I finish recharging those items because I understand that those cords left plugged in still use energy even though they are not connected to anything.
*I unplugged all our electrical appliances, lamps, computers, TVs and clocks while we were gone on our trip, AND I ran our thermostat up several degrees.
*I only run the washing machine when I have a full load of clothes to wash and I use the cold water setting when I wash.
*I keep the shades closed on the sunny side of our house.

I am trying to pay attention to our energy consumption so that I can live more efficiently. If you have any suggestions, please pass them on!

MORE NEW MEXICO PICTURES

After we left Chaco Canyon, we drove to our friends' wonderful villa near Santa Fe for a brief (too brief) stay. They fed us well, took us on a hike, showed us their petroglyph, treated us to some rainy weather, and took us to Santa Fe. It was a delightful visit. Here are some pictures. This first picture shows their courtyard in the front of their house. It was just gorgeous with wonderful flowers and roses everywhere.

The next picture shows their backyard as seen from their back porch. Everything there is lovely and green because they have had regular rains for several weeks.

The picture above shows the view from the porch outside our bedroom. And the next picture shows the petroglyph that they discovered in the cliffs just below their house. We had quite a hike down hills to see it.

And then we had to tell them good-bye as they waved at us from the doorway to their front courtyard.

We really hated to leave...