Pumpkins and Painting Oh My!

We had horrible weather nearly all summer. It was first week of June or so before I could put my herbs out and plant in the garden because we were still having frost overnight. Then out of nowhere ~ BOOM! ~ summer hit with a vengeance. No in-between. We had extreme heat and humidity. So bad that it was like how my friend described it, "like being in a dryer with wet clothes." Very apt description. I would go out very early in the morning to weed the garden and since it was so dry despite all the humidity... (How the hell can it be 85% humidity with 0% chance of rain?! Aish! ),.. I would go out just as it was starting to get dark and hopefully was cooler to water the garden. And since we have no hose hookup, it was several trips around the house with a big watering can.

Things are starting to finally really grow. It took two months for my carrots to look like carrot tops and not weeds! My onions are still looking like chives, though. The lettuce did fine, but... I think my pumpkin plants ate my spinach.

So bear with me for a moment here. I've never grown pumpkins before. I should have researched it like I do anything else. I never would have put them in the garden. I'd have put them closer to the rhubarb. We had to build, what I now affectionately call The Trump Wall to try to contain them! They're mutants!

Tiny garden with huge pumpkin plants. 

 The Trump Wall. But the plants will not be contained.

The flowers are closed due to rain, but look at the size next to my grand-daughters!

So I've been really wanting to get back into painting. I enjoyed it when I did it years ago. So I got some supplies. I'd lost many of them over the years. My kids borrowing brushes for projects, some lost in a move, etc... I still have more to get, but I'm really excited about getting to it again.

I had already bought a portable easel during the winter. Comes in a case and everything. Today some more supplies came in.

Yes, those are Bob Ross paints. I like them.

 This little bit was almost $200 with the shipping.

So now I need paint knives, more brushes, a big clear palette, more canvases, and a few more colours I forgot to get, and odourless turpenoid.

I want to play with them now, but I'm not ready supply-wise. So it's killing me to look at them and not touch them. 

Living With Stickers.

I feel like this is going to be a post about some incurable disease and how I've learned to live with it or am trying to live with it. It's not. But it is something I've learned to live with.

Stickers.

If you have young children or young grandchildren then you may know what I'm talking about.

Stickers.

Everywhere.

On everything.

Little kids' way of 'blinging' up normal everyday things so no one can deny you have young children or grandchildren around.

The signs are unmistakable. Sudden appearance of colour on things that didn't really have pops of colour before.

On what used to be a pristine white tower fan.

On an HP printer.

On and inside a laptop.

On a mobile phone case.

The stickers can appear at any time when you are not looking, and even, in the rare occasion, when you are.

The stickers are unmistakable: bright, in several shades of colour, more times than not can ruin your adult reputation with other adults who grin and comment on the stickers. 

Removing them can lead to questions of  "Why did you take my stickers off?", disappointment, and in a few rare cases tears and the re-appearance of more stickers. So tread lightly. I've learned to leave them there until a day they fall off or I can sneak them off, but they often are replaced by new stickers who bring all their friends to the sticker party so there is less chance of them being kidnapped and their bodies dumped in the trash.

They may clash with your decor and are prone to bring on chuckles from other adults. Men can also suffer from stickers. 

Stickers can last years until the child(ren) is old enough to understand that not everything should be 'blinged' up. Oftentimes this will happen naturally as they age and want to appear cooler and more mature in front of their schoolmates.

Note: though some stickers are easy to remove, there can be those who would survive a nuclear bombing and any attempt to remove them could prove challenging. They are especially stubborn to remove from dressers, refrigerators and desks. Proceed with caution.

This has been a public announcement on living with stickers.