Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)! Grab a cup of coffee and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? What are your weekend plans? Is there a topic you’ve just been ruminating on that you want to talk about?

A thank-you to  Eclectic Alli, host of Weekend Coffee Share! You can find her post for this week with the link to the Link Party page HERE.

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Welcome! Please help yourself to coffee, tea, cold water, or other beverage. I enjoyed my last cup of Toddy Coffee for today and have now switched to tea. The Scampers have been napping, but now they are petitioning for a run (in the rain) around the back yard. Back again…they spotted a rabbit eating grass in the rain and had to chase it around the workshop and, where the rabbit ducked out of sight, the gazebo, which has a raised floor. 😀

You may remember that my husband and I went out to our (now former) favorite restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary. We tried again this week, going to a restaurant where my mother and I used to eat lunch, up until six years or so ago, when she decided that she no longer wanted to leave the house. (My mother died in November 2016.)  For some reason, my  husband and I quit going to that restaurant for dinners out after Mother died. And also, we went out to dinner then much later than we now do.

Lovely atmosphere, a professional and very helpful server, food cooked and served promptly and at the right temperature. Hurrah! And she fit in an extra trip to the kitchen to get a cup of tea for me to go with my dinner, although I’d asked for water before the meal. We were asking ourselves why we had avoided that restaurant for so long. So, we wished each other a Happy Anniversary and grinned every time. And we now know what time of the day there is no waiting list.

Also, we have solved the problem of the nextdoor dogs and the incessant barking up and down our backyard fence to the south. Al bought more metal fence stakes and metal fencing (large enough for rabbits to fit through), and we ran a new fence about six feet out from the permanent fence. It runs from the backyard gate to the gardening shed, and again, from the west side of the shed to the back fence. That leaves the cotoneaster trees between the two fences. I no longer have to fight my way through shrubbery to catch the dogs when they bark. And with the shrubs and shed between them and the nextdoor dogs, they are not trying to engage. So quiet! Lovely!

Added bonus: The six-foot, wire fence should keep the dogs on either side from jumping or walking into the next yard over the snowdrifts, this winter. Assuming that we are not able to get a six-foot privacy fence installed until spring.  Looking back, this last period of time has been fruitful. We are quite pleased!

If we were having tea together, this evening, I would visit with you about the 10Q (10 Questions) Website at  DoYou10Q dot com. Ten questions to ponder and answer, one each day, beginning on September 29; at the end, they’re locked away until next year, when you can answer the questions again, but also retrieve your answers from the year before.  (You can share your answers, share anonymously, or keep them private to yourself.) A good friend of mine online suggested the site; she’s been doing this for ten years now and is still finding it worthwhile.  I can see why. It’s already been helpful, and I have four more questions to look forward to.

Raining a lot, again, after a few days during which we got the fence up. Almost an inch, so far, today. Thunderstorms looked for tonight, and for Sunday through Friday: “Freezing temperatures are expected each night Wednesday through
the weekend with a hard freeze likely Thursday night, Friday night and Saturday night.”  Haven’t gotten out there today (I’ve been sleeping soundly for as many as nine hours at a stretch, this week), but I already have been turning on the space heater in the gazebo for half an hour before going out there to exercise.

I hope that you have had an enjoyable week and are looking forward to the next. Until we meet again,

best wishes,
Lizl

Weekend Coffee Share is a time for us to take a break out of our lives and enjoy some time catching up with friends (old and new)!

Grab a cup of coffee and share with us! What’s been going on in your life? What are your weekend plans? Is there a topic you’ve just been ruminating on that you want to talk about?

A thank-you to  Eclectic Alli, host of Weekend Coffee Share! You can find her post for this week with the link to the Link Party page HERE.

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Welcome! Please help yourself to coffee, tea, cold water, or other beverage. I am enjoying my first cup of Toddy Coffee for today, along with a square of v. dark chocolate (90%). There’s also bread cheese, honey crisp apples (nice sale, this week!), or natural peanut butter and gluten-free flax bread. We will need to get out to the grocery store by the end of the day, but things are not moving fast as they could have.

My husband and I went out to our (now former) favorite restaurant to celebrate our wedding anniversary. The menu had changed since we’d last been there, and we each ordered steak and shrimp. I always have shrimp (hold the garlic sauce), and my husband always orders the sirloin steak. As a change of pace, we each ordered the shrimp and steak combo dinner.  Neither of us eats really spicy food. I have an autoimmune disease, commonly occurring following dental work, that attacks the mucous membranes in my mouth, and so that becomes crucial for preparing and serving relatively bland foods.

If we were having coffee together, this morning, I would first recommend inquiring if menu changes have been made by the restaurant before ordering, rather than assuming that the items will be the same as the last time. My steak was cold, and the shrimp was served without the garlic sauce, but in the meanwhile the shrimp had changed to Cajun seasoning, and there was garlic anyhow. I had a mild allergic reaction and a deadened mouth and tongue. My husband also ate a couple shrimp, but did get through most of his steak. We both ate baked potato to try soothing the pain. Both of us suggested that the shrimp was too hot to eat. Which resulted in a rude, unrequested visit from the manager to explain that they would not make a (not requested) deduction to our bill. We doubled the tip to the waitress and decided to find another restaurant for future outings. My husband, surprisingly, became quite ill, and he’s still in bed; he must have been up, off and on, during the night.

We did decide that once he’s fully recovered, we will have a belated anniversary celebration at the Olive Garden, where we can have our meals prepared to our taste and dietary restrictions with no surprises.  We did have a good laugh over the events of the evening before saying good-night.

If we were visiting together, this morning, I would confide that I am happy the weather has turned colder and damper, in spite of the diminishing blooms in the garden and the scarcity of insects to photograph. I now am turning on the space heater in the gazebo and letting the space warm up a bit before exercising and using the stationary bike. One more lawn mowing, I figure, and we’ll be done with those allergens in the air, also. We are forecast to enjoy rain from Saturday night through Tuesday morning, and the low temperature for tonight is to be 38°F. It will not be long, now, I expect, before our first hard freeze. I have done a good job of keeping the ragweed out of our yard, this year, which has helped immensely with the allergies.

I did get one photograph, yesterday, that I really liked. Most of the rest of the plants, with the exception of the common evening primroses, look battered and wilted.

The Scampers are becoming used to the new next-door dogs.  As the weather gets colder, they are spending more time inside the garage (which now has a “doggie door”, so they can get inside and away from the cold wind). The Scampers get chilled, too, and don’t as often bark to lure the neighbor dogs out into the cool. We bought an indoor shirt and an outdoor sweater for Charlie, the older Scamper, because he seems already to be feeling the cold and has been shivering a lot. He likes wearing the shirt inside, also. I’m surprised.

I hear signs of life in the next room. I must sign out for now, and see to providing the other of us with a cup of nicely hot, freshly brewed coffee.

Best wishes for your week! I look forward to visiting with you soon!

Lizl