Category: Sunday Report

Posted in Sunday Report

Weekly Wrap-up

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Last week was good. Appropriate cards and greetings were sent to the lucky people who married my children. My long-time hairdresser coaxed my tresses into their usual bleached-blonde-blowout — yes, I actually pay to look this bad. A new longevity-of-phone-call record was set by me and my soul-sister – and I could have talked longer! BruBurger saw me twice, first for a lunch with my sister and then, a couple of days later, dinner with husband to celebrate our Anniversary.

My green beans and cucumbers are popping right up!

I’m still out early in the mornings to water and trim. Tomatoes and Peppers are finishing up their fruiting, but they look pretty spent. As soon as this heat passes, probably Wednesday or Thursday, I’m going to tear in and tear out in both the Edible and the Peace/Bird. I have the beginnings of an idea to transform the P/B garden this fall, complete with native shrubs and some sort of fencing to keep out the deer.

Speaking of deer, we have three fawns that visit daily, hanging out in our backyard with their moms nearby. They are darling. This summer we’ve attracted a couple of skunks – Pepe’ and one of his girlfriends, no doubt – who keep digging along our foundation. Pepper Flakes to the rescue.

I am returning to my Ancestry research. I’ve had my subscriptions on hold for a while, but upgraded to an international version for six months, and will be trying to catch up with my Scots-Irish roots, going back to our 17th century years in the Highlands. My German greats arrived later, and will be easier verify, so I expect to find that I’m some sort of baroness. I publish our family stories over at my Ancestry Blog, and if you have never visited, you really should! It is chock-full of interesting characters, many of whom haunt my house and heart. I’ll be bugging you more about this, so why not bookmark it and give it a read? www.allmyancestry.wordpress.com

Despite the oppressive heat, we’re going to Try to go to Ellis Park tomorrow to watch the thoroughbreds. The last time I attempted this maneuver, the heat shut down the track, so that could happen again. The season is nearly over, so I’m getting a little desperate. I don’t remember the last time I didn’t go to the races at least once in the summer!

Hope there’s some shade in your neck of the woods!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report, The Gardens of Sonnystone...

Midsummer Garden

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Despite the charming fantasy of Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”, the Actual, Factual, honest-to-goodness middle of summer here at Sonnystone is/was August 7. Many of our Spring-plantings have now aged out and we have just enough time to get in a second planting, so I’ve spent the week (mostly) pulling up and replanting, trimming, and harvesting.

Out in the Edible Garden, our tomatoes and bell peppers slowed to a halt under the heat dome, but they are slowly recovering, producing a half-dozen or so new fruits. By early October, we should have a big harvest of green beans, squash, and cucumbers…

The Big Show is the Sunflowers…

Or Maybe it’s the zinnias…

The Peace/Bird Garden is a little faded, but otherwise doing well.

We have a big week ahead – two birthdays, daughter-in-law and son-in-law, as well as our 45th wedding anniversary. We had some plans for this week-end, but Casey is having some dental problems, and we had to adapt so he’ll be better able to enjoy!

45 years is a long time. We never dreamed we’d get this old… Oh, well, beats the alternative. Hope there’s Love flowing around your neck of the woods.

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

A paragraph & A photograph (or 2)

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Melissa and Eliza, Casey and I, made the 5-hour drive from Sonnystone to Dublin, Ohio, on Friday, checked into our suite, then picked up Emma from the airport around 11pm. So good to see her!

I took a series of photos in the worst lighting ever, chronicling the metamorphosis of the girls into Irish Dancers’ hair (wigs and a lot of poof). They will take a lot of work to make them legible; in fact, none of my pictures turned out well.

We started out at the Feis, where Emma won the “Dance-off” competition for the second year in a row. The honor involves a heavy traveling trophy and the opportunity to perform at the Dublin Irish Fest that evening during the Parade of Champions.

My video of her set that evening pretty much sucks, but you know what she really looks like, so I’d like to share this small badly focused clip of her introduction:

My heart was so full just hearing that!

We absolutely loved the Fest and plan to make it an annual tradition! There was music and dancing, whisky and fest-food, Great Company and good weather – what more could you ask for?

Though we had to give up Camp Sonnystone due to certain humans growing up, we didn’t give up the “hands” sign with this year’s Word. This was a big reason we flew Emma in, actually! We needed her paw-print…

This may be the last year, the final word, so to speak…or maybe not. Be what may, I will cherish these memories Forever…

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Visitors

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Melissa and Eliza arrived on…um…I think it was Wednesday… I’ve lost track of the days.

Nova and Samantha joined Eliza and me to visit the Mall on Friday, I do know that.

The Jrs joined us yesterday for our Family Picnic (inside, of course) – green beans and new potatoes, corn on the cob, fried chicken, sliced tomatoes, cantaloupe, and watermelon filled us up. I don’t know why on earth I didn’t take pictures, but we all had a good time playing yahtzee after our feast.

Our plans have gang agley – gone awry, if you will. We had planned to go to Ellis Park today, but Excessive heat shut down the thoroughbreds for the week, Eliza is feeling under the weather (get it?), and I’m out of ideas of air-conditioned entertainment, so we’re just hanging here, talking and enjoying each other’s company.

I think that’s fine, really. We are still maintaining the gardens in the early mornings, though most of the plants in the Edible garden are shocked by the heat. I seem to be mentioning “heat” pretty often, so let me add some adjectives: blistering, sweltering, scorching, oppressive…it’s as bad as I’ve ever experienced and I hate to see my utility bill next month.

The Company is cool, though, so I’m living my best possible today – whatever day it is. I promise I’ll take more pictures as the week goes on. Thanks for dropping by!

Peace

Posted in Random, Sunday Report

Rained Out

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

It was a soggy week here at Sonnystone. I’m personally sick of it, and even the gardens seem over it. Despite the assault of storms, we made our way through a fairly mundane 7 days – time with Samantha, hair appointment with Dusti, monthly phone call with Kathy. Now, we are ready for something Fresh!

Eliza and her mother will be here by Wednesday evening and the Fun will begin. The rains are supposed to recede and we’ll put our pool up for floating and frolicking. Ellis Park will be dried by next week-end, so we’ll have a Day at the Races. Eliza is demanding Orange Chicken from the Mall food court, so it had better be there. They will be here until August 1, when we’ll head up the road to Ohio for the Columbus Feis and the Dublin Irish Fest. Sooo excited!

We’ve kept most everything propped as relentless rains pelted down, and that’s about all we can do. I’ve harvested and am still harvesting tomatoes of all sorts and green beans are plentiful.

After I talked smack about the squash and the bell peppers, they decided to give me some fruit…

My poor Peace/Bird Garden is simply saturated. It looks a little tired overall, but if you focus on the blooms, they are bursting with energy!

We’ll be finishing up the preparations for our company these next few days. I would love to hear from any of my dear readers who might want to meet up with us. Let me know! You know how to find me…

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

She Won!!! My #1 is Number One!

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

I wrote last week…

If you’ve been following me on FB, you’ll have noticed that my #1 grandie, Emma, is On Fire; she has been first in most of her recent feis outings and second isn’t too bad, either. She placed 22nd in the World Championships in Dublin, Ireland earlier this year and I expect she’ll do even better in this “national” competition.

She did better all right! She beat her nearest competitor by 100 points! She dominated!

Emma Magnolia Mayne Jose

The word Proud doesn’t really convey my emotions. This little girl set her mind to Win back in 2020. She changed from a dance school that continually put her down and dismissed her talent to one that builds champions. Doherty-Petri Irish Dance School, or let’s just shout out her coaches, Lisa and Karen Petri, complemented Emma’s “Winning” attitude with Expectations of hard work, exactly what she needed. Emma Magnolia is very talented, but it’s the effort she’s put in, the training, and the learning from the losses that is so impressive. She deserves this and it fills my heart with Joy to see her achievements.

I wrote:

Unfortunately, my little Eliza injured her ankle and it’s taking its time to heal. She’ll be dancing, though, and she’s good, so we’ll see where she ends up.

She “ended up” #26!!! That’s out of Hundreds, you know, and is a great accomplishment!

Eliza Belle Mayne Jose

She’s back to full-on practices, so look out for her, especially at their Oireachtas in October. Eliza is super talented and we’re going to be celebrating a #1 for her in our future, as well.

Emma is now on her way back to Colgate University, where she will be doing an internship. This means she is not able to visit Sonnystone this summer. Eliza and Melissa will visit toward the end of the month and we maybe, might be able to sneak Emma in to the Dublin (Ohio) Irish Fest held August 1-3, if her job is flexible. We’ll see. I am prepared for the grandies to grow up, but holding out hope that we’ll all be together at Christmas.

Through all the tears of Joy, I was also shedding tears of fear and sadness – very efficient, but I’d rather not… My sister texted that she had had a “mini-heart attack” on Sunday. She really minimized it, so when she went for a heart catheterization on Monday, we were shocked that they scheduled open-heart surgery for the next day. Turns out she needed a quadruple bypass! The cardiac surgeon nixed the operation, though, as she has a meningioma tumor resting near her brain stem… Sooo, back to the drawing board, the cardiologists put stents in two of the four, and scheduled her back in two weeks to place the other two. She did well, but a previously undetected aneurysm in her ?wrist? burst and her arm “blew up like a sausage in the microwave” (credit to my niece Lauren for the description). What next? They kept her a little longer and did a CT to search for any other potential problems. She’s now home, thank-you Lord! I was a basket case, but this Strong lady has just faced it down with her usual calm. Donna is 17 months older than me, and though we’ve been rather estranged for the last 10 years, she had recently started to be friendly again. I am so grateful and ready to help her and her family through this rough patch.

The garden is pretty, but not all that productive. Oh, the tomatoes are going strong, but where are the cucumbers, bell peppers, and squash??? We’re not quite halfway through summer (mid-point is August 7), so I will try to be patient, enjoy the pretty, and support my fellow gardeners at the local Farmers’ Markets.

The Peace/Bird Garden continues to host a plethora of birds, bugs, and blooms…

These summer days, hot and humid, are comfortingly familiar. I’m so grateful to be able to get my work done early, then relax and enjoy life from the swing, fanning myself, sweat running down my face, and contentment in my heart.

Beaming Love and Peace to All of Us.

Posted in Sunday Report

Another Week wrapped up…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

It was a good week here at Sonnystone Acres, despite “feel-like” temperatures in three digits and humidity described as “Very”. We were up with the birds getting the gardens watered and weeded and tied and propped, then I, personally, took it easy doing inside work or at the very least, shady porch work like swinging…

the view from the swing

The dang deer ate all of those lush purple garden phlox blooms in the Peace/Bird Garden. There is a little fawn running around in the meadow that I’m partial to and I’ve been lulled into thinking they are just cute little pets. I missed my chance to save those this year, but I’m dragging out the hot sauce spray for the rest of the season.

Our squash are still not producing fruit and their bloom time is over. I blame the excessive rains in their early days, because now our pollinators are buzzing around. I’m starting some seeds and hope to put some new plants out in a couple of weeks, as they are 55 days to harvest and that gives me until mid-September to get a good crop. Hopefully, the bees will see them this time.

This week in the Edible Garden…

butternut squash
sweet cherry 100s

Samantha and I went to the $5 matinee on Tuesday, viewing Disney’s Elio. It was okay, good enough. Disney has really blown it with their recent films and I’m kinda sad about it. This one had no strong opening advertising and I guess they felt like they had spent enough on it. They need to take a look at their creators and try to get them back in touch with the audience. But it was cool in the theatre and we had a good time.

Hope you had a safe and happy holiday! We tried to ignore it, but our neighbors put on some very loud fireworks displays – we couldn’t see them, but we could hear them. It was just too humid to go downtown for the Eville show, so we tried to watch them on TV, but failed. Oh, well.

We’re back to living in the “family” room, though I’m still arranging shelves and such. That may never end, if you know me…

Next Week my calendar is Blank, so I may just do nothing — I’m very good at it.

Stay Cool!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

The Last Missive of June…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

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Posted in Sunday Report

Summer moves in…

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

It was a Good week here at the Acres, even though we didn’t see the sun until Thursday. Samantha came over for a piano lesson on Monday, and Nova did a beautiful job singing at the EMA Recital.

I was up early today so I could get some work done in the garden before the heat index becomes dangerous. The edible garden stays in dappled shade until noon and it was pleasant for a couple of hours before the humidity crept in like a kudzu vine, activating every sweat gland on my body – and I think I have been over-endowed with sweat glands. I managed to plant some pole beans along the arbor in the spots where our watermelon shriveled, and a couple of areas where the cantaloupes are stunted, then did some work on our washtub containers, which were flooded during the Monsoon Days.

The Edible Garden is thriving…

The middle picture is of our “early girl bush” tomato, a determinate that currently has eleven tomatoes on it and another half-dozen flowers coming on! I’ve never grown them before — hope they taste good!

The Peace/Bird Garden looks lovely, as well…

All of the books that were in the family room have been moved into the living room and we are very close to pulling up the carpet.

We had planned on this project being done by now, but the cataract thing changed things up. It’s worked out great, though, as the Heat Dome keeps us indoors.

Stay cool, dear Readers!

Peace

Posted in Sunday Report

Celebrate Dads and Grand-daughters!

Posted on by Jo Mayne Casey

Our #3 grand-daughter, Eliza Belle Mayne Jose, graduated from 8th grade on Thursday. She will continue on to 9th grade at the same school, Avenues The World School, so it’s called a “Stepping Up” celebration. We watched on Vimeo and I wasn’t much impressed with the videography, but when my beautiful grandie walked up to pick up her certificate, I felt that overwhelming surge of emotions where your heart swells up and pushes tears out of your eyes. I love this girl more that words can say – well, you know that. When she was little, we would do a pretend morning show together. She was the OG musical.ly and would often facetime me so I could watch her latest choreography, usually to music that made me blush. She was born with a fabulous sense of fashion and she’s the one who I consult on which sneakers to buy. I’ll get to see her at the end of July and I can hardly wait.

Happy Fathers’ Day to all the Dads out there! I had a good one, but he’s been gone 28 years now. He would visit me every Wednesday, an event we dubbed “Music Night”. He would play the uke and we’d sing; he’d have me play the piano and we’d sing; I’d play some good tunes on the stereo and we’d sing.

Me and Dad at the Eaton Family Reunion, Grayville, IL 1979

We also drank and smoked and talked and laughed and sometimes argued, but we’d always end up singing. I haven’t done much singing since he died and my voice has gone to hell, but in my mind those harmonies still play.

Had my second cataract removal on Tuesday and it’s gone well – not as well as the right eye – but every day is more clear. I expect I’ll be seeing a lot of fog soon, anyway.

“Surely we’ve had enough rain this week to last us a couple”, I wrote last week. Surely we did, but the ever-whimsical Spring disagreed and brought us a deluge of four inches on Friday, another 1.5 on Saturday. Luckily, we had most every plant staked or propped and there was very little damage to the gardens.

I would have preferred to be sitting in a lawn chair at the Handy Festival, but since our Entire Day here at Sonnystone was decidedly un-sunny, I assumed it was the same over in Henderson. I was soo disappointed when I found out on the evening news – rain still pouring outside my window – that it was sunny and dry just across the river.

Here comes the humidity! We still haven’t turned our a/c on, but looks like we will soon. I’m beginning to start moving books off of shelves in the family room so we can pull up the carpet back there. Casey is restless if he can’t work outside, so this might be a good time to start.

Stay Cool in your neck of the woods…

Peace