Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Storytime. Pow. Right in the Kisser...

As a writer you'd think I'd have a great story for the eye. 

By the way, it's gotten a bit uglier. 

On Sunday night my eye fooled me into thinking that I might be able to hide the faint lavender shadow with plenty of makeup. 

But then I woke with a scarlet clown tear above the lavender crescent moon. And all hope was lost of keeping it under wraps.

So. I have the avoiders. They look at me. Look away, look back and stare at "the eye." 

The direct questioners. "So, did you tick off your husband?" "Ha.Ha.Ha."

And the ones who interact with me, then suddenly, apparently, they notice I have a shiner. "Whoa! What happened to you?" 

One of my doctors falls in the latter category. Our conversation went like this. 

"What did you do to yourself?"

Laugh. "Why do you think I did it to myself?" 

"I think I know you pretty well." 

Fair enough we have worked together for awhile."So I smashed my car door into my face." 

"Ouch."

"Yeah. And would it surprise you to know that I was talking and distracted when I slammed my face into the car door, or vice versa?"

He laughed. "No, not really." 

"I'm going to take all that as a compliment. So don't ruin it for me." 

"So," He said as he was heading back to his office, "did you do this last night?" 

"No, the day before."

He stopped. His eyebrows rose and he looked pensive. "Didn't I talk to you yesterday? And you had it then?" 

"Yep." 

"Wow. I guess I'm a man. Huh?" 

Uh yeah. 

But I will forgive him for that. Because I carry on as if nothing is abnormal with my face until I get a glimpse in the mirror. Whoa. Send in the clowns, don't worry their here. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ 5000 Pin Party

What's a party without balloons, Red balloons and polka dots.

& is a master pinner. 

She recently hit a landmark # and by golly, being the pinner and doer of pins that she is, she decided to have a 5000 Pin Party to celebrate this huge accomplishment. 

Lots of uses for jars on Pinterest, great for veggies for dipping.

I was invited, mostly because it was held at my house. 

Ha. Ha. 

And because I'd help her with the details. 

Rainbow fruit kabobs

And I might take some pictures. 

Here are some fun snaps of the very fun event. We ate, we laughed and those who wanted to make some Pinterest takeaways did.

Jars with lemonade/tea and chunks of fruit.

Frozen banana "pops" with toppings, Pinterest salsa and truffles.

Pinterest cupcake....the best and the worst.

& agonizes which pin to make #5000.

Just pretty, aren't they.

Pinterest ha ha's decoupaged onto can lids an turned into pins.

A few of &'s projects on display. The Twine vase and the lightbulb vases are hers. The black and white beauty is one I bought in Wisconsin.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ HIGHTW...

 You know how some bloggers post WIAW? 

That's What I Ate Wednesday for those of you who don't know the WIAW story. 

Here's a little twist on that for you. 

This is HIGHTW.

Anyone?

Anyone? 

Anyone?

Okay. Here it is. How I Got Hurt This Weekend!!

One rotten sliver.

One pair of sweatpants that provided TWO ticks, one which had begun snacking.

And one black eye. (Self-inflicted for the sensitive readers who may wonder who socked me.) I was talking...go figure...while closing my car door. And guess what? I decided to ram my face into it prior to closing the door. 

Do NOT try this at home. Amazingly, it didn't hurt as bad as you'd think. Of course, I may have actually been out for awhile. I went on a nice trip into a dark, dark midnight blue sky full of twinkling stars. And right away I grew a little bump. On the upside, this is my first black eye. 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Harey Fun and New Friends ~

Elizabeth Bennett Bunny

Bunny hunting

Here’s a story. One about how I now have two Jane Austenesque bunnies at my house.

The face of a man resigned to new pets.

It might be an enchanted fairy tale. If nothing else it might be the picture of the power of prayer. Odd as it is, it is true. Very, very little embellishment. (I know. From me?)

Mr. Darcy

About a month ago & and I headed out at dusk to walk the dogs. In front of us, in the weedy ditch, we saw a hopping little animal. The girls saw it as well and were very interested. Knowing it was a bunny we were ready to wrestle the girls past the little critter when we both noticed that there was a whole lot of white on that bunny.

Turns out the bunny we saw looked nothing like the traditional brown bunny in our areas. It looked very much like a cute little pet bunny.

But, why would a cute little pet bunny be out and about? We thought perchance we had made a visual error as it disappeared into taller grass.

A few days later we saw a white bunny in the neighbors yard. Chewing contentedly, just hanging out. Had to be the neighbors bunny. Right? Of course it was. And it was most definitely a domesticated pet bunny. Indeed, the little cutie was a mini-lop if I've ever seen one.

And a few days later, we saw him again. Never in the light of the day but always when heading out for a late evening walk. We still wondered why the bunny didn't have a cage, but, well, he clearly was home.

Then we saw a wee bit of a difference one evening. He was suddenly a white pointy-eared bunny. Two bunnies?

One morning both bunnies visited our yard. Brace yourself for a scary moment that ended with no casualties. Imagine a cartoon visual of a large black dog racing after a small white critter, back and forth, back and forth. Yep. That's what I saw the morning I realized the bunnies had begun visiting us. Fortunately for all of us the driveway has a bunny-sized tube and Lily is not bunny-sized.

At this point we began to wonder if these bunnies really did belong to the neighbor. And if so, why they were out and about, unprotected by fencing. So I called. No answer. And we had to leave for a long weekend away. & began to pray for the bunnies protection. And that when the time was right, if the bunnies were not the neighbors that she could catch them and find them a good home. 

This pattern continued. Until Monday night. We had gone out and as we arrived home we saw both bunnies in the neighbor's yard. Our fake extended-female-family-members were with us. Two of the more exuberant ones jumped out of the car and ran down to see the bunnies. We followed as did the neighbor who was no doubt curious as to why there were strange teenagers/young adults running willie-nillie in his yard. We chatted. The bunnies had just shown up one day and he thought that maybe they were ours. He was worried about them getting into traffic and wildlife encounters of a bad kind.

Now. We decided we must try to catch them. Indeed, it is probably a miracle that they both survived. There are two busyish streets and raccoons, badgers, owls, hawks, dogs, cats, goodness, there is danger out there. We couldn't just leave them to try to survive any longer on their own. We know lots of people who love bunnies and would love to offer foster care and a friendly home for the cuties.

Shockingly, we did indeed catch them. And they are tame as can be. And dog-gone it (as Rob expected the entire time we worried about the bunnies) we became the welcoming, friendly home.

Yes. Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennett Bunnies have found a new home.

Now could you resist these faces? 

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Organic Farm Fun... Bless Your Little Pea Picking Heart...

Well, I thought I could fill your minds and thoughts with some rich "root" of meaning for a phrase I have become close with of late. 

Turns out, I can't. So I'll just have to ramble enough that this is worthy of posting, or at least makes you get off the computer and do something of value with your time. You can thank me later. 

Food has wormed (excuse the organic farm pun....) it's way into our very language. In medicine, well, it's pretty cotton pickin disgusting. Coffee ground or cottage cheese are not something you want to see in your medical record. Nor do you really want watermelon flesh. Anyhoo, if you're still hanging onto your cookies, I'll move forward. 

Food phrases... how about bean counter. Hmmm. Bet you've heard that term. Egg on your face.

The phrase that I thought might be rich with deep meaning is Pea pickin... as in the famous and possibly only use "Bless your little pea pickin heart." Ala Tennessee Ernie Ford.

So what the heck does that mean? 

At the farm yesterday I picked some peas. So the recipe for picking peas... Apparently it takes intense 95 degree directly overhead sun. Why? I'm not sure, but I do know that the cool breeze we felt before and after the pea picking was non-existent during. Also, many hands are required. And those many hands can pick 66 pounds (66.4 - says my inner bean counter. Every pea counts. Trust me.) in about 12 hours of woman time. Yup. That's a lot of peas. 

Pea picking also really should require a gymnast or yoga master. Pea plants grow way low as in "how low can you go" low. Peas like to hide in their swirly, viney foliage. So I think I can say that it is painstaking and back painstaking work. 

However, there is a nice benefit. Okay, several. 

One, all the peas you can eat while you work. Okay. That's pretty good. So we probably picked 68 pounds between the five of us. 

And while working side by side the conversation flowed nicely. And not so nicely. Someone I picked with, who won't be named to protect her reputation, was sometimes inappropriate. There was a wee bit of laughter while we worked. A few stories, too. 

So we sweat(sweated, swat????) and laughed and whined and got thoroughly filthy. At one point the farmer got separated from the pack (I think it might have been by choice) and when she rejoined us she said. " You know, while I was over there by myself I was listening to you. I couldn't hear the words most of the time. But, the rhythm of your voices, the laughter, the buzz of conversation, it was just beautiful. I enjoyed my background music very much." 

Sigh. And to think. I never really liked peas very much. Seems like they've wound their little tentacles vines right around my pea picking little heart....which is indeed blessed.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Sand and Turf?

Lots of activity the past few days. 


Here are some pictures of sand castle building in the middle of the city streets this weekend. 

We dropped in before the event started to peek at the behind the scenes building. Good choice. We didn't get to see the displays in all their glory but we didn't have to fight crowds either. And it was pretty cool watching the artists at work.

I love this tree trunk. My favorite piece of sand sculpture.

Scribbles and Scrambles ~ Monday Morning Raccoon Pooped on My Shirt Blues

How often in life does one get to write out a title like that? Or get pooped on by a raccoon? Rarely. So how can I not blog about it?

My crazy friend, (Most of them are, so she won't be offended should she happen to wander by and see that I have referred to her as crazy. She'll never know I'm even talking about her. Ha. Ha. And actually, craziness is pretty much a requirement to be my friend.) is a animal rescuer who definitely puts her money where her mouth is, or her curtains in the line of fire, or her sleep patterns on hold.... she just got three baby raccoons to "nurse" until they are old enough to brave the great outdoors all by themselves. The lady who contacted her currently is bottle feeding 30...been a rough year for raccoon mamas. 

& and I had to go see this triple raccoon threat on Saturday. Oh my. They are cute. 

The trio didn't care for & and I exactly. Oh, there were no "Does somebody need a hug? moments but some chatters of complaint when we held them. One climbed up over &'s back and down an arm and onto a vanity. And the one I held finally cuddled in a bit then moved along my chest. Turns out she was pooping on me. Yeah. Only one who got pooped on during this little visit. All across the chest, down an arm and on my hand. 

At least it was baby poop, I told myself, I've had lots of experience with baby poop. 

Going to have to go back and visit them a few more times before they are ready to be released.