All By Myself

I spent this past week...all by myself! My parents were out of town for the week (and weekend) and so I was left to hold down the fort; which wasn't too hard since I'm more accustomed to being all by myself than living with people. Watson was decidedly mopey because he's of the mindset that the more of us there are, the merrier we will be but he managed to make his way through the week without too much struggle.

Lovely - & did I mention that it rained on the Friday & Saturday before this week started? 

Walking the dog in the misty Monday morning gloom....in my epic yellow loafers!

The neighborhood kids love Watson - & he returns that love with a vengeance.

Monday and Tuesday were splendidly drizzly...although I guess using the word splendidly is a bit misleading. I have visited the very drizzly Pacific Northwest and while it was beautiful in it's own way, I would never want to live there. This week though, I've felt like I was living right in the midst of it with all this drizzle, drip and gloom. The only thing worth doing on Monday (and again on Tuesday...because, well...rain) was to go to the movies and so I saw Gone Girl and Dracula Untold to start off the week. Reading helped pass the time too.

Even in the rain, people were golfing...& losing golf balls right & left...

The wind blew a chair closed & this nut thought it was a seat for him. Ooh wee but he is a mess.

Tuesday night begging consequences. Being draped in the ties of my robe.

I had an epic moment on Tuesday night - I have moments like that quite a lot. I guess I should explain when I say I had an epic moment, it probably was more of an epic fail. Ha-ha! The weather was supposed to get a little wild on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning so I'd put the umbrella on the deck down and I figured that was good enough. As I was lying in bed on Tuesday night reading, I could hear the deck chairs getting blown around and finally decided I should probably get out of the warm bed and go put the chairs away on the cold, windy and damp deck. As I stepped out onto the deck in my bare feet, my robe whipping around me in the wind, I stepped on something...something that felt like a small dead animal underfoot...

You see, I'd forgotten that earlier in the day I'd given Watson some treats on the deck while the sun made a momentary appearance. He had chosen not to eat them (yes Mom - the peanut butter ones, you were right...he doesn't like them) and so they'd gotten wet, puffed up and felt like little dead mice underfoot. I stepped down onto one of those in the dim light and wind...and had a minor flip out. I may or may not have let out a wild shriek and flailed wildly until I realized what I'd stepped on. I then tried to recover myself, get things done and get back to my bed....and stop my heart from pounding out of my chest. Oh Lord. I also realized that my neighbors are obviously unconcerned about me; I could have been being murdered...but oh well.

Wednesday morning downpour...turning the golf course into a pond.

The sun came out for a little while on Wednesday afternoon - hallelujah!

Talk about snapping a picture at the perfect moment! Ha-ha!

Homemade Mac & Cheese for supper on Thursday night!

Of course, a certain dog thought he needed to have bites of macaroni...

Friday was finally....finally absolutely gorgeous! The sun was shining, the clouds in the sky were barely what you could call wispy and there was a gentle Autumn breeze. I took advantage of the glorious day and took Watson to the Virginia State Arboretum and Long Branch Plantation...which I wrote a post about, so I won't get into that here. Friday afternoon my friend Rachel came over to spend some time with me - we had supper and had some delicious coffee before going to the church for Ladies Game Night. I had so much fun at Ladies Game Night - we played Pictionary, Taboo and Bingo - and as I always discover, I am much more competitive than I'd like to think. 

Rachel and I were on the Odd Team (not because we're odd but because we pulled odd numbers) and the Odd Team crushed every game! We won Pictionary and Taboo with the greatest of ease and Rachel and I both got lucky in the door prize department - I went home with two goodie bags and Rachel went home with three! We slept in on Saturday before going back over to the Arboretum and Long Branch Plantation since Rachel had never been to either...and Watson got to come along again! We had a late lunch at the Hunter's Head Tavern and Watson even got to join us there and he did so well, sitting patiently by the water bowl our waiter brought him. He; of course, got bites of bread, macaroni and fish...and absolutely loved it all.

Sitting on a bench under the pine trees on Friday....he thinks he's human, so of course he crawled onto the bench!

The Arboretum - always so pretty!

This little guy loved riding with the windows down.

Have you ever seen a more gorgeous tree...or house?

So many leaves...& he's interested in something else....

Game Night! I was a "winner" and Pictionary was the best!

Amelia playing Bingo with us!

The Gingko Grove at the Arboretum on Saturday. I've got to go back & explore even more!

Roses blooming in October? Who knew!

Enjoying lunch at the Hunter's Head Tavern!

The weather here is getting a wee bit brisk as of late...so on Saturday night I turned on the fire in the basement so I could warm up the basement a bit before Watson went to bed. I guess he's never really seen a fire in the fireplace before now because he was absolutely mesmerized by it! He went downstairs two or three times before it was time to get in the bed, just to take a look and check things out. I guess he didn't want the place to burn down, ha-ha!

Hey - what is that orange stuff over there?

Sunday morning drive to church...so pretty.

Being little is hard work...& so sleeping through the sermon seemed to work best for Miss Amelia!

Gifts from the traveling parents - nice! I'll need that sweat shirt here pretty soon!

This rotten little guy was glad to have his Poppy & Nana back.

And...that is all for now! Another week is upon us again, new adventures to be had! I hope everyone has a wonderful week ahead and I'll see you all back here next week....same time, same place! Ha-ha!