Watson Wednesday

 

I just couldn't resist sharing some additional pictures that I took with Watson over the weekend. He really is the sweetest little thing and I know I'll always treasure these pictures... even the one where he looks like he's over me loving on him!

 

The Last Weekend in September

How are there only three more days (really two - since this one is halfway over) left in September? I feel like this month has just sped past in a sort of "blink and you'll miss it" way and yet the pictures on my phone prove that I spent this month doing plenty. 

Friday night was pretty much a bust - between having a sinus headache that combined with some aching in my jaw from having a tooth extracted earlier in the week - I was pretty much useless on Friday night! *sigh* I ended up eating some soup and mostly lying around for the evening... as you do sometimes.

Saturday morning I was thankfully feeling much better and so I went to see my sweet friend Melissa to get my hair done. We chatted and laughed and she made my hair look about a million times better - as she always does! After a quick lunch, I joined my parents for a trip over to Wayside Farm to check out all the Autumnal things...

Wayside Farm always has the most wonderful Autumn activities and this year was no exception! The farm was only allowing a certain number of people in each hour to provide a measure of distancing with all the activities - nothing was crowded and I never felt like people were getting too close. We navigated the corn maze; opting to do the version that took about twenty minutes as opposed to over an hour... 

I also gamely climbed a mountain of hay bales and then took the slide down... and had some serious speed behind me because I shot out of the end of the slide and ended up covered in dirt! Still fun though! I also got to shoot the pumpkin cannon - which is one of my favorite things - it makes me feel powerful, ha-ha! 

After shooting pumpkin cannons, climbing hay bales, racing ducks, attempting fast pitch and perusing the pumpkin patch and the nearby farmer's market it was home once again to watch my Mississippi State Bulldogs take down the defending NCAA Champion LSU Tigers... I feel pretty certain no one thought MSU would actually beat LSU but we did and so I ended up on my porch ringing my cowbell on Saturday night!

 

Sunday after a really good sermon at church and lunch, I loaded Watson up and we went to the Arboretum for about an hour. The leaves have suddenly started to make the turn toward colorful and I always want to keep an eye on the Gingko Grove to see when it bursts into it's bright golden colors - it's not quite there yet but all in time! 

The rest of the evening was filled with dinner with friends and some relaxing before the start of another work week! It was a good weekend and a perfectly lovely way to spend the final weekend in September.

Five on Friday

 

Oh man - I'm glad it's Friday. It's been kind of a booger of a week (I swear - an adult I knew when I was growing up used to say that) and so far today has been a bit long too! I'm glad to see the work week almost at an end and I'm hoping for a calm and easy paced weekend!

One. Tooth Extraction - In the tale of my ongoing dental woes... I had a tooth extracted on Tuesday afternoon and honestly that's probably why the rest of the week has seemed so long! I thought I'd just get that done and cruise through the rest of the week but I ended up back at the dentist two hours after I left for more liquid clot and ended up staying home on Wednesday because I felt completely drained.

I tend to be anxious about things in general and so I've spent a good chunk of the week doing my best to eat very carefully, drink very carefully, just do all the things very carefully because I don't want to end up with dry socket! Thankfully things feel mostly good as of today and I'm hoping I can put this in the rearview. 

And if you're wondering about the picture - they recommend after your extraction to bite down on a black tea bag because the tannins in black tea aid in clotting. So I sat on my deck, chomped down on a tea bag on Tuesday afternoon... as you do. 

Two. Banana Hammock - Raise your hand if you watched Friends when you were growing up... I mean; I didn't actually watch it until I was a young adult but that's still part of growing up. I discovered that one of the multitude of face masks I now own (who'd have thought...) could serve more than one purpose....

I used my little gray plaid mask to carry my banana into the office on Thursday and I couldn't resist wondering (via Instagram) if this was actually a literal banana hammock. I know - I'm weird. :)

Three. Sun Worshipping - I know... I know... soaking up the sun isn't the best thing for anyone but you know what? 

Watson looks pretty darn cute when he stretches himself out in the sunshine! 

Four. Autumn Colors - Well. I confess that I stumbled onto this top from Ann Taylor this morning and when I saw that it was not only on sale but I could also get an additional 15% off the sale price... they had me hooked! Isn't this the most perfect Autumn color?

The color is actually called Mountain Trail and I certainly do love taking a hike down those! I can already see it with some jeans, my brown booties and a cute scarf or chunky necklace to showcase the puffs on the sleeves! Yay for Autumn colors!

Five. A Trifle & Some Plans - It's almost the weekend and I can't wait! I don't have any plans in place for this evening but if the headache that I have been dealing with all day keeps on lingering... then I'm not too bothered by that! Tomorrow morning I'm going to see my sweet friend Melissa and she's going to cut my hair! I can't wait to get my hair freshened up and I always love catching up with Melissa!

Saturday afternoon I'm heading to a nearby farm to do some very Fall things: pick some pumpkins, perhaps ride a hay ride and attempt to navigate a corn maze! It should all be just delightful! And Sunday after church and some down time, some friends are coming over for dinner and I'm going to attempt to make the Caramel Apple Trifle picture above... only time will tell if mine will look as good!

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That's all I've got for this final Friday in the month of September! I cannot believe we are already facing down the last weekend before the final three months of this year!

Watson Wednesday

Such a funny little pup! He’s always a fan of people food & especially loves his green beans! 

A Lovely Fall Weekend

Happy Monday - all my pictures are huge today! *sigh* Blogger has swapped over to a completely new format and apparently part of that format is that I can try to change the size of the pictures but they don't actually change. *face palm* So we move on and just have rather large pictures today... maybe forever now... Who knows?

The whole weekend was like the most perfect Autumn weekend - the skies were the perfect shade of blue and the temperature hovered around 65-70 degrees. It was absolutely divine! When I got off work on Friday I went home, watered plants in the backyard (see my supervisor watching above) and just enjoyed sitting on the deck in the perfect weather! I placed a Panera Curbside Pick Up order - which went somewhat awry but in the end, I got my soup(s) and all was mostly well.

I spent a chunk of my Friday night just being relaxed and lazy - I discovered the show The Home Edit on Netflix earlier last week and so I've been watching those episodes and marveling at the level of organizational skills these women have! I finally got around to watching Mulan on Disney+ on Friday night and I am just so very sad that it didn't get it's moment in the theater! The movie is great; the scenery and colors are so very beautiful and the story is wonderfully touching - I thoroughly enjoyed it - I just wish it could have gotten it's moment at the movies!

Watson (as you can see) was 100% not interested in watching Mulan - but that's fine, he took a really good pre-bed nap! Saturday dawned with not a cloud in the sky and my breath swirling in the air ahead of me when I took the pup out for his first walk! After coffee and breakfast I changed into work out clothes and Watson and I set off into the wilderness for just a bit, making our way along one of the trails in our neighborhood!

I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon doing things around the house and trying to spend as much time as possible outside in the divine weather! I had my lunch outside and even did my nails out on the deck before changing and heading to the Alamo Drafthouse to see Tenet - which was a good movie but also a very confusing movie, ha-ha! I have so enjoyed being able to go to the theater again - I don't even mind wearing a mask for the duration of the movie as it seems a small price to pay to do something that harkens back to "normal" life.

After the movie I made myself dinner, watched some episodes of Criminal: United Kingdom on Netflix and even somehow convinced my dog that he wanted to sit under a blanket... a blanket fort if you will! He only stayed under it for a minute but it was long enough to snap a seriously cute picture! 

Sunday was another perfect day - in so far as the weather was concerned. The day was quite good as well! Coffee and church and lunch at Mission BBQ and then home to spend a huge chunk of the afternoon sitting out on the deck in the sunshine - seriously, the weather was absolutely perfect! Around 3:30 it was off to the Blue Ridge Wildlife Center for a little tour - which was incredibly cool!

The Blue Ridge Wildlife Center takes in animals that have been injured with the goal of rehabilitating them and returning them into the wild to live a long and happy life. Unfortunately some of the animals they receive are not able to be returned to the wild and so they live at the Center as wildlife ambassadors. The tour we attended was called the Wilderness Walk and we were able to view all the animals that are currently wildlife ambassadors, learn about what brought them to the center and how they were helped.

The tour is 100% free - you just have to go online and get tickets for a set time. However they do request you make a donation. The animals were just so cool to see - and they all had such perfect names! Starting with my first picture: Goose the Peregrine Falcon, Jefferson the Bald Eagle, Ripea the Squirrel and Nigel the Possum! Most of the larger birds kept at the Wildlife Center were hit my cars and cannot fly/hunt for food anymore and that is why they are being kept at the Center.

Some of the other animals - like Nigel the Possum and Ripea the Squirrel just have developmental delays like not being able to hunt for food or assimilate with members of their own species and so they would not survive in the wild. The tiny screech owl pictured above is named Dopey and he just had a myriad of problems that meant he'd never make it out in the big wide world - one of them being that he literally tries to eat anything he can fit in his mouth! *face palm* Briar the Red-Tailed Hawk was also hit by a car - and lost 85% of her vision.

My favorite little creature at the center was Snow - an Arctic Fox that was being kept illegally as a pet. Since exotic pets are illegal in Virginia, she was surrendered but because she'd been raised as a pet, she could not fend for herself in the wild! She was the most beautiful little creature and she was in between her Summer coat that is gray and her Winter white coat, that will come in completely by early November! As we left, we got to follow behind little Dopey as he went inside for the evening! Such a cool experience all around!

The rest of the weekend was spent grabbing some groceries, having some cereal for dinner, taking my Sunday night bubble bath and then I started watching His Dark Materials on HBO. I leave you with a snap of me, sipping coffee out of my new Halloween mug! Happy Monday everyone!