5 things that made me happy this week:

1. no matter how bleak the day, this little guy is out there gettin' it done (he lives out back behind the barn)


2. the gall of him to smile at me!
(could be an elf's jack-o-lantern?)


3. being reminded of Grandma's artwork


4. squash car holiday decoration
(look where you're going Mr. Pilgrim, you're running into a wall!)


5. discovering this part of my mom's legacy intact: this "Friday Free Lunch" program was one of the last things she initiated at her church in Waterloo before she retired 3 years ago

it's YouTube Friday

Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies from Disney's Fantasia (1940)


Dance of the Mushrooms


Tchaikovsky's Walt of the Flowers

5 moments that made me happy this week

there were many more of course, but here's a re-cap of a few:

September sunrise

in my sister's yard

it's hot indoors

this photo was an accident (and it shows how messy our house is!) - but I like it because bananas appear in the upper corner:

Cookie keeping cool by laying on the narrow arm-rest:

me standing in our guest room - this isn't usually Kim's fashion diary, but I liked my outfit today and wanted to record it :)
(I don't usually stand pigeon-toed either - it's not easy taking a picture of yourself!)

the best part is my necklace, which our friend Tom made for me a few years ago - featuring a miniature CoCo Joe fertility goddess tiki! (on the bottom it reads "Made with Lava / CoCo Joe Hawaii")

this little painting by my grandmother was in my bedroom all through childhood, so I became well familiar with what a Scarlet Tanager looked like - but only saw one in real life for the first time last week! (this painting hangs in the guest room now, which has a bird theme)

meanwhile, back outdoors the alium have new friends: hosta bells

what an interesting basket:

scans from this beautiful old catalog that belonged to my Grandma Torpey -
I can imagine her enjoying tracing the curves on the "C" with a pencil:

berry picking season

my Grandma & Grandpa Torpey picking raspberries from their garden in 1988 - Grandpa used to love peanuts sprinkled on his ice cream (and look how cool he is with his aviator-style sunglasses :)