I'm Covered In Bees

And that does not mean what you might think.

Not this.

Nor this.

No, being covered in bees means being too busy.

It means having 3 months' worth of stuff to do, and 11 days to do it.

I'm beginning to realize that being covered in bees

just might be my natural state.

Kinda scary, that.

(More on the bees at the end of the post.)

I can be a self-starter, when I have a good reason to start myself.

My favorite reason is . . . a party.

On Saturday, June 30th, we're having a party to celebrate our daughter Anne's grad school graduation.

I've got a To-Do List -- but you knew that, didn't you? -- and some of it is actually getting To-Done.

Some small changes.  The convex mirror over the fireplace . . . 

is replaced for the summer by a watery-cool watercolor, painted decades ago by my cousin Bill.

It's leaning on the mantel.  It was too big to hang from the mirror hook!

Wacky picture of the day -- one of the front windows,
reflected in the mirror that's temporarily resting on a chair, awaiting its summer job.

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Outside, Howard and Anne yanked most of the mint out of the patio
border this weekend, where it had gone all Organized Crime on us
and muscled in on every other plant's turf.

Below -- Mint strangling poppies.  A mob hit for sure.

Now, most of the mint has been rubbed out
(it's how we do it in Jersey -- we take no prisoners) and is

wearing tiny cement overshoes, waiting to be dumped into the
Hudson River to swim with the fishes.

Or, to get picked up at the curb in tidy brown paper bags
destined for the municipal compost heap.

We also took out a massive load of overgrown ivy.
There is still plenty of that, if anyone is interested.  Free Ivy!  Get your Free Ivy here!

That's the top of a tomato plant at the bottom of that snapshot, above.  We are watching
our baby tomatoes grow, and hoping the chipmunks and groundhogs won't get to them first.

But, yeah, we know they will.

We have a married pair of groundhogs -- or woodchucks -- burrowing merrily all over our yard.
They have made enormous holes behind the stone retaining walls.
If those old walls collapse because of those danged groundhogs, I am suing them.
Or, finding tiny cement overshoes that will fit their creepy little feet.


Daughter Alida's mother-in-law Billie told me that putting fresh dog poo down the burrows will scare
the groundhogs away.  Finally!  All Dion's efforts at abstract lawn sculpture will not be in vain.


Now, about being covered in bees . . . 
this was part of the parlance that Anne and her grad school
classmates used to describe being too busy and stressed,
which pretty much defines graduate school, or so I hear.
There are levels of bee-dom.
Covered in Bumble Bees is: normal grad school stress.
Covered in Yellow Jackets is: I have a big project due ... tomorrow.
Covered in Africanized Killer Bees is: finals!


Anne wants to make sure I credit comedian Eddie Izzard with originating the phrase
Covered In Bees, even though his use of it has nothing to do with stress.
But ain't it a handy little phrase?


Visit some other bloggers who are posting this Monday.
At Little Red House, it's Mosaic Monday.  Click here!
At Between Naps On The Porch ... What else?  Metamorphosis Monday.  Click here!

Dinner In The Library At That Old House

Only . . . Dinner is not in the Library because A) we don't have a Library, and B) I could call our Study a "Library," but there still wouldn't be a table in it.

So what we have is our Dining Room pinch-hitting for a Library. If I were going to set a table for two in a library, it might look like this. . . .


I'm joining in Tablescape Thursday, at Susan's Between Naps On The Porch blog, and also hooking up with Tales from Bloggeritaville, for Leigh's Thrifty Thursday party! Just click on the highlighted words, or on the icons at the bottom of the post, to flit on over to these great, fun blog parties.

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Yesterday I moseyed on down to my daughter Anne's college, where she is in graduate school. She wrapped up her day at 5pm, and we headed off to Goodwill; Anne needed to shop for some pieces for a play she is costuming.

On the way we stopped at Dollar Tree. Need I say more?

Here, tucked at the end of our dining room table
(so you can't see the dishes waiting to be put away at the other end -- reality check!)
is a Tablescape for Two.
(Another reality check; that poor ivy plant is half dead. Ivy doesn't thrive indoors.)

We can dine by candlelight, although that

makes it hard to read the books in the library. :-)

What's in it? I popped the pieces into a mosaic.

And they are . . .
**Dollar Tree dishes; they were in the Christmas aisle, but they don't look particularly Christmas-y to me.
**Dollar tree tea light holders; I have seen these on other blogs, and I am such a copy-cat.
**The white porcelain "parakeet" I featured yesterday, a Giveaway win. Here.
**A couple of boxes that look like books.
**Dollar Tree placemats and napkin rings; I love the khaki and red together.
**T.J. Maxx bowls.
**Home Goods napkins.
**Crystal Pilseners -- can't remember where we got them, but they pre-date my dedictated thrifting days, so they may have come from (gasp!) a regular retail store.
**And my trusty century-old Georgian pattern silverplate, from Ebay.

Oh! Almost forgot. That candleholder, the one that looks like mercury glass with
a twisted glass stem? $2 at Goodwill. There were two for sale.

Ask me why I didn't take the second, and I can't give you a good answer.

That's it!

I know I didn't need those red and white plates, but aren't they adorable? -- Cass

P.S. I am taking a week off from blogging; see you October 3rd unless I can squeeze in a quick post now and then. Play nice while I am gone! ;-)