Mid-September Ruminations & Cogitations

I have been busy, as you can well imagine, and my attentions have been scattered like buckshot. But like the little hummingbird above, things are looking up here at Grey Havens cottage!

I know that many of you have been waiting to hear how Mr. Jim is doing. So here’s the scoop! The pancreatic surgeon removed the cancer lesions and dozens (and dozens) of lymph nodes. True to his nature, Mr. Jim has been a total champ on his recuperation from pancreatic surgery and the surgical team has been amazed at his healing progress. He was going to get out of the hospital on Monday, but a delay in scheduling a test caused him to get released on Tuesday instead.

Despite the removal of portions of his digestion system and reattachments, he began eating solid food three days after the surgery. Because his appetite and plumbing have been working so well, supplemental nutrition through a feeding tube hasn’t been required since this past Sunday. He also went home without a drain tube. We’ll be conferring with the surgeon on Monday to plan out a treatment protocol based on the pathology report. Look for more news later.

We greatly appreciate all of the prayers, e-mails, and cards from our friends! The good wishes by so many caring and thoughtful folks have certainly lifted our spirits. Mr. Jim is glad to be back home and resting without the noise and restrictions of a hospital environment. He’s been amazingly active, and I have to admonish him to rest more. I’m getting some rest too.

I jumped the gun on the calendar a tad and hung a decorative fall wreath above our front door yesterday. I’m going to blame it on the cooler weather! Our little Stickley table in the front hall also received attention. It is now adorned with an antique cut-glass bowl filled with handmade fabric acorns and leaves. An adorable hooked rug with a fall theme decorates the pantry door in the kitchen. If Mr. Jim is feeling well enough for little jaunt over to a nearby town, we’ll go to a greenhouse tomorrow and buy some colorful mums for the front porch. And that will be the extent of my fall decorating here at the cottage!

Once activities settle down here in the next few weeks, I plan to go through some training for using Adobe’s Lightroom 5. The program has being provided as part of my subscription to Photoshop CC, and I downloaded it a couple of days ago. Learning digital photography software is a never-ending task for me!

I plan to soon post a response to a lot of thoughtful questions that dear Irene (Irene's desk) asked me a while back, right when my computer decide to crash. I haven’t forgotten, Miz Irene! And a thank you post will be forthcoming for sweet Judith (Lavender Cottage) who sent me a wonderful surprise gift package to cheer me.

Over on my other blog, A Personal Photo Challenge, there were a lot of enthusiastic photographers who took part in the “Windows and Doors” theme last weekend. Once it concluded, I announced the theme for the October 12th challenge. It’s “Food Photography!” I purposely scheduled it in advance of the holiday season because I know a lot of bloggers will be planning posts that showcase their favorite food creations and recipes. My announcement post includes a lot of helpful web sources that provide insight on how to produce professional looking food-related images. I hope you will put the October 12th date on your calendar and plan to join in on the challenge fun!

Porch-sitting weather has arrived here in east Tennessee, and we have been enjoying our rockers on the front porch and gliders on the back porch. Just in time, our view from the front of the cottage has improved immensely. The house construction across the street is almost completed! The installation of the landscaping and grass made a dramatic improvement. Photos are forthcoming.

My blog visiting has been greatly curtailed for the past couple of weeks. I appreciate your continued understanding about my lack of visiting. I’ll attempt to catch up before the calendar switches over to October!