Amy Currioman

This morning when I left the house I noticed the air was heavily scented with a sweet scent.  I looked around trying to figure out where the sweetness was coming from.  The only thing that I could see in bloom was the honeysuckle that has overtaken the fence that lines the property boundary line between us and our neighbor.  I never realized that honeysuckle had such a sweet scent that could be sensed from so far away!

I remember as a child my Dad showed me how to pull apart a honeysuckle so I could lick the drop of nectar from it.  I used to enjoy doing that a lot as a kid.  I haven’t done that this year yet, but I did do it last year when I was showing my own kids how to do it.  I was disappointed by their lack of enthusiasm for what I was showing them!  Oh well, maybe when I have grandchildren they will enjoy doing it with me!

My horoscope said nothing about how great today was going to be. First, I went to Starbucks and they gave me a free chocolate cherry mocha coffee. They had made one for someone else who decided they didn’t want it and the barrista didn’t want to throw it away, so she asked me if i would like it. Heck, yes!

Then I went to Home Depot to get a couple of rakes for my overdue yard work and went to the self checkout. The rakes both had the bar codes on them, but the second one would not scan. the checkout display said to wait for assistance. I waited and waited and even with 4 idle workers milling about, no one came to help me. So I got a little ticked off and loudly asked “Where’s my assistance?” the clerk came and tried to scan the rake, but it didn’t work. So he went somewhere else and left me standing there along with a growing line of other impatient customers. When he came back he tried to scan it one more time. It still didn’t work. He leaned toward me and said softly, “I’m not going to charge you for this rake. It’s not your fault the scan won’t work and I’m sorry you’ve had to wait so long.” He smiled and handed me the rake – another freebie!

Here it is, only mid-October, and the weatherman says it might actually snow tonight! I have to admit that it certainly does FEEL like it will snow – it isn’t just cold, there is a certain smell and feel to the air that I have come to learn is the feel of approaching snow. But here in this southern state, snow this early in the season is just abnormal!

The weatherman says that it will only be a few flakes if it happens at all, so chances are that I’ll sleep through the whole thing and by the time I wake up in the morning it will have melted. Just as well; I’m in no hurry to see snow!

I’ve been interested for a while now in making my own designer candles.  I’d like to buy some pretty bulk jars and fill them with a lightly scented soy wax.  Then after the wax has solidified I think I’d like to paint the jars.  The biggest reason that I think I’d like to do this is because I have heard so much about how cheap wax is bad for your health and also leaves a lot of soot on the furnishings of the house they are burnt in.  I’ve heard that soy wax burns clean and doesn’t have any negative health side effects.  I’ve always liked candles; I think they are very pretty. 

I tend to avoid burning them, though for a couple of reasons.  One reason is that a lot of candles make a mess with their wax dripping all over the place.  Another reason is that some candles just burn down the middle of the candle and then seem to drown themselves in a puddle of melted wax.  And still another is that a lot of the scented candles make my nose run and eyes water and give me a headache!  Not knowing exactly what is in the candles makes me suspect that if I made my own I could control all of that.

My hubby and I enjoy watching the beautiful white tailed deer that come into our yard every day.  They are so graceful, and so gentle looking.  They remind me of the Bambi movie.  I have to laugh when I go onto Youtube and see videos of deer attacking hunters!  The deer can put up a fight when they are cornered!  Anyway, the deer have been munching on our hostas and spireas.  This has upset my hubby quite a bit!  I was talking about that to one of my new Red Hatter friends and she told me that she was told many years ago that planting marigolds in your garden will repel deer.  She said she has done it ever since and hasn’t had a problem with them since!  I’ll have to tell my hubby to go buy some marigolds!