Sunday, 28 April 2019
Lookee there: warm enough for a sleeveless top! Got up to 82°F on the porch, combo of solar gain and wood stove….
Lookee there: sandhill in the orchard!
Lookee there: high, high, high water! Bad for the shoreline!
Lookee there: “I wanna crawl!” “And doncha love my hat!”
Saturday, 27 April 2019
All my luck: I find the Best Category, and, gee, it’s empty. No “husband funny birthday” cards for me to choose from!
And over in reality-land, rotten snowbanks survive along the margins of the frog-pond in a ghost-town that has a gas-convenience store where we get a copy of the weekly newspaper and important odds-and-ends (but no Dunkers on this day).
We are safe and warm in our northern outpost, all systems online—yay! And the rodent body count/evidence—almost zero! Yay!
Friday, 26 April 2019
That is, watching the light. Not watching a mediocre TV comedy.
Later, the skies cleared, and I found the light on Frida. Who is sitting on a special fly-tying table. With a gorgeous walnut top. On the table.
Finally: night light. Really: dusk light. Later we drove into the night. Long day as I awoke at 4:38am (canna tell?). Yawn. G’night.
Thursday, 25 April 2019
Today was one of those days I was busy, but at the same time didn’t feel I was getting things done. Now, I look back, and hmm, I did get things done!
Wednesday, 24 April 2019
Having already demonstrated that The Foot is a functional gardening appendage, I did more, mostly removing unpruned azaleas. Also got soil amendment mixed in around the quince and lavender, here with added basil plants—both regular Genovese and Thai. Watered everything in, and hope all will settle in and produce!
Hit 83°F yesterday, and only a mere 82°F today. Yup, AC is on upstairs in self-defense (skylight accelerates the solar gain!), although night will be cool-ish.
Tuesday, 23 April 2019
Let’s mix it up and begin with today’s flower: rosa blanca. And her rosa-blanca friends.
I believe this sign. I do not believe this tree. Looks darned deceased to me. Too bad.
Last week up the way there was sub-surface utility fixing going on. Interesting that they ran out of metal road plates; the one on the left is a double layer of plywood with a rope loop to control it.
Today, the subsurface work extended across the median—more plywood. And the clever fixit crews’ machinery effectively blocked the route of the garbage trucks, so our street remains lined with unemptied herbie-kerbies. Somehow the recycling truck made it through—I suspect running earlier than the garbage-vehicle. [I predict the tree on the left dies within a decade. Unfortunately.]
Oh, my, don’t we live in an ongoing play!
* This refers to a sign we saw in NC the other day at a roadside firewood place. Write your own play reflecting the phrase. Extra points for using “political economy” in the dialogue.
Monday, 22 April 2019
Valley view. Alternatively: split-rail fence view.
Barn view.
Root view. Note high water draining away after that storm that ended two days ago here.
Long view. And smokey-like. And bluish.
Sunday, 21 April 2019
Lily posing on Easter. On our dinner table.
We got outta town and drove into the mountains…where spring is a couple of weeks behind ATL.
And major rain over the last three days made rushing streams and puddles to reflect the blue sky.
The azaleas and dogwoods are in their prime here. Thank you latitude and longitude magic.
Assertive infrastructure above.
Saturday, 20 April 2019
Left arrow is difficult for even me to decode, but it’s pointing at our slightly leggy ornamental quince, newly moved to this location (before the rain rain rain storm). Still needs top-dressing. And into the quince’s old spot: a large hemispherical lavender, transplanted from a kindly neighbor’s yard (too much shade).
Right arrow is pointing at soggy-but-still-with-blooms pink-white azalea.
In the first ¶, note the verb “moved.” How did the plant get moved? In short, there was digging and wrestling and two people. Note the verb “digging.” Yes, the first digging since the Foot Thing happened. Felt good, no pain, no strangeness; just strength. Yay! (I was super apprehensive before this….)
Friday, 19 April 2019
Sometime after midnight the rain started. I figure it rained, sometimes a lot until well after dawn (obscured by rain clouds), then off and on through the morning. This bucket was empty when it got dark last night. I tried a keep-the-phone-safe photo, attempting to use my feet for scale. Hrrumph. Not a big success. So, I headed off on my walk.
When I returned, I got serious about science and measurement. That’s an honest measurement—almost six inches of rain accumulated in this bucket since last night. That’s a darned lot of rain. Glad we live closer to the hilltop than any valley drainage.
Okay. Flowers from our traffic island. I don’t thank my neighbors who care for this area enough. Or help them…I COULD do that.