Garden Time

I've lost track of how many days I've been hanging out back here. 8 maybe?

I've filled 9 - 33 gallon bags in total ( I think)

Thank goodness tomorrow is extra pick up garbage day. 

I have no room in garage as it is filled with totes

 and boxes full of purged items for garage sale.

Hannah and maybe? others coming in early May to help.

Last sale was 2019! 

I've been sidetracked with painting and garden and need to get back to it. 

I'm hoping to at least purge 25% more of what I've already done.

Gotta set those goals.

Tomorrow I install another fountain with new pump,

(old one gave me a good shock yesterday!)

and finish planting a few veggies.

Not doing many this year.

They weren't huge success last year.

Pain patches on knees- Aleve - 

lots of breaks are helping.

I've noticed a huge difference in my abilities,

just since last year. Not sure I'm aging at 

the equivalent of only 1 year at a time;

sure doesn't feel like it some days.

Gotta love this weather - for now

the dark days are a comin'

Z

 

Mellow Yellow

 My banks roses never fail to show off each April.

I would love to show you lovely curated photos, but honestly 

the yard is a mess and I'm just beginning to clean it all up.

The winds wreak havoc on my breathing,

 and we have had WINDS!!

The weed disposal comes first and I've been hard at it.

This is just one walkway area ( four more like this but longer)  

This took three hours - as I have to sit and scoot and pull by hand.

I won't spray as the yard is Walter's playground,

and can't kneel or stand to do it.  

All the greenery that edges the back yard remains to be trimmed,

and I've started some faux ivy panels in that right back corner.

it can be seen from inside on the porch and I hate the concrete blocks.

Thirty years ago when I bought the house I couldn't afford to stucco. 

Now because of the plants it would be much worse.

 I hope to at least paint that side area sometime in the future.

The chores never end, and aging is not kind 

when it comes to doing them,

 but I'm in there slugging just the same.

I think another week of 3-5 hour days should do it..

and then...

a garage sale as DD comes to town to help. WOOT!

I've been showing items to my email list 

and have sold about a dozen large things so far,

even shipping off some things today to a far flung,

never met, blog friend. 

Z

Heads Down Butts Up Crazy

Went to sleep with him on my hip,

woke up to this.

Heads down butts up crazy these days.

Fascinated by this plant a balloon flower.

It bursts open to reveal a lovely purple beauty.

I wish I could "catch it" during the bursting part.

Got all the tomatoes planted, some in here

some in the old rose garden area.

Need to hook up the drip system once I get more 

veggies in there.

 My fig tree is looking good.

The birds did not get at the figs yet.

Fingers crossed

Whatever is in the pantry pasta -

 I didn't have enough of any one thing so I just

threw together whatever. 

Very good lemon pepper pasta made with my

own lemons and my own basil.

My son is such a  great cook,

every night a great concoction.

Last night moco loco.

Oh, how I wish I lived closer.

Ben and Helene adopting a new pup.

Our next gathering will now

 be 5 adults and 4 dogs. Yikes!

I pray little Walter will adapt as he 

is not dog socialized, or people

 either for that matter.

He gets window time each day to accept 

humans and canines walking by

without going nuts.

We're working on it.

He still likes to "perch" on my shoulder.

It was adorable when he weighed 6 lbs.

He climbs up my left front  

onto my shoulders and then curves around

onto the right shoulder. When he was small he would 

hang out there; he no longer fits.

Now he has to balance there, and then 

 he reaches around so he can kiss my face

 before falling off the right side

( nice roots eh?)

Bad pup parenting but I don't care.

It make us both happy and during

 these insane times with 

insane and ignorant humans,

Walter and I will be keeping our

heads down butts up,

away from all of it.

Stay safe

Z

A Whole Bunch Of Stuff

Huge surprise for Mothers Day,

thanks to Ben and Helene.

A new tv with Roku and lots of bells 

and whistles. It took some doing on my 

part to get it installed along with 

the sound bar I already had, but I DID IT!

I  know many of you have mega tvs

 but to me this is mega and just fits.

Old tv ( I think Hannah was in HS when I bought)

was so heavy- that may have been hardest part.

It has only made it to the garage so far.

I also got an enormous dinner, a favorite,  

via cheesecake factory

 from Hannah which lasted

 me three meals and 

included the most 

amazing brussel sprout appetizer.

Over the next couple days I got more goodies

in the mail.

I've got great kids.

Walter had his first bath yesterday.

At first I thought it was going to be big trouble,

but he settled down fairly quickly.

He's now fluffy and clean.

He needed a bath because he has been 

helping me get a vegetable garden going.

I am starting so late but there 

are things I can do now and then ramp up 

in the fall.

I found a great raised DIY planter on sale.

A whole passel of screws but easy to do.

It even came with the black liner.

So today Walter and I spent hours getting it ready and 

planting some tomatoes I ordered on line

in an unused area of the yard. 

Bought this paint by number painting to keep 

me distracted and I got a nice supply of books 

from blogger friend Jane- you all know her

as Blondie.  Thank you Jane!

I really, really miss the library

 and she was so kind to send me some 

of hers to read. During the sale in Oct, I 

donated 400 to my library

 fearing a move was imminent. hmmm?

 A Place To Call Home has ended,

I'm caught up on Dead To Me and Maisel.

Binged The Ranch on Netflix

Not highbrow by any means, but I liked it.

Sunday night is now my tv night

Call the Midwife

Killing Eve

Run

and now I'm watching on a cool modern tv.

Baked some oatmeal cookies last night.

Oh yeah,  he's a runner and a thief.

Stay safe, stay home as much as possible

and stay well.

Z

Between A Rock And A Hard Place

Some of you saw Walter and his rock on

Instagram. It continues to be a source of great

pleasure or frustration, I'm not sure which

 as he whines while he rolls it.

( much clearer on IG click over on the right)

In between the rock is the hard place;

one that we are all too familiar with.

I am trying my best to keep busy

and productive but damn it's hard.

I'm nearly at 100 days of this.

It's now pushing 100 degrees here most days,

so gardening of any kind is limited to 

early morning hours if at all.

I'm keeping most pots on the porch,

so I don't have to wander the yard to water.

My head is not in the right place to 

be creative at the moment,

though I wish it were.

The studio beckons, but I sit and think 

up there creating zilch, while

Walter whines at the blocked off stairway.

I've cleaned, I've tidied, I've rearranged

a little, only to find 

it is needed again even with little activity,

so why bother?

Food delivery has hit a hiccup, 

our government is a disgrace and dangerous,

and I worry a lot about friends and acquaintances who

take none of this too seriously.

"I told you so" with tragic consequences.

Hmmmm

Not such a perky post,

but I'm guessing you've all been there.

Tomorrow is a new day.

Exactly the same as the day before except

the garbage will be collected.

My witty and goofy Tom and Hannah

entertain themselves with Friday Frownies

you can find here and here.

If you go to either of their profiles

and click on frowny or friday frowny

you can share in the goofy.

Last Saturday was the planned, now postponed,

wedding date for my son Ben and his love Helene.

Many of us sent food, plants, flowers

and happy thoughts.

They are handling the disappointment 

with grace. 

I say my prayers of gratitude

at the start and end of each day.

My kids and family are safe and healthy;

many folks around the world cannot say that,

so it's hard, but it's doable for however 

long it takes.

Our grandparents and their families,

were separated for years during the wars.

Immigrants today are kept away from family

for years. War torn countries today do not know if

their loved ones are alive.

We can certainly handle this without

tearing the country apart can't we?

Those who try to continue the divisiveness, 

should not be allowed to remain in power, 

be able to corrupt our judicial system, or

allowed to curtail our right to vote their asses out. 

Z

When Life Gives You Lemons

Only one tree producing

and I've neglected it.

It forgives me.

Look at Mega Lemon!

A Little Birdie

Opened my porch door to the back yard

for awhile  and look who stopped by. 

He sat in various spots 

checking everything out

and then perched on the side of the window

wistfully looking out.

I Couldn't Resist

Well, plants anyway

I will ALWAYS RESIST #45

The porch is full. I have to stop.

I want to be able to reach them to water 

without donning a portable tank.

I also moved one of the weather vanes over 

to a new location. Hopefully it will

stop falling over in this new spot, as I 

sunk it into the ground.

Hope everyone had a Happy Easter

Very sad day for others around the world.

Let's not forget them.

How Does My Garden Grow

My neighbors vine is crawling over the wall

to join my garden. All visitors welcome.

I'm not going to have flowers

 all over the garden this year.

I'm trying to reduce the work load and stress.

I planted herbs that I use frequently

Italian parsley, cilantro, basil, and thyme

on the small covered patio just 

outside the kitchen window.

I can keep an eye on them this way,

and I finally picked up a moisture meter, so 

hopefully less plant demise this year. duh

Why did I wait so long?

I am up and about though still tethered to O2

I do everything at half my usual speed, make

that 25% of my normal speed. 

It is beautiful weather and I'm 

better than I was two months ago so 

yippee skippee

Gardens are healing places.

I am thankful for every day.

Happy Easter to you all.

Z

Hot and Happy Independance

Nature's Fireworks

Clean and Simple Pinkcredible

My windows desperately needed to be cleaned.

I removed all the screens, scrubbed them off

 and started on the glass.

I did one at a time, sat and rested, did another - repeat.

This is shot through the super clean glass!

Seriously clean

Friends will tell you I find good terrific products.

I like this one a lot. Not cheap, but you use very little

 and whoosh - clean.

Bonus- It smells like almonds

HSN

I decided to store the screens until fall

as I will not open these windows

 all summer during 100 plus heat!

Now that I have all the empty space

in the garage, I can easily do that.

The view is nicer and greener,

clean and simple.

Pretty - It Ain't Pretty

My pineapple guava in bloom for the first time 

after it's planting last Spring.

My bay laurel tree ( where bay leaves come from)

Peeking in from the right

Pretty

*******************

Ain't Pretty

*******************

Organized chaos 

Tomorrow we set up for preview

to invited guests

with the sale then on Saturday.

Of course the heat has arrived and the wind -

Of course!

This is only about 1/2 of the sale stuff

Furniture and two racks of clothing not pictured.

Not all mine - 2 gals joining in and now I hear

the kids are bringing sale stuff in their cars lol

Long day Friday, 

but we'll get 'er done.

Kids will be here by late tonight.

We hit the ground running early in the morning.

I have promised myself that no matter what,

anything of mine left over is to be donated.

Period

Even if I have to go inside while the kids fill the SUV 

so I cannot see what is going. Even if it takes several trips.

I am in love with empty drawers and closets,

the clean spaces under the beds, and shelf after shelf 

empty in the garage.

I am getting an inkling that this may cause

a rebirth of creativity for me as I feel that

finally all the flotsam and jetsam is gone.

I have been dreaming of paint and canvas 

and quilting. Yes! After all this time.

Whew!

Breath of fresh air,

and lord knows I need air.

A Goldfish Out Of Water

While it is still difficult for me 

to work very long out in the yard,

I was able to tidy up the covered porch

 a bit yesterday morning.

It felt sooooo good 

to be outside and have my 

hands in the dirt and catching the scents

of cilantro, basil and mint.

Normally I wander Star Nursery for hours, 

but yesterday I managed a productive 30 minutes

 and came home after adopting two of these.

They call it a Goldfish plant

I stood there in the store,

staring at the delicate bloom

and 

thought

that's me

a fish out of water

Hard Work Rewards

The kiddo's apartment interior is adorable but I think my 

girl chose this place because of 

this outdoor space by her back kitchen door. 

No one else in the house walks or uses 

this area so they decided to take on the project 

and make an extended living area for themselves.

My girl had a vision, like her mama does.

The apple landed on her head not just close to the tree.

This is how it looked when I went down 

a couple weeks ago. They had moved in about a month prior.

My car was filled with vintage ladders, pots, rakes, 

soil, shovels and a blower. It was to be a working trip.

Those two dug and leveled and cleaned 

and worked their A's off. I washed walls, cleared ivy, planted

and reorganized all the cupboards inside.

I got permission first, I didn't just commando re-do.

I split the paver cost with them but the rest 

they did on a very modest budget.

My girl dragged the table home after

finding it on the street. The chairs Ben 

discovered for them at 13.00 each.

I provided an umbrella stand that I had extra 

from home, and Hannah just snagged the umbrella

on July 4th clearance.

They still have that small section to

 finish with turf in front of the fence. 

There are industrial edison bulb lights,

(extras from mom) and they plan to hang pots

 and more lights from the clothesline posts.

 (there are two, I cropped one out)

They sent me this yesterday as they 

completed the turf on the 

right side. Dirty knees and hands 

and so pleased with themselves.

Just out of site is an enormous tree,

providing all this pretty dappled light.

In early afternoon I would sit out there

and watch the many squirrels leaping through

the branches and pelting me with debris.

I loved it, but my son thought I was crazy to be so

happy to see squirrels. I grew up with squirrels

and found them frustrating as they ravaged my feeders in PA;

but after 30 plus years in the desert,

 I am enamored of their antics.

One last look.

Yay Tom and Hannah!