In my own little corner...

Breakfast Blogging...

Woke up this morning to some strange, bright light outside. After 3 days of overcast & rain, including some overcast so dark the streetlights came on, it was odd to see normal daylight. And that strange yellow orb up in the light-blue sky -- is that what folks call the sun?

After doing my usual morning internet playing, I realized that breakfast time had come and gone, and the only ones who had been fed were the dogs (they fuss more than I do if they miss their mealtimes). So I'm just sitting down to my favorite part of Saturdays... a leisurely home-cooked breakfast.

Fresh coffee, 3 eggs scrambled up with fresh mushrooms (chopped) and colby-jack cheese, with some grits on the side. There was supposed to toast, as well, but it burned (stupid toaster). 

Just my little bit of paradise, on a mellow weekend day...

If April Showers Bring May Flowers...

...Then what do March showers bring?  We're on day 2 of 100% chance of precipitation, and my rain gauge says we've gotten almost five inches of rain in the last 24 hours.   I need to go out and empty it so I can measure what falls today.

Meantime, my septic field is saturated, my sump pump is pumping away every 5 minutes trying to keep the crawl space dry, and I have one dog who thinks he'll melt if he gets wet.  But at least I don't see critters lining up in twos, heading off to some giant cruise ship, so I guess it's all good.

After having a couple years of super-historic extremely nasty drought, I should be grateful for the rain. But GA has gotten more rain in the last 12 months than in the previous 48 combined. There comes a time when one just wants it to stop.

At least this time it's raining during the week, instead of on the weekend. By Sat, it's supposed to be only 30% chance.

Maybe it's time to fall back on another childhood memory...

Rain, rain, go away.
Come again some other day - preferably next week, when I won't be here to be inconvenienced by a saturated septic field.

Transition Day

Well, it's day 7 of my 7-day weekend, which means that tomorrow I have to be a functional, working adult again.

Not that I haven't been functional and working over the last few days, just not at things that earn a paycheck.  I usually take time off during this time-frame so that I can spend a long weekend at Jekyll Island attending Sandy Paws, a greyhound gathering that's held in early March every year. But this year, I'm spending the Sandy Paws money (and then some) replacing the 24yr old heating/cooling system on my house.  So I had the time off, but spent it mostly at home.

This was good, though. I'm fully rested and refreshed, instead of coming off vacation exhausted. And it's been a good week.

Last Wed night, I took Pippin with me and we spent the night in LaGrange, GA, about 20 miles from Callaway Gardens. On Thursday, which was a beautiful day, Pip & I wandered all around the gardens. I had hoped that taking him on some of the hiking trails would wear him out, like they did me, but he's way too young and energetic to be done in by mere hiking trails. LOL Although he was more relaxed in the car on the way home than he was on the way down there.

Friday was what I call a "zombie day." I spent it just hanging out in front of the computer, planning the rest of my time off, reading blogs/message boards/facebook, etc.  Saturday was for errand running, and on Sat morning, I wandered around my front yard measuring the distance between trees and plants and house and street so I can draw a reasonably accurate picture of my yard, to use for planning its future.

Sunday was day 1 of the great garage reorganization of 2010 project.   My goal was to get it to where I could have both the car and the riding mower easily accessible for summer. Last summer, I had so much stuff in the garage that the car stayed in the driveway so the mower would be accessible. Now they're both accessible, without either of them having to move so the other can get out. :)  That took care of one half of the garage - what I call the storage half.

Monday I spent all day honoring the memory of Lance M. Warren, an independent contractor who was killed in Afghanistan on Feb 26 of this year. His mother is a member of a friend's church in Jacksonville, FL, and he lived near Atlanta. My friend called and asked if I could go to his funeral in their place, and of course I said yes.  I'm glad I did. He was a much-loved man,  and not only was the church full for his funeral service, but about one hundred cars followed the hearse for the 90 minute drive to the national cemetery.   While I was there, I remembered my friend Joe, who passed away a few years ago, and said a prayer for his family as well.

Yesterday was day 2 of the great garage reorganization of 2010 project. There is now WAY more room on the side of the garage where I park the car.  There's even room to enter the garage through the human door instead of the big garage doors. But the human door will remain closed for a while longer, until I kill the wasp nests that have been made between the door and the screen door. Yuck.

And today, the last vacation day, I had planned to spend doing projects on the back porch, but it's raining, and 20 degrees cooler than yesterday, so I think it's a stay-inside day.  I've got some computer projects to finish,  and if I get too bored, I can always do some cleaning (yuck).

It's been a nice week off, and I could wish that I had enough vacation days to stretch it through the end of the week, but at the same time, it will be nice to get back to work tomorrow.

Feeling more like spring every day....

Weather Underground tells me it's already almost 50F, and we're expecting a high of at least 61F, so Spring is thinking about popping in for a visit. :)

I, in celebration of warmer weather, am spending the next couple days cleaning/sorting/organizing the garage. One half of it is dedicated to storage, and the boxes have been out there since I moved in here 2 1/2 years ago. So while it's warm but not hot, I'm going through them... reboxing things that need re-boxed, tossing things that have no value, maybe setting some aside for GoodWill, if I find anything that they might take.

Ultimate goal is that this summer, I want to be able to park both the car and the lawn mower in the garage, instead of having to choose one or the other.

Yesterday, I measured the distance between my trees and shrubs in the front yard, with the expectation that I'll create a scale plan of my yard to work from as I figure out what else to plant and where/when to plant it.

Valentine's weekend, 2010. My front yard on Saturday morning.

Three Weeks Later, and It's Still NOT Spring...

**grumble, grumble**

Although I must admit, it's been a fairly warm February, and that's been nice.  Then again, we did have that snowy weekend for Valentine's Day. That was nice, too. It snowed, it looked pretty, and it melted away, all within the space of 3 days.  Reason number 9834 that I live in the South.

And I must say that the lack of spring arriving hasn't really slowed me down any.  I pruned all the butterfly bushes, one warm weekend, and started tearing down the old plants that I let over-winter in order to ensure the critters would have food.   Will probably add the detritus to the brush piles.  Need to find some runner beans to plant around the brush piles. They are annuals, so I shouldn't have to worry about them getting out of control, grow quickly, and have pretty flowers during the summer.  Eventually, the brush piles will be covered with climbing roses, but it will take them some time to cover the piles, and I'd like to be nice to my neighbors, so I'm thinking runner beans.

I need to plant one more Buddleia, even though I said last year I had planted more than enough.  I have a pair, planted close together, that are in memory of two of my favorite greyhounds, Hunky & Jeany.   Problem is, those two were part of a trio, so I need one more to honor Profile.    Profee was a black/white greyhound, and Bluestone Perennials has a new-this-year variety called silver anniversary. It has silver foliage and white blooms, so I'm thinking I'll go with that one.

I have to keep reminding myself that I don't need to plant anything this year other than annuals and maybe some veggies.  I really need to give last year's plantings time to fill out before I do any more.  That said, I think I'll add Winterberry this year, and if I can find some Elderberry plants, they're DEFINITELY going in.   And I read somewhere that my Nyssa Sylvatica is dioecious, so I may have to get another of them. I'm going to double-check that with my local nursery.  Good thing is, Nyssa loves wet feet, and I think I have just the spot for it. Two plants drowned in that spot, last year. And we've still got lots of water in our ground.

I've got some vacation time coming up... I'm hoping it will be warm enough to do some outside work. I'm planning a trip to my "local" nursery during that time -- I have to *plan* such trips, because it's at least fifty miles from my house. But it's well worth the drive. They have a huge variety of native plants, and another huge store of knowledge. I'm hoping to sit down with them and talk about my yard, and my plans for my yard.

Meantime, I'm reading "Noah's Garden," and pondering how best to provide year-round food for the native fauna.   I'm also wondering how upset my neighbors would be if I tore up a strip of land that is currently nothing but leaves and planted clover for the honey bees instead of turf.

Sometimes I'm Just Blown Away

Every once in awhile, someone will do something nice for me and just totally take my breath away. It happened again yesterday. I don't have pictures yet, but will post a new thread with picture, once I do. I just couldn't wait to share this.

Dee (dog-sitter, adoption group prez, and good friend), asked me if I could come over yesterday and help her pick up some donations for the adoption group.  It would need a second pair of hands, she said. So mid-afternoon, I arrived at her house, ready to be that second pair of hands. We headed off in her van to a nearby subdivision, home of a lady who has adopted greyhounds from Dee in the past, and has donated items to Dee in the past. So no suspicions here.  We get inside, the lady heads down to her basement to get the items, and returns with just one thing in her hands. All I could see was the back of an artist's canvas. When she turned it around, I almost cried (in fact, my eyes are leaking just writing abut this). The woman is an artist, and Dee had given her my favorite picture of Angie (my first greyhound), and asked her to paint a portrait for me. Carol (artist) wanted me to see it before she sprayed the sealant on it, in case I wanted any changes made.

In the photo, Angie is resting on my old futon. In the painting, she's resting on clouds. Carol tried to give her a halo, but there wasn't room at the top of the canvas, so she's removing the halo for me before she seals it. That's why I won't have it until later this week.

Dee said she wanted to give me something special as a thank-you for all the help I've given her over the years. I can't think of anything more special than a hand-painted portrait of my heart-girl. Now I just have to find a place of honor for it (and an awesome frame).

Carol's website

Is it Spring Yet?

As I sit here wishing it were spring, I know that when spring finally arrives, I'll be complaining about the yellow pine pollen that gets absolutely everywhere. But today, that sounds like an acceptable trade-off. It's another chilly day in north Georgia... 35F and DAMP, coupled with gusty breezes to help dry up the 2.5 inches of rain we got in the last 36 hours.  We need those puddles dried up - we're expecting more rain next week.

A friend tells me that Georgia has gotten more rain in the last 12 months than we've gotten in the previous four years.   I'm sure we need it, but it's getting hard for the dogs to run around the back yard. They're not exactly swimming out there, yet, but there's definite splashing going on, especially as they hit the bottom of  the ramp that takes them from the back porch into the yard.  I need to spread some woodchips there.  I have the woodchips -- they were a gift from a friend who chips up his fallen branches. But every time I've had time to do yard work, it's been either rainy or frigid, or both.

I'm going to have to bite the bullet, though... waiting for mother nature to match my free time seems to be a losing proposition, and I'm getting spring fever in a big way.   If I don't start doing something soon, I'll lose myself (and my wallet) in the seed catalogs, and wind up with more stuff that I would ever have room for in my little piece of paradise.

So it's on with the sweatshirt and yard shoes, and out to the dampness, to spread the woodchips and prune the butterfly bushes.  I'll keep an eye out for the early-blooming crocuses (crocii?) while I'm out, and see if the hyacinths are getting brave enough to poke their heads above the soil yet.   If they are, I'll know that I'm that much closer to spring.

Meantime, I've got new books about wildlife gardening to curl up with while I wait for the weather to change, and the yellow pollen to arrive.  It is, after all, the TRUE harbinger of spring, regardless of any tales you may have heard regarding crocuses or forsythia.

Domesticity

Ahhh, Spring…. when a youngly middle-aged woman’s fancy turns to — what’s that? It’s not yet spring? Are you sure?

Well then, that explains the chill breeze that blows across my back yard, and the lack of green growth in my yard. Well, most green growth, anyway. Some of the weeds are still thriving. More importantly, the crocuses (crocii?) have bloomed. So spring is obviously on its way, even if the forsythia is still just foliage.

I must say, Jan/Feb are probably my least-favorite months — bitter cold, even here in the southeast, with spring still a distant promise. But March will be here before I know it, and it will be time to move the house plants outside, clear away the detritus of winter, and transplant the seedlings I’ve not even planted yet. Guess I’d better get some seeds and get them planted.

More on Joe

I was able to end my business trip early, and am flying home a day before originally scheduled, so that I can attend Joe’s funeral on Saturday. It took a little bit of googling to get the info, because I hadn’t been able to find his obituary online, and I didn’t want to disturb his family. After jumping through some internet hoops, I got a phone number for the funeral home handling his service, and phoned them to find out the details. While I was speaking with them, I asked them to let Nurse Jenny know that the entire TDB community was thinking of her and her family, and missing Joe.

My original plan had been to head straight from the airport to Joe’s small town, spending Friday night there, and then head to the funeral Sat. But after a good night’s sleep, common sense reasserted itself in my brain. It’s an afternoon funeral, only 3 hours away, and I don’t have the spare change for hotels like I used to. So I’ll be giving myself a good night’s sleep tonight, and leaving early enough in the morning to arrive without feeling rushed, and to leave myself time for a leisurely lunch. This will also give me the opportunity to print out the poem I wrote, for Nurse Jenny and the kids, and to print out the TDB postings and comments, as well, in case they’ve not done that for themselves.

The service will be at Joe’s church, not at the funeral home. I think this is the first funeral I’ve been to since my Mom’s, so I’m not sure how it will feel, for me. Especially since, as far as I know, I’m the only TDBer that will be able to make it there. 

As I was hovering between wakefulness and sleep on my first flight this morning (we left Medford at 625am, and I am NOT a morning person), I kept thinking there has to be some significance to the fact that Joe joined his savior on Ash Wednesday. 

For Christians, Ash Wednesday marks the beginning of the Lenten season, a 40-day period during which we are to ponder the sacrifice of Christ on our behalf. For many Christians, it is also a time for making personal sacrifices, denying ourselves as a means of solidarity with Him who denied everything for our sakes. Lent leads right into Good Friday, which somehow always sounds like a misnomer when you think about what happened on that day, and Good Friday is followed by Easter.

As I was falling asleep on the airplane this morning, the thought that flashed through my head was that Joe didn’t have to wait for Easter this year. He’s already celebrating the resurrection of his risen Lord, just as he did every day. And then I thought that perhaps Easter will be particularly poignant for his family this year, since Easter also reminds us that just as Christ rose from the dead, so will His people. 

Joe is sleeping now, for awhile, where there is no pain, no illness, no damage from strokes; where there is only eternal love. We who are still awake will miss him, but we’ll see him again, and we’ll celebrate Easter together with him, when the fullness of time has come.

Until that day, we’ll hold him in our hearts, and rejoice that we had him in our lives.