garden — Page 60

Day Fifteen

March 28, 2020 at 10:00 am by Claudia

Current reads. I find it isn’t necessarily easy to make a choice these days. My last book, Eight Perfect Murders, was disappointing. So, do I go with more fiction? Or nonfiction? Or pretty pictures? Yesterday, I reread Biblio-Style, that gorgeous book about the way people live with books. I needed to experience it once again. Last night, I started in on Pride and Prejudice, a true comfort read. And this morning, I dug into Derek Jarman’s Garden.

Do you find that you’re juggling more than one book at a time? I rarely do that, but I have definitely been reading a few books at once during this period of isolation.

I’m just grateful that I have them. Books are always a precious gift, but never more precious as they are now.

We watched more episodes of Cheers last night. It’s fun to chart the course of the characters in that very first season. We can see the writers beginning to figure out who is who and just how the characters will function within the framework of the ongoing story. It’s amazing how excellent it was from the very beginning.

I was up earlier than Don this morning – a rarity – and after making coffee, I went online to our grocery chain’s site to see if maybe there might be a delivery slot open at the end of next week. To my surprise (and I was barely awake) there was an opening available next Wednesday on April 1st. I grabbed it and then started to add a few things to our already long list. I only had an hour in which to do it before I would lose the slot. Don came downstairs and, poor guy, I immediately pestered him for any ideas he might have. Anyway, it’s done. I cannot tell you how relieved we are that we don’t have to go inside a store. They deliver the bags of groceries and leave them outside near the door. Don is very happy. It turns out he was very wary of entering any store and it had been weighing on him.

We’re in for a very rainy weekend. It hasn’t started yet, but it will. I think I’ll go out to the edge of the property and clip some forsythia. We don’t have any fresh flowers at the moment and it would be nice to see the bright yellow flowers in our kitchen.

Rain is on the docket for the next week or so, so heaven knows when I will be able to get outside to start garden cleanup. In the meantime, I’ll be watching episodes of Gardener’s World on Britbox – I didn’t watch all of last season, so it’s time to catch up.

I learned a new word: Sitzfleisch; literally ‘sitting meat’ but in reality, sitting on your tush. Heaven knows, I am doing that more than ever. (Found in an article in The New Yorker.)

Lonesome Dove is hanging out on the telephone wire in front of our house as I write this. I love him.

Happy Saturday.

Signs of Spring

March 10, 2020 at 9:57 am by Claudia

Yesterday was gorgeous: warm, sunny, breezy. Interestingly, both Don and I remarked at the end of the day that it was too warm…too sunny. I think that means we weren’t quite ready for such a big change. Nevertheless, we enjoyed the day.

I walked around the property. Another old and dead tree had fallen up in the back forty. The shingles on the back side of the shed roof are being destroyed by high winds. Time for a tarp, because we won’t do anything to repair them until we have to replace the roof on the house – then we’ll do it at the same time.

Day lilies emerging.

Daffodils on the edge of the woods. They were completely hidden by leaves. I had to uncover them for this picture.

Buds on the lilac! No question; this is an early Spring.

There’s a heck of a lot of cleanup that needs to be done, but I’m not uncovering the garden beds yet. I’ll give it a couple of weeks.

I will say that by the end of the day yesterday, Spring Fever had taken over. I’m almost happy that it’s going to rain today as it’s too early to do anything out there and I need to tamp down on that fever. Heck, we still have the snow blower and shovels on the porch because we don’t want to jinx things.

Today? Cleaning the tub. As we have hard water, cleaning anything involving water is a pain in the tush. But I’m in the mood, which is rare, so I’m going for it.

Happy Tuesday.

Saturday

October 19, 2019 at 9:32 am by Claudia

The excitement is growing here at the cottage!

There’s lots to do between now and tomorrow, but I’m confident we have it all under control. Meanwhile, Don is taking portraits at a Fall Fair in our neighborhood for a few hours this afternoon.

We had a frost last night, and while I don’t think it was a hard frost, the morning glories look like they may be done, as well as some other tender plants. I brought the Boston Fern inside. The other porch flowers look okay so far, though some of the impatiens might be gone. I’ve decided I’m going to place them all outside the porch on benches and chairs, as it looks like it might rain enough to keep them moist while I’m gone. If they make it, great. If they don’t, I’ll be okay, as they won’t have much more time after that. There’s definitely a change in the weather around here as we head toward the end of October and the beginning of November.

All the things you have to think about – especially at this time of year!

Both Don and I got hair cuts yesterday. I got a couple of inches taken off and I’m glad I did. Last year, I didn’t have time to do that before we left and I felt that my hair looked ragged. Don took this pic after I got home.

Okay. Lots to do today. I have to get moving.

Happy Saturday.

Signs of Spring

Saturday

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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