We’ve just had three very, very hot days and, today, the heat wave broke. We have no A/C installed this early in the spring, so we were feeling pretty miserable. And frankly, it’s too early to install the A/C, especially when the temps will be much lower over the next couple of weeks. Anyway, we had a box fan positioned in the bedroom window and it ran on high all night long and we were okay. And in true crazy spring fashion, Sunday and Monday nights will bring below freezing temperatures. Go figure.

As a result of all of this, I’m holding off on clearing the rest of the garden beds, and I’m definitely holding off on buying more porch plants. That will resume on Tuesday.

The grass is suddenly very green, the leaf buds have appeared on the maples and the ash and the hickory. These three days of heat have resulted in everything beginning to pop.

By the way, we have an ash tree down near the street that popped up many years ago (during our time here.) Most of the ash trees in this area were lost to the emerald ash borer. The gentleman who has pruned and removed some of our trees specializes in maintaining the health of at-risk trees and he comes once a year to treat the ash. He has some sort of special liquid medicine that he pours into the base of the tree. He’s been treating the ash for about 5 years and we are thrilled at how well it’s doing. we just received his annual notice, so he’ll be stopping by sometime in the next month.

I predict that we’ll find ourselves mowing the lawn for the first time sometime next week. The grass is really getting tall. We always wait a bit to mow for the first time because that’s what you should do in early spring.

Okay, my friends. I’m going to prune a bit more on both of our hydrangeas today.

Stay safe.

Happy Friday.

It was very sunny when I took this photo and the temp was in the low 80s. Too hot for this time of year. I’m afraid we have to deal with this for 3 days. On Thursday, it’s going to reach 88 degrees.

Both of us have been working outside but we’re sore, so we must try to be sane about the whole thing. I potted the pansies and some calibrachoa that I got at our nursery, along with a big bag of potting soil, some new gardening gloves, and some morning glory seeds. Still have to get – most likely next week – some zinnia seeds, the impatiens that are a big part of the porch, some purple lobelia, geraniums, and at some point some plants for one pot in the secret garden. I’m only doing one this year to save money. And one of my standard hanging plants. The other hanging plants will come from the flat of impatiens. I’m pretty budget conscious about all of it. But as Don said, the look of the flowers on the porch is a big deal to us. We spend a lot of time out there and we draw comfort from them.

I potted these in the wrong pots! I have to change them out tomorrow afternoon. The pots I normally use are larger.

I’ll tend to that in the afternoon after I finish my coaching session at 11:00 am.

I’m actually writing this on Tuesday afternoon and I’ll schedule the post for 8 am on Wednesday. I have too much to do before I have to coach to fit in writing a post, as well.

Stay safe.

Happy Wednesday.

Glimpses of the mess I was surrounded by when I was wallpapering the living room in the dollhouse.

I don’t have much space – just the desktop and the top of the sewing table. But creative messes are the best kind of messes, aren’t they?

By the way, it’s since been straightened up. (I used the weight of the books to hold the wallpaper in place.)

We worked outside yesterday. I started raking out one of the garden beds. Lots and lots of leaves were raked onto a tarp and lugged over to our disposal pile near the shed. We also did some work up in the woods. The day lilies have already emerged as well as the beginnings of the coneflowers and hostas. Familiar friends.

But it does involve a lot of bending over, so I feel it today. As does Don. Our plan? Work every other day. One day to work, the next to rest and recover, and then back at it the next day. I haven’t even begun the big garden bed!

I’ve also been moving some of the furniture that was stored on the porch during the winter back to the Funky Patio and the Secret Garden. One of the Adirondack chairs has been moved from the shed to the porch. Today, I’m going to visit the local nursery to buy some pansies and some potting soil, along with a few seed packets. I don’t think they’ll have impatiens yet, but if they do, I’ll buy a flat.

We have 80 degree temps coming up this week (too hot of course) but that means it’s time to really get things going out there. Exciting and exhausting!

I also have a little one-on-one dialect coaching coming up this week. An actress I worked with in one of Darko’s shows last year wants some coaching for a production she’ll be working on next month. I’m grateful because first of all, I like and respect her, and secondly, the fee is timely. It will help me buy plants for the porch.

I’m in the middle of reading The Benefit of Hindsight  by Susan Hill. I love her mysteries, but I often want to knock some sense into Simon Serailler, her lead character. Too flirty with women, often inappropriately so. He’s a grown man who often functions more like a teenager. Of course, Hill has written him beautifully because he’s flawed, like all of us. I’m more than halfway through.

Stay safe.

Happy Monday.