RAKING SHATTERS

SHATTERS are a valued commodity here on the Shore. To inform you folks from other places, shatters is the local name for long pine needles. Further down the county, they are sometimes called Shatts. They are used as a mulch or ground cover, for weed control and also as a ground conditioner for acid loving plants like camellias and azaleas, daffodils and even strawberries. In the Old Days, one could buy a shatters rake at the local hardware or farm supply place. They were hand forged and set in a special way on a long handle. Today they are a rare find. When our old place was sold, I grabbed our old shatters rake and brought it home. I wish I had grabbed the hand plow, too and the old wooden wheelbarrow. They were real treasures!

 

The tines on the shatters rake are longer, further apart, and angled. When I needed a new handle (the old one was older than I and actually in worse shape) I had to find someone who had an understanding of the value of the old tools. The first guy that looked at it told me they didn’t have those things in New Jersey, where he came from, they used “normal” rakes. Well, that told me not to let him get his hands on my rake! Phew! He said, along with putting a new handle on it, he would straighten it, “See how crooked its got?” (Yeah, it was made that way!) See the difference in a “normal” rake and a shatters rake? My shatters rake is close to 100 years old dating back to around the time the old house was built, 1914.

My Uncle has been talking lately about carving new tines for his hay rake. I have another friend who makes (carves and assembles) his own hay rakes, too. I am so impressed. I would love my Uncle to get a picture of his rake. I wonder how big it is. Another friend made one to go behind his garden tractor to rake shatters as well as hay. It is about 5 feet across. Impressive. That must be on my project list, but when would I have time? I guess that is one advantage of having long cold snowy winters… nothing else to do. That doesn’t ever seem to happen here.

  

Anyway, I found someone who was as impressed as I at the age of the rake… it took him about a week to put a new handle on it. He was so careful to not damage any more than he had to since the old rake had a metal piece go right thru the old wooden handle and was welded in place. No wonder it never came off! So, the other day,  I happily got it out of the barn and raked up a few loads of shatters and bedded down the newly transplanted camellias and azaleas. I discovered the late December camellias were starting to open. Well, it was 70 degrees. The bees were happily buzzing along in the open camellias, it really looked and sounded like springtime. I also noticed the new miniature holly bush is in bloom! Go figure that! Someone suggested I decorate this camellia (with the first white bloom) for Christmas since it is shaped so perfectly.

Then, this morning… well, you know, every once in a while the light is just perfect, there is that special glow things get first thing in the morning… I am so glad I am not one of those folks that lay in bed half the day – mornings are so magical! Anyway, the little maple out front was just glowing… I guess it was showing me that we really could have red maple trees here! That is Yule Tide next to it on the left. Those green spiky things on the right are yucca.

As I walked back to the house, I noticed some bright yellow out at the edge of my woods… I am not sure what these trees are. They get pink flowers in the spring, but I never see any nuts or fruit. Any idea what they might be? Tomorrow it might be even prettier! Stay tuned!

GARDEN DIARY END OF MAY 2013

This is mostly a private notation for future reference. This week the peas started to bloom. The first blueberry bush has green berries, the birds are thoroughly enjoying the strawberries, and the onions are well over a foot tall.  The yellow wax beans have their second set of leaves, and the Italian flats are just pushing some green thru the dirt. The Lima beans are thru the potting soil reminding me of my first biology class where we all had to plant one and learn such fun terms as cotyledon, and watch for the first sign of a real identifiable leaf. Remember?

I planted a circle of Blue Lake pole beans and put my big aluminum pole and hoops in the fenced in garden. A few beans have their leaves. I think I might have to replant in the empty places.

The potatoes are well over a foot tall and need more dirt in their bags. The last time I added dirt, the coons dug most of it out. That explains the ugly fencing. They also demolished my bag of carrots that had just been planted the day before. However, I do have a few carrots showing tiny green shoots this morning. I have had to put pieces of fencing over the growing bags anyway because Punk and Spook seemed to love to nap in these bags.

   This was my second planting – or replanting – of potatoes last year – the little ones that were too small to eat… I just stuck them back in the bags and got a couple more pounds of potatoes! Maybe the cats helped hatch them? This is Punk hatching the carrots last year. I sure do miss my little garden shadow!

Yesterday I managed to get the tomatoes and bush basil in… the zucchini and eggplant (Ikiban) are in the old tomato raised bed… I still have cucumbers to plant and some dill. We don’t use the dill anymore, but the black swallowtail butterflies caterpillars LOVE it. So I grow it for them.

The sage is in flower and the rosemary looks like bushes.

Thanks for all the interest so many of you have had in using these growing bags. Let me know if you try them and how it works out for you.

A PILE OF POSSUMS

A PILE OF POSSUMS and other surprises Life throws at ya… That sums up the past 2 weeks.

I know, I have been out of touch for many of you. If I owe you an email, I am sorry, but life has gotten rather chaotic. I seem to be running a kitty hospice here with the oldest cat, Punkin, in renal failure, and the youngest, Rascal (alias the Rat) suffering from a build-up of fluid in his chest cavity… pathology reports were inconclusive, so, the best we can do is take him once a week to get it drained off, rehydrate him, and keep him happy. All this is going on, shuttling cats back and forth to the vet, researching kitty problems, buying and preparing special foods… and trying not to neglect my other geriatric cat, Hadji, who is diabetic – but has been off insulin for over 2 years thru very careful feeding – and lots of spoiling.

So in the midst of all this kitty care, preparing for our Train Station’s Plant Sale next week-end, and preparing my own garden (peas are up, onions are up, and potatoes are in their potato bags), cutting grass, pulling weeds, mulching, and trying to keep a handle on the house work (OYE!) I get a phone call from fellow blogger, Grenville, http://thefrogandpenguinn.blogspot.com/, down the street, “Help! I’ve got a possum emergency!” And, indeed he did. So, I dropped everything, I mean, who needs clean laundry anyway, right? Clean floors? HA! and jumped back in the van and headed down to his house where he handed me a little box of the cutest baby possums… My guess is they are about 2 months old (2nd birth) and I could see they were a bit hungry. I did not restock any possum formula after the last baby, so I had to get them to another rehabber pretty fast. I transferred them to a deeper box, one they could not climb out of, made a phone call, and headed south for another possum transfer. Isn’t life fascinating? Good thing I am usually a pretty flexible person.

  

Anyway, for those of you who have not heard from me, I have been (and am) very busy, mostly baby-sitting my own sick babies – do you know how hard it is to type with a kitty on your lap? Or I might be transporting possums down the road to someone who is probably as rushed as I am. Fortunately, the folks at her day job don’t seem to mind her having a couple cages of baby animals on a table near her while she is at work. Could you do that? So go visit the Frog and PenguInn and see what he has to say. And may you have a restful calm day!

BUILDING PROJECT

OR MORE OF WHAT KEEPS ME SO BUSY… Sadly I have slowed down to a crawl lately. The Lyme's has been in its mean, bad , and nasty cycle… which means not just a lot of pain, but it means my muscles have been locking up when I try to do certain things – like bend over… reach over my head… sigh. So, it has really slowed me down. Somehow I thought I would have a lot of time to get things done before it got too cold to work outside – but today is the last of the warmer days, and so much has not gotten done. Cold is an enemy of Lyme's.  I did get my addition to my greenhouse finished… got the heat lamps installed yesterday. It is also painted since it is not made with pressure treated (called salt treated around here) wood and there is an added roof of 2 rug samples and a half inch piece of plywood that goes on it when the sun is not shining to keep it a bit warmer – and to keep the cats from scratching the quarter inch Plexiglas. That sheet of Plexiglas for the roof cost a small fortune… double what I paid the last time I had any 1/4th inch cut for me. The rest of the Plexiglas is only 1/8th inch – some of it scrap, most of the wood is scrap, too. It seems I just get more and more plants somehow… and then, I take cuttings of Strobilanthus and coleus – some of them make it, some do not. I am trying to winter over some begonias this year. The Mini-greenhouse will come apart come spring as it is held together with only 4 screws and several corner braces. The floor is brick, for retaining heat. It is amazing how many plants one can cram in a space 4 feet long and 2 feet wide. 

The heated cat box is on top of the larger greenhouse… and is already well occupied on chilly days and nights.

FIRST GARDEN UPDATE FOR 2012

FIRST GARDEN UPDATE FOR THE YEAR!!!! Can you imagine? At 72 degrees today, I could not stand it any longer... I have cleaned out the Pea Patch. Frank pounded in a couple metal fence posts for me and the strings are up. I am tired of rotting wood posts, and amazingly the metal posts cost less than wood when you figure they won't have to be replaced in 2 years. But best of all, the weeds are pulled (mostly turnip greens) and the onion bed is clean and ready for the onion sets I bought last week. Sweets. Then, since I was already in the same area, I cleaned up the small asparagus bed and the strawberry patch. Figured I might as well, I will be too "stove-up" tomorrow to do it anyway, plus, I was already sitting on the ground (not intentionally) so I might as well keep pulling. Once I managed to get up, I was not going back down... 'course, the trick was getting back up!

It was, or is, difficult to remember it is February. The daffodils are blooming. The forsythia is showing color. The roses have their baby leaves... sigh.
The birds are starting to make their nesting sounds... seeing and hearing robins don't mean much. I have a small flock that winter here. They have had an easy winter. The snow geese are on the move again - huge flocks have been flying over. When I say huge, I am talking thousands Really. They make so much noise, it is easy to keep track of them. The ponds are snow white, some of the fields are white... I am not a farmer, so I think it is beautiful. I understand not everyone feels this way. But they don't eat any of my crops. If I had to worry about that, one goose would clean up my garden in short order! But, It feeds us... and I still find it exciting to go out in the yard and pick something I am going to eat for lunch or dinner... or pick berries for my cereal. No chemicals, not even any chemical fertilizers, and my cow manure comes from field grazed cows... remember? Like they used to do? Cows in the pasture? What a novel idea. Home grown food. Not crap from China or some other country with worse rules than we have, and folks, we have bad rules when you consider GMOs, pesticides, herbicides, and tons of chemical fertilizers. If you are close to my age, you will have noticed food just doesn't taste like you remember it from when you were a kid, does it? Even many of the tomatoes from farm markets taste like cardboard these days. Why? They have been genetically modified so they look prettier, grow bigger, ripen faster... Didja ever notice cherry tomatoes are sweeter than regular tomatoes? The goal is not to take all that flavor and stretch it into a huge tomato, so it is sweeter. Now the big thing is grape tomatoes. They grow fast, are harvested in weeks, and have tough skins so they can stand rough treatment without bruising. But how do they taste to you? Lots of chemicals in those tiny red things.

I am keeping my eye on the weather forecast. Mid 70s tomorrow, but probably rain. If I can move and it doesn't rain, I will get another area ready. Then Sunday, highs in the mid 40s.

FOOL PROOF!

THE BEST $108 I EVER INVESTED had to have been this chain saw. For one thing, it is FOOL PROOF! Which is a good thing since I have been known to hurt myself with tools. This saw comes apart, each section being 4 feet in length. Here I have assembled 2 sections, the third or middle section is on the top shelf of my potter's bench. This saw runs on a battery pack that goes in the handle end, so the blade part is always at least 8 feet away from the hand holding down the run button. That way the user cannot possibly cut off their own toes! It is up to you to stay out of my reach! The chain part is only 8 inches, so one is limited to cutting a branch or tree 4 inches or under. Now how much trouble can one get into with something that skinny? (I am still doing research...) The unassembled saw fits in a neat black canvas bag and the screw driver/allen-wrench fits in the chain shield. These are 7 foot doors, to verify the size of the saw as I usually use it. I am not comfortable with the 12 foot length, tho' I have used it. My problem is not that I am a Klutz... but that I have problems understanding limitations. Maybe it is because I grew up as the only girl for miles in a neighborhood of boys. If they could do it, so could I! As a kid, my step-father always made me help him do things. I learned about making mistakes by watching him rip up more than he fixed. When I lived with my father, he made me help him do things, and with a Master's in Mechanical Engineering, he did not make as many mistakes, and he was a good teacher. He taught me not to be afraid to try things. For example, he made me rotate the tires on my first car before he would turn the keys over to me. That way he knew I would be able to change a tire if I had to - and I had to change more than one! He knew I could not call im and have him help me out as he was seldom in this country, let alone close enough to change a tire for me. 'Course, now I am too old and have no idea how to even get to the so called spare tire. Oh well.
The woods I needed to thin out has grown thick with little trees, honey suckle, VA Creeper and green briars. In another month there will be a fine crop of poison ivy, too. My goal is to get this clean enough to walk thru. So I used my saw to cut down anything small enough for me to cut, and get someone else to cut down the slightly bigger stuff. I want the pine trees to come back in this area, and they are few and far between. So... pile #1... Remember, that saw is 8 feet long, so this pile of little trees is over 7 feet high. Now on pile#1, it doesn't look like much until you notice, some of these trees with a 2 and 3 inch diameter are 20 to 30 feet long! Most of them I had to cut in half just to move them to the pile.... Pile #2...is badly piled... too many trees I should have cut kept getting in my way. It was an unplanned pile, but really high, long and deep. I planned on going back and cutting the few trees holding the pile in place and restacking the trees, but it actually started to sleet. Needless to say, I quit. Besides, I was getting cold. I hate sweating and freezing at the same time, but I am really pushing my body to do this stuff. However, I am determined to be as independent as I can be. I have learned there are not many folks that can be depended on... not even the folks that supposedly make a living doing this kind of work... or the folks that beg for small jobs. So, if I can stand and walk, I will keep at it. Do not remind me that a woman of 68 is not supposed to be doing this stuff. Do not remind me of that wheelchair in the barn.
This is almost what I want it to look like... a few more hours, someone with a bigger saw... another day with the new blade weed-whacker. The string type will not cut thru these vines. That little pile in the middle of this picture is pile #1, so you can see a little bit of how much area I cleaned out This is about half of it. It is raining harder now and is mixed with ice pellets... supposed to turn to snow tonight. That will be good as a nice heavy snow will compact those piles and also show me all the little stuff I missed because of the leaves. Lets just hope we don't have an ice storm because someone always gets hurt. But, a nice clean snow will be good. Actually, I am excited as this was impenetrable last summer. When I get done, I am going to transplant a couple dozen camellias into this area. I want to turn it into a Meditation Garden...

Going back to the price, 3 years ago of $108... when I think of what I pay someone else to do the heavier stuff I can't do at $10 or $12.50 an hour, I have saved a fortune by doing so much for myself.

And a BIG thanks Frank (spaceflighter) for helping me get the chain back on the saw and tightening everything. It took 3 hands and a better brain than mine. 'Course, if I read the instructions, I might have discovered that tension screw... duh. I have been blessed with wonderful neighbors!

THANKS FRANK!

SOME THOUGHTS, SOME GRATITUDE

It has been a crazy couple of weeks, but that is not a complaint… not even really an excuse for not staying in touch, but time has been short for blogging with so many other things to worry about. I have tried to keep up with some of you in private emails as blogger is being uncooperative again. Once again, storms have changed people’s lives. My cousin lost their cabin on the Susquehanna River up near Wilkes Barre, PA. But, that could have been their primary residence, so while a serious loss, they still have their home and all their belongings. And no one lost their lives – most important of all. Check off that little box on your gratitude list!

Normally this is a hectic time of year anyway, tons of things to do as summer winds down, a dozen events going on before it gets too cold, sometimes having to run from one event in the morning to another in the afternoon or evening. I feel like my friend, Ralph, bless his heart, who is running for Senate again and is trying to be in 5 places at once and still maintain a practice at Children’s Hospital. As I listened to his schedule yesterday, I just shook my head wondering how he does it all. But, he is much younger and in better health and has a team making all his arrangements. I am feeling my age! But keeping going keeps me going. Does that make any sense to you? I know if I quit and put my feet up, I won’t be getting back up.

My auntie up in the Wilkes Barre area had to be evacuated. This was not an easy thing to do as she was one of the hard heads who stayed in her house back during Hurricane Agnes (39 years ago) and had folks coming by boat bringing food and water to her thru the 2^nd floor window. But, for some folks, Lee brought more flooding and destruction than Agnes. The river went up to 43 feet. It was a shallow muddy puddle when I crossed it this summer to see her. But, as of last night, she is back in her apartment in her senior apartment building, full of praise for her son and DIL for treating her like royalty (which she is, of course!) My only regret is I was not up there to do anything for her – BUT, my house (up there) is on the other side of 2 rivers with lots of flooding creeks in-between Wilkes Barre and White Haven.

Here on the shore, actually, up in Delaware, one little town received 14 inches of rain in about 6 hours. I have been in the Seaford area when it was under water, drove home from PA in 9 inches of water on Route 13 just before they closed it. Talk about timing! That was June, 2006. We saw cars with water up to their roofs in parking lots, drove past houses with water up to the front doors. So sad!

Anyway, it is very busy here taking care of my own commitments and worrying about family and friends. So, if I neglect you a little bit, forgive me. I will catch up maybe sometime in November!

I hope you have made out all right in the storms!

A NOT QUITE SUMMER MORNING

The calendar tells me that it will soon officially be summer. The thermometer says it is here and has been for a week. The refreshing chill of the morning is history, it seems. I miss needing long sleeves first thing in the morning. My world, so drab not too long ago, is now a contest of greens – each plant is trying to out-green the other. This is about as green as it gets – the end of May. It does not take long for the heat of the summer to dry things up, coat the leaves with dust and make folks grateful for their air-conditioners. I have a love/hate relationship with my air conditioner. I am grateful for the comfort it brings, but I hate to have to use it. I long for my Pocono summers and dream of the Maine island summers of my youth. I have been so fortunate to have spent my summers sampling the climates of many different areas. How lucky is that?

The desert areas of Turkey are about to go back to being deserts. They have been blooming like crazy this year, so I have been told. It is a long, long time since I lived in Turkey, a long time since I saw the beauty of the desert in the spring. Interestingly, I did not mind the dry heat at all, so different from the stifling humidity here. The normally dead looking brown earth gets covered in blankets of beautiful colors and delicious fragrances. If you have never had a bit of desert experience, you don’t know what you’ve missed. Ok, backing up – I am not talking about what my father called “the serious desert,” the sand deserts, the huge blowing, shifting dunes, but the miles and miles of “scrub or barren” land, land that looks like it would not grow anything most of the year… land with cactus, sage, the tumbling tumbleweed type of landscape. Oh, but that month in the spring, sometimes it lasts a bit longer, but that month of awesome flowering, of color, is a month of pure magic.

Here, far from the desert, the air is heavy in the morning with fragrances from so many sources. A visitor once said it felt like you had to push your way thru the sweetness in the air just to get to the car. We have magnolias in bloom, honeysuckle, and the locust trees are just finishing. Even holly trees are fragrant during most of May as they pollinate and make new holly berries. The air is also heavy with the sounds of birds, baby birds begging to be fed, parents fighting to protect their nests, robber birds like crows scouting around to steal eggs or even unguarded babies. Then there are the grackles, the noisy, noisy grackles squawking at each other in the mulberry trees, bragging about what ever grackles brag about – or perhaps they are complaining. Is that what it is? Their noise sometimes grates on my nerves; I hate to admit it.

The grass is wet with dew; strings of pearls hang from the bushes as the spiders wait for breakfast to blunder by. My shoes get soaked as I wander thru the yard in the morning looking at all the beauty around me… late peonies, irises, roses. Even the honeysuckle, a truly invasive “weed” in most cases, is beautiful in the early morning light. Delicate. Beyond fragrant.

The Mountain Laurel has been blooming. I am always amazed that it has survived another year. Friends laugh as I have brought rocks from PA to put around them to make them feel more at home. (We have NO naturally occurring rocks here on the shore. But you can now buy them at garden centers!)

The garden is coming along. The bees are having a good time with all the flowers on the squash, zucchini and cucumbers. I spotted my first cukes of the year this morning – about the size of a kosher dill. They will be ready to pick later this week. I have my first tiny tomatoes, not much bigger than a pea, but there they are. I can almost taste them. I ate my first homegrown lettuce the other day. Best salad I ever had! And we cooked MY peas for supper. I wonder why that gives me such a high!

I guess it is good that having this garden does give me a high, because the work is almost too much sometimes. But I keep in mind the fun of going out and picking enough beans for dinner. And then picking beans (or cukes, or tomatoes) to share with others. And folks covet my produce. They know I do not use any chemicals – no pesticides, ever!

This morning, when I opened the back door, can of Tuna in my hand for Punkie and Spook, I was hit with the almost over powering scent of almost summer. I had to walk out into the yard and just breathe the smells in. I thought of folks in cities who breathe in the fumes of vehicles, exhaust, garbage, that tarry smell of black top in the sun… I thought about the sounds that they hear as I listened to my birds fussing, begging, or just singing their morning songs. Are they thanking their idea of god for another day? Did someone just say thanks for the drink in the bird bath out in the yard?

Then I heard another noise… a soft leaf rustling sound and the snapping of tiny branches. I quietly walked out a bit further. There was a doe standing on her hind legs pulling a branch down from the mulberry tree, chomping down as many berries as she could while the birds fussed at her for eating all their berries – like there isn’t a whole tree full? Or maybe even several trees? The mulberry trees are so heavy with berries this year, I actually had to cut some branches off where they were hanging down into my garden. I stood there, barely breathing, glad the wind was blowing in my direction watching the doe eat when I noticed movement closer to the ground. She had her fawn with her. At first I thought it was my cat, Punkin … no wait, it WAS Punkin, oh where is my camera when I need it! Punkin sat there and watched the doe eating from the tree, the fawn eating (?) the berries that had fallen to the ground.

The bad news is that this year’s new supply of mosquitoes has arrived. I am SOOOOO allergic to bug bites. I hate using sprays, but I pay a huge price. Yesterday, I tried working out in the yard in long pants and a long sleeved shirt. I didn’t last very long. I had to wait until around 7 to go back and cut grass and finish my chores.

It is hard to believe that there is still over 100 inches of snow on the ground in some mountainous areas out west. From my CoCoRaHS coordinator this morning:

As of a few days ago we still had some CoCoRaHS volunteers with snow
left on the ground. Two of our stations in CA, where snowfall had been
so great that it buried residential power lines, still had over 100" of
snow remaining on the ground earlier this week. Here in Colorado we're
waiting for the warm weather to finally arrive and when it does later
this week -- look out. We have huge amounts of snow left in our
mountains -- from 25 to as much as 90 inches of snow water equivalent
(SWE) still up on the slopes in the northern portion of our state --
much, much more than usual. With the sun nearly overhead and the summer
solstice right around the corner, the snow will be melting fast (1-2" of
SWE per day when it gets warm) and the rivers surging.

Friends out in the Midwest can’t even get into their gardens – the land is just too soggy.

Here on the Shore, we are in a state of moderate drought. We don’t need the floods others have been having, but we sure could use some rain. Go figure. How is your garden growing? Still have snow? Is your garden under water? Or do you have to go out there and water every day?

THE PUTTER BENCH, a Work in Progress

OK, MOST PEOPLE WOULD CALL this a potting bench, I suppose... but the potting is all done for this year... and mostly what I am doing now is puttering... whatever that actually means. The seeds are all sewn, some are up, some are not, and the lima beans were transplanted earlier this week and looking good! The strawberries are almost finished for now. Sometimes I get a second harvest. We shall see what happens this year. The garden has taken off on its own with a wild riot of color... I never know just what I am going to get out around St Francis, but it is usually beautiful any time of the year. Sooo, now that I have 5 minutes to putter between potting/planting and harvesting, I decided to build myself a potting bench, except, of course, the potting is done for this year. But I end up with all kinds of miscellaneous chores and the old back just needed a place out in the yard where I can DO STUFF without bending down or making a mess in the house, carport, or in a hot stuffy barn. Important stuff like bird feeder cleaning and repair, a place to throw the garden gloves and tools when I have to answer the phone, a place to store the pots, trays, and some of the mixed potting soil till next year, being always mindful to keep that little square spot open next to the Scoop Away bucket (now containing potting soil) - that is the shed where Spook goes when the weather is terribly wet or windy. I decided to give the flat surfaces a coat (or 2) of paint since it is sitting outside. And yes, the bench is tilted. My good friend, Pat, came by and lifted one end so I could tilt it more for rain run off. Another note - I did buy new 4x4s and 2x4s for the legs... 4x4s so it will withstand the hurricane force winds and not blow out in the yard - unless we get a Cat 3 or more. The wood is treated to have contact with the elements. The shelf and work top and all other pieces are scraps I saved for the moment when I might need them. Some of my scrap wood came from the lumber yard's scrap pile. If you go to buy lumber and have them cut it for you, you might notice they have a big scrap pile. Ask and they will usually let you dig thru the pile and take home left over pieces that might come in handy when you make your next project. Got grandkids? A friend's grandson and neighbor kid built a tree house completely out of scrap lumber from the lumber yard. All they bought were nails! It also seemed like a good place to display my very old shore bird decoys... By the way, did you notice the clematis in the St Francis garden??? It is amazing this year. This is not a good shot, but I was in a rush. Forgive me!

WORK, WORK, WORK

WORK, WORK, and more WORK... the story of springtime.
So far, the only one to really enjoy the “new” and improved patio seems to be Spook. He really seems to love it out there, though he still doesn’t like having his picture taken. See him? He thinks he is invisible. I do sit out here every once in a while to catch my breath or give my back a rest. As you can see, things are blooming here at Possum Lane. And what is not blooming, hopefully will be. The first beans are up and recognizable as real plants, not just green lumps! I am trying another experiment in gardening… so far it is just home to plants waiting to get planted… the cucumbers are in the ground with a fence to climb on, zucchini, strawberries, Progress! I moved the new composter… not sure if this is a better idea than the old way, but I am willing to try. So far the raccoons have only gotten in it twice. Amazing little critters, aren’t they? The house plants, for the most part, are outside waiting to get cleaned up, cut back, and situated for the summer. The lilacs outside my bedroom window have been especially beautiful this year. And both Buddhas seem, well, content, in the midst of the azaleas around them.