a birth day and other assorted matters

OMG, my next list already has 10 items on it and it's only been 3 days.

On a more pleasant note, the two juvenile squirrels hanging out in the yard and romping in the trees are so cute.

You can't really tell from the picture but this little squirrel is about half the size of an adult.

And then on Saturday, this happened...

and then on Sunday, this happened...

peach dewberry

Friday and Saturday were so hot in the house even with doors and windows open, 84˚ 78% humidity, 83˚ 79% humidity respectively, that we finally turned the AC on for a few hours each day. I believe that's the first time to ever turn the AC on in April.

So I did go and get the last yard of dirt for the season last week and shoveled in enough to fill the raised bed with enough left over for the small extension of the flower bed in the Big Backyard by the banana trees. I want to round the other end to match. Today, I pulled all the gone by poppies out and added some compost and turned that in and I'll plant some bush beans later when it cools off.

Since we had no winter to speak of and a lot of things didn't bloom because of that (no daffodils, white iris, purple iris, no miniature gladiolas, the altheas though it might still be too early for them, it's all so crazy now), there will not be much of a peach crop this year. Not in Texas nor Georgia nor South Carolina. Growers are predicting only about 30% of a normal crop. So when I saw on FB Saturday morning (they are only open Saturday and Sunday) that the local peach orchard had peaches I dropped everything and headed out there and bought 4 bags. They think they will have peaches maybe only another two weeks. So that's where the pie came from plus I put up enough for later pies and still have plenty to eat til next Saturday.

Plenty of stuff is blooming though like some of the day lilies and one clump of nile lilies and finally the magnolia bud that was low enough to reach that we have been watching for weeks, opened.

Sunday was my 67^th birthday. I'm sort of unfazed by 67, oddly since it took me til I was about 65 to get over the shock of being in the 60s at all. It's kind of freaky to think about because I'm still me. I don't feel that fundamentally different from my 50s. The day was beautiful, much cooler and dry. My sister came by, I planted two rows of okra in the new dirt, went and visited with a friend, made a pie, put up peaches, had two long phone conversations one with my son and the other with my brother and 3 out of 4 grandkids called too, walked the dog, picked tomatoes. A good day. A good life.

This small plant is only about 1/3 the size of the others, is a volunteer that came up under one of the broccoli plants in the fall garden, and has 20 tomatoes on it.