another day (or two) in the life

Our nice 'spring' weather has continued and I've been out in the yard doing some pruning and clearing out of late summer's bloomers and did some weeding in the front garden. I dug up the spiderwort and a clump of Nile lilies (agapanthus) and switched their places in one of the flower beds. My neighbor Gary gave me some heritage amaryllis bulbs and some clumps of magenta heritage petunias that grow like weeds from his garden and I gave him some of the oxblood lilies in return (will take him some of the poppies that are coming up too). Dug up hand fulls of hay grass and unwanted weeds in the Big Backyard (a drop in the bucket), raked up some of the oak leaves and spread them in the small bed with the Easter lilies.

Yesterday I headed into El Campo early (yoga at 5:15) to take my sewing machine in for repair and to get some vacuum cleaner bags, go to the HEB grocery store there to get the rice milk I like that our store never seems to have, to the Walgreens (which we don't have) to get the potato chips we like that the HEB quit carrying and the CVS we do have doesn't carry, and take the recycling to the drop off that has piled up while the container was out of service. Such is life in a dying small town, can't get what you want and no services. And it's not like the population of El Campo is way bigger, 11.69K to our 8.77K. The main difference is that the founding 5 families or so have a stranglehold on Wharton and don't want it to grow or even provide any amenities for that matter. El Campo has a 3 screen movie theater, a bowling center, an indoor aquatic center, a huge public park with a lake and sports fields among other things, they have two lumber yard/building supply stores and a real hardware store (we have one combo lumber/hardware store that never has what I go in there for), a plate glass and mirror shop, and a plant nursery among other things. Wharton is going to get a truck stop. In town. Seriously, they are letting a truck stop be built in town. At least that's what the billboard says is going on that vacant lot in town.

I haven't done anymore work with the modeling glass or even my regular work as I'm taking advantage of these blue sky days with low humidity. If this is truly spring in January, we are in for a brutal summer. I shall have to get over to the shop where my raised beds are and try to wrangle them back in shape if I plan to plant a spring garden. I saw some little birds at the tea cup that I thought were the little pale yellowish warblers that winter down here but couldn't find them in the bird guide. Realized today when I saw them that they are goldfinches that haven't got their bright color yet.

Haven't taken any pictures the last couple of days so here's another pic looking east across the fallow cotton field that I took last week.