The push is on to get everything done in the yard by the end of the month, get the beds weeded, fertilized, and mulched, get the summer annuals in, get everything repotted that have outgrown their pots, get the plumerias moved. This week I got the plumerias, the two angel trumpets, and the nun's orchid repotted, took my neighbor Gary and neighbor Judy some of the dwarf gladiolus, picked up the brick pavers bordering a small flower bed I'm giving up on (too much work to keep the baby rain trees out) and added them to the appropriate pile in the barn and dug up more dwarf gladiolus, spider lilies, day lilies, spiderwort, and amaryllis from that bed and shared them around with Pam and the neighbors. I dithered about repotting the big yellow trumpet flower or putting it in the ground and finally just put it in the biggest pot that the dead star of India was in.
Because of all this outside activity I haven't had my usual blog reading time to see what y'all are up to but I'll be back around.
Last Thursday was food delivery day at SHARE from the regional food bank and one of the things on the pallet was over 200 pounds of this candy.
Jan sent all the volunteers home with a box and told the guys in the back to be generous with it when filling food requests and one of the guys opened one there at SHARE for us to share (see what I did there). So Thursday night while I was still finishing my dinner (slow eater eating mindfully) Marc attempted to open the plastic box of candy. He struggled with that thing for about 5 minutes and never could get the top off the box. Take a knife to it I told him. I'm about too he replied. We were feeling highly amused at this point but when he got the knife and worked on it to little effect it was getting hysterical. Finally, whatever he did busted the plastic lid with half of it popping off and candy went flying everywhere, all over the table, the floor, and even into the kitchen. OMG we were laughing so hard by this time we couldn't talk or breathe, wiping tears away.
I have no idea why he had such a hard time opening that plastic box. Alcohol may have been involved.
Yesterday I finally repotted the tall bridal bouquet plumeria putting off pruning it back til fall or next spring.
Believe it or not, that's a bigger pot than the one it was in.
I got a bit more done around the yard and then my daughter and the twins, who are in town for the weekend, came by for a visit so nothing else got done and then it rained last night and is currently raining now so that's it for yard work til it dries out some.
Thursday, Marc was looking for a small tiny phillips head screwdriver and he saw a snake in the open toolbox sticking its head up from under the tray, closed it and brought it outside and took the tray out to discover a mouse nest in one corner with the snake now hiding under the small metal box he was trying to move out of the way with the stick.
Several tries later we got it moved enough to expose the little rat snake. I say little because they can get 6' long.
After encouraging it to vacate the tool box and it moved away under the truck I cleaned out the paper trash and there was a dead hairless baby mouse in there so the rat snake was doing its job. Then Saturday Marc scared up another snake while he was mowing which we are pretty sure was a copperhead in retrospect. That one I would have killed had I had a shovel handy so I picked up a long stick and herded it towards the wicked witch of the west's property. It was going that way anyway.
Some miscellaneous pics to end with...
Pam and I spied the neighborhood peacock coming back from yoga Wednesday evening.
Marc brought this magnolia blossom in yesterday and it immediately filled the room with it's scent.
A cloud with eyes.
Getting to be daylily time.
The purple coneflowers in the front are in full bloom.
The peacock does yoga?
ReplyDeleteHa! I guess that was a little ambiguous.
DeleteI just got EATEN UP by GeeDee yellow flies and have applied two types of ointment and taken a Benadryl and it is taking all of my power not to scream and take steel wool to the affected areas.
ReplyDeleteAnd all I was doing was hanging out the clothes.
I think I'm going to move to a condo now.
Also? I ran over a snake the other day in my car and I still feel terrible about it. I don't know what kind it was and it doesn't matter. It was just trying to cross the road.
I hope the candy was worth it.
we have the heat and the humidity and the mosquitoes here but at least we don't have those nasty biting yellow flies. the candy was definitely worth it for the entertainment factor.
DeleteYou really did get a lot done there. I love how your share your flowers and starts with neighbors.
ReplyDeleteLove those clouds with eyes. A great moment!
I had the same thought as Dr. John... The peacock does yoga?" Love that!
I thought about rearranging the sentence after his comment but it seems to be amusing everyone so I'll let it stand.
DeleteAfter reading one of your posts I have to take a nap. "The push to get everything done" stops me in my tracks. Pressure, under pressure!
ReplyDeleteWe do not have insects or snakes up here in the north. Easy living. Spoiled at this time of year to be sure.
it's just that by June it's too hot to work outside for long and I'm not an early riser.
DeleteLove your flowers -- your snake? Not so much! LOL Your gardens are beautiful--so much work!! Though it must make you feel good to see the results of your efforts.
ReplyDeletesnakes are good, they eat rodents. copperheads, well, just gotta learn to identify them. I was pretty sure that's what it was when I was moving it along but I don't like to kill things needlessly and it was at the very back of the property and minding its own business. had it been up by the house, that would have been a different story.
DeleteThat was a hilarious story about the candy. I like that kind, although it's almost like eating chocolate air.
ReplyDeleteI haven't laughed that hard in a long time.
DeleteIf that was a copperhead, I hope it takes up permanent residence at your neighbor's house.
ReplyDeleteThe chocolate story was hysterical.
I haven't laughed that hard in a long time. and yeah, there's lots of places over there where it can hide.
DeleteThat is a great donation to receive. Candy that good can never pass an expiration date. At less than a pound a box (I think), that's a lot of candy to make people happy.
ReplyDeleteas long as they can get the boxes open anyway.
DeleteI'm glad you let the peacock sentence stand. I laughed at that one, too, even while I was admiring the peacock. As for Mark's struggle with that plastic packaging, I've done the same, and alcohol wasn't involved. I've read stories of people cutting themselves badly with that stuff. I know (or suspect) it's meant to deter theft, but really -- does it have to be so darned difficult to get into? At least the battery people have found a way to make their packaging less annoying.
ReplyDeleteYou're not going to get much yard work done this week, I'd say. I'm still waiting to see how much we get, and whether the week will be a total washout at work.
my rain gauge broke during the freeze so I have to rely on my neighbors to tell me how much we got but no, I expect this week will be a wash. I can probably get some mulch spread though in between rains. well, at least it will give that pain in my arm/shoulder time to heal.
DeleteI'd do almost anything to be able to grow magnolia in our climate. Your pictures make me sigh.
ReplyDeleteAs for the snake, you are brave brave people.
The chocolates you struggled with, physically and with laughter, are probably among the top five brands sold here. You must have different packaging or maybe, it's an evolutionary European skill, but we just open these yokes with one swift pull.
yeah, the guy at SHARE had NO trouble opening the box there.
Deletepeople have irrational fears of snakes. even me, my heart does a little flip when I come on one unexpectedly but I try not to let it control my reaction. most snakes are harmless and good for the environment and do a service. this little rat snake cleaned out a mouse nest for us.
Oh what fun all this is.
ReplyDeleteSnakes scare me but I inherited this fear from my Mom. She wouldn't even go in the snake house at the zoo and would wait outside while we went through!
ReplyDeleteI saw a documentary on Netflix yesterday by David Attenborough called "Life in Color" and he explained that male peacocks cannot fly because of the weight of their fancy tails and it is all for the mating dance to attract females! If you have Netflix, I recommend it because it is so interesting and the photography is terrific! Describes how animals have evolved to use color and see color that we cannot even see.
I like snakes snd rarely see them, though we have quite a few locally. No rattlers, they're a bit further north in rocky hills. They're all part of the Great Circle. As are peacocks who are so evolved they sign up for yoga classes..
ReplyDelete