blue sky days and yard work

The weather has been glorious the last three days, cold in the morning but warming up nicely with clear blue skies and low humidity and so I have been busy. Busy busy, so much so that I haven't had five minutes to sit down until almost 7 in the evening. Consequently I haven't had time to come around and see what everyone has been up to. Tuesday I already wrote about. Wednesday I posted on the blog and after breakfast I went over to the shop and torched the burn pile which took a while to settle down to smoldering because there were some pretty big log sections from the large limb that fell off one of the pecan trees. Then I emptied the full load in the truck from the photinias onto the smoldering pile and it flamed up again but since most of that was still fairly green it didn't take too long to simmer back down. Then I loaded up the bricks and drove them across the street and tossed them into the front yard where I'll use them. After lunch Minnie and I jumped in the truck and headed to the Feed Store, one of her favorite places. Not only do they let her come in but it's full of wonderful smells and people who coo over her. I spent just about all the available cash in my pocket on 6 bags of potting soil, 3 bags of composted peat, 2 bags of what they call landscapers mix that you add into the dirt to improve it, and 2 bags of pine bark mulch. Can you tell what I'll be doing the next couple of weeks? After that I walked the dog and then watered a few things in the yard when Abby called, she was out with her mom and stuck in traffic and wouldn't get back in time and would I lead the yoga class for which I had to leave in the next half hour. So I did that.

Thursday, of course, was SHARE after which I took the cardboard to the recycling center that we accumulate from emptying boxes of food, then lunch, then picking Robin up and getting her to work, walking the dog, and then time for Thursday night's yoga class. Not as physically demanding perhaps as hefting pruning debris and bricks although I do fetch and carry heavy boxes and flats of canned foods to replenish my station at SHARE. Jan's always telling me to get one of the guys to get the stuff for me and sometimes I do but lifting heavy things helps keep me strong.

I have no real plan for today, Friday, though. In fact I didn't even roll out of bed until after eight. I have several chores I need to take care of but we'll see how the day goes.

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As it turned out it was another beautiful day and I spent much of it outside. I used the hard spray on the hose nozzle to wash the lattice around the bottom of the deck in preparation for painting (so of course today it's cloudy and might rain), I dressed up the side steps to the porch with bricks and mulch,

outlined a possible bed for ferns or other shade lovers on one side of the steps on the front of the deck but the lattice needs to be painted before I proceed with that,

cut back the frozen branches of the yellow bells and plumbago, raked the year's leaves out of the barn and lugged all the bags of potting soil et al into the barn,

pulled up the sandstone slabs of the walkway I put down several years ago because I'm not happy with the way I did it and stacked them for a future re-do as soon as I get some sand,

walked the dog and thankfully she only wanted the short walk, and cooked dinner...roasted cauliflower with pancetta and olive dressing, mustard and collard greens, and toast.

It's back to being cold and very windy today. Earlier the sky couldn't decided if it wanted to clear up or be overcast. It seems to have settled on overcast so I'm taking it for a day of rest.