a week went by

Saturday...I see I posted last on Tuesday (except for the book reviews). Wednesday I started taking all the plants back outside. All the plumerias and the bird of paradise are out of the garage (which may have been a mistake as next Friday is predicted to drop below freezing). Haven't moved the night blooming cereus yet and it may just stay where it is for another week. I moved the stag horn ferns and the nun orchids out of the bedroom (easy enough to bring them back in for a night or two). Still have to move the small pots out onto the etageres (which also may wait another week) but had to rake and sweep the little patio outside the back door first which I did Thursday afternoon. Of course no before picture because...me, but it was covered with a thick layer of leaves.

Now I have to set up the etageres which I might do differently this year. At this point there is so much on my to do list that I can't decide where to start. But even though the day was partly sunny, mostly cloudy and turned windy I was not inspired to attend to any one task so I just piddled around and then I had a beer at lunch which further destroyed any motivation I might have had. Really, all I managed to accomplish is to finally put all the loose printed out recipes I keep in a big plastic bag into the binder that I bought months ago for that purpose.

Sunday...Partly sunny, windy and maybe rain today which would be good as we need it (but no, did not rain). The mock dogwood, the turk's cap, and the yesterday, today, and tomorrow have sent out little green leaves up and down their brown stems seemingly overnight. I'm pretty sure yesterday there was nothing, certainly Friday. The shrimp plant, the confederate roses, the firespike, and the night blooming jasmine are also putting out new growth. A few azalea flowers have opened. The chinese fringe flower trees are starting to bloom. The camera did not want to focus on the little green bits.

I think I mentioned when I laid the sandstone path 5 years ago along the side of the house that I had a collection of antique glass doorknobs and I even settled some of them in between the sandstone slabs. Of course they were quickly covered with leaves and dirt and so I got them out when I pulled up the slabs whenever that was a month or so ago. I collected them originally to use and we did use some of them in the city house. Today I got out all the doorknobs and picked out all the ones in good condition and washed them because I thought of a way I could finally display them. Each of these is different, some subtly, some very.

Here is what I did with them. I only got about half of them on because I ran out of the screws I was using.

And this is what I did the rest of the day, laying down a new sandstone path along the side of the house. I think I have enough, along with some concrete slabs to get all the way to the steps of the deck. I'm spacing them a stride apart this time instead of fitted together like this

to allow rain to flow away from the foundation of the back half of the house. Once I get past the plant on the right with the round leaves that won't be a problem because the front half of the house is on pier and beam. This was as far as I got as I ran out of sand.

I'm ready for a shower and a drink now. (Or was and I did both and now it's today and today is back to being cold and overcast and wet.)