weekend activities and a rainbow bracelet

Fall blooming bindweed in the ditch in front of Pam’s house.

Saturday I finally got out there and trimmed the yard and my arms were sore for two days afterward. The trimmer is only about 9 1/2 pounds but holding up 9 1/2 pounds for 45 minutes, it gets heavy. I did that after breakfast and then dug the thorny dewberry vines out of the long daylily bed in the big backyard in the afternoon. They’ll all be back though as the roots go deep, too deep to really get them out and everywhere a vine lays on the ground long enough it sprouts roots. Last summer when I couldn’t work in the yard recovering from one procedure or another and when I did it was cleaning up all the damage from Hurricane Beryl, they colonized three of my flower beds. So now it’s a constant battle. Of course where they’re growing they don’t get enough sun to actually make berries so they are just a big pain in the ass for no reward.

Sunday I set the sprinkler out moving it every half hour and intended to only go around and pick up loose bricks laying around. When I had a wagon full I pulled it to the front and I thought instead of stacking them in the barn right away I’d shorten the arm of the big flower bed in the front yard because when Marc mows he knocks the bricks askew and add those bricks to the wagon. Except, after I dug up the society garlic and shortened the arm I thought why am I taking these to the barn when I can just finish lining this flower bed, something I had never finished. So that’s what I did, pulling grass and crabgrass out and I only had to scrounge up about 5 more bricks.

Now I’m inspired to finally do this one (these were already here when we bought the place).

Later in the day I collected Paisleigh and I taught her to play dominoes with the set of Disney princess dominoes I got from another donation at SHARE (we can buy donated stuff (garage sale prices) that’s not food). When she tired of that we colored with the sidewalk chalk and then painted with the watercolors. Then we went across the street and she helped feed the four boys and Momcat and then we walked Minnie and I delivered her back to her parents.

More watering yesterday, it is still so dry, and finished the willow card and abandoned the bamboo. All the trees I’ve done so far; the gingko, pecan, maple, are in my yard, the willow grows at the end of my street. No bamboo in the vicinity. I decided to do a leaf off the red oak tree by my driveway instead.

Yellow bells and rangoon creeper in full bloom over at the shop yard.

This morning I had a rainbow bracelet. 

arting and sweating

Saturday morning I went out to find the dish of the birdbath on the ground again. I may just leave it there for now and filling it with water for whatever creature that keeps pulling it down in it’s effort to get water.

I finally got out and did some serious work in the yard. Beside moving the sprinkler around every 30 minutes (we need rain desperately) I started on the far back flower bed which I have basically ignored since spring and the poppies went to seed. Haven’t pulled a weed or watered it except for the two clumps of crinum lilies and the dirt is dry dry dry. The first thing I tackled was digging up the dead stump of the confederate rose on the end that didn’t come back this spring. There is something that attacks my confederate rose bushes. A new one will grow fine for the first few years and then one year a branch will start growing deformed and every year after more and more will be deformed until it doesn’t bloom and dies. I have no idea what is happening, everyone I’ve showed the deformed leaves to have no answers. I’ve planted them in different parts of the yard thinking maybe it’s something in the dirt but if it is it’s not just one spot. 

Before, the dead stump/root ball is hidden under the desiccated crabgrass (that’s how dry it is) on the left.

After an hour or so I got out about two thirds and was so hot and sweaty I had to go in and cool off.

Went out again once that area was in the shade and another hour later the rest of the stump/root ball is out and I’ve cleared about half of the weeds. 

The plan is to dig up the clump of pink crinum lilies, which did not bloom this year, there in the middle and put them on the end where the confederate rose was.

I didn’t work back there on Sunday, it was in full sun when I went out so I opted to work in the shade. Years ago I built two small flower beds at right angles to the oak tree by the driveway and planted six azaleas, three in each. Only one of the azaleas lived so I divided the red crinum lilies and replaced the dead azaleas with small clumps. Making those flower beds turned out not to be a great idea because I think they prevented water from draining from the side yard so I decided to take them out and spread the dirt to the low spot. I’ll leave the azalea and make it a small bed with the fringe flower tree next to it but dig up the crinum lilies which aren’t doing well there anyway. So Sunday I started on the arm from the oak to the preexisting bed of ferns at the base of the enormous white crepe myrtle pulling up the landscape blocks and stacking them in the barn. We finally got a little shower later, less than an inch but grateful for anything, and when I went out after to go feed the cats I was surprised to see this small arc of a rainbow since the sky overhead was mostly clear.

Yesterday I got out there, pulled up the rest of the blocks, dug up the crinum (spell check keeps wanting to change this to cranium) lilies

and used the shovel and hoe to spread out the dirt. Need to work on that some more but was hot and sweaty and came in.

I’m working on another card but the mad rush to sit down and get it done is over. Now it’s a few minutes here, a few minutes there, less invested, though walking the dog after yoga yesterday I broke a few willow leaf clusters off the tree at the end of the street and brought them home so maybe I’m not quite done. I’ve already prepared to be done, have transferred two drawings, one for a watercolor painting and one in my sketchbook for a colored pencil drawing. And I’m thinking more and more about a more ambitious watercolor painting. It’s a piece I sketched to do in the pate de verre cast glass but never got to it (that's supposed to be cotton at the bottom).  

more of the same and this is what finally got their attention?

It’s currently 86˚ with the ‘real feel’ 20 degrees hotter at 10 AM (this was yesterday). I’ve been working outside the past week but only for an hour or hour and a half at a time. Have I spent that time on any one thing getting it done? Hell, no. I’m jumping around leaving little piles of debris all over the yard. I’ve pulled up all six tomato plants and only cut up three of them and tossed on the compost pile and put away those three cages. The other three are still laying on the ground as is the cucumber which finally grew like gangbusters and bloomed profusely all male flowers, except for two that didn’t get bigger than an inch before they disappeared. I deadheaded the zinnias for seeds for next year. I tackled the completely overgrown area under the big Chinese fringe flower tree that turns in a glowing torch in the spring on the northeast corner of the property getting the grass and weeds out of only half where the gerber daisy and easter lilies grow and bordered part of that with bricks (you can see the part that didn’t get done bottom right). 

I cut the water sprouts off the fringe tree and two of the crepe myrtles. I’m slowly cutting up the big limb that fell off the pecan tree one wagon load at a time and tossing it in the truck for eventual dumping on the burn pile. I cut some of the low hanging branches off the big cedar tree in the back. And Monday I discovered the ants had invaded the garage and the bag of bird seed, building nests under the foam mats, two big piles of eggs, so all the mats had to be taken up, the garage hosed out, the mats hosed down, the concrete swept after it dried, 

swept again yesterday morning because the ants weren’t completely discouraged, and the mats laid down again. 

A pain in the butt but the mats are absolutely necessary because while the concrete apron where we park the car and truck has a texture, the concrete floor in the garage is smooth and very slick when condensation gets it wet, dangerously so, slippy slidey so. Just as well, that whole area under the mats and against the wall needed to be swept out.

I’ve had no AC in the car for a week but Mikey looked at it Sunday and it’s leaking in two places. Seal kit is being ordered but in the meantime it’s all windows down.

That’s about all that’s going on around here and no political commentary because it’s all horrible and seemingly unstoppable and every time time you think that’s it, that’s the bottom we discover that no, no it isn’t. I’m a little heartened to see the rift in MAGAtland over the Epstein files/client list but confused about why that. It’s not like we didn’t know Trump is a rapist and sexual abuser since he’s bragged about it and we know he raped 13 and 14 year old girls on Epstein’s island because those grown girls have told us so. Trump was big buddies with Epstein and plenty of video to back that up. Of course Republicans and Pam Bondi were never going to release any of that because of who is on the list but they made a big mistake during the campaign promising to release it and bring all those 'pedophile Democrat liberals' to justice. And that’s why I believe the cultists are enraged, not necessarily because girls were raped (apparently rape is fine in MAGAtland as long as the women are grown) but because they believe it’s liberals on the list and now Trump is protecting them. We can only hope that this is the rift that allows some of his base to abandon him, something bad enough to let them save face, because obviously kidnapping and cruelty and loss of freedom and rights hasn’t been enough.

So I guess some political commentary. Anyway, here’s some random photos that have been piling up.

I enjoyed the Hamish Macbeth series so much that I thought I would read some of the books so the next time I went to the library I looked to see what they had and thinking I would start with the oldest that they had and work my way forward I picked this one. Think it’s been around a while?

Haven’t posted a pic of the prisms that the crystals throw on my walls and everything else in the mornings for a while. The summer canopy of the tallow tree prevents most of the direct sunlight but there is one little opening that allows a ray or two between 9 and 9:30.

Sunday’s sunset.

The rangoon creeper in full bloom.

The spider lilies are also blooming.

And the porterweed (was, it’s between bloom cycles now).

FYI, I didn’t answer comments for the most part for years but this year I’ve really tried to start doing that. You know, in case you haven't noticed and are interested.

more days in the life

That’s a picture of the peach cobbler I made from peaches that came off my tree. I’ll need to prepare some for freezing since they’ll go bad before we can eat them all. And I need to research how to prune my tree so that it grows out instead of up since I could barely reach the highest ones this year.

The mosquitos are horrid. As soon as you go outside, within minutes they are swarming you. Did I mention they are big, black, and aggressive? Nevertheless I had work to do outside so out came the deep woods Off which I hate, spraying the largest organ of my body with those nasty chemicals but whatcha gonna do; arms, legs, t-shirt front and back, shorts front and back. Better than West Nile I guess which has been detected. Probably should have sprayed my ball cap too. I worked out in the heat for an hour and a half mostly in the shade thank goodness because of all our trees but even so it was 90˚ with a heat index of 103˚ when I came in soaked and sweat dripping off me. Yay global warming on the Texas coastal plain. I finally got the little backyard mowed, deadheaded the zinnias keeping the seed heads for next year, transferred the two piles of cut up dead fallen branches into the truck for moving over to the burn pile, watered the plants in pots, and yeah, that was enough. Still have to get the big chainsaw out to deal with this which fell off one of the tallows a week or two ago. That limb has been dead for a couple of years.

SHARE started out fairly slow on Thursday with a handful of A (one person) food orders but then it got busy with mostly big ones Cs, Ds and an E (7 and up). We're having to buy more food from the local grocers as the offerings from the regional food bank in Victoria have gotten pretty slim with all Trump's cuts to food assistance so those poor millionaires and billionaires can get even more tax cuts. It's not like they pay much tax as it is but you know, they really need that third or fourth yacht or mansion and those poor people just need to get a better job. Fortunately we have the funds from grants to do so, for now anyway, and we get donations from the dollar stores and Walmart of their day old milk and meat and produce. 

I cannot express how much I despise that man and his sycophant butt kissers whose only concern is getting richer by grifting off the American people, declaring on Juneteenth that the working stiffs have too many holidays and the economy is suffering because they get a day off while he plays golf which he has done for a full 25% of the days he has been in office and charges it all to the national treasury that we working stiffs pay into with our taxes.

 

We had an unprecedented 11 people at the yoga class Thursday night. The Monday and Wednesday class is in El Campo, the next town over but the Thursday night class is here in Wharton at Hesed House, one at 5:15 (the one I go to) and one at 6:30. Usually attendance runs between 3 - 5 people at the 5:15 time slot but Stephanie has canceled the 6:30 class for reasons and last week we had 7 and last night 11 three of whom were first timers so that little room was full though it could have accommodated one more. Anyway, the 5:15 start is tough for some people to get to after work so we all agreed to a new 5:30 start time.

We finished watching the three seasons of Hamish Macbeth. Hamish is the local constable in a small village in the Scottish highlands who solves all the local problems and mysteries becoming an integral part of the village. Hamish has ‘gone native’ so to speak and tries to keep a low profile so the big wigs in Inverness won’t transfer him to another posting. It’s very good, a comedy drama, very sweet with all the local relationships and recurring characters. I highly recommend it. We watched it on Prime.

Another sketch of a woodland violet. I think I’ll start playing with composition now.

More outdoor work planned for today. Marc mowed yesterday and I really need to get the trimmer out and go around all the flower beds and trees, something I haven’t done since before my birthday party.

Some blooming things: the phlox Ms Moon sent me, day lilies, Mexican bird of paradise.

drain field and blooming things

Drain field saga continued. Gunnar said it was a bad idea to use the motorized snake as it could break the pipe so Rocky used our 25’ manual snake. He put the business end into the pipe and pushed it in as far as it would go, all 25’ without meeting any real resistance. He put the other end into his drill and turned it slowly while pulling it out and other than a small amount of really dark thick watery stuff, nothing came out. At that point it was dig another hole at the 25’ mark along the length of that line, cut out a section and run the snake through for another 25’ and then maybe repeat for the last 20’. I’m thinking if the clog is that far down how can that really be the problem since the water was backing up and filling the hole almost immediately. The other option was to continue to dig up that line looking for a break. Both options required more work and expense so I had him just cap that line where he had already cut it 3’ or so from the feeder pipe from the tank instead of further digging and exploration. 

I have 12 field lines and didn’t think capping one was going to make any difference in the grand scheme of things. It’s only the two of us after all. We put the hose back into the access to the third tank and filled it until we could hear the pump engage and…nothing. So far so good. He didn’t fill in the trenches yet so I could keep an eye on it and see if it dries up or continues to get wet. So hopefully the problem is fixed. Now Sunday morning at 7:30 it’s almost completely dry, still a little mucky in a couple of spots. 

Later…At 10:00 there’s a little standing water right at the end cap so maybe it’s not completely sealed though it’s such a small amount it may not be a problem. 

Meanwhile…I wrote a while back that I still had five major things to cut back over at my sister’s house; the morning glory bush, the white orchid tree (which freezes down to the ground every winter and comes back so it’s more like a big thorny shrub), the pink trumpet flower bush, the rangoon creeper, and the banana trees. This after I had already cut back a lot of other stuff over there I had planted before we put the house there for Pam. Anyway, I had already done the morning glory bush and part of the pink trumpet flower bush so Saturday I finished that and started on the rangoon creeper which I finished Sunday along with the white orchid tree so that just leaves the banana trees. I’m trying to get it all done and all my spring garden in before my cataract surgery in May. 

Speaking of my spring garden, yesterday another big branch fell off the pecan tree that was so severely damaged by hurricane Beryl last summer and hit the corner of my patio table that my flats of seedlings are on on the way down. Fortunately my seedlings were unharmed but it bent the crap out of the table leg and it now has to be propped up with a brick and three slabs. Surprisingly, it did not break the glass top.

Garden report: A few carrots have finally sprouted and the zinnias are coming up. I bought one more tomato plant and some onion starts yesterday. I tried onions once before with no luck but I have a better area with more sun now so trying again. Seedlings are coming along but not big enough to put in the ground yet.

Things in bloom: the first amaryllis, 

the white bearded iris,

the fringe flower tree,

the freesia laxa which was not completely taken out by the freezes but not the carpet of flowers it could be,

and the wisteria in full bloom. 

On the wild side: the bluebonnets,

and the baby blue eyes.