Monday, May 07, 2012

Good Morning Sunshine

Another sunny day.  Three in a row.  Amazing.  Yesterday was very busy at work.  We had a ton of people working.  The "season" has begun.  Tomorrow I work until 7 pm. But right now--it's my day off.

I want to thank the reader who recommended The Crown as a book for me to read.  I have it here on my desk and it promises to be exactly what I like.  I am trying to find a quiet space in which to open the book and begin reading.  I have household chores to get done, the dog to walk and gardening to do.  I just had breakfast, my first cup of coffee and hauled all the plants back out on to the deck from the sunporch.  My citrus trees are sending out new shoots and making little flowers.  They are very happy about being outside in the wind, rain and sunshine.

G worked on the woodland site for the planting of our bargain priced dogwood, Janine, which is said to prefer a woodland edge, well drained soil etc.  He raked out the leaves, cut the nasty brush that grows everywhere along the edge of the woods, and piled up the dead branches and tree limbs that winter produces but left the pulling of grass and dead iris leaves for me. this bed now gets  a bit more sun with the absence of the three oaks we had cut down last June.

 He did dig up a wheel barrel of dandelions from the front gardens and put sides on a second new raised bed yesterday plus he walked the dog.  We are changing out the wood sides of our raised beds and making everything straight and even this time.  The beds are (were) a bit wonky.  I didn't manage to get outside to garden on Saturday.  Spent most of my time baking that pie and making the Hunter's Style Chicken Stew.  I also didn't iron the shirts.

I want to get the dogwood planted and start in on the planting of the heather I bought weeks ago.  I have a good rocky area for it.  I purchased a second bag of Grub control for the lawn to kill or stun the Japanese beetle grubs.  It's time for that.  And I may try the Crackpot Master Gardener's Beetle Killing technique.  Squirts of baby powder all over the beetles if beetles do hatch after the grub treatment.  As my son says, even a blind squirrel finds an acorn sometimes.  Something she said might actually work.

I am also interested in seeds for the Celandine Poppy (Stylophorum diphyllum) which is 12 to 18 inches tall, grows in the woodland edges, has yellow flowers.  I have to embrace the woods that surround my house.  I have tried and tried to open the sky, let in the sun, but the trees keep growing and their canopy  is getting deeper and darker. Ferns.  Yes, I may have to buy ferns.

My daughter left a gift and two cards for me.  She thought yesterday was Mother's Day.  After two years of celebrating EVERY holiday with a family gathering and a meal with L's family, she has lost her holiday compass.  She forgot Easter (tried to do her grocery shopping Easter morning) and now has gotten Mother's Day wrong.  Here, at home, we don't celebrate much of anything except Christmas with a Christmas tree and little else.  No holiday dinners.  Sad but true.  I wish we had had that type of family but it wasn't meant to be.  I envy people with large extended families.  It must be lovely to have that in your lives.  Like I have said, our family DNA must tilt toward solitary lives.  Not lonely or sad.  Just singular and solitary.

My mood has shifted to positive.  I pumped my own gas yesterday.  A rare and transcendent experience. I was the person the young people (at work) came to when they wanted to express their exasperation.  I had none.  A relief.  I am wanting to make another fabric piece.  I am wanting to purchase a gelli plate and make prints.  I am wanting to plant seeds in my garden.  I am wanting.  To do things.  Feels good.

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