Daily Archives: May 12, 2014

Of Bugs, Bruises, Blossoms and Boys

Each day fades away into the next and life here at our little plot of ground is moving on.  David and I say almost every day, “Where did the day go?”   I really thought when you were retired or at least semi-retired the days would be long and lazy.   But then, I don’t think either of us would like that too much.  David says if we don’t have something to do, I’ll think of something.  Don’t want to be bored, don’t you know.

This past weekend I walked a 5K MS walk with my daughter and her family and some of her friends.  One who grew up and spent as much time at our house as she did her own at times and we took on a vacation with us to Mammoth Caves.  She now has three children, one as tall as she, and I am feeling old.

The day started out with thunder and lightening and heavy downpours of rain.  But by the time of the walk, the sun shone through and we walked all over our town for 3.1 miles.  It was nice seeing some of the gardens and the older homes that are kept up so nicely.  My grandsons made it the entire walk without one complaint.  I told them they would get ice cream if they walked the entire walk, so after a lunch of pizza, we went over to the local Dairy Queen and got them ice cream.  It was a fun day.

We see our two youngest grandsons more often because they live closer than our other grandchildren.  I would love to see the others more, but they have busy lives too.

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These boys enjoy entertaining us.  We went with them and their parents to a walking and biking trail in Nashville.  It’s about a mile round trip walk.  The boys took their bicycles and practiced riding.  One had just gotten his training wheels off.

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Their father, in the picture, took a fishing pole and caught two fish while we were walking.  Pretty big ones, but he threw them back.

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A few days ago, we saw bug webs in our crabapple tree and David took his blow torch and burned them out.  He said as many dropped from the tree as got burnt up.  And guess where they traveled?  Right to our new porch.  We were sitting out there and started to see worm after worm crawling up the pillars.  Ugly little things that would rear their little ugly heads and wiggle around.   Suddenly, I felt a tickle on my ankle and looked down and there was one of those worms crawling up my leg!  I let out a scream and swatted it off and squashed it.  David and I called them silk worms, but our daughter said she looked them up and they are tent worms.  They do make little tent like webs in the trees around here.

Speaking of legs, oh, I didn’t?  Oh, well.  I have gotten two big bruises on my shins the last couple of weeks.

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This one I haven’t a clue how I got it.  I am always bumping into things while working outside.  This one was a doozy, but didn’t hurt.

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This one on the other leg, however, hurt like the dickens and I know exactly how I got it.  I tripped on a step at our daughter’s house.  I was thinking there were just two steps, but there were three and I went down like a sack of potatoes.  The only thing I could think of when it happened was ” Get the donuts! Get the Donuts.”  I had baked muffin donuts for my grandsons and had been carrying them when I fell.  They have two big dogs that were jumping all around me and I was afraid they would grab the donuts.  All was saved and I survived until the next time I bruise myself which could be any day now.

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Mother’s Day was quiet and nice.  I got this gardenia from my older son.  A Yankee candle gardenia candle came with it.  Gardenias do not survive outside in our winters so I will have to  bring it inside when it gets cold.  I have planted it in a bigger pot and it will get bigger and hopefully bloom this summer.

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David put  new shutters on our upstairs windows this morning.   While he was doing that, the stone masons were putting the stone on our pillars.  I’m really liking how it looks.

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It’s been a month, but we can see the light at the end of the tunnel with the porch building.  It should be done this week unless it rains every day like it is forecasted(okay, I know this is not a word) right now.  We had some thunder and rain this afternoon.

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I’m loving these hanging baskets I got at Smith’s Gardens.

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The snowball bush is loaded with snowballs.   It’s the best it’s ever bloomed since we planted it.

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This Gerbera daisy is so pretty and bright.  This is a wonderful flower that I over winter in my shop and get it out in Spring and it’s just as pretty for another year.

 

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The old fashioned Irises are blooming madly and have spread over much of the yard.

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Then there is the mulch.  The Brown mulch.

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And the black mulch.  Eighty bags in all.  I will spread most of this myself and by the time I am done I will be able to bench press a cast iron skillet.  Ha.  Really, though, I do find I can lift things much easier after hefting this many mulch bags around.

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I guess I won’t be lolling on our front porch any time soon. Won’t look like this either.  Bye.