A Time For Everything

It's gorgeous and cool in the mornings now and I feel the draw to be outside and puttering in the yard.

SOON.

I'm still knee-deep in edits and they're going well. But there's still a long way to go and I can't take the mornings off to putter.

But IF the afternoons start being cooler, then one of these Sundays, I'm going to get the bird feeder / birdbath area fixed up like I've been wanting to since the deep heat of summer and it was tooooooo hot to work outside.

Here's the way it looks now:

There also used to be a weed growing to the right of the birdbath, offering it some shade, but it has since died off and chopped down.

Eventually, these...

 ...will get placed back around that area. I'd dug them up this summer, but that's as far as I got with the project. I have three bags of mulch to make it look neat and tidy, and I'm contemplating buying some sort of flowering tree (hibiscus, maybe?) to plant in there to provide shade and possibly draw humming birds next year.

I'm feeling a trip to Home Depot this weekend coming on... :0)

Have a great weekend.

It's spring in Texas, which mean you have to spend time outside while the weather is nice enough to do so. So I did.

I dragged the kitchen table, which is lightweight and on the small side, to the patio and sat out there for maybe an hour and made some progress on a cross stitch project I'd started last year. It was really pleasant and lovely.

And remember I mentioned that I used to feed the birds...? Well, DD asked me about it and asked me to check at WalMart during my weekly trip to see what they had. Well, they had 20lb. bags of wild bird seed for $7, so I bought some. :0)


So the bird feeder is back in place. I didn't see many birds yesterday, but it does sometimes take a day or two for the birds to realize it's there.

Now that pile of greenery behind it is a very large branch that broke off a very dead tree. It'll get chopped up soon and DH thinks he's going to get around to burning all the logs and branches and sticks we've got piled up around the yard--probably a summer long project...

In other news, the weekend was a productive success. I worked on my WIP early Saturday am as I'd planned and it was lovely! I had a Zoom chat with my writer besties and that was awesome too. And on Sunday, I spent some time working toward creating consistent types and looking files from book to book. Which meant some cleanup on aisles 5, 6, & 7! I didn't get far because of all the various things I found to tweak and then having to circle back to the books I worked on first to make sure they were they way I wanted them to be too.

Hope your weekend was relaxing or productive or whatever you were needing it to be.

Have a great week.

Two years ago, I found a vinca growing up from in between the squares of my patio...

I gently tugged all the plants out of the patio and transplanted them into a planter.

They're doing well even two years later.



Happy Monday!

The Brown-Eyed Girl is coming for a visit and Darling Daughter is moving home to help out for a few months. I'm so excited to see both my girls--now if only Sonshine could make it home, but alas...

In other news--now that maybe the real baby birds have left the nest, Mama and Papa Cardinal have been flying and chirping all around my yard.



...up on the power lines that run from one pole to another across the back end of our yard. Silly puppy!!


Hope you had a lovely weekend.

I haven't had any this year. Usually by now I'm chomping at the bit to do some small project in my yard, but funds have been a little tight, so I didn't even plan anything beyond scrounging up the money to pay the yard guy who was due to start upkeep again after a months' long hiatus. Of course the spring rains have kept everything soggy, which is made worse when the grass is overgrown and the sun can't reach the ground as easily. But we finally had a few days' grace and Lawn Guy came buy yesterday afternoon.

Before:








And after:





There's still some work to do to get it looking like I want it to, but some of that's on me. We've still got large branches down and leaves in the corners. So between now and his next visit, I'm going to get out and enjoy what's left of spring.

Anyone doing any fun yard projects?

Well, it's two weeks since I said good bye to my boy. Early days were tough and I still get misty-eyed every now and again. Sonshine called this past Saturday and seems to be fine. I missed his call, but he talked to his dad...

DD has also been gone more often than not, so the house has been very, very quiet. It's not unpleasant.

I'm still working from home with a couple of trips to the office per week, so that's a good thing.

This past weekend, I spent time getting my back yard cleaned up. After the crazy storm we had a couple of weeks ago, the back yard was pretty rough around the edges. So I mowed and raked and cleaned up the patio and the whole thing looks rather tidy now.

All I have left is to get the chainsaw out and cut the fallen limbs into truck-bed lengths to haul to the dump. I have a lot of yard waste to haul to the dump. At least, two loads, if not three...

Oh, wait--I also need to trim the holly and the wild hedge out front. Which will no doubt add a trip to the dump.

But it's fall y'all and fall is my favorite season, so I'm enjoying all of this outdoor work. I love it when the trees look like this, although that means it's colder than I like.

After losing our two dogs within six month of each other, I was relieved to be pet free for a while. I'd lived with fur all over my house for well over twenty years and looked forward to clean corners and baseboards, as well as a poop-free yard.

And I enjoyed that for almost eight months. Then Rayna came into our lives at the beginning of this year. That story is here. I wasn't really in the market for another dog. After being sans cat for close to a decade I had a hankerin' for some feline companionship. But I also wanted to wait until I was working from home or the kids were gone. Or both. Or who knows. But Rayna needed a home.

Fast forward seven months and I'd like to say how grateful I am to have had her around. We all know the emotional benefits of having a pet, and I have to say I've benefited much from her presence in our family. I won't go into all the sordid details, but my life has been enriched.

So without further ado, some recent pictures of Puppy Face...

She loves to play and we step outside several times in the course of a day to throw her ball. Though not the one pictured. Her preferred ball is a football shaped tennis ball, at the moment.

 Here she is in the office with me. The kids probably aren't home otherwise she'd be next to one of them.

 Rayna's favorite place to be...Sonshine's bed, preferably with Sonshine.

And outside enjoying the sunshine. I'd do that more if I could...

Do you have or have had a beloved pet that you couldn't imagine your life without?

I'm pretty tuckered out and stressed and very glad it's Friday.

On the other hand, I'm the fill-in speaker for my writers group tomorrow...yikes. I'm going to talk about the most common issues I correct while proof reading/copy editing. A subject I know and that other writers should find informative. I hope.

In other news, the de-weeding of the back yard is coming along. Slowly, very slowly. The dandelions seems to mostly be gone, so that's good. And I've deduced there are at least two kinds. Well, I'm sure there multiple varieties, actually, but I think my yard contains two. Along with some other dandelion-like weeds.

But since those don't seem to be growing much anymore--I'm now concentrating on the weed that grows stickers. It looks very much like crab grass, but it, of course, sprouts those blasted stickers. Mostly I try to pull out the whole base of the plant, including the roots. But sometimes I just have to resort to plucking the sticker pods so they don't dry out, fall off and go to seed and infest my poor yard with even more of themselves...

And last for today is my new fan love----the BBC's SHERLOCK. The show is smart and funny and filled with subtext to the nth degree and features the delightful and delicious Benedict Cumberbatch!



Anyone else watching Sherlock? What do you think??

Last week I mentioned I was going to clean out the flower bed. And I did. It looks one hundred times better!

You sorta got a glimpse of how bad it was in the picture of the Sweet Williams. Remember...


Here's a picture of the whole thing before...


And after about twenty minutes of work, here's how it looks now...


Huge difference, huh? Of course, there's a pile of leaves and weeds just outside this shot. I didn't have any yard bags, otherwise they'd have been bagged while I was out there.

Best of all I discovered that one of the Double Shasta Daisy plants *and* the Gerber Daisy plant that the Brown Eyed Girl gave me are still alive! Look...




The Gerbers are nothing more than tender green shoots at this point, but I was very excited to see them.

I'm very glad spring has finally arrived. How about you?

Well, she's knee deep in writing group business. The beginning of the year means the changing of the guard--out with the previous board members, in with the newly elected. Sometimes it's just a shuffle from one position to the next. We lose one or two, gain one or two and everyone else just trades hats.

I love serving my writing group, I really do. I love going to meetings and hanging out with my writer peeps. Writing group day is my one day when I let all my other cares go. I'm gone the whole day, first to meeting, then to hang out with critique partners and other invited friends. I ride with a friend so we have extra time to visit.

This past Saturday was the changing of the guard meeting. My friend, chapter mate, and faithful blog reader Lara was kind enough to open her home to us gaggle of women to get our group on the road to 2014 success. (Thanks, Lara!)

In other news, the yard is frozen. It hasn't had any work done to it in a good month and it needs a pick-me-up pretty bad. On the other hand, it's not the worst it's ever been, so I'm not fretting it too much. There's just been something going on for the last several weeks and when there wasn't, it was just too dang cold to go out.

I spent a couple of weeks on hubby alert. He got a bad case of that flu going around and was laid up at home for a few days. Then, from all the coughing, he ended up with a level three tear in his abdominal wall. If it had been any worse, he'd have had to have surgery to re-attach stuff. Yikes. Until this past Friday, he hasn't driven since when he has to cough, he likes to hunch over to cause the least amount of tug on his belly muscles.

My schedule's been wonky because of DH being sick, and on top of that, the water pump on DD's truck bit the big one, so we were out a vehicle for two weeks. It took a bit longer because we had DD's friend fix it rather than pay a dealership the thousand dollars they quotes us. Instead, we shelled out about $150 in parts and adopted a dog.

This is Rayna...




Her daddy (the friend that fixed DD's truck) lives at home with his parents, as does his sister who has a toddler and a new baby. His parents have been after him to get rid of her because they're worried that she might hurt one or the other of the little ones--not out of aggression, but because she's protective. So we agreed to take her. We babysat her last week and it's going to be a tough adjustment for her. She loves her daddy. I'm thinking she's gonna have to bond with Sonshine. Also, I think I'm going to have to take her to work with me. I don't know that leaving her in a strange house by herself right off the bat is a good idea either. I'll keep you posted.

And last but not least is my continued lack of weight loss. I'm back up around 140lbs, though I haven't gone over but a blip and only once. All the sickies and injuries and crazy schedules and just stuff have conspired to keep me off kilter and seeking comfort in not-so-great food choices. Okay, they're not super bad, it's just that I think I'm eating more that I should be and not drinking enough water. That's gonna end very soon. DH is ready to make healthier choices too.

Well, I think I've gabbed your ear (or eyes?) off enough for today, so I'll sign off.

Hope things are cruising along much better in your neighborhood.

Monday, I started catching up with my pictures I've been taking to share with you all...and continuing today.

So let's see what else has been sitting and waiting...let's go with random backyard wildlife pictures.

Simon the stray cat has been visiting more often of late. He'll come and sleep in random places. Hoping for a feathery birdy treat I'm sure. But I also put out a bowl of fresh water and (cheapo) dry cat food for who-so-ever will eat.






Now I'm not sure the hierarchy between cats and squirrels -- Stevie, one of our resident squirrels, seems to think Simon is a predator. Personally, I think Simon is more interested in the birds than she is in Stevie. Unless Simon's starving, which she's not, there's no reason to try to catch a creature almost as large as she is. And Stevie could probably hold her own.

Anyway the point of that is that last Friday, I dragged the bins to the back gate. And heard Stevie up in the tree chattering angrily. And then I noticed Simon, who I'd startled, curled up alongside the fence. There's maybe ten feet between the tree and the fence and the branch was about fifteen feet up. It really was quite funny. Until I woke her up, Simon was snoozing away, oblivious to Stevie's angry tirade.




Do you have wildlife in your backyard??

Movie Monday is being postponed until next week. I had the movie watched and the post is all ready to go (I swear), but this weekend was so productive and I bought myself a new camera and got some awesome pics that I wanted to share!

So the new camera is a Canon Powershot SX160 IS with a really awesome zoom lens. Much much better than my previous little Kodak. It was a good little camera, but I've gotten to the point where I want closer pics of things that *I* can't get closer too. (pics to follow) And the battery would no longer charge properly. Yeah, sure, I could have bought a new battery, but...see reason above for buying a nicer new one. Got a good deal (I think so, anyway) at Office Depot.

So I finally finished edging the bird feeder bed:


 On Mother's Day I received three miniature rose bushes, one from each of the kids:



Eventually I lost (okay, killed) one of them, but have managed to nurture the other two along. One bloomed a few days ago and the other has a bud... I was very excited to see these.
Several weeks ago, I'd bought a cool hanging planter for them. They've been doing pretty good hanging on the side of the house, and I do mean hanging on the side of the house. Sonshine hung it from a small little plastic bracket right up under the eave holding the coax cable to the house. So the planter has been resting against the brick.

Anyway, a few weeks ago I happened to be in Albertson's and found another mini-rose bush. So I bought it with the intent to transplant it into the bottom pot of the planter. And then I got a bee in my bonnet yesterday to dress up one of my trees. So now I have this:



I poured ceder mulch around the three huge rocks there at the base of my oak tree, then bought a shepherd's crook to hang the planter on. The crook needs to be embedded into the ground better, but I didn't have the weight to get it all the way in, nor did I have a mallet to help me... The roses are shaded through the hottest part of the day and should do great right there. Plus, I can see them from my kitchen window and my office.

And now for the *really* cool pictures that I took yesterday afternoon:



Now, this here is our resident tree lizard. I've named him Handsome. He's been around a few years at least, and it's always fun to watch him scurry around the tree or across the yard.

And this here is Steffi, one of several squirrels that visit our yard. We're pretty sure she's the same one--none of the others seem to eat the squirrel corn. We'd been calling her Steve, but I finally realized she doesn't have boy parts.

And that, my friends, is that. I'll have a 4th of July update on Wednesday.

Okay so where are all the damn birds already?

This past Saturday, morning there were three mourning doves pecking at the last of the dog food I had set out for whatever critters wanted to consume it. I immediately went to The Home Depot and bought a shepherd's crook and a birdbath. Then I hit WalMart to buy bird feeders and bird food.

And as of Sunday morning, I still hadn't seen a dang bird. A month ago, I had cardinals swooping all over the place, as well as a pair of woodpeckers, and several other types of tweeters bathing our yard in song.

I could hear them, perched in the many trees, but I couldn't see them.

Finally, though, Monday evening while sitting on the patio while DH grilled burgers a cardinal swooped in. He found purchase--barely--and nibbled a few seeds. What I discovered is that the perch part of the feeders is not far enough out for the birds to grasp and still lean forward and grab seed. The birds find themselves breast-to-feeder with no way to reach the grub.

After taking a close-up look, DD and I determined that we could easily solve the problem. It's just a matter of finding some popcicle sticks or regular sticks or dowels or something and adding/extending the perch area.

 And looky there--our wild outdoor cat. I've named him Simon. He lives under the shed. He crept out to see if there was any dog food left and to get a drink of water.


Last evening we had several morning doves and a cardinal, and just this morning, I saw a bluejay. Finally!

For the last month, I've been going like gangbusters on the weekends to get my back yard looking nice. Nice being a relative term, of course. I should probably say NICER. And I'm getting there. I've decapitated hundreds of dandelions, picked up petrified dog poop, and trimmed trees. I've even created flower beds after eleven years of living here.

Last weekend I planted shrubs! It was back breaking work--the soil is either full of clay, which isn't too bad to till, or just plain hard and dry and filled with rocks. The section next to the house where I planted my new shrubberies also had huge dried up dollops of cement from when they built the house! Ugh. Needless to say, those bad boys had to be dug out by hand. The dirt had to be sifted and mixed with garden soil and, well, you get the drift.

But with the help of DD and Sonshine, I finally got my Chinese wisteria and pair of azaleas planted.

BEFORE:


DURING:


Sonshine adding the native soil (dirt!) to yet another batch of the native/store-bought soil mixture. You can see everything's in the ground. We're just trying to get enough soil on top of the plants to bring it level with the bricks on the house. We didn't quite make it, even with the cedar mulch, but close enough. I'll add more when I add more plants.

AFTER:

They don't look like much yet, but hopefully in a year or two they'll have filled out quite nicely.

And I'm pooped, but still have a few things to do in the yard and along the stretch of wall on either side of the azaleas, but these things (tilling, hauling the dirt, mixing the dirt, planting the plants) take a surprising amount of time and effort, so I'm pacing myself.

Next up on the TO DO list for the back yard: my bird feeder bed and killing the weeds in the part of the yard that actually has grass still growing!

Any plans for your yard??