Hot Hot Hot

I am sweating- I mean sitting- in my mudroom in front of a tiny fan. Hopefully, later this p.m. I will venture out into the jungle that was once a manicured lawn and beds. While I seemed to be on Hiatus, the things around me were definately not! Now I have to play catch-up. There will be tons of clippings and pruning and Oh MY God ---The WEEDS! The finances will not be available till the Sept check to fix the altenator in my beloved little truck, so I will load all debris in the back of the bed for now in barrels. The nice thing about this month is a lion's share of lillies and Feverfew and Phlox and Clematis are going crazy in the heat and humidity! I have color everywhere! Just wish I had a camera to share this with all of you. Maybe Santa will get the memo???  Those stinkey "Josee" lilacs are blooming again, so I view them from afar. Some sunflowers the birds planted are huge and I can't wait for the blooms. Each year the birds pick  some of the seeds to snack on  and in flight they drop some. They show up all around the yard. It is fun to see where 'nature" plans things to be. There seems to be a redundancy in my thoughts today. Both entries contain similar things. Sorry.

Summer sweat--or sweet

As I sit in my mudroom, it is soooooo muggy and stickey here my glasses are fogging up! Later on this eve I purpose to get after all the double didget high weeds that have established a home in all of my beds Seems like they don't take breaks like some of us people do. I am going to load up five gallon pails and barrels because my truck is not drivable at the moment.                                         Getting money for my altenator is looking like it will have to come from September 3rd's check. I can just load all barrels and put them in the back bed of my truck for storage. I could never own a landscaping company because in extreme summer weather, while the weeds still grow, the grass still needs cutting, the hedges still need clipping to keep up their pristine appearance, o'l Kathy Lynch is melting away in some corner of her mudroom. Some guys are out there even working construction on the highways!!Hats off to them! As long as I am a "fattie-Boom-balattie",  this shall be my lot in life. But I can really hustle in cooler weather!                 One thing I keep a record of each year is the first time I see a lightning bug. This goes way back to my younger years. I have a very fond memory of these little creatures. When I was back at home, I left for work each morning at 6:45. There was a neighbor I had a crush on and he happened to be comming home from his third shift job around the same time. Every morning we would pass each other at the same time, same spot on the road. Well, what was a girl to do to speed up the natural course of things????? I hatched a plan. Because we passed every morning at the same spot, I started to wave each day. He started waving back. I let this go for a while, then moved to part "B" of my idea. One day, I left a few minutes earlier. I pulled to the side of the road, and parked. I opened my hood and stood there like a damsel in distress. When the object of my affection came up the street, as  I was hoping, he stopped to  assist. By the time we parted ways that day, I had arranged to have him come over that weekend to ride horses with me. This started a summer romance. We spent lots of nights drinking "Boones Farm" wine, going to concerts in Boston seeing groups like Santana, J Giles, Traffic, and the rest of the groups that toured at that time. We also enjoyed the frequent availability of Marijuana. He was 6 and 1/2 feet tall and had long blond hair and for a vehicle he drove a hearse! I was head over heels. Well, one night we were parked on my back road, drinking a little, smoking a little, listening to music, and there were lots of lightning bugs flitting outside the window. I got out and started to catch them in my hands. I let them all go free to fly inside the back of the hearse. It was like a twinkling little light show. After a while, we released them all back outside. No bugs were harmed in the making of this memory....Oh, to be 18 again.....and young and foolish...   Well, now back to boring reality, being grown up, responsible, law abiding, blaah blaah..blaah. Thanks for the memories, Earl,,, where ever you are. At least I still have those little harbingers of summer.

Betcha Didn't Even Know I Was Gone

        Hi there!!!Thanks to a dear friend of my brother, I have been able to borrow one of her computers...She builds them as a hobby!~!!!! I feel really dumb now...  Here is a new entry..                I just came in the house. Picked up the "poop", cut some hedges, gave my Kiwi vines a severe haircut. And a brisk talking to. If there are no fruit for next year's harvest, there will be a "pulling out party" and there will be some grapes in their place!!! This is the third year there were blossoms and the next time I looked, there were none !!!!. Grapes, on the other hand, always do well for me. I have been sweet-talking and coddling two males and one female Kiwi for five years and my patience has run out..I want some fruit Dammit!! I have a Niagara and a Cadence (?) grape and never ever do they give me a hard time. Maybe I should leave the Kiwi's to the Australians???? This variety was guaranteed to  grow in zone 5. My house is zone 6, so I figured, no problem. Oh well.                                    This week I finished all projects in my front yard. Holly hedges all clipped neatly and swept . Trial and error and bloody fingers taught me that to control and trim 30 feet of hedging you use hedge clippers, a metal rake to pull the  clippings on the ground, a snow shovel to pick them up and place them in a barrel, and of COURSE leather garden gloves. They sure look spiffy when they are all done and already two neighbors commented on them. I used a tree saw to trim the unruly sprouts my Dogwood seems to develop each spring, and just might start calling it "Alfalfa" after the comic character with the wild hair. The Josee lilacs have finished their first bloom, and now is haircut time for them too.(Some of you might remember I thought their fragrance was less than desirable) If you deadhead, they bloom continuously through fall. I don't care for the smell, but the flowers rock! The lawn is cut, weeds pulled in the beds, Rhodies have all been deadheaded, and I even put a pot of Roses on my front step.I should take a picture, and a family visiting my neighbor actually did. The father walked up and asked if he could take pictures of my gardens to bring home to Texas.What was really cool was a big butterfly landed on the bush at that moment! Well, that about does it for this time, keep digging!!!

Happy Spring!!!!

          Happy Spring!!   I don't know about anyone else, but this winter seemed exceptionally rough on these ol' bones. Thank God that spring is faithful. Lots of downed branches and winter kill this time. For the last few days I have been working in the front yard. I always work there first 'cuz that's what the folks see from the street. My back is totally surrounded by a stockade fence. Weeds will be gone with about two hours of additional work. Daffodils almost open, Rhodies have fat buds, Josie lilacs budding. (For the record, the catalogs always say these little lilacs are "fragrant". These are the only lilacs I have to say "they STINK"). Love all my other types, sniff them continuously, but Josie --- not at all.    Planted two Primroses the other day, that's the first color. Got six giant lilies from Publisher's Clearing House; believe it or not, they are a great source for plants that you cannot find locally. These look like Easter lilies but the flowers are enormous.                                                                                                           Got some Siberian Iris and a couple of Red Hot Pokers from Wal-Mart. Phlox to come, and several Clematis to plant. There are several seed flats I started a couple of weeks ago which have all been moved to the driveway. I simply cannot help myself. Never met a plant I didn't like. Oh yeah, I also got a dwarf peach tree to replace the one that died a couple of years ago. A note to first time fruit growers; I know from first hand experience, as heart wrenching as it will be, you have to thin out your fruit crop to about one fruit per inch on the tree. As a new mommy, the first time my old peach tree got blossoms, I didn't want to thin one single precious peach off, and hence they had no room. They need air space between them so they can grow large and free. My peaches that first year were too close together hence were touching as they got bigger. This lends itself to rot and scale and all sorts of other problems. Add a few deformed fruit and a recipe for disaster- and insects. So please, please, thin that fruit in the beginning.                                                                                                                         Since that lesson with the peaches, my apple tree,(Granny Smith) and my plum do very well at harvest time. My berry patch from last year and the strawberries in their raised bed should be well established this season. Too bad to enjoy all this labor I seem to be wishing my life away. The Rhubarb I divided will be several plants this year. Gotta get stocking up on my canning jar supply.   Got do a lot of "putting up'. I actually own two water bath canners. They run double duty. You can keep one full of water on the stove in the winter to add humidity to your air and this keeps your heating bills lower. Periodically I boil the contents and let it cool. That's the old farmer in me.                                                          My Daffy-dills are open, the lilacs all have fat buds, and the tulips are finally showing some signs of promise. The plum tree should be in full bloom this week. I have already had to change the bait in my Yellow-jacket trap once. Those buggers wait for nobody; they especially are fond of my garden shed. This week I finished all the winter clean-up and can relax for the fun stuff now. Happy Digging!!!!                                                     

            Here I am, counting the days till I can get moving outside again. Big case of cabin fever. There is quite a lot of ice in the driveway, so there I will spend some time this afternoon. Chopping. My houseplants are all fed, watered, and waiting for warmer days to take their summer places in the driveway. I include in this list several Geraniums that have gotten really large over the winter. Red, white, and pink. My Oxalis are starting to bloom as well. One fine day there will be several months of dog poop to scoop up and hide in the trash barrel as well. Butch doesn't pick up after himself. I guess that's the price one pays for unconditional companionship. I have to wonder if I am the only person that feels like after a long sedentary winter my pants seem a smidge tight..Thankfully, those extra lbs. will go as soon as I start to get outside. I have only seen one Cardinal this season, and no spring birds yet. They should be on their way, it's 45 degrees today and promises to be warmer all week. I have to top off my feeder. Seed is a little low. The stores will have their spring plants very soon, Joy Joy Joy!!!!