It was Mr. Toad's Wild Ride all through the night............. Cliff loved electronic gadgets so we had three weather alert radios in this little house. One was placed on top of the fridge. Another in the big bedroom and one positioned by his recliner along with his fire radio, pager, and TV remote. Oh, and his iPhone and iPad. Everything a techie needed within reach. Every so often there would be a chuckle from the recliner that he couldn't the channel with his cell phone. I did keep the weather alert by his recliner which is now favorite place. From that position I can see the HB feeder and bird swing and the one seed feeder. The weather alert sounded five times throughout the night for storm and tornado warnings for Cherokee County and Murphy. I listened then fell asleep again. When it went off again at 5:45 I just got up and after checking the map figured I had enough time for a quick wake-up shower. This ...
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" I can't get you out of my heart. Without you I'm lonely. My heart wants you only." Ti amo,-ti voglio, amor Jerry Vale I listen to Italian songs on my Pandora all the time. We're in for a week of rainy days, not continuous rain so it's not bad, just typical Spring rainy periods. It's not cold so I'm thrilled. This is my time of year. The past couple of days the trees have exploded with new green leaves. Feels like a topical rain forest which I love. My gardens are happy. Nights are warmer, fifties and sixties, and weeds are running the show. It's only been a couple of weeks since my Carolina wrens fledged from their covered porch nest and a new nest is under construction in the geranium window box. Luckily the house staining didn't interfere with the building. Sonny removed the box and placed it under trees while staining the front south side of the house returning the box before he left Th...
Our last cold spell is this weekend, the blackberry winter. I got to the Murphy farmers market by 9 this morning to buy a bag of fresh crisp spinach and a huge head of butter crunch lettuce which will last one person two weeks. Fresh greens go quickly and our small market has only two farmers right now. My plan was to walk the river loop after the market but the wind picked up and a cool misty rain changed my mind. I have "empty nest" syndrome again........... I slowly walked over to the nest to check if the babies were still inside the nest and caught this one sitting on the edge. When I came back with my phone it was hiding but I took the picture and as I slowly walked away it jumped out of the box and flapped to the porch floor probably thinking "monster alert!" It hopped around the floor flapping but not becoming airborne. I left it lone so parents could tend to it, took the Toyota and went to Lowe's. Lowe's was so mobbed with mulch and plan...
It's raining so I can't go out and play............... Last night after showering at 8:30 and turning off the TV I sat out on the back porch, no lights on, and listened to the night sounds. Sky was cloudy so no stars were visible but I did watch the fireflies flicking. According to the Farmers Almanac these are actually dormant beetles that emerge in warm humid weather so we are seeing them early. Last night at 9 our temperature was still near 70 degrees. Off in the distance I heard the whippoorwills calling. Perfect spring night...................... I've been busy the past couple of days getting the porch ready for pressure washing and staining. Finally did the last cleaning today. Pressure washing tomorrow. It's amazing how much stuff I had to remove and get off the porch. I didn't think I had collected that much. The HB feeders will stay up until the guy gets here. I'm concerned about the baby Carolina wrens that are ...
Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson wrote the lyrics to "It's My Lazy Day." ....Well, it must be the season No rhyme or no reason I'm takin' it easy It's my lazy day. When I got up this morning and knew I didn't need to go to town or get the mail or make a pie, I thought today was going to be my lazy day. I showered but dressed in loose yoga pants and a loose warm pullover, did thirty minutes of lazy yin yoga, which consists of laying on the mat and holding the pose for three minutes before taking a different stretching pose. I discovered yin, which is perfect for aging joints or soreness from overworking in the gardens and just before crawling under the covers at night, a few years ago. After eating a hot oatmeal breakfast , I made a cozy mug of tea and headed for the recliner to sit and watch the birds gather the sunflower feeder. And there I sat enjoying the quiet. I think I dreaded the freezing temperatures returning ev...
Temperatures behaved like a roller coaster these past five to six days dipping to twenty some nights. Most of the houseplants stayed in the sunny windows day and night except for the cold hardy collards and arugula. Those containers got moved up against the house on the covered porch and I put plastic and a large tablecloth over them. Tonight should be in the mid-forties so everything stay out except the baby transplants I just did today. It took me two days to vacuum over the weekend when I decided to move some furniture which started my going through magazines, keep...not keep, then vacuuming the recliner seats and sucking up only one of my favorite new socks. It's that definite sound of an object quickly disappearing up the vacuum tube when you realize that sock is a goner. Decided not to cut the Miele vacuum bag open. They are expensive and that's the last one until I order more from Amazon. They are very efficient bags trapping over 9...
In my head, spring has arrived................ The Carolina wrens agrees. The pair built this tunnel nest in two days. I've seen late winters that they build but abandon and other times the female lays her four to five eggs and sets on them through the bitter cold nights. We can still see a snowstorm one day and seventy degrees the next, especially during March's transitioning from winter to spring. A few weeks ago I started assembling my new raised gardens and thinking about where the gardens would receive the amount of sunlight certain plants require. The heavy wine barrel gardens had been scattered around and needed to be moved back into the sunlight. The only way I could moved them myself was to dig all the dirt out and put the dirt elsewhere. So a few days ago I started shoveling dirt into the wheelbarrow, moved closer to the raised gardens, and shoveled that soil into the new empty raised beds. Once I emptied the barrel I...