Writing through cancer: For the Week of July 28, 2013: What Did You Notice?

I was unable to walk today, I’m not feeling my best, so I stayed close to home. We went to church this morning, but unable to attend tonight. I tell Barry to go without me, but he doesn’t like me home alone. I gave up and quit arguing.

Yesterday,  Barry and I walked the yard and updated our garden journal. I’ll use our stroll around the yard for this post. We started at the front porrch. We have a few Chinese Fringe Flowers that need pruning and a few new spouts have popped up, that need transplanting. A few weeds that need to be handled,  but nothing I cannot do.

My minature butterfly bush has come back out and is almost three feet tall already. I need to work on the decorative well pump by the porch. My butterfly garden is suffering from inattention. The hosta’s have come up beautifully and I have a few that need transplanting this fall. It may take us that long to get the garden back to glory to make room for them. A Sweet Gum Tree has taken root near the water spicket. That needs to go!

On the hill to the right of the house, we have planted two red maples and attempted to handle a bad wash area with monkey grass and lillies. They are filling in nicely. Might take a year or two for it to fill in.
To the left of the new trees, we planted a few Chinese Fringe Flower Shrubs to act as a barrier near the guidewire for the telephone pole. Looking good near the road.

At the drive, I have a combo of old-fashioned lillies, Stella D’odro lillies and knockout roses. We have tons of room to add to this area, I just need to figure out what to add. We recently moved the mailbox to the otherside of the drive. It needs sprucing up.

Down the rightside of the drive, is considered mom’s territory.  We have a couple of things there, we planted prior to mom’s arrival. There are three heavenly Gardenia Shrubs well-established. One blueberry bush is closeby for the local critters to enjoy.

Behind those a Pin Oak is coming in nicely. It is large enough to sit a chair under to enjoy a little shade.  The rest on that side is is mom’s territory. I need to feed her a friendly reminder that she needs to do some weeding.

Under our bedroom window, we discovered a few surprises. Four O’clocks planted a few years ago have come back out and a lantana has popped up thanks to some sweet bird in the yard. It will transplant nicely when the time comes. The Hosta’s have come back out. They are huge and need a new home.

Beside the garage door the Smilix vine and lantana are gorgeous. The ramp and porch are around four feet tall. The lantana has out grown the porch already. The back of the house is more natural. We have two Corkscrew Willow Trees, a beauty berry bush, and one lone Pampas Grass. We need to do more in the back. I’d like to get a few hardscaping projects done. Barry and I will work slowly on those.

There is evidence of unknown wildlife either living or traveling through the yard. We watched a bunny run around for a few minutes. By the driveway, we saw a couple of lizards and salamanders playing aound on the porch. Barry got a wildlife camera for a retirement. We have been attempting to get pictures of what happens in the yard at night. No success yet!

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                                 Gardenias

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                                  Hostas

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                                       Gerber Daisy

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                                   Maggie and Mom’s Iris’s

Lazy Sunday Afternoon…….

I sit here gazing out my rear window, deep in thought. The past few weeks have kept my head in a spin and it can be difficult to get it to slow down, much less stop. There appears to be a storm blowing up. We can always use the rain and it makes our yard nice and perky.

The birds are flying around, squirrels are bustling everywhere and I watched as a wild rabbit scurried into the log he has called home for some time now. Animals are scampering around the yard as if they are about to miss a big sale. The wind has picked up and the leaves on our trees are making that fluttery sound they make when a brisk wind hits. I can hear a few cars buzz by in the distance. Barry is asleep in his chair for an afternoon nap. Maggie just jumped up in my lap, looked up at me and curled up into my 40+ pound lap dog. The wind has the pine trees, over by the driveway, making a creaking sound. It just amazes me, that here sitting by a little window in the house, all those precious noises of nature can be heard and distinguished from one another. God can do some amazing things.

The bird feeders and wind chimes are starting to sway as the breeze grows stronger.The knockout roses seem to be attempting to turn their pots cover on the front porch. Their blooms remaining intact as the sway in the wind. The stormy weather is definitely closer. My breeze has turned into a moderate wind. The Lantana that is just beginning to come out toward the sunlight is starting to get caught in the wind. My native lilies, at the top of the drive, seem to have hundreds of chipmunks or other small creatures wrestling in the leaves. They are preparing to bloom, I hope this weather doesn’t injure the blooms. 

It appears that time has come to ready myself for our evening church services. I hope we can arrive before this weather and get settled inside. Everyone, please have a safe and happy Sunday evening. We  are in for bad weather through the night again, from what our forecasters are saying. Maybe it won’t get too bad. We have only one casualty from last night’s storms. Our garage door opener either bit the dust or somehow managed to be struck by lightning. We’ll find out in the morning. Gonna call Mr. Repairman.

We made it to and from church without getting wet, thank you Lord! Once we got home, got online with our cable provider and found out our wiring is shot outside the house and we have to wait til Tuesday for a repairman. No internet, no cable and no home phone service for three days. Will we survive?? I promise not to injure Barry, but what if he gets mad enough at me? I can’t run anymore.

You all know I’m teasing. I’ll just drag him out of here, shopping. We need a new car. Never hurts to window shop. We can work in the yard, go to the gym, go hiking, go to the movies. There are many ways I can think of to keep Mr. Baynes busy.He might not like spending money, but he’ll survive!