San Diego

Ten days visiting Mary. Lovely weather, a little cool, with one day of what the weather app called drizzle: I felt 3 small drops. With all the rain here a month ago, the wild flowers are beautiful. Yellow asters-like flowers, invasive ice plant and mustard, nasturtiums cover the roadside. We dug Bahia grass out around the plants on the front  corner, making the bed twice as big. Crazy hard work. Then we planted some purple-ish plant, name unknown, and the mountain mahogany they got for free at the Water Conservation Park. Mary had rescued a lantana from a previous planting, which turned out to be two plants, so we separated them and added them to the plot. I collected up all the succulents waiting a home, and we planted them on the street side. With coconut coir mulch and some bark chips, we deemed the area done. Except for the rest of the Bahia grass between the original 2 plants. Mary sprayed weed killer on it, and I covered it with cardboard held down with bags of mulch. With any luck, that should take care of the remaining grass. On the other hand, it is tough stuff, so it may need a couple more rounds of herbicide. Mary can check in a few weeks. 

In the back yard, they had the dead tree and some invasive volunteer trees removed. They are getting quotes for their new retaining wall with a fence on top across the back and a fence along the north side. Their neighbor’s grandsons removed the collapsing shed for just whatever they would get for the metal. (Mary also tipped each $20 as an investment for future work.) She planted more corn, some snow peas, pumpkins, beans, and tomatoes. I wet down the packages of coconut coir and distributed it over the vegetable beds, plus did a general pickup of empty pots and bags of potting soil. We threw so much junk away the big black garbage bin is packed, and she needs to call the city’s bulk pickup to carry away an old water table toy and some tiki torches found in the shed. The Bahia grass from the front filled their green city compost bin, so I started a pile they can throw in after the bin is dumped. It’s where grass needs to be killed anyway, so 2 birds, 1stone.

Bella, Remi and I enjoyed looking at the birds coming to their feeders. To prevent fights over using the binoculars, Mary cleverly taped 2 toilet paper rolls together for extra pairs. Remi kept telling me, “I see you, Grandma.” He claimed he could see the birds using the Nikons. Who knows, but he said he did.

Even though he speaks in a rather flat cadence, his language has become quite advanced. When I showed him a live cam of a red shoulder hawk’s nest with 2 eggs, he explained to me they were going to hatch.

My suitcase is heavier than usually, because I brought my 3# weights to keep up with my arm exercises. It also has 2 new sets of tablecloths and napkins that I bought at the bankruptcy sale of Bed, Bath, and Beyond. The prices weren’t great, just 10-20% off, but now I have linens that fit our table with the leaves we keep in. Plus one set has bunnies embroidered in each corner and was really on sale. I suspect left over from Easter. No matter, I’ll use when it amuses me.

Now sitting on plane. On the way to the airport, we’d stopped by the grand opening of a Randy’s Donuts, but after standing 10 minutes in the non-moving line that stretched around the building, we bailed. An apple fritter, lemon-filled donut, and 10 donut holes from the nearby Goody Doughnut @ $6.75 (+$1.25 I had Bella put in the tip jar) was a better and quicker deal.