12 Oakdale

Four day staying at birding friends Launa and Kyle’s condo in Bonita Springs. Each morning, we’d drive to the beach for a couple of hours, sitting in the shade most of the time, then floating in the water for a short time. The first day we struggled to remember how to put up our little cabana, which just goes to show we haven’t been doing it enough. The beach was gorgeous: air temperature was low 90s, however the water was cool and calm, my kind of beach. We watched paddle boarders, jet skiers, and a man on a hovercraft zip back and forth. Only a couple of pelicans, gulls, willets, and terns flying past, so my scope stayed, once again, packed up in the car. Next winter, I’m coming back for all the shore birds. One morning, Sally, who joined us for trip, and I walked on the beach for a while. The rest of the time we were shore potatoes. I am proud both Grant and I can get up from our low beach chairs. I can just use my hands for balance, then get right up. He needs more help, but still!...

With Gracie’s help, I’ve finished the wool neck scarf I started a while ago. I’d ordered the kit from Mountain Meadow Wool Mill in Johnson County, Wyoming, a place we visited when we took Clara to Yellowstone. They buy wool from the local ranchers, trying to keep that industry alive. They also buy wool from university herds, then weave blankets in school colors. The alums love it.  I checked, but University of Florida’s sheep are grown for meat, so no blankets from them. Not surprisingly, University of Miami and Georgia Tech don’t teach agricultural so no sheep. Besides, I have no use for this warm scarf I’ve knitted, much less a heavy wool blanket. Now I’ve started a baby blanket in a washable wool for Molly and Spaulding’s baby, due late November. They are coming in mid-September for a baby shower, so I have an earlier deadline. The pattern isn’t as complicated as the scarf, however there are a lot more stitches. Only 1 more stage of the Tour de France to knit through, but the To...

My July schedule is up at 5:30ish, pee, start coffee, feed cat, exercise, then turn on the Tour de France. Broadcast starts at 6:30. I watch for a couple of hours, eating breakfast while I sit, then out to work in yard until it rains, or I get too hot.  I am finishing the bed by the boathouse from the path over to the rose by Nancy’s fence. The area had already been cleared for a squash bed last year, abandoned until the guys were finished with the deck. I had to pull weeds and all the branches we’d tossed in when we removed the Brazilian pepper from the canal’s edge. I put down new cardboard which Grant covered with the oldest compost we had. Now I’ve planted 5 dwarf Fakahatchee grass (Tripsacum floridanum)  about 18” away from the boathouse fence. I hope their roots will grow deep enough to hold any dirt that would like to wash away. There was one more obvious hole at the deck edge, so Grant dug in some of the leftover tongue and groove boards to fill it.  In front, I l...