12 Oakdale

I find it takes me at least a day to recover (somewhat) from a trip. I had paid for upgrades to first class, $221 each, for our red eye home. Although it was nice to have dinner, I wasn’t impressed. Perhaps there was a footrest I could figure out, but I have slept better in the narrower seats in premium. Meh. We slept most of the morning, had lunch, then napped. By the next day, I was somewhat myself. Not quite on East Coast time, but getting there. Now it’s catch up time. Yard: I must take down the lychee and get the bananas planted across the canal-side in its place. They are starting to work on the opposite lot, and I want my privacy plants up and tall. I’ll plant more elderberry at the water’s edge, and clear out around the swamp maples and cypress, which are natives. But first, bananas. I harvested my onions: Texas Sweets, Red Creole, and Texas Early Whites. I’m pleased with the crop. Next year, I hope to do it a little earlier, so I can braid the tops. Since I hadn’t dug up all t...

At the macro level, our dear leader has abducted a country’s president, bad guy that he is; ICE has murdered an American citizen; and war continues in Ukraine. Empathy is out of style. The golden rule has been abandoned. I write my representatives and despair. On the micro level, my life is good. That also makes me despair because life is so unfair. What to do? Because the weather has been delightful, I can spend time each morning painting, rather than having to be in the yard at o’dark hundred to avoid the heat. I have signed up with another online teacher and am completing her 30-day beginner boot camp, committing to painting every day for a month. I bought the large quill brush she recommended and am getting much better in creating large washes and shading. Already I can see vast improvement in my work. I am continuing with this year’s 100 Tiny Paintings with my original teacher. Another macro and micro. I am using a list making technique of “Must Do”, “Should Do”, and “Don’t You Da...

I am fairly worn, and it’s only been 3 days of minion duty. In addition to my usual household duties, I’ve cooked, loaded and offloaded dishwasher, changed the sheets, done the laundry, cleaned the kitty litter, and put the garbage out. First time in years. I’ve also helped Grant with compression socks (my sitting on floor to do so), changed his clothes, climbed over the couch to set up heating pad, etc. No complaints, glad to be able to do all this. Just more than I’m used to. He can hobble with the walker from bedroom to living room to office. Fortunately, March Madness has started, with UF ranked #1. Much, much basketball to keep him occupied. On the upside, since I’m not going anywhere, I have worked hard in the yard. I moved the 2 small pines,  perhaps long leaf ( Pinus palustris ?), that volunteered to grow exactly under the power lines in our central front bed. After reading about how to dig them up and hoping they hadn’t developed a long taproot, I dug around their trunks a...

I now understand why people wear pajamas: getting into a bed with cold sheets is not fun with bare legs. At home, we turn on the electric mattress pad. Here, at Silver Springs State Park near Ocala and when we were in Utah, it was pjs for me. Even with the heat on at a comfortable 66°, the sheets were chilly and took a while with body heat to warm up. One more thing I never knew in South Florida. We spent 4 days with our cabin camping crew. This is our first time at this park. The 2-bedroom cabins have huge rooms and wraparound screen porches, which would be lovely in warmer weather. Their shaded seating wasn’t for us this trip. The mornings were in the high 30’s; the days were sunny 60’s.  We took the hour and a half glass bottomed boat ride and saw 17 species of birds and some of the macaque monkeys that are descendants from a group released over a hundred years ago. A few years ago, the state tried to remove them all since they are nonnative and do much harm, but the brouhaha th...