12 Oakdale

I’ve concentrated on finishing 3 projects: mittens, charities, and bougainvilleas. First up, the mittens I’d started some time ago with yarn from Mountain Meadow Wool Mill. One was almost done, then set aside.  Not as abandoned as some projects I’ve started, since I bought the yarn after our 2021 trip to Yellowstone. I had planned to finish them before our next trip to cold weather, which turns out to be this Saturday.  Not a difficult project, lovely to the touch wool. Just needed time with needles in my hands. Not too much at once since I haven’t knitted in a while and I didn’t want to aggravate my wrists or shoulders. Fifteen minutes at a time over the past couple of weeks: done. However they are too large for me, so Grant gets a new pair of wool mittens. I will wear my fingerless gloves inside a pair of polyester ones. Should I consider buying more yarn for the next cold weather event? Not until I’ve finished the socks I will make with the yarn I bought last year in Nee Ze...

Sunday, Mary and Ryan left at o’dark hundred so we said goodbye the night before. Never long enough. Up at my usual 5:00, I did my morning rounds of make coffee, feed cat, exercise. Then fill bird feeders. No watering, because the sprinklers run Sunday mornings. At 6:45, after making my daily little drawing, I went to the grocery store to stock the larder for Grant. He will be on his own for the first time since his fall. The drive began in heavy rain, which we desperately need, but couldn’t it wait just another hour? The northbound Turnpike was shut down 20 miles into my trip, so Google rerouted me through Mineola, sending me through a part of central Florida new to me. Back on the Turnpike, just as the rain stopped, I had to drive through a deep puddle in a construction area, which threw mud up on my freshly washed and now rained upon car. It has mud streaks all over. And of course, no more rain predicted for the week. I’d made a PBJ to eat when I got to S...

The last day before we’re gone 6 weeks, visiting Betsy in New Zealand. I am so close to ready. My anxiety is peaking. I’ve worked like the devil in the yard, trimming back and putting down mulch to have it look good while we are gone. CC is coming 3 times to keep it pretty. I fear her spending too much time deadheading salvia and picking little weeds rather than yanking out torpedo grass. C’èst la vie. Note to self: print sign to remind yard guys to leave the cypress needles on the boathouse deck. Last year they blew it all in the canal before I could sweep it up for mulch. Also need to print sign reminding pool guy to keep the screen door closed so Gracie doesn’t leave. That one I’ll do in English, Spanish, and Portuguese. I planted eggplant and southern pea (aka black eye or cow peas) in the vegetable garden. I hope the peas twine up the string I tied to the trellis on the side. My plan is to get them above bunny height. Might work. The rabbits are keeping the sweet potatoes trimmed ...

After 3 days of rain, we are able to work in the yard. I wanted to trim the Japanese blueberries along our neighbor’s fence back to shrub level, rather than the small trees they have grown into. Time for more chainsaw work. And get the brush from a previous trimming reduced to mulch. Daunting work.  Debby came ashore in the Big Bend area, crossing Florida before heading up the coast. We ended up with 3 1/4” of rain and some wind, but thankfully, not enough to take out any more screens. Gracie was dismayed by the dampness, going out under the lanai, then coming back in. She missed her morning bunny watching. We didn’t loose power, only internet, which came back on in time for me to continue watching the Olympics. I’ve restricted myself mostly to the 3-hour evening recap, rather than the all day offerings. Sometimes I hear results before I get to see the event, but I really don’t care.  The day before the hurricane made landfall, Grant put together his 7-story plant tower, a Chr...

We flew the red eye home Thursday morning, landing just a few hours after Spaulding and Molly arrived with Teddy. They were in town for the weekend to celebrate Randy’s wedding. Stephanie picked them up at the airport, and they were all asleep when we got home. With our colds, we were reluctant to hug when they woke up and had to avoid cuddling with Teddy, just admiring the cutie from afar. Grant took Spaulding to pick up a rental car while I slept, then Molly shopped for food to cook. Teddy’s gut is extremely sensitive. Since he is only breastfed, she is on a non-dairy, non-gluten, non- processed foods, non-some other stuff diet to help soothe his tummy. Brava Molly, and it seemed like the regime would be a good one for most all of us to follow. Very healthy. However, it means she really cannot eat out, hence she cooked all her meals for the weekend at our house before they moved to the B&B in Howey in the Hills with the rest of the wedding party. She planned to carry little conta...

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 an...

Thursday we got our second Covid vaccine shot. It took exactly one hour from getting in line to driving away. This time, an Orange County fighter, rather than a nurse, administered the shot. I don’t know if that was the cause, but by evening, my arm was really sore. My shoulder hurts all the time anyway, which I am hoping to deal with by continuing my shoulder exercises. They helped my right one which no longer hurts.  I think I did them both in by over-zealous gardening when we first moved to our little house. If a couple months more of strengthening exercises don’t improve my left shoulder, I’m going back to the orthopedic surgeon to see what is the problem. I digress. My arm hurt like the bejeezus, but I consider it a small price for the relieve of getting the vaccine. Friday morning, we decided to visit Bok Tower to see grasses planted around a bog and a pond, which I learned about at an Orange Audubon Society Zoom meeting. Bok Tower, in my memory, was green lawns and azaleas. ...

My Pumpkin Plant   I wanted to show you my plant that I grew from a seed. After this meeting*, I am going to plant it in my garden. That’s what I am doing while I wait out this pandemic. I am not watching TV or being on social media. I get my news by reading 3 newspapers. One liberal, one conservative and one local. Even with that, I almost missed the most important statement made last week by one of our government officials. On Tuesday, July 15 th , Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said, “If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control.”  Think about that. “If we could get everybody to wear a mask right now, I really do think over the next four, six, eight weeks, we could bring this epidemic under control.”  Let’s use the longest time: eight weeks, that’s about 2 months. If we started today, just t...

Potato Vines   Using my preferred technique of closing the barn door after the horse has bolted, I’ve gotten back to my ab workout now that I pulled my lower back while weeding. One would think that by the time one were 70, one would know that to keep one’s back from hurting, one’s abs need continual strength training, but one would be wrong. Two days of drugs and rest got me through the worst part, but not the frustration and embarrassment. Now, two weeks later, I’m in the habit of daily early morning ab exercise. What has made it easy is RPM, or Rise, Pee, Meditate. A benefit of our continued no-contact world is being able to attend the mindfulness-based stress reduction program presented by a couple from our former congregation. They had offered it previously but my schedule didn’t fit their timetable. Now...my schedule is more flexible. In addition to attending 8 weekly meetings and an all-day workshop, they ask us to meditate daily and listen to their guided body scans. ...

Grant’s Diplomas and Awards  We arranged our diplomas and awards on the office walls. Grant contemplated his, with his Ph D from Cornell in the center, surrounded by other diplomas (high school, bachelors, masters), his Eagle Scout medal, the UF Palm Study award, and his UM Employee of the Year plaque, and said that wall summed up his life. He said it seemed like a lot of work for a few pieces of paper and some shiny bits of metal. I think that’s harsh. The wall shows his official life. What doesn’t show there is his being a husband, a father, now a grandfather, a member of his neighborhood and community. Equally as valuable but without certificates. My area has my Ga Tech diploma and my Phi Kappa Phi honor society recognition. I guess my Naples High School diploma was never framed. Too late now. I also hung the certificate for my National Geographic Society life-time membership that Steve gave to me in 1972. An extravagant gift I still appreciate. My father was also a life...