12 Oakdale

I’d blame it on the weather which is at the crispy-dry, hotter than blazes, right before the rains start stage, but that’s just part of why I’m so tired, the past week, it has been in the low 90’s by midday. No matter how much water I drink, I’m dehydrated after working in the yard. I’ll get adjusted, but not quite yet.  I did harvest my potatoes, which consisted of lifting up the boxes whose bottoms fell off and running my hands through the dirt. Not a great haul, but they are absolutely delicious. I’ll grow them again next but not in boxes which were difficult to keep watered. Maybe in the ground. Another reason I'm tired is all the house chores falling to me. Even if I’m not actually working on them, they have taken up residence in my brain. The dang toilet seat still isn’t attached. The house is dirty, so I guess I’ll have to find and hire cleaners. I need to get estimates to have the non-blooming magnolia taken down, plus other tree trimming. We got a letter from the IRS sayin...

I was a zone leader again this year for Spring Fever, Bloom and Grow Garden Society’s huge fund raiser. My cohorts and I arrive at 5:45 AM, so vendors can begin offloading and setting up from 6:00-7:00. Last year, we were freezing. This year it was 76° to start and got hotter. My SF t-shirt and high-viz vest were more than enough. Technically opening at 9:00, by 8:00 a lot of the vendors were ready to sell, and customers were there to buy. I cruised all the booths along Plant Street, talking to the several native plant sellers, a vendor with carnivorous plants, and the artist from whom I’d bought a piece last year. I liked the ceramic orchid pots at one booth. Nothing for me today, although the $85 cat sculpture did call to me. Perhaps I’ll grab something when I come back Sunday when I oversee my zone’s closing. Other people were filling their carts, wagons, and pet strollers with plants, mostly the pretty flowering ones. The last 17 days, since Grant’s fall, have stressed me...

I finally had the courage to trim our 3 blackberry bushes. After reading and watching YouTube, I hope I’ve cut back the spent flora canes and left new primo canes to bloom and bear fruit next year. Unless I did it wrong, and we have to wait a whole year. Or if I’ve waited too late in the year. Florida’s growing schedule is so different from the rest of the country. In any case, they are trimmed and tied to their supports. I used the Trellised Production Using Primocane Suppression, TPUPS, system which keeps only 2 primocanes. The volunteer blackberry bushes that sprang up , from roots we didn’t dig out are also tied up. I trimmed off lower leaves (one YouTuber talked a lot about a disease that starts on lower leaves), assuming that all of them were primo canes. They and the bananas will have to work out who owns the area. I used the Florida system for the Roma tomatoes, stringing jute twine back and forth between 3 7’ stakes. The middle plant doesn’t look particularly good. If it doesn...

It has begun to cool in the evenings. Each morning, I open the bedroom and dining room doors, then put up the living room window so Gracie can enjoy looking out. When I hear the AC turn on, I close up the house. Today, the AC never started up. It was 70° outside when we went to bed. It’s Fall. Tuesday, CC and I weeded around the tomato ring. Wednesday, I planted 3 Big Boys, 1 heritage Purple Cherokee, and 1 Florinada around it. At least that’s what I think I planted. All of my labels were faded. I’d started the seeds in pots before we went to New Zealand, and I had anticipated coming home to lush plants. Didn’t happen. After 3 weeks of solid rain, I’d had Steph turn off the mist system. The next 3 weeks were bone dry. I came home to almost bare sticks. Crossing my fingers and planting the little tomatoes deep, I hope we will have some fruit this year. I cobbled together an anti-bunny fence of screen held up with bamboo stakes around the ring. I don’t know if bunnies eat tomatoes, but 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 ...

I can blame some of it on the rotten colds we brought back from California. We were coughing and wheezing for a week, then bone-tired for another. So I’m sure a lot of our crabbiness was due to feeling lousy. Some. However, more than half was from my gradually loosing my ability to be patient, and Grant’s increasingly being annoying. Or perhaps he hasn’t changed, and I’ve just lost way more patience than I’d thought. Plus, I’m feeling so isolated and lonely, which is realistic, because I am isolated and lonely. After living in Central Florida almost 4 years, we are making no friends, barely any acquaintances, and I’m discouraged about that ever happening. This is an insulated community. Nice people, but people who have lived here all their lives. People whose children and grandchildren live here. They have their tribes. In any case, a knockdown drag-out fight after what one would consider a small snippy exchange, but what was probably a cover for all the pent up emotions we both have b...

6:00 AM (EDT): Sitting at the airport, waiting to board for our flight to Portland, Oregon. I had made reservations with TSA, a service provided by Reservations by Clear now available at 6 US airports, and Orlando is one. Which worked well, except our airport shuttle dropped us off at Jet Blue, then we had to walk to Alaska Air to check a bag. Next, we were sent to the Reservations by Clear agent, but we were on the west side of Terminal A and needed to be at the east one, past the center lobby. Fortunately, we had plenty of time. Once my reservation QRC was scanned, again, we walked right up to a TSA agent. So far, so good. I had been in a slight panic on our way to parking at the Marriott hotel, because I’d missed the I-4 on-ramp. Going surface streets to the next ramp added 5 minutes to the drive. We still had 15 minutes to spare before the 5:30 AM hotel shuttle, but we’d learned last time that they wait for no one. One other blip was no parking spaces at the hotel lot, even though ...

The beginning of our third year in central Florida. I’m sure it’s mostly due to still hurting from lifting too much, however, I’m beginning to feel old, I’m sleeping more, and tiring sooner. There certainly isn’t a spring in my step. But I’m not ill, I just hurt. Goals for this year? Definitely, feeling good, even if it means going to the doctor again. I’ve gotten back to exercising with our personal trainer Denny and hadn’t lost as much core strength as I feared. Kristen at PT assigned me some exercises and stretches to get my butt muscles stronger without damaging them. This too shall pass. Just not as fast as I’d like. I can’t work as long in the garden, but that gives me the opportunity to learn to pace myself. Two vegetable beds have their summer crop of okra, cow peas, and sunflowers. The other beds will have cover crop of hemp, or may be just some mulch. The two wild bunnies seem to have eaten all the new corn shoots. I enjoy watching them so I don’t begrudge them this round....

It was the mosquito bite that was the one last pain that put me to weeping as I leaned against our bed, barely able to shuffle off to the bathroom. I was back to what I call T. Rex arms because I have to keep my elbows next to my sides to avoid sharp, stabbing pains. This is from having to lift myself up, rather than using my legs to stand. I tried using my walker, but my shoulders ache too much. I hadn’t found a place I can sit, and sleeping is impossible: I couldn’t lie on my back and turning from one side to the other was agonizing. I was a mess. And we have another damn set of screens out in the pool screen house. After more than 5 weeks of aching legs and a sore, but slightly better, upper back, I gave in and made an appointment with Kirsten at physical therapy and another one with my doctor. Thank goodness. I now have small exercises that relieve some of the pain in my legs, and which Kirsten says will strengthen my muscles and realign my pelvis. Don’t care how they work, I feel ...

  A miniature cool front must have slipped through, because night temperatures now in the mid to high-60s and the daytime cool enough to leave our doors open and the AC off. I am considering a screen for the front door. With cooler weather, I am able to work longer in the garden without exhaustion. I have weeded most of the front beds, putting down more newspaper and pine straw. In the back, on the north garden, I’ve cut back the maypop passion vine, finding several passion fruit on it, to uncover the roses, sugar berry, and non-native blue porter weed. I’m removing more of the last to have room to add native shrubs.  I’ve found 3 sweet potatoes from the vines I started, with probably more waiting for me to dig up. Very reinforcing.The white potato plants disappeared under the weeds while we traveled this summer. I wonder if they will resprout next year. They are on their own, because, if I do try more potatoes, it will be in a basket with hay, thus no digging. The corn, Silve...