12 Oakdale

I have been enjoying eating from my garden. Tomato’s: heritage Cherokee and Floridana, Big Boys and Romas. They had small brown worms at first, but eventually either I picked them off, or they matured into butterflies/moths. It stopped being a problem. Every day I have been cutting up a tomato and eating it with salt, pepper, and a little olive oil as a mid morning snack. Three huge papayas have ripened on the 2 Red Queen trees over by the white fence. (Note Chapstick for scale in photo.) Absolutely delicious. The trees were expensive. So I’m going to try to grow more from seeds.  The leeks are doing okay, but need more light. Onions should have been thinned; we are eating them as spring onions. Carrots also needed thinning. We are eating them as minis.  The strawberries are meh. One blueberry plant is dying, another lost most of its berries in a hard rain, the 3rd is now producing enough for me to have a handful on my cereal each morning. Yesterday I saw a mal...

I varnished the porch doors after we moved in. I do pride myself on how good a varnisher I am, and the doors looked great. However, even under cover of the pool screen, our bedroom door has gotten enough sun to ruin the finish. The lowest part was missing varnish so the wood had weathered. Yes, I should have put another coat on every year, but I didn’t, so here we are. My first thought was to give up on the varnish, since I believe I can’t hire anyone to do it as well as I can. Probably not true, but that’s my claim. I also didn’t want to have to do all the work the door would need to look good if I revarnished it: sand to bare wood in some areas, stain, sand, varnish, sand, varnish, etc. I decided to paint it a royal purple which I thought would go with the blue-gray walls. The doors under the lanai are still in good condition, and I decided the purple and the varnish would complement each other. Then I decided it would be a waste to buy paint, when I have almost a full can of varnish...

That’s how many my iPhone recorded this afternoon, walking with Steph and Clara at Epic Universe on the last day of team members’ preview before the grand opening in May. I’m tired. The park is absolutely amazing. So intricate, so many details. After gaping at the front central area (I gaped, they had been before) with celestial area and lagoon, we rode the elevators through the portal to Nintendo World.  I sort of knew some of the games having played, and forgotten, Pikman, plus having been exposed to Mario Brothers. We watched or a while, Clara too, pictures. The stairs down and out were steep. I’m sure there are elevators, but this area was easier on foot. Next up, the Dark Universe and what we call Kyle’s ride, formally titled “Monsters Unchained: the Frankenstein Experiment”, which he worked on for the past year or so. After being in the queue where we listened to an animatronic granddaughter of Dr. Frankenstein tell of her attempt to redeem her family’s name and watched monst...

Dang, I forgot to pack my pajamas. My legs were cold at night, so I woke up enough to find my long socks. At home, I would have clicked on my electric mattress pad and enjoyed a full-body heated experience. We’ve put away the flannel sheets, but decided the one-touch warmth was good for all our aches and pains. Such luxury. Tomorrow night, I’m putting the extra blanket on the bed. I was able to come on my planned visit because Trish and Paul so kindly accepted my offer of a free Florida vacation. Grant is getting around just fine with his walker. He was able to cook bacon to add to the Cobb salad I’d left him when I went to a garden club event a week after he fell. Just needs the right motivation. Now 3 weeks in, he would have been fine home alone, but it was nice to have time for a long visit with his sister and bil. This will be the longest Grant has gotten to see them since 1989, when we rented a house together at the beach in North Carolina Outer Banks. Bella and I are committed to...

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...

Ryann and Patten came up Saturday installed the grab rails in our shower and next to the toilets. He had ordered them using my Amazon account, then switched out the screws for marine grade. I had used my measuring app to send pictures (yes, I’m proud I could do that.) I was nervous about their drilling in our glass shows tiles, but that was the easy part. Of course there weren’t studs where we needed them. Patten drilled a series of small holes from the bedroom side until he found one useable stud. Then he cut holes in the drywall so he could insert 2x4s where he needed to attach the grab bar. Always something. Patten also ordered a shower mat that I returned. Too big and heavy for us. I’ll get a smaller one this week. Lastly, he bought nonslip matting for under what he calls the murder rug, my Persian that I found at Naples beach after Hurricane Donna in 1960. It probably is why Grant fell since it was really slippery. I moved it to the guest bedroom. Closing the barn door after the h...

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...