With all that's been going on lately it's hard to keep you up to date. After the storms we had lots of branches down in the yard. Well, as you know, you can't mow until all those branches have been picked up. So around the property Wally went on the 4 wheeler pulling the little red trailer along behind. As he came to the downed branches, he picked them up and loaded them on the trailer. From there they go to the burn pile which is, by now, about 10-12 feet tall. Yeah - we had LOTS of downed branches...lol.
While he cleaned up the yard, I pulled weeds in my garden - not the vegetable garden, the flower garden. The vegetable garden is going to take some work before the tomatoes can go in...I didn't think the weeds would grow back like they did but that's what I get for not thinking! I enjoy the time I spend out there so it doesn't really feel like work. It feels productive, indeed it's exercise which I desperately need after the sedentary life we led through the winter. The flower garden wasn't so bad - only a few handfuls here and there and I was done.
Moving on to the day lilies in the front yard proved to be beyond my stamina range. Nope - I didn't have what it takes to divide those clumps. I'll have to get the shovel out next weekend and try again. Some days are like that :) I had plenty of other things to do for sure. I emptied out the water from the planters that I hope to soon be planting my geraniums in. I searched high and low for any signs of the 4 O'clocks I planted months ago but to no avail. Once again I buried the Caladium bulbs (darn squirrels!) only this time I put a couple of them in pots to see if they fair any better.
The property is so beautiful this time of year that I find myself looking for reasons to go outside and be a part of it. Sitting on a chair on the front porch, peas or no peas, has quickly become a favorite past time. For those of you who have been here - I know you know what I mean. From the front porch, you can have full sunshine on you with a light breeze coming off the hill or from the back porch, you can have full shade with a view of the woods behind the cabin. Either way your eyes will be filled with beauty and your body will be filled with fresh, springtime cool, mountain air. Breathe.......................
I was talking to Mom on the phone the other day trying to describe what my view looks like on the drive home. There are hundreds of trees and it seems each one is a different shade of green. There are far too many to try and put a name on them but I swear Crayola could make a whole box of crayons a different shade of green if they copied the trees up here. I'm talking about the big box of crayons - the one with the useless sharpener on the back! lol
There are still many flowers blooming, from irises to roses to peonies to wild flowers. Everywhere you look, you're sure to see some sort of flowers. Maybe not in my yard...hahahaha but definitely along the roadside and in other people's yards. Speaking of other people's yards, I've noticed that those folks who planted their tomatoes before all the rains came have had to stake them up. I guess the rains were so strong and heavy that the little tomatoes couldn't take it. I'm glad now that I waited although I'm beginning to feel kind of restless about not having them in the ground yet...jeez, it's May 5th already! By the way, Happy Cinco De Mayo (5th of May).
I imagine in FL the tomatoes are just about done coming in and yet here, I don't even have them in the ground. Can you get a feel for my restlessness...?
On to more interesting stuff...We're having a cookout this weekend, the first one of the year, and Claudia is bringing me some tomatoes that she started in her greenhouse. I don't know what kind they are but it's very sweet of her to donate them to a worthy cause :) lol Darryl says he has some too and will bring them when he comes out on Saturday.
People are really generous around here...When we went to Pee Wee's last night, Darryl loaded my car with 4 dozen farm fresh eggs and another friend of ours added 3 big, huge, vidalia onions to the box. Eggs and onions and I didn't even ask for either of them. That's just how it is. Of course I brought Darryl a baggie full of the leftover smoked ham and he'll benefit from breakfast when he shows up Saturday. He always comes over early and helps to get things ready.
I'll be mowing the front yard up by the hitching posts because the bush-hog is too big to get in that space without running over all my plants. Wally will take care of bush-hogging the rest of the property - it's too big to mow the whole place but the bush-hog takes care of it quite well :) Those are the early morning chores in preparation for the cookout. From there it's pressure washing the porches, cleaning the lawn chairs, making sure Dizzy's Apt. has plenty of tp, hand soap and a towel and piling up wood for the smoker.
I'm making my famous marinated mushrooms and a 7 layer Mexican dip and if Jack will give me his recipe, I'd like to make his "cowboy beans" too. Kurt insisted on bringing the deviled eggs and Claudia is bringing her German potato salad. I don't know what's in it, but it's very tasty! Another guy we talked to last night is coming over and he asked if he could bring baked potato salad...whatever that is, I don't know, but it sounded good to me so we said "sure!" With 4 whole chickens in the smoker and 20 lbs of leg quarters on the grill, I think we'll have plenty of food. We might even have leftovers...lol!!
For those who spend the night, and most of them do, I'll have a breakfast casserole already made up and waiting to go in the oven first thing Sunday morning. It's a very simple concoction of eggs, cheese, smoked sausage, onions, peppers and tomatoes all mixed together with some salt, dill and black pepper and baked in the oven. Only fresh dill in this recipe please - it really does make all the difference in the world. I make enough to fill a cake pan so there's no worry about not having enough. Besides, if there isn't enough, they can always grab some leftover chicken...hahaha!
Somehow I got off track, did you notice that? I was talking about working in the yard and ended up talking about food...lol!
Here's a short story for you...I hope I haven't told it before but if I have, just pretend I didn't...
When I first moved into my own place, I wanted to plant flowers (some things never change). Aunt Karen always had the prettiest flower garden out in front of the Longwood house (how well I remember Mucher's lavender rose and the Mars plant) so I took note of what she had growing there. After some discussion, we decided to purchase geraniums for our gardens that year and headed off to the garden center.
Purchases in hand, we went home to our respective gardens and planted our geraniums. We cared for them ever so lovingly; watering only when needed, making sure they had ample sunlight and no bugs to bother them. Though our efforts were sincere, we found that our geraniums weren't responding very well and they both perished right around the same time.
Not to be deterred, the following year we headed out to the garden center once again. Again we purchased our geraniums, took them home, planted and cared for them as if they were prized possessions. Again, they both perished. At this point Aunt Karen dubbed them our "annual sacrifice" and for years we carried on the tradition. I think I was able to keep one alive for a whole year one time...we considered it some sort of freaky gardening miracle.
So a few weeks ago Aunt Karen called to say she had purchased her "annual sacrifice" and had planted it as always. The geraniums weren't available here yet so I wasn't able to plant one at the same time as she did. But I'm telling you this story because I was able to purchase two, nice, big, red-flowering, geraniums yesterday at Fred's and I'm happy to say that I'm now in the running :) :) :) We'll see who is able to keep their geranium alive the longest and even though there's little hope either will survive, we'll continue to buy them every year! Now that's a family tradition worth writing about! Of course, anything involving Aunt Karen is worth writing about. She's the best!
I left the house a little later than usual this morning with the hope that I would see some deer on my ride in to work. The sun was just coming up when I walked out the door and I could see it's red glow hovering just above the trees as I headed off up the driveway. It was harder than ever to leave... imagine if you will, 58 degrees, sun coming up, cabin peaceful and quiet, roosters not so much - just me and the morning sights and sounds. Then reality hits me and away I go...
It's not so bad at all really, this ride to work of mine. As I've said before there's very little traffic and at this time of the morning people seem to be going at a more relaxed pace. The gas stations are lit up and open to serve travelers getting their morning coffee and home made biscuits with chicken, tenderloin or fried bologna. There's only one McDonalds on my 37 mile trip and rarely is it doing any business in the morning. There's no Wal-mart, no Walgreens, no CVS. There is a Pizza Hut, a Fred's and a Dollar General but that's about it other than a couple of liquor stores and car washes. It always seems strange to me to see people at the car wash so early in the morning. It's not the kind of car wash you drive through but rather the kind where you do the washing yourself.
On this day the deer eluded me but the fog over the water was pretty and when I crossed over the bridges it seemed as if I were floating on the fog. It was very thick and so completely surrounded the bridges that all I could see were the roads and the pure, white, fog on either side of them. Not a bad way to go at all.
As you can tell we are quite busy this time of year. We have lots to do and great weather to do it in. We have friends coming to visit, gardens to tend, animals to play with and food to cook and eat. We would love to have you come for a visit as well. In case I don't get a chance to write again tomorrow, I hope you have a friend filled, Happy Mother's Day, relaxing weekend :)
"Hospitality, n. The virtue which induces us to feed and lodge certain persons who are not in need of food and lodging." ~Ambrose Bierce, The Devil's Dictionary, 1911
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