Busy, but Not Crazy

 The last couple of months have been busy. Now, if I could only remember with what.

This past weekend, we celebrated my father-in-law Leo's 90th birthday. Ward did a lamb roast for his father per his request. Ward had never done one before, so much research was needed. He learned a lot from the experience but probably won't do it again.

My FIL's 1st dog. His mother went on
to raise collies for the next 50 years.

As I have mentioned here before, I put together a "This is Your Life" type book for my FIL. I spent a lot of time on it over the past couple of months, but it turned out well. Leo (and others) are thrilled with it. It was fun to watch him see a picture and launch into a story. He's a good storyteller. So now, all that's left is to organize the hundreds of photographs and papers I didn't use into some kind of order and return them to my FIL. Let me explain a bit about that. When Leo's mother died, he inherited all of her pictures and papers. Somehow, I got roped into going through them, which was not easy since I didn't know many of the people or things I was looking at. And there were very few labels on items. Anyway, I have gone through 3 big tubs of things so far that I returned and had another at our house to sort through. That's where I got some of the material that went into the book. The rest is strewn about in a mess. My goal is to work a little on it each day, so I can return it to Leo sooner rather than later.

And speaking of stories from the past, sometime I will get back to my Storyworth book. I have a hard copy, but it is in sore need of editing for typos before anything else happens with it. But that's not happening anytime soon.

One of the things I kept from my parent's boxes.
My idea is to plant herbs in it for the kitchen.
We shall see if that happens.

But back to recent activities. My nephew got married in May, so we were privileged to attend the happy occasion. My sister from Maine was in town, so it was nice to have all four sisters together again. There was more looking to the past when we spent a couple of days going through boxes in my garage from my parent's house. We put them there several years ago when we cleaned out their house. They were full of things we weren't ready to get rid of but not sure what to do with. Now, most things have been decided on, and I have a few follow-through things to do to complete the job. I have one of those ready for today- a package of mementos to mail to my cousin.

Annie

And as you know, we are down to one cat now because Leo died last month. Now, we're trying to figure out Annie, our only remaining cat. She and Leo were littermates and had never been separated. I wouldn't say that she seems lost without him. However, we are finding places around the house where she is now peeing. Whether that is coming from old age (19 1/2 years) or a reaction to being alone, we don't know. But it's a problem. We've moved litterboxes around to hopefully help. In the meantime, Ward has had to take the Roomba apart twice to try to get the pee out.

And this time of year, there's plenty to do outside. We don't have everything done that needs to be done, but we are making progress. Slow and steady wins the race, right?

Until next time...

Comment: Sorry about all of the different font sizes. I am happy to have Google's services, but sometimes you get what you pay for. (Blogger is free.)

A Second Look

 If you read here, years ago, I did a weekly feature to see what was happening around my yard. I called it a Second Look. (Here's the post that started it all.) I did modified versions of it after we moved, but our new yard didn't seem as interesting, so I gave up on it. But it seems that's the kind of posts I'm doing recently, so I'm bringing back a Second Look.

BTW, still busy here, but hopefully next week, after things slow down a little, I'll check back in with more news. But until then, here's this week's Second Look.

All of our dianthus died over the winter except this one little clump
with this one little flower. 

Remember the fig tree that grew wildly last summer? We transplanted it in the fall from the pot it was in to this spot. I think the transplant went okay, but the branches did not survive the single-digit temps we had in December. However, we are getting growth from the roots. Apparently, this is typical for figs in our area. So, if all goes well, we will have a healthy fig bush instead of a dead fig tree.

We have two poppy plants that the previous owner planted. However, the spot they are in is now shaded and covered with ground cover. Last year, we had no blooms, so I didn't expect any this year. But a few days ago, I spied a spot of red in the bed and found we did have a bloom. However, I missed its peak, so you see a picture of a faded bloom.

We've been having some haze and redder suns from the wildfires in Canada.

I am particularly happy we have our first blooms from these Siberian irises. We had a lot of these at our old house, enough so that I gave a bunch to a friend. She grew them for a while and then gave some back to me. So, these were originally mine. This house is a much better fit than our old one, but I miss the yard and flowers we had there. So having a bit of the old at our new house makes me happy.

A surprise azalea bloom.

Bachalor's buttons

Robins have been building nests on top of our porch support columns for a few years. They had returned this year to spruce up their old nests. However, one morning we found three of their nests on the ground, mostly intact. Still trying to figure out what kind of animal did that. 

The robins immediately started to rebuild. However, on this spot, a wren has taken over. You can see that a robin uses mainly grass, while a wren uses primarily sticks.

Until next time...

Hello, Again.

Hello, again. Time for a quick check-in.

 I've found plenty to keep me busy here with outdoor projects when the weather is good and ongoing indoor projects when the weather is bad. Per usual, I'm behind where I want to be on getting veggies planted but making progress. I hope to get tomatoes planted in the next couple of days, including moving volunteers to a more desirable location. The real question is, where do I want to plant the wildly growing cherry tomatoes. We like to eat them, but they take up a lot of room. 

But the outdoor work will have to wait because today is grocery shopping and cleaning because we have company coming tomorrow. My nephew is getting married on Saturday, and family is coming to town for it. First up is to find out what is causing the smell in the office. So far, haven't found it. And, of course, Ward doesn't smell it. But the cup of coffee he is drinking may have something to do with that.  

Also, here's what's blooming in the yard this week.

Coral bells. Even though these are pink, every time I see them, I break out in song with "White Coral Bells."

The first iris has bloomed.

Salvia

Honeysuckle. Honeysuckle can take many forms, including as an invasive vine. However,
this is a bush and well-contained, so we can enjoy the heavenly smell without the aggravation.

The lily of the valley is fading.

There is one lone bachelor's button blooming. 

Amsonia. We moved these last fall, so I'm happy to see that they are doing well.

This rhododendron bush did not come out of the winter well and is looking scraggly. I hope it bounces back because this was a bush we planted in remembrance of my mother.

Another rhododendron in another part of the yard is doing better.

Vinca groundcover

A few phlox are still blooming.

The last of the azaleas.

Until next time...

And Then There Was One

Our cat, Leo, died today. I had four cats when I started this blog, and now the only one left is Leo's sister and litter mate, Annie. Leo lived a good, long life. He would have been 20 years old at the beginning of September. 

We got Leo and Annie at a Petsmart adoption day. I wasn't sure we needed two more cats (they wanted them to be adopted together), but I finally agreed to take them. The rest of the family were thrilled. Leo and Wally were still at home and were very excited about the idea of two more cats joining Lucy and Lucky. Lucy and Lucky weren't too happy with the new arrivals but eventually adjusted. 

Leo and Annie were around 4 months old when we got them. They had been in foster care since a very young age until they could be fixed. The story we were told was that they were born to a barn cat and the only two surviving from a five-kitten litter. Supposedly, a young child in the family had killed the others. 

We used to call Leo our puppy. He adored Ward and followed him wherever he went. When Ward would come home from work, Leo would come from wherever he was and jump up and greet Ward - very much like a dog. Leo was more mellow than his sister and loved to be held. When he was being held, he rewarded you with the biggest purr. 

Leo was also laid back and didn't always seem to be the smartest one of the bunch. But he was much brighter than he let on. He was the only one of our cats who figured out how to get over the barrier we installed in the basement to keep the cats out of Theo's workshop. We found him repeatedly on the other side, and we couldn't figure out how he accomplished it. So we would rearrange things and make things higher and tighter, but we would find him on the other side again. Repeatedly. We never once figured out how he did it. Eventually, we gave up and took the barrier down. Luckily, he didn't play with any of Theo's things. 

Leo, you will be missed.

I know that this is part of owning a pet. They don't live forever. But this part sucks.

Leo is the one standing up.

That's the Way the Cookie Crumbles

For Christmas, Theo got me a gift card to Crumbl Cookies, which specializes in fresh-baked cookies. Crumbl is a franchise company that started in Utah in 2017 and rapidly expanded during the pandemic. There have been mixed reviews about the company, but here was my experience when I recently visited them.

The store was bright and clean. There were eight people working behind the counter; some were waiting on customers, some were mixing and baking, and some were filling orders. Our order was taken and filled with little waiting. The menu featured seven different kinds of cookies and changes weekly. The cookies are big, thick, and chewy; each was about 5" across and weighed about 1/4 lb. As you might guess, they weren't cheap, but not too bad when you compare them with other bakery items. We got four cookies for about $16. 

Cookies and cream milkshake

As for the taste, we all thought they were very good and were sorry when they were gone. However, they were big enough that they lasted a few days because a whole cookie was too much for one setting. (Well, I could have eaten a whole one at once, but I would have been on sugar overload.) 

Classic chocolate chip

Would we go back? Yes, especially since I still have some money left on my card. But I would also go back and spend my own money on a special treat or occasion. 

Chocolate chocolate chip with 3 kinds of chips

Buttermilk pancake (sugar cookie with maple and buttercream frosting

 Thanks, Theo, for the gift. It's one that I probably wouldn't have gotten for myself, but I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Until next time...

Note: I probably should have washed off the counter before taking pictures. Oh, well. I can't do them over because the cookies are gone. :)