My Mini Vacation Is Nearly Over

I have gotten a few things accomplished. I still have more to do and today is the last day of my Thanksgiving holiday.

I pruned the tomatoes back yesterday.

Don't laugh, the bush was all the way over the picket fence and over the sidewalk. You had to step into the gutter to go around the plant. It was HUGE.

I still feel a little guilty, it was still loaded with blossoms, but the weather is getting cooler, I don't think it'll set fruit this late in the year. I harvested the green tomatoes, so I need to look up a recipe for fried green tomatoes.

I only pruned it back to the fence, I really should prune the bushes a bit on the inside so I can mow my patch of lawn.

And I need to weed whack over to the right of the gate.

And I have some things covered with plastic on the front porch, I need to arrange them a bit better.

OOOh, and there's hummingbirds at my feeders, I just saw one flit by.

Well, I guess I'd better get busy.

I still have to put a little more roofing tar on that low spot. I've got it almost done, there was just a little water standing after the rains last week. The roof didn't leak anyway, I got the cracked spot patched. So that's a plus.

I didn't work on my shed project at all. Oops.

I'm STILL unpacking and arranging books. I think I have an OCD problem when it comes to books...

Well, guess I'd better get busy before the Raider game. (Hey, I have my priorities straight! Football season is too short!)

Duty calls and my mini vacation is nearly over.

Another Beautiful Spring Morning

Yes, it's another beautiful spring morning.

I love spring, it's my favorite season. The flowers are blooming, the ladybugs are flying around my yard, the hummingbirds are working the feeders. Life is just bursting out all over the place.

It's that quiet time of day, kids are still asleep, my life is my own for a few short sweet minutes.

Of course, I really need to raise up off the computer and get back to work in my front yard. I can't start on the back until I finish the front, and I still have so, so much to do.

I'm going for the white picket fence, cottage garden look in the front. The kids want us to put a tiny pond over by the orange tree (OK, it's really a bush) for goldfish. I like that idea, once the cannas grow up again, it'll be beautiful. But right now, I'm still working on my little fence and the flowerbeds just inside. So far I've planted a Thompson grape, Sweet 100 tomatoes, Yellow Pear tomatoes, geraniums, morning glories and daffodil bulbs that should've went into the ground months ago (hey, they're sprouting, they'll live through my abuse).

I still have to finish the fence. Dig more flowerbeds for more geraniums, tomatoes, maybe a lime tree in the front corner. And somehow weed the existing flowerbeds. Bermuda really is great for this climate, but it really is devil grass too. It's SO HARD to keep it out of my flowerbeds. Sigh.

One apricot tree is loaded, only one year old. The almond tree has a few almonds. The orange and lemon trees are blooming. The passionflower is waiting to be planted.

Oh my gosh, I have SO MUCH to do before I can even start on the backyard.

But it's a beautiful spring morning.

I think I'll have another cup of coffee and work on my other blogs before I get to work in the yard. (No, I don't want to talk about housework.... Not today.)

Lord, it's beautiful out there today. I'll be outside soon.

Soon.

Grandma Loved The Hummingbirds

I'm sitting here in front of my computer, the rain is coming down, the wind is blowing. It's nasty outside.

From here, I can see the hummingbird feeder. The hummers have been eating and fussing all day, chasing each other away from the feeder, perching for a minute, then flitting away again. I've seen them in Oregon in a snowstorm, huddling at the feeders, all fluffed up and sipping the warm nectar my Mom put out for them.

Grandma always loved the hummers. She lived with my parents before she went to the home. The feeders hang outside the breakfast nook, where Grandma could watch them every morning while she was having coffee with my Dad, her son.

The morning sun glinted through the red nectar and the hummers would be busy as bees. Swooping in and out, sipping and then slipping away when a more aggressive hummer would zoom in. Brave little creatures, I've stood out there next to the feeder and they've buzzed me, too busy defending their territory to pay attention to a mere human.

Grandma loved those little hummingbirds. I think it was because she could relate to them, being tiny herself.

She was also a speedy little thing. In her younger days, a good trip from Los Angeles to Washington meant that she didn't get any speeding tickets.

She always flew, whether it was in her car or her little airplane. I didn't know until her wake that my dad hadn't ridden in any kind of a vehicle with her since 1953 -- at least as a passenger. LOL, that was the year she took him up in her airplane and that was the end of that for Dad!

I think she loved those hummers because they reminded her of her freedom, when she was younger and could pack up and go at a moment's notice. Like the hummers, she was always ferociously independent. She could and would cuss you out like a mule-skinner if you got on her bad side.

Grandma always did exactly what SHE wanted to do. No matter what anyone else said or thought. In fact, I suspect that's why she became a pilot. My birth Grandpa wanted to learn to fly. Supposedly, Grandma said she didn't want to learn, but then she changed her mind.

Knowing my Grandma like I do, what really happened it that Grandpa said "Women can't fly!"

Then Grandma raised herself up, said something unprintable, and proceeded to get her pilot's license.

Ironically, Grandpa never did get his pilot's license.

Yes, Grandma used to go and sit in the breakfast nook every morning, her sharp little eyes seeking the hummingbirds out, watching them flit here and there, chirping and whirring.

I think they watched her too. They knew that kindred spirit that lived in her.

Today I watched the little hummingbirds, in the middle of a California winter, raining and blowing, still hovering at the feeder. I bite my lips, tear up a little.

I miss her feisty little self.

And I'm sure when I get to the other side, she's going to meet me there and tell me all about me writing this. In unprintable words.

Then she's going to point out the hummingbirds feeding on the flowers that twine around those Heavenly Gates and take me to see the rest of the family.

And knowing my family, Jesus will be having a piece of homemade apple pie with Grandpa Jack (Grandma's fourth husband and her soulmate) and playing cribbage -- the cheating way...

A Woman's Work Is Never Done...

It's a beautiful Saturday morning. I should be working on my eBay. If I could find any of the stuff I had intended to sell... I still have a room full of boxes to go through.

Or maybe I should be cleaning house. Or weeding my front flower garden. Or painting the outside of the house. Or finishing the painting on the inside (I didn't paint the hall yet, I knew when they moved my stuff back in, I'd have to fix the bumps and bruises anyway).

Or maybe I should build that new shed. Or unpack some boxes. Or get some of that furniture that's supposed to be inside, wiped down and inside.

Or put those shelves up over my bedroom windows, so I can unpack my collection of California Raisins, they'll have a place of honor above my bed. And finish unpacking the M&M toys, they go in the living room on the very top shelves.

Well, I do have some laundry in the washer.

LOL, a woman's work is never done.

Instead of all the things I SHOULD be doing, I think I'll spend a little time and hook up my whole stereo system. Find some of my jazzy CDs and fill my house with music. Fill the hummingbird feeder so I can enjoy the antics of the little darlings. Plant some bulbs before the Chihuahua succeeds in stealing them and chewing them up. Take a little time for myself before my son wakes up and we get busy with the day.

Then I'll be busy, have to go to the recycling plant and drop off a load of cans and bottles. Go to Play It Again Sports for some inline skates for roller hockey. Maybe make it to Home Depot, I need a 1x10 cut to short pieces for some extra supports for my new shelving unit, just to be safe. (Books are HEAVY.) Put some free stuff on Craigslist. Plan the Labor Day BBQ, make a menu and a guest list.

Sigh, a woman's work is never done...

So I think I'll have another cup of coffee first.