Cleaned Up And Ready For A Little Party

 

Down on the garden deck, the Wisteria is blooming, just in time for Mother's Day. The deck is cleaned up, swept, and looking spiffy.

The pink native rhododendron is beginning to bloom, peeking through the wisteria.

Today Tom hung the old windows on the deck, two from our old Whidbey cabin, decorated with Rusty Birds, and one a craft project with resin "stained glass".

It's pretty walking the path to the deck now, with so much green texture and interesting things blooming, like this Inside-out Flower, Vancouveria hexandra, a Northwest native. 

I spent much of a day cleaning the back wall of the house, by the patio, where we have collections. Everything was taken down, cleaned, and put back.

On another day I refreshed the succulent pots and we completed the display on the patio.

The succulents joined the "danger plants". Can you see why we call them that?

Now I am inside, resting after having prepped for Sunday's Mother's Day dinner here.

The table is mostly set, and the flowers are arranged.

We will use my mother's old dishes. 

The Mac salad is made, the fruit is collected for the fruit compote. Bread and chips are purchased. There will be asparagus. I bought a turkey for Christmas before Jill announced that we were not having turkey, so we are BBQ smoking it for Mother's Day to make turkey sandwiches with rosemary bread, cream cheese, and cranberry sauce. Jill is bringing the drinks and the rhubarb cobbler. It'll be the regular family, minus Irene, who is staying in Bellingham. 

The tulips are almost done but I found a few for the kitchen table. 

Happy Mother's Day!

Planting Has Begun

 

There is s pot of Violas on the patio table. I have been enjoying it when I rest there. Charlie/Mewdini keeps brushing it with his tail as he begs my attention and head rubs. 

Sunday I planted the Impatiens and Plectranthus along the edge of the patio. 

It was hard work, since I don't balance much better on my knees that I do on my feet.  Yes, equiped with knee pads and an extra pad under my surgical knee, I was gardening on the concrete patio for most of three hours, off and on, up and down. I am sore today, but not really damaged. It's a job I do every year and I wanted to keep it up if I could. Tom was busy with other garden jobs but was there to assist me if I needed help fetching stuff. 

I also set out the marigold starts we bought.

We aren't planning to plant much in our garden boxes this year, because lack of sun has made for poor vegetable crops as our trees got higher and higher. We will plant annual flowers, but for the fest we'll plant seeds. I just needed to have some instant color with the marigolds. 

I planted Impatiens and bacopa in the planters on the front porch too.

The Lewisias on the front porch are blooming too. 

Tom is in the process of emptying out his green house and has started moving out the overwintered "Danger Plants" and other tender succulents. 

Today we "took and break" and did house work and laundry. On Saturday we took some time off from  working outside to stand up for democracy again. This is a rally organized by the local Wesley senior housing complex nearby. We old people care about our country.

It's supposed to be quite warm tomorrow. We'll be back outside. 

Tired

 

One of Tom's Bonsai trees, newly leafed out. Spring green can raise one's spirits.

We slept in a little this morning, Tom read the news and I did my long day of PT. Then Tom went outside to garden and I went to our office to pay the bills. I have to take my time doing the accounting these days, since it's easy to make mistakes when you're not as sharp as you used to be. Then I paid the second half of the property taxes. I have to pay them while I have the funds. They are getting higher and higher, and our national economy, and our Social Security, are more and more uncertain. 

Today was Trump's 100th day in office, which might be one reason why I was feeling so tired today. What a mess his presidency is, and we still have most of four years to go. He gets more delusional every day.

Candy Tuft and Basket of Gold along the driveway.

After I finished the accounting, Tom came in and we put together our order for tulips for next year. We have a catalogue for RoozenGaarde and the tulip growers of the Skagit Valley. We have been ordering from them every year. This year we decided to order early so we would remember what we liked when we were there for the Tulip Festival, and ordering early gets us some free bulbs. Of course the bulbs are still in the field now. They will arrive in October. 

By lunch time, 1:00 for us, I was just so tired. I ate my lunch and read the paper leisurely. Tom was already back outside when I finally decided what  I needed was to go for a walk at the park. I walked 1.08 miles, resting now and then, and enjoying sunshine, greenness, pleasant people, and lively dogs. When I got home I was tried, but it was a much better kind of tired. 

Thursday is going to be much warmer. I am looking forward to finding small jobs to do in the garden. I'll have another day of good tired. 

Yes or No?

 Last week I had two appointments that gave me two different answers. My knee surgeon on Monday said, yes, it probably was tendonitis in my surgical knee. Use a topical pain treatment. It will go away eventually.

My Physical Therapist on Friday said it was most likely nerve pain from my spine, which is also quite likely. I got new exercises to do, hoping they will help, because treating my back is much easier than getting rid of tendonitis. 

Well, I was left with wondering what to do, so I am doing the exercises for my spine, and using the topical for tendonitis, and stopping the pregabilin for nerve pain because it may be affecting my balance, which is worse than ever. 

Medicine is not an exact science. 

What is certain is that Spring is progressing here on schedule, as tulips begin to fade and perennials and shrubs begin to bloom.

The first Perennial Bachelor Button, Centaura Montana

More blooms on the King George Rhodie

'Gold Heart' Bleeding Heart

The first Columbines are opening.

May Apple has "apples"

Saxagrage

Late Double tulips

While I was out after dinner taking these photos, Charlie came to beg a treat. 

Inside two Amaryllis that Tom raised in his green house are blooming, the red in its second  set of blooms.

Today was house cleaning and laundry day. I spent a good part of the morning undecorating and packing up all of the Easter/Spring decorations. It's nice to have the flowers. 

Gardening Season

 We have been blessed with sunny, dry weather, time to get outside and work in the garden. At the same time we can enjoy what's blooming and growing up close.

Between the two of us we have pruned and trimmed and edged and cleaned.

The lawn now crisply edged. I did the stand up scissoring and Tom did the crawling, weeding and picking up. 

Tom has worked hard and now salal and binder weed are under control. Sword fern fronds have been clipped. Apple trees have been pruned. And so much more. My contributions are small compared to his.

I had an appointment with my knee surgeon on Monday and x-rays show that all is well with the bones, but of course there are soft tissue complications. I have tendonitis in my knee, and my hip flexor is still causing issues. My balance is worse that ever. I toppled over in the yard yesterday and added a few bruises but no real damage. I see my physical therapist tomorrow for what to do next. 

Meanwhile the beauty of spring progresses. Welsh poppies are starting to pop, and our King George Rhodie is opening with it's huge and fragrant blossoms.

Life is good.