A Little Walk In the Park - And in the Garden

It's a beautiful warm sunny day. I thought my PT today should include a walk in the neighborhood park, my first in 2 months. I went to see if the cherry trees are blooming. Not quite. I'll be back.

 Then I had to go find one of my favorite native shrubs, Red Flowering Current. I caught it at it's most glorious stage!

I walked a path through the woods, enjoying the first new green leaves.

I walked .70 of a mile, not that much but good enough for now. I am now 2 months out from my knee surgery.

Back at home, I have been taking walks in my garden. The other day I took photos of a patch of Hellebore seedlings that are finally multiplying. All of these colors came from the seeds of a slingle plant. Helebores do that.

Now I've had a rest and it's time for 25 minutes on my stationary bike, and then some more rest and ice packs.

Tom is doing more tree clean up. This afternoon we are going to a local botanical garden. We have to take advantage on this one beautiful day.

Spring Is Here!

 

Well, I think it's a little past morning now, and it isn't very spring like outside, but we are celebrating anyway, because we made it through the winter and flowers are blooming. 

I bundled up and went out in the misty 45 degree late morning to show you what the first day of Spring is looking like in Reeder Gardens. 

It took a while, but the daffodils are finally opening. Daffodils don't come back well in our garden so I buy a few new bulbs each year. 

Winter blooming cyclamen persist into spring, and the foliage is so pretty.

In the front yard. That maple tree is getting trimmed right now.

And YAY! The trilliums are up and almost in bloom.We have several clumps around the garden and it is always a treat to see them again. 

They were once commonly called WAKE ROBINS!

Spring is here!

Happy St Patrick's Day

 

Happy St Patrick's Day! There are leprechans, shamrocks, and a little pot of gold on my table, thanks partly to breakfast friends. 

The forsythia and acuba from the garden are supplying a big pot of gold. 

Daffodils are blooming everywhere. Mine should start popping open today.

I'm not feeling very lucky or Irish, but I did find a little green to wear, so I won't get pinched. 

Not that I'm going anywhere. It's laundry and house cleaning day, but I'm taking time out to post. I might test out driving a bit, since one of us has to make a run to the grocery store to get some cabbage. It's not for corned beef though, but for pozole. Yes, that's Mexican. I believe in DEI. 

Pi Day - Moon Eclipse Pie

 

I wanted to bake a pie for PI day, 3/14, but I don't have the energy yet for making pie dough, rolling out crust, and preparing a yummy fruit filling. 

A while back I bought my first ever frozen pie shells from the grocery store. I had a can of pumpkin and a can of evaporated milk in the cupboard. I made a pumpkin pie. Easy.

Then in the evening on Thursday the sky cleared and the lunar eclipse was happening. At total eclipse, the moon turns orange.

So here you have it, my Pi Day, Lunar Eclipse pie!

Saving Daylight?

 

Grocery store daffodils and shamrocks decorate my table. We're already well into March. Daylight Saving time has happened. Are we saving any daylight, or just moving it around? In a few days our sleep patterns will even out, but so far the cloudy skies haven't given us much evening light. The time change will stay, though, because we are pretty evenly divided about which way to change it, stay with standard time or spring ahead. Apparently even the President has stopped campaigning about it. 

Wood splitting continues at a slower pace here as other obligations occur. Sounders Socer season is now well under way. Tom and Jake went to a match last Wednesday and Tom and Jill went on Saturday. I enjoy watching from the comfort of home. 

I fell doing PT Saturday morning and landed hard on my bum and my elbow. When you have a metal hip joint, you bruise from the inside out. I have been sitting on an ice pack several times a day. My elbow is also very sore, but both are getting better and fortunately I did not land on my knee. No real damage was done. I will not be doing that backwards line walking exercise without a spotter for now. My balance is still very bad and I think it always will be. All the various specialists don't have a reason for it. 

Now the last load of laundry is calling me, and then it's time for another round of PT. It isn't raining so I might have time for some outside walking in the yard and up and down the driveway. So goes my daily life. 

Busy Day

Tom was out by 10:00 working in the yard. First he spilt wood for an hour, then he strung cords for the electric chain saw and set up for Jake to come over for lunch and then wood splitting.

Then he was on his knees finishing cleaning up the bed he started yesterday. This would have been my job, but not this spring. That frustrates me, of course.

After lunch Tom and Jake worked on the pile of Madrone logs. Tom cut up big chunks into smaller chunks with the chain saw. These are misshapen chunks too hard to split. They will eventually be left in a far corner to rot away. Jake split and chopped the workable chunks. The stack of fire wood s growing.

In addition to doing all of my PT, I was out walking and checking in on them in the morning and afternoon. I also checked in on what was blooming in the front yard.

A few purple and while crocuses are popping up through the pewter foliage of a hardy cyclamen. 

Mini daffodils, primroses, and a hellebore.

This pretty pink hellebore finally opened.

Tomorrow is Friday, breakfast day. I will be happy to get out and see people. Tom went to a soccer match yesterday with Jake and will be going to another match on Saturday with Jill. I watch at home on television. Warm, dry and comfortable is OK with me.

Life goes on.

Logging

 The process of disposing of a very large Madrone tree has begun. 

On Saturday Mr. Lee and his crew were here to take down what was left of the tree.

The crew felled the tree, cut it up into firewood lengths, hauled away the tree top brush, and pruned the holly hedge, all on Saturday morning.

We were then left with some very large rounds to be split and hauled. Tom got some of the smaller stuff hauled to our yard and stacked. 

On Sunday Jake came over to help. They took some time sizing up the job. Those rounds were going to take a lot of work, and the result was going to be more wood than we or Jill wanted. 

Jake set to work with the wedge and sledge. Tom stacked and cleared. 

Jill was at the Whidbey cabin for the weekend but when she heard about the logging, she wanted to get in on the action. She joined in by early afternoon.

This is going to take a while, but eventually it will get done. Madrone is very dense, heavy wood, and must be split before it dries out and gets iron hard. Tom, Jill and Jake worked several hours before calling it a day for now.

Today, Monday, Isaac plans to come over and haul what has already been split. Jake will come back on Tuesday.

Tuesday, March 4th, is Jill's 52nd birthday. We are celebrating it today with the family at a steak house. Irene won't be there and we'll miss her, but Tom has been checking in on her with the question, "Did you feel this one?" Bellingham has been experiencing multiple earthquakes, not enough for damage, but strong enough this morning to wake Irene up. The answer, "Yes. I did!"

World In Turmoil

 Donald Trump just blew up the world as we know it. He has no idea what he has done. He is destroying the fabric of international relationships. He is a puppet of Putin and a victim of his own solipsism and narcissism. 

I don't know the way out. I weep for the world and our nation. I yearn for more young people to start being aware and activated. I am old. I can only do so much. We are in danger.