Dave’s Garden people are the best!
Dave’s Garden people are the best! Howie and I have known this for a long time, since 2001 as a matter of fact. When Howie had his life-changing back surgery at Johns Hopkins in 2006, it was DG people who buoyed our spirits in the forums during the months leading up to his surgery and for months afterward. It was DG friends who took us into their Maryland home like family while he recovered. It was DG people who watched a continuing thread I updated right from the waiting room while he had his surgery. It’s a stellar group of people there. It’s family.
Today, I learned of another member, Tracy Pruitt, aka aggiegrl, who witnessed this kind of community support this month. In response to her post regarding her family having to vacate their rental home, she witnessed gardeners arriving at her home from all around Texas, all to help her move her beloved garden. The story was picked up by NPR and All Things Considered aired a story about it. Go give it a listen. It’ll do your heart good.
It makes sense that the people at a gardening website would be nurturing, giving people. A true gardener loves to share!
Sneaking back into the blogosphere
I have been busy the last several weeks. Where’s the time gone? Since I last posted, spring has arrived, my forsythia has flowered, dropped its blooms and popped out foliage. The goldfinches have gone from their dull winter plumage to their brilliant gold. Lilac blooms in our neighbor’s yard scented the air then turned brown. Other lilacs are now at their peak. The dreaded thistle weeds reached about 18″ high before I yanked ‘em. National Scrapbooking Day has come and gone (and I scrapped from 8:30am-Midnight that day).
Oh, and I worked a lot of hours at the Bou. I can do everything I did before except lift the coffee urns or the 5-gallon bucket of ice or cooler mix. I’ve logged a lot of hours pounding the concrete and I am pooped. Fortunately, I am off now until next Thursday. A few weeks ago, when I saw I was only scheduled for six hours next week, I was disappointed; after the last few weeks, though, I am ready and thankful for a break. It’s prime gardening time, too, so I intend to put the time to good use.
But today was my Designated Lazy Day. It began with me sleeping in obscenely late and it felt darned good! The last few weeks, even on days off, I’ve been busy doing other things and working in the yard. Today’s day of nothing was perfect.
Let’s see, what else is new? Last Saturday, we had 6 cubic yards of mulch delivered to our house by a local greenhouse and landscape business, courtesy of my aforementioned many hours at the Bou.
This pile of mulch is the equivalent of 54 big 3-cubic-foot bags of mulch. I ordered extra since it was under the one delivery charge no matter how much they brought. We always skimp and put down the bare minimum and still never have enough for what I want to do, so I splurged and got a couple yards extra.
When first delivered and dumped from the back of the truck, the pile of triple-shredded hardwood mulch spanned the width of our driveway. My mother-in-law and I had to clear a path so she could get to her front door!
Howie’s been whittling away at it this week, placing piles of it in various parts of the flower beds so I can distribute it after I’ve planted them. Howie thought it would be harder dealing with the pile of mulch than bags, but he’s changed his tune. And I can’t imagine what it would have been like trying to unload all those bags of mulch from the van with my shoulder still not up to snuff.
I can use my arm fairly freely, but I still have pain and burning in that right shoulder if lift anything very heavy; I’m not to lift anything heavy until I am asymptomatic (or, in plain English, until it doesn’t hurt to do it). With the pile of mulch all here, we can just fork a little at a time into our garden cart and push it where we want to go. I don’t have to exert much pressure to get the cart up the hill, and if need be I can push it with my tummy. There are always ways around obstacles. Hardcore gardener here. LOL
Today, though, I enjoyed a jammie day. I went to sleep before eleven last night and didn’t crawl out of bed until almost 2pm today. That’s just crazy…But it felt so good. I worked on my design team layout for Scrappers Gallery so I can turn it in tomorrow when I go into town for medical massage. This tells you how busy I’ve been: I forgot all about it being May 15 and my layout being due. I haven’t scrapbooked since May 5, so the time has just blown by and I am late getting it turned in. I feel so bad about this, but they’re very forgiving (thanks for the understanding, guys!).
At any rate, this post marks my return to blogging after an unintentional hiatus. Booyah!
Live from Frederick
It’s a video blog!
A few notes about the video: The song played during the Sideling Hill sequence of photos is “Train’s Up in the Sky”, by the now defunct band Mylon Lefevre and Broken Heart. I was a big MLBH fan back in the day (as in the mid to late-80’s). The second song is “Drivin’ my Life Away“, by Eddie Rabbit. You can learn more about Sideling Hill at the Maryland DNR site and . You can also read information about the Sideling Hill tunnel online. Wikipedia has a good write-up about it, too.We are having such a nice visit with our friends Michael and Dea. They’re the friends we stayed with when Howie had his back surgery at Johns Hopkins in 2006. More soon!
Horton Hears a Who!
The weekend went so quickly! Saturday I met Amy at the local scrapbook store and between that store and Hobby Lobby, we spent about three hours wandering around together. It was SO great spending time with her!
I went to Bou when we were done shopping, settling in and finishing a short article for the scrapbook store’s newsletter. I also finished my design team layout while at the coffee shop; they weren’t busy at the time, so I didn’t feel badly about using part of the big table there.
Our dinner with friends in Columbus was really nice, casual. We’re so glad they moved back to the area from out of state. Shawna made a grilled chicken salad she said was inspired by one at Bob Evans restaurant. It was baby spinach tossed with grilled chicken, shredded cheese, onion, toasted pecans, craisins, and crumbled turkey bacon. It was delicious! We played Texas hold ‘em after dinner, proving yet again that I am a truly lousy card player. Phrases like this escaped my mouth: “Let’s just say, hypothetically, that someone had a rotten hand…”. Yeah, I am that bad. But they all knew it and it was became the running joke of the night.
Tonight we did see Horton Hears a Who! with Amy’s family. What a cute adaptation of the children’s book
After the movie, we watched our friends play some games at the arcade across from the theater, where Howie played a game of air hockey with Quin. Howie and I then went to Wal-Mart, where I finally picked up a nice big 24×36″ Fiskars cutting mat for my scrapbooking area at home. I really needed one and I’m tickled to be working again so I could buy one.
Not much else to report! We’re looking forward to a weekend in Maryland with Michael and Dea, the two wonderful folks we stayed with when Howie had his back surgery back in 2006. We can’t wait to see them!
Light the night
We went to the annual courthouse lighting ceremony last night. This year we had quite a crowd of our own, including Howie’s mom, brother and sister-in-law, niece, four great-nieces and one great-nephew. Add to that our best friends and their three kids. Our friend Mark came by, too.
Luke rocks the ASVAB
I just have to give a shout out for Howie’s nephew Luke!
The power of cheese
The other night, I plugged in my phone for the night and turned over to sleep. Howie, already asleep, stirred and mumbled something. Thinking he surely must not have said what I thought he did, I asked him to repeat himself.
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