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Saturday, March 16, 2024

On the Road

41°f this morning, chilly and dense fog in areas.

This morning along our road:






And later in the day:

The tunnel between West Virginia and Virginia






It is about 11pm now, and after a long day of driving over 1000 miles through 6 states, we are 40 miles from Miami. Bed will feel good tonight!

Friday, March 15, 2024

Garden Time!

57°f this morning (13°C), cloudy after a night of heavy rain. Birds singing, owls and turkey gobblers calling in the woods.

After all that drudge work of cleaning out my ebay room, it was wonderful to get outside! Wednesday I spent a few hours tilling,  then used a spading fork to dig down and loosen the soil, then tilled again yesterday to get a small patch ready for planting. 


Those tall plants in the foreground are my leeks from last year, still doing well, and a short row of chard that also wintered over. Some kale is coming back too.

Now there are 3 kinds of onion sets in a short row, and two kinds of lettuce, radishes, beets, chard and carrot seeds in the ground. I mulched the strawberries that have escaped from their containers and made a pretty nice patch all by themselves.

So we have a little jump on the season, even though it is supposed to be down in the mid-20s area night next week. But these are hardy seeds and sets that will not be bothered by cold temperatures,  and the ground is unlikely to freeze. 

Spring is coming on gangbusters now. Sadly the pear tree is blooming so it is likely to get bitten by the freeze next week. We had a marvelous pear harvest last year, though, with plenty in the cellar still. If you remember, we had so many we used them to make pear cider too.

A little garden walkabout from yesterday:

Under my poor ash tree, which is slowly being killed by the emerald ash borer. I refuse to cut it until it is completely dead. It still had a little life in last year. It used to be my blue bottle tree.


The view from the porch.


It is a battle with the dogs in this area. I am trying to plant it completely in spring bulbs but they seem to think it is their nap room. Notice all my booby traps to try to keep them out.


A little parsley plant that survived winter.

And a row of chives and parsley in the herb garden. I never got this garden cleaned up last fall. 

Little johnny-jump-ups coming back to life in a planter.


Apparently I planted these last fall. Now I need to look them up to see what they are! Some sort of dwarf iris, I think. There is quite a patch of them.
 
Little dwarf daffodils, which must have been planted by chipmunks, come back stronger every year in their odd location. The mess of downed trees are from when Sarah's road was dozed. Eventually we will get it cleaned up.





Coming and going along the front walk. I need to tidy up where we spread mulch.


We leave for Florida tomorrow,  a quick trip to see our youngest son. By the time we get back, it will be cold again...and the grass will need to be mowed. I so relish these early days of Spring, before mowing and weeding commence!

It was a perfect evening for the firepit. What a really nice day.




Leaving you today with a couple dance videos from what is evidently a TikTok craze right now, dancing to a Beyoncé song. This first one sure reminds me of AC...maybe its the beard and flash of red?


And here are the Gardiner brothers, Irish dance champions.


I have to admit, I like the old guy best, but the boys are pretty cool too.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Up to My *** in Alligators

50°f this morning (10°C). Sunny bright, and balmy with a soft breeze. 65 is predicted for today.

Well not alligators, but mess!

 I have been working since the beginning of the year on downsizing my eBay inventory and clearing some space in the room that should be our spare bedroom. "Should" being the keyword here. After our youngest son left home, this room, formerly our bedroom (the boys were all in the big bedroom we now use), turned into my
storytelling office. We added 2 hide-a-bed sofas so there were places for guests to sleep, and if needed we put cots for grandkids in the office. 

Then eBay happened, and the room became my eBay/storytelling room. The eBay inventory grew, and so did storytelling supplies. There were totes of puppets, 5 or 6 different amps and sound systems, files and files of research, programs, workshop handouts, boxes of CDs and books, as well as boxes of brochures, flyers and business cards. eBay grew into 4 large shelves, stacks of totes, and all kinds of shipping supplies. My desk, computer and printer were in there too...all in a 10x14 room with, thankfully, a very high ceiling.

After a lot of work, sorting, donating, etc I have taken out one large shelf, and countless totes. I had begun downsizing the storytelling things in 2020 when I retired from that profession, but yesterday while emptying the big desk in preparation for moving it out, I came upon files and files of stories, workshop materials and research. It made me nostalgic for those days of immersion into the story world, I can tell you. I determinedly tossed most of it, keeping only a few things for my memory box. The desk drawers were another story. So many pens and pencils! And staples, post-its, tape, glue, tape measures...but I was able to empty all four drawers and reorganized the supplies into the two small file cabinets--which also had to be sorted out and cleaned out.

This morning we have made an amazing mess as we cleared the desk completely. Larry is disassembling it to move it out and take to our neighbor who scraps metal. We will replace the desk temporarily with a table until I find a smaller desk that will better fit my needs today.

We have quite a mess on our hands, since once the desk is out the room the electronics have to be put back together. Will that happen today? Kinda doubtful.

It is a shame to be inside mucking about with this project but it does feel good to be making progress. The goal is to be able to put a full- size bed in there, as we seem to have more older overnight visitors for whom the sofa-bed just isn't so comfy.  I am beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel, even as I look wistfully back through the dust at those busy, happy days of storytelling.

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.
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