April 2009 Archives

I can't remember if I've told you that DH and I are going to make the trip to Frankie's this weekend. She has driven up here at least three times in the past six weeks, on EM business. Although the road runs both directions, Frankie and her family tend to drive up here more than we go to them.

There's a good reason for us to go visit. Frankie's birthday is Monday. I don't believe in giving away age here. I think it's enough that you now know it's her birthday.

For the past ummmmm...X years, we have been going to visit with her on her birthday. She cooks and pampers us, and finds fun things to do. I've been saying to her, "Are you SURE this is how you want to spend your birthday, taking care of a bunch of couch potatoes?" I always get the same response: "Yes!" That is, until this year. This year she told me to bring my gardening clothes. We'll go visit a really neat nursery and then come home and play in the dirt. Sounds like fun to me.

I think Frankie's husband has things planned for Dear Husband. I don't even want to contemplate what they are going to be up to. One year it was putting a new roof on the house.

Edward Scissorhands, our cat, is still going strong, but he will remain at home with our son. I don't think a weekend is long enough for him to bond with their medium large sized dog. This will be a "just the two of us" drive.

So, I'll be away for a few days, celebrating with my sis. I hope you all have a great weekend, and come through the very strange warm spell well!

Sorry, Blue Witch. I know you were trying to get people to plant lettuce, but the first seed that went into my newly refurbished raised veggie bed was spinach, closely followed by Long Island Mammoth Dill.

I had intended to start my planting on Saturday afternoon, but I was overcome by a bad case of couch slothism. The day passed, and as it did, a storm front moved in. I was kicking myself around for having missed the perfect opportunity to get those seeds planted. It rained all Sunday, and was still raining this morning.

I came home from exercise and made my bed, watered the houseplants, started a load of laundry and completed assorted other chores. As I puttered around I realized that some of the clouds had parted, and we were getting SUN! I grabbed my gardening bucket and the seed packets, and made a bee line for the veggie boxes. I was planting the second row when DH drove up. "WHAT are YOU doing home??" "We were rained out."

I looked around me, and wondered where he had been working that they had missed out on this wonderful sunny day.

The clouds have come and gone several times today. We may get a few more storms tonight, which won't hurt those seeds at all, but they will be confused. We're going to go from the 40s to 80 on Friday!

So, Blue Witch, I'm going to start looking for lettuce seeds, but I'll hold off on the planting for a while.

It isn't often that my sisters and I are able to get together, but today is one of those rare days. My Second Sister has been invited to preach at My-Sister-The-Nurse's country church. Since Frankie is up visiting with Elegante Mother, we plan to all meet at church this morning, and then go to lunch. I've heard my SS give the children's sermon in her own church, where she is Director of Christian Education, but I've never heard her give the main sermon of the morning. I'm looking forward to hearing what she's chosen as her message for the day.

Dear Husband has decided to accompany me. It's less than a month until it's time for the Arr!! to go into the water, so usually he would be busy sanding and varnishing, but we're having a rainy day, perhaps the first since Spring officially started.

I had intended to get my spinach planted yesterday and didn't. :-( I KNEW it was going to be good weather for those seeds to germinate and simply didn't get out there. We had my favorite landscaper and his crew visit and they renovated the raised veggie boxes for me. I'd been having a terrible time with weeds in those two boxes. When DH cobbled them together for me, he didn't sink them into the ground, or line the bottom of the box with landscaping fabric, so weeds licked their little lips and slipped under the edge to the choice dirt, and thrived! The guys removed a tree that had grown out over the boxes, and then emptied out all the soil in the boxes and lined them. They replaced the dirt with fresh soil mixed with compost, so I should be good to go! This year I hope to plant spinach, dill, romaine and tomatoes. IF I can find a pickle cucumber bush, I might plant one, and I might plant a zucchini, just one! That's about the extent of my energy for veggies this year.

So....I'm going to order some veggie and Iris catalogs and be on my way to church. I hope all of you are having a warm, sunny Spring Day!

C.C. ..... Frankie has made changes at Just My Opinion. I told her that some readers might have difficulty reading her blog, and she changed it for you. I know that the Lone Star background that used to be on my blog was a problem for some of you, so I shared that information with her. Maybe now you'll be able to see what she's up to.

What is is about having a cold that makes getting through the day so tough? Is it lack of oxygen? All I wanted to do was sit, covered with a quilt, and snooze or read a book. This morning was the first time that I've accomplished anything of note, so I've lost three days of my life!

Luckily, while I was busy vegging out, those around me were busy. My favorite landscaper visited with his crew, and cleaned out an area where I plan to plant a willow tree. They actually did more than I expected, for less than they originally proposed. They moved a beautiful viburnum for me that was dying for lack of light. And, they dug out the raised veggie beds for me, lined them to keep weeds from slithering in and making a home, and then refilled them with new dirt and compost! I can plant spinach immediately!

The early daffodils are all open, and the star magnolia is absolutely gorgeous! I'll have daffs blooming for six weeks or so, as long as the weather is kind to them. I've been looking at catalogs and magazines, trying to decide what will be going in under the windows at the front of the house. I'm very drawn to a collection of coneflowers in the new colors and shapes, but I still have about three weeks to look before I make my final decision. As my brain clears out, perhaps I'll be able to make better choices.

I need to collect myself and get on the road to visit EM. This is the weekend when her caregiver has part of Saturday and Sunday off. Frankie is doing the Mom-sitting this week. It's my turn in two weeks. I hope that all my sisters will go to church together with EM and have lunch. It seems like a good thing to do for EM. We'll see what the weekend brings.

I think I'm allergic to children five and under. Isn't that awful!? We went to Florida the last week of February and spent several days with our granddaughters. Dear Husband was the first to fall, but we both came down with the same upper respiratory gunk that our littlest grand daughter had. It took weeks to get over it.

Saturday, we attended a first birthday party for one of my great nieces where there must have been easily a dozen children 5 and under, and Sunday we were with two five year olds and two one year olds. Monday.....I started hacking. Do you suppose I've been living in too rarefied air these past few years? You'd have think I'd have picked up some bug when I visited Elegante Mother in the nursing home.

At any rate....I'm having my pity day, and tomorrow I plan to get on with my life. It's a gorgeous, sunny day today. It started out a little gray and just kept getting better as the day rolled on. We are expected to go from the mid to low forties to SEVENTY DEGREES by Friday...and then back down to the forties. My daffodils won't know what hit them!

I have pots of Johnny Jump-Ups (mini Violas) to plant. Frankie selected four inch pots of purple and yellow flowers and used squares of plastic cut from a pink plastic table cloth, with pastel curling ribbons to create wrapping for the pots. These fresh little flowers graced the tables on Easter. I plan to transplant them this week into pots for the front entryway.

I'm SO glad that taxes are over. I've mailed those that have to be mailed, and provided e-forms for those that need to be sent electronically. I've even made the first of the estimated payments, and noted when the rest are due on the calendar! We're cooking with gas! It's good to have that nasty chore done.

I hope you have all made it through Tax Day unscathed, and can enjoy the beautiful Spring weather!

Many of you know that Frankie, over at Just My Opinion, is my "little" sister. Actually, she is taller (I'm the wider one), but she's roughly nine years my junior. Like me, she doesn't blog daily, but her entries are fascinating, and very thought-provoking.

I encourage you to visit her blog to read the entry called "Living Your Dash," or the post entitled "The Integrity of a Battleship." Even more, I hope you will tell your friends about her blog, and that you will add her blog to your blog roll, and that you will become a regular reader.

I don't often suggest blogs for others to read. We all know how to find new contacts, and most of us are short on time, but I'd hate for you to miss what I consider to be such interesting issues. So, visit Frankie, and get to know her. I promise that you will find an intelligent woman, open to dialog, with a quirky sense of humor!

Hi, guys! We're all well here at Chez Buffy. I've been busy working on taxes, and helping to settle Elegante Mother into her new digs. I have been working on the edges of SPRING CLEANING.....emptying out boxes of papers I didn't need to store in the first place, and reorganizing my "stuff."

Things are starting to green up here in the Chicago suburbs. The first of my daffodils opened yesterday, and the star magnolia is getting ready to burst into bloom. Some miserable four-footed visitor has eaten the tops off the day lilies that are growing out in the herb garden, but they're pretty hardy. They'll come back.

My cranky old cat, Edward Scissorhands, had his annual checkup and shots last week. He's still hanging in there, but he's painfully thin. He's delighted, as we all are, that it's warmed up a bit so he can go out. He used to stand near the door and quietly mew that he'd like to go out. Now he stomps into my office and shouts "OUT!!!"

Frankie (from Just My Opinion) (my youngest sis), is here for several days, helping me sort through some of Elegante Mother's things, visiting with My-Sister-The-Nurse, and joining us for Easter. She'll be taking her God-mother to visit with EM on Saturday. I wish I had her energy. I spent most of my time running to keep up with her! I'm so glad she's come to visit.

I need to help Dear Husband with dinner. Last night we did Tortilla Soup, and tonight we are working on Chicken Fajitas. It's odd to have Mexican food two days in a row, but I doubt anyone will complain. More sour cream, anyone???

If I don't make it back before Easter, I hope you all have a lovely day.