The March update was long and very,
very late in
being posted.
You can check it out here:March Week One
Although my Joxer is pretty blind now
and I can see that he is slowing down in his old age, he still gets
around. He loves going outside when I'm working in the yard and
enjoying the nice weather too. Though he may not be able to see
much, he still hears well and is always alert for whether I'm going
in and out of the house, or using any of the three gates in our
yard.
Pictures of
Early Carolina Spring
Since I was so so late with last month's update, I'll start you out
with a bunch of beautiful Spring pictures this month.
Little patches of phlox
dot the hillside of our property out by the road.
Climbing up from the street to the
crest of the hill,
you look through the woods to see our house.
Scattered throughout the woods which are turning green as the leaves
begin to unfold, the azaleas are coming into bloom.
Already, I've been seeing dozens of butterflies flittering about.
The pear tree on the right had a huge
limb break off last year; but it's doing quite well. However, the
pear tree on the left is definitely dead and will have to be cut
down soon.
The azaleas lining the front of the
house are
filled with buds about to burst open and bloom.
Throughout the Carolinas
the dogwoods are in full bloom.
the tulip magnolia has
almost shed all of it's flowers
as it's leaves as slowly filling up it's branches.
The rose plant growing on
the trellis is going gang-busters.
It was full of white flowers last year but it going to double the
amount this year.
The hollyhocks are doing excellent
also. As soon as a little more warmth creeps into the area, I should
see these send up stalks and put out flowers this year.
Mom and I have been talking about
taking a hike in a local state park; but it seems like the days it
isn't rainy or when the plants might be blooming, we either have
doctor appointments or we're just too danged tired. So when I saw on
Facebook the other a link to a walking garden down in Rock Hill, I
thought we could surely take an hour to stroll around a park. I have
frequently passed by the entrance to Glencairn Gardens as it's near
Winthrop University on the way over to where Catawba Care is now
located; but I had never stopped to see what the park was like.
Well, it turns out the park is quite
beautiful, especially at this time of year. Along with several
streams, a lake, a pond, and several fountains, the park is filled
to the brim with azaleas - almost all which are in full bloom right
now.
Mom poses on one of many bridges in the
park....
...while I posed in front of one of the
many fountains.
It's been a long time since I've gone
some place with someone else who had a digital camera, and in the
time honored tradition of Jim and I, Mom and I took camers-2-camera
pictures of each other.
From the far end of the
park, standing above the curved wall of the War Memorial, you have a
great view of half of the park.
I thought this section that was terraced and kept quite natural was
very attractive.
Mom taking a picture of me
taking a picture of Mom taking a picture of me....
The other end of the park
is shaded under a lot of trees, and filled with small pools, small
fountains, flowers and azaleas.
Rock Hill's annual
city-wide festival is called the "Come See Me Festival" and has a
cartoon frog as a mascot. The artist who designed the frog, Vernon
Grant, was also the creator of Rice Krispies "Snap!" "Krackle!" and
"Pop!" This is a memorial to Mr. Grant, who passed away in
1990, and some of his creations.
Yet another fountain,
pools, and a pond.
Hell! It's
Hail!
We had quite a line of storm rumble
through our area the other day. The first wave brought a 17-minute
hail storm, while the second wave brought another 7-minutes worth of
hail. Most of the hail was the size of large marbles, although some
pieces were as big as golf balls. There was a lot of damage around
the area from the hail and winds; but luckily everything weathered
the weather okay here at our house and gardens.
Extra
Pictures from Facebook
Catawba Care was recognized with the 2011 Erin Hardwick Excellence
in Non-Profit Management Award at the South Carolina Association of
Non-Profit Organization (SCANPO) Annual Conference. Two
organizations from across the state were recognized, one with a
budget under $500,000 and another with a budget over $500,000
(Catawba Care). Anita Case, CC’s Executive Director, submitted a 5
page narrative about our organization and a committee reviewed the
applications and determined the winners. CC’s application focused on
the relocation, CC’s strategic planning, CC’s vision and values, 10
year anniversary/open house, the agency’s new name, and the 340B
program transition.
That's Anita with the award and big
smile second from the left
That's my friend Larry speaking
with one of our local Senators.
Here's the gang in the 2nd floor lobby,
outside the Senate Chambers,
back on our March 30th "Bee Day" event.
MouseOver CloseUp
MouseOver CloseUp
Here's the gang, leaving the Capital City Club and heading over the
State House.
If you look closely (and MouseOver) you can see me back there
near the end of the group.
More Spring
Pictures
I understand that some of
my Northern friends aren't so happy with my Spring pictures; but
what can I say? Come visit me, or better yet, let me help you find a
place to move to down here and we'll celebrate Springtime together.
Every day more blossoms open up on the
white rose bush on the trellis. Just walking nearby, you can smell
the sweet smell of the flowers.
My outdoor plant, the dragon palm . . .
. . . and my indoor plant, the cerebus
are both doing really
well. They have been repotted, trimmed, and given new supports.
The clematis growing up the trellis outside the backdoor is
beautiful in bloom.
The irises are going well
out on the front hillside and I'm seeing buds beginning to form.
I'm also seeing the gladiolas poking green sprigs out of the ground
now.
The irises by my deck are
growing well and budding also.
The redbud tree no longer has red buds;
but is forming red leaves, while the dogwood is still blooming.
Along the front of the
house and throughout the front woods, azaleas are blooming all
around.
The colors range from orange to white to lavender to purple to pink
to red.
Leatherman
the Lumberjack
This past fall, Dennis
purchased us an electric chain saw because we had several trees that
were having problems (that an euphemism for being dead).
Taking down the pear tree
little by little, I stacked the limbs into several piles.
Afterwards I pulled out the chipper and made short work of debris.
I also took down a pine by
the driveway. It turned out to be a bit taller than I thought, so
when I cut through the base and it fell, it crashed into a tree on
the other side of the drive and got stuck. By cutting off section
after section at the base of the tree, I was finally able to whittle
it down to something I could pull lose and finish slicing into
pieces.
All told there were nine
other trees scattered throughout the front part of the property that
I cut down. Most of small dead dogwoods and other trees similar.
Here are some pictures of me playing Paul Bunyan.
Another dead tree down,
and just a few more to go.
TIMBER!
Watch the
movie below
and see how
I almost got
whacked by
this falling
tree.
There were only two that
needed to come down in the back yard.
The first one was easy-peasy; but the other one turned out to be a
lot of trouble.
So, I had tied off the tree with a
couple of ropes, cut a notch in one side and had nearly completed
the cut through the tree, when a huge gust of wind tilted the tree
the wrong way, pinning my chainsaw. Argh! So I had to get a hand saw
to cut through the last bit of trunk. When the cut was finished, the
top piece of tree twisted and shifted by half an inch. When that
happened, suddenly about 30 feet of the top of the tree broke off
and came crashing down. Thankfully it missed the house; but
unfortunately, it crashed into part of the fence. As you can see, I
was lucky that it didn't do too much damage to the fence. (However,
there is more to this story later at the end of the month!)
As the dead tree didn't
weight much, I lugged the pieces around to form a border along the
walkway and around some tiger lilies that I transplanted from one
side of the yard to the other.
My nearly planted grass
has been growing and looks great with the timber borders.
A Woodland
Path Project
After taking down all those trees, I
have a new project, for Mom, that'll use up the "leftover" trees.
Mom would like some walking paths and a relaxation area out in the
front woods. Using ground cloth that Dennis has had for years, I
have been laying out the several paths.
Recycling logs from the
felled trees as path borders, I have been chipping up the smaller
branches to use to fill in the paths.
This center section will eventually have a couple of benches, some
potted plants and maybe a statue or something.
From the center area, one path will lead through the woods (across
the yard) over to the driveway and the carport; while the other path
will merge into one that goes up the hill (past the irises) ending
up at Mom's pet cemetery.
Over the course of several
days, I've gotten more of the path laid out with the ground cover
cloth, more branches cut and arranged for the border, and more of
the walkway filled in with chipped wood. I had to take a break -
because I ran out of chipped wood - to go through the woods
gathering wood to run through the chipper.
Prepping
the Area for the Pool
I finally finished digging
out the area for the pool and it was time to do the final prep work
before I put the ground liners down and the pool up. Though it was
anywhere near as time-consuming as digging out all that dirt, it was
a pain in the butt, raking and raking, digging out little stones and
roots and anything sort of sharp.
Leatherman as Speedoman
Finally everything was evened out and
debris free.
So it was time to put down
a layer of sand.
After dumping out the bags
of sand,
there was more raking!
After it was raked out all
nice and even, I pull the yard cover (ie the taped together
contractor bags) over the area.
Now all that was left was setting up the pool! WooHoo!
Pet Pictures
Mr. Kitty is doing quite well after his
recent health problems. While he loves being inside, like me he
enjoys time outside wandering around the property. He's even
recently gotten back to his old job of mouse-catcher inside the
house.
WooHoo for Mr. Kitty!
Mom's dogs
Jack
Sunni
Rudy
The boyz got Summer
haircuts.
Zeus, before and after his
haircut.
Aries is never fond of having a
haircut, but he'll thank me when it's close to 100 degrees this
Summer.
A Pet
Problem
Joxer didn't get a haircut however,
because he was at the vet's having surgery! For several weeks, he
had a small bump on the inside of his ear. Suddenly within just a
couple of days, the bump began to grow until it was golf-ball sized.
Of course, I couldn't let that situation continue, so I took him to
the new vet that Mom has been using for her dogs.
With just a look, the vet
knew that this was a cancerous tumor that needed immediate removal.
So I left Joxer there for surgery and went home and gave his
brothers their haircuts. Several hours later, with the tumor gone -
along with all the money I've been saving for some trips (more on
that next month) and more money that I won't even get until May - I
got my doggie back.
Joxer was doing well; but still
pretty "out of it" when I brought him back home. It was kind
of funny watching him stumble around a bit sniffing things
once he got back home (like sniffing his brothers with their
new haircuts) before finally just crumpling down and taking
it easy.
Though Joxer was home and
doing better, I still had to wait a couple of days to get some blood
results back. In the initial blood work done for the tumor surgery,
some of Joxer's blood sugar counts were way off. The vet was
concerned, and ran more tests, about whether pancreatic cancer might
be an issue.
Luckily, it turns out that
cancer isn't the issue. The vet says that another issue he sees in
older cockers is quite simply that they forget to eat enough
resulting in hypoglycemia. The vet says that the easiest solution is
to simply put out food, in smaller amount, more frequently
throughout the day. So, since the other boyz are just a year
younger, I've been feeding everyone on a new schedule.
Catawba
Care's Spring
Volunteer Appreciation Luncheon
Twice a year, Catawba Care
hosts a luncheon to thank it's volunteers for everything that they
do.
You know I was there -
they were serving up BBQ!!
Latisha (the case manager
supervisor) and Mary Alice (the volunteer supervisor) gave out
several special awards and recognition certificates to all the
volunteers. With a little bit of pride, I can say that I am now into
my second year of volunteering with the agency.
My good friend Sandy won
the "Ruth Webb Volunteer of the Year Award" - and she deserved it!
WooHoo Sandy!!
I had a chance to show off
my brand new red hair, as we sat outside on a lovely day enjoying
BBQ, cake, award presentations, a short speech and some thank you's
from the staff, and the company of some of my new friends. It's a
shame that not every day could be this nice and have this much fun.
Week Three:
Even More Spring
While the azalea blooms
are finally dying off after a couple of weeks of color, the irises
are beginning to bloom all around the property. I planted the yellow
ones last year by my deck last year and since someone that Mom knew
had given them to her, we didn't know that they would be yellow
until they bloomed.
My hollyhocks just keep getting taller
and taller. The ones I had in Ohio never had bases that got this
large, so I'm not certain what to expect out of these new ones here
in SC. Goodness! The base wasn't even half this height and the
flowering stalks were 12 to 15 feet tall. Surely these aren't going
to end up 30 feet tall with flowers. LOL
Just behind some of the
iris buds which will be opening soon, I see that the peonies are
close to blooming too.
Roses are blooming all
around the property too.
While the top of the
clematis, outside the backdoor, is blooming in a beautiful pink, the
bottom portion is blooming in a deep contrasting purple.
The Garden
Everything is growing well
in the garden, and I'll already picked a couple of radishes
Mom and D picked up a couple of flats
of tomatoes that I got planted into the ground recently.
The green beans are up and starting to grow up their netting.
The broccoli and radishes are going
gang-busters.
The onions, lettuce, cilantro, dill and
mint are growing great too.
I have peas growing up
inside a cage
The Second
Visit to
Glencairn Gardens
After learning that there is a
photography contest at Glencairn Gardens, Mom and I decided to go
back for another trip to take a few more, hopefully better,
pictures.
Trying to get some
pictures for the "wildlife" category, Mom took several attempts to
catch a cardinal and his mate; but could never quite get the birds
to pose properly for a great picture.
Wow! Look at how much the
park has changed this week from last week!
The park is still filled with flowers
and waterfalls, so there was no shortage of beautiful scenery to
take pictures of.
We do plan to enter some
of these into the contest and if we win, I'll be sure to let y'all
know.
Week Four:
More Spring
More and more roses keep
blooming on the property
this little rose bush is in the garden
and this rose bush is outside the den
window.
even the rose on the beat up fence is
doing well
(there's a story about this fence coming up soon!)
All these irises are
blooming out on the front hill
Going along with the path, that I've been putting into the front
woods, I been putting in steps leading up to the pet cemetery.
I finally finished putting
the new flower bed together where I cut down the pear tree. After
turning over the dirt, several dozen times, I planted blanket
flowers, star flowers, wind flowers, zinnias and snapdragons.
the first "fruits" from the garden
In the back part of Mom's back yard, I
created another small garden. Since the area was filled up with the
dirt I dug up from the pool area, and was loose and fertilized, I
planted the rest of the seedling plants that I've been growing.
This secondary garden is planted with green peppers, pimentos,
orange peppers, yellow peppers, and cauliflower.
It seems like every day my redbud tree
has more leaves. It's really beginning to look like an ornamental
tree instead of a stick with a couple of leaves like it was when I
got it last year.
mIkIe
Amazingly, I've been in the pool
everyday this last week of April. Currently without a covering tarp,
I've been getting in each day because it's easier to skim out all
the debris from the trees that way. It hasn't been too terrible
either. The first day or so was pretty cold (68-70 degrees); but
after the last couple of warm days the water has a lot warmer (78-80
degrees).
Practicing that one-handed
picture-taking
Remember
the tree and the fence?
Some of you may already
have noticed that, not only do I have ear rings in one ear; but I
have my nipples pierced. Normally both of them look like the picture
on the left. However one of my piercings currently looks like the
picture on the right.
Remember earlier in the
month when I cut down a tree that then fell onto the fence? Yes that
story is related to a story about my nipples. LOL Now two weeks
later, I went back out to try to unbend the top bar and stretch the
chain link back into place. Well, I was busy pulling on the fencing,
when suddenly something happened. At first, I was like, what was
that? And I started looking around and realized one of my nipple
rings was missing!!! Yes! It caught on the fencing and when I pulled
up, it ripped right out!
Believe it or not, at
first it didn't really hurt. Even later it was only sore. Luckily
the fence ripped the ring straight out so the wound was straight and
clean. There wasn't even much blood; just a little bit of oozing.
Reading online (such horror stories about rings ripped out!), it
sounds like I have to let this heal for several months and then get
it re-pierced. I haven't decided on that (and don't have to for a
while). Although I might not get it re-pierced, it's weird not
having both rings as I had these piercings done 23 years ago and
this has been the first problem. It's just a shame that I couldn't
have claimed I had it ripped out in a bar fight or during some wild
sex. LOL
