Seeking Serenity

   Sometimes, you just have to slow down and take things as they come.  You can literally work yourself into a frenzy attempting to accomplish all that the brain tells you to do.  When that happens, it is time to step back, think if all of the hustle and bustle is worth the end result and then make a decision that deems itself worthy.  Mine, today, was to sit back and enjoy the jasmine and roses which are in full bloom just outside the front door.  I dragged the wicker chair from another part of the yard, poured myself a second mug of coffee and breathed deeply.  The coolness of the morning, the scent of jasmine and roses and total relaxation was good for the soul...not to mention the mind.

  Lately, I have been feeling that I have been slacking.  It seems that I am far behind where I should be by this season.  Perhaps that comes with not seeing a garden flourishing but it was my decision to not overplant the spot.  Five tomato plants and five pepper plants are all that were planted this season other than herbs.  It was my plan to dote on those herbs and replenish my waning stockpile.  Sure, I could just head to the store and buy the outrageously expensive stuff but, with all the recalls, as of late, I am hesitant to do that.  So, herbs it is!  Those shall be dried and stored for future use.  

  In the meantime, however, I shall continue to putter around in the garden spots if for no other reason than to enjoy the blooms and glorious aromas.  Gardens...they are good for you...sometimes simply by being. Bask in the serenity that only nature can bring.

Game Called On Account Of Rain....

  Yesterday was a t-shirt wearing, yard-cleaning, tear-down sort of day.  I was up at dawn and in the yard.  The east rose arbor was in a big tangle so the first chore of the day was to do a bit of "untangling".  This was done, rose vines hauled to the burn pile and rose garden raked.  While trimming, I realized the arbor was about to tumble.  Termites had invaded the posts!  Then...as I checked, I came to realize that the entire fence covered with climbing roses was in the same dire fix.  Every fence post around the rose garden was in ruins.  Well, nothing to do but take it all down and start anew.  Son came to my rescue and started ripping out fencing and posts.  Together, we managed to take down the whole works.  This led to a new problem as now we either had to replace it all or come up with a new landscaping plan.  Exhausted, we agreed to complete it the next day (today).

  Fast forward to this morning....it was a sweat-shirt, stay-inside and mope sort of day.  When I awoke at 4am, the first thing I heard was....RAIN!  Raindrops were pelting the rooftop and those would not stop for the entire day.  While this was good for the uprooted roses, it was a "thorn in the thumb" for the plan of redoing the garden.  The roses sit in heaps awaiting their new destinations.

  This evening, the rain continues and I sit with a billion options of how to redo the garden.  At least, rainy days are good for planning.  The time spent will be a huge help instead of jumping into the redo headlong with no idea of where things are going.  Hopefully, tomorrow will be a good work day and we can get on with this chore.  I hate leaving things unfinished.

A Near Miss....or A Diverted Critter Attack!

  Yesterday, I wrote about being attacked by the horde of mosquitoes that had sought refuge from the flooded marshes.  I was thankful that I only received a dozen or so bites after I intruded in their midst.  It was nigh on the same thing earlier in the day...only it could have been much worse.  Sometimes, there is just no explanation of a near miss but it sure makes you appreciate that thing called luck when it happens.

  In preparation for a storm that was supposed to hit the Bayou but then changed its mind, I decided to cut back the overgrowth of jasmine and rose canes.  The all summer long rains had sent the things into a humongous growth spurt and had them covering everything in sight including several potted cedar trees.  Well, it was time to do some severe trimming.  I have found it far easier to do clean up after a storm if you start it long before it ever hits.  Garden snips in hand, I started lopping vines.  While yanking on vines, several red paper wasps were noticed flying about my head.  The critters were shooed away and the lopping continued.  Once the potted cedar trees were untangled from the vines, the pots were pulled out from the spot so I could get "down and dirty" with the remaining vines.  Darn!  Those pesky wasps were back again!  Once again, they were shooed on their merry way.  There was no time to play with them as hurricane preps are far more important.

  Then fast forward to today.  Mark had just arrived home and we headed to the pier. Noticing that the wind had knocked over one of the cedar trees, I stopped and righted it.  Uh, oh!  There were those buzzing critters again.  Then I spied the problem.  I literally had moved their home!  In one of the potted cedar trees was a huge nest!  The thing was a good six or seven inches across and covered with wasps!  Wow!  How had I not gotten stung?  Yesterday when I was yanking on that tree and cutting those vines, the dozens of wasps calmly tried to warn me instead of attacking.  

  Well, to make a long story short, I was not as nice as the wasps.  They tried to warn me which I fully appreciate but the nest had to go.  Too many people walk through that part of the garden as it leads to the front steps of the Little Bayou House.  I could not take the chance that someone may be stung.  The nest was sprayed and knocked out of the tree.  Several dozen adult wasps were killed.  That, my friends, was a near miss and now a diverted critter attack!

Friends in for breakfast!

  It just doesn't get much better than this morning.  First off, I awoke to the scent of roses and jasmine wafting through the open windows.  The heavy dew that had settled in on the arbors heightened the aroma so that the entire garden and house was permeated with the delightful mixture of scents. That, in itself, told me that it was going to be a grand day!  Then things just got better.  I had intentions of pushing that lawn mower for a few hours before the sun warmed things beyond a comfortable temperature and when I checked the thermometer at dawn, it was a cool sixty-eight degrees!  That would make the grass-cutting a lot easier.  Now to grab a mug of coffee before heading out the door.

  That was when the friends came to visit.  I had just settled down at the kitchen table when I saw a slight movement to my left.  Thinking that one of my furry friends was munching grass in the garden, I slowly turned toward the window.  Nope, it was not the rabbits who came to brighten my day this time.  Two adorable, little tree frogs were clinging to the window screen.  Aww!  How cute!  I reached my hand to the screen. Neither frog moved.  It seemed that they welcomed my company.  I actually found myself talking to the two of them.  "Good morning, Froggies!"  Neither responded to my greeting.  They just sat and stared at me through the mesh of the screen.

  After a bit, I realized that the frogs were not there for my pleasure.  They were having breakfast along side of me.  A good many gnats had accumulated on the window screen overnight and the frogs were snatching one after another.  Ahh, good friends do good deeds!  I knew I liked these critters for a reason!  

  Living on a Bayou means there are always hoards of insects of one kind or another trying to enter the Little Bayou House.  I have a steady job just trying to outsmart the six-legged critters (and some eight-legged ones as well).  It is nice to know that I have some allies in this battle. Froggies, you are welcome to live in my window as long as you wish..just continue with your buggy meals!  

A bit of cheer

It was a dreary, stay-inside type of day here on the Bayou.  There was just enough drizzly rain to make meandering about the hillside most uncomfortable.  This is all well and good as I do have a number of projects to keep me busy.  This seems to be a most busy time of year with folks all wanting to purchase gourds and other handcrafted items as Christmas gifts.  My living room is cluttered with all sorts of half-finished art projects that really needed tending.  So I pulled a chair up to the window overlooking the Bay and  busied myself with several gourds.  Over the course of a couple of hours, I found myself staring out that window about as much as looking at the gourd that I should have been painting.

Right outside of this window is the arbor that has the Seven Sisters Rose growing on it.  While it is quite void of roses now, this past summer it was covered with the clusters of blooms.  This rose vine also provided a great housing area for a family of Cardinals.  The parent birds raised three sons to maturity and then moved to another area to nest again.  The three youngsters would still come to the rose vine to roost at night.  I watched all summer as their plumage changed from the drab brown to the splotchy red and finally the beautiful, brilliant crimson.  The youngsters had grown to adulthood within just an arm's reach of my window.

Today, one of the Cardinals came back to roost in the roses.  His feathers were all fluffed out to help protect him from the cold and rain.  I watched as he sat there.  He occasionally snatched some bug as it raced along the canes of the rose bush but mostly he just waited out the rain. His presence brought a bit of brightness to the gloominess of the day.  I do hope at least one of the birds will decide to bring a mate back to the old home spot to nest this next spring.  It will be fun to watch another generation of the Cardinals grow to maturity.

Sticky business..

Oh, my! I told you that yesterday I tried poking all of the blackberry vines back onto the fence line. That was a very, very scratchy job! But then, today, it did not get much better. The blackberry vines came back into play. Not the ones that I worked with yesterday, but some new "runners" that came up everywhere. They were all over the squash garden and that would just not do. I do not desire to get poked every time that I want to eat squash..squash don't have thorns! These runners are what are planted to start a new patch of blackberries and I hated to waste them. There are already three rows of the plants in the garden so I put out word that if any of my neighbors wanted a few, they were welcome to come get some. Several people responded so I was out early this morning digging the vines. Well, actually, Son was digging..I was pulling. Just from the squash garden, we dug out forty-seven vines! I know that in a few weeks there will be just as many to remove, but it is getting awfully late to move them. After we finished digging, I tied the vines in bundles of ten with jute string and stuck them all in a bucket of water to await their new owners. One came...the others...I have not heard anything from them. Hopefully, they will come tomorrow. (Thank you, Becky, for being prompt!) If the vines are not claimed by this weekend, I suppose there will be four fence lines of blackberries in the garden!

The next job..pick all the remaining grapefruit and kumquats. Yes..there were still some on the trees since I grew tired of picking several months ago. If you recall in earlier posts, I mentioned that both the grapefruit and the kumquat trees have thorns..huge thorns! More scratches! As if this was not enough..I came up with the bright idea that a few of the new growths on the kumquat trees needed to be trimmed. Son grabbed the snips and started cutting. One of the new limbs had started growing at the very bottom of the tree and was sort of woven in between the older limbs. We had no idea just how long this limb was until he pulled it completely from the tree. It was over eight feet long! Eight feet of needle sharp thorns! To give you an idea of the wickedness of these thorns..each was about three inches long! Not something you really want to encounter on any occasion! With the recent armed robberies and home invasions in the area, Son made the comment that it might be prudent to plant kumquat trees around the house! A natural security system! Hmmm...this could work!

Then one last sticky, pokey job was accomplished before quitting time. The climbing cluster rose was retrained onto the arbor. This is the Seven Sisters rose that was planted several years ago and has completely engulfed the rose garden fence. The picture below shows just how full it was last year so you can just imagine what I am fighting this Spring! In a few weeks, though, it will all be worth the effort! Hubby and Son built two arbors over the gateways to the rose garden last summer, so now the rose canes needed to be intertwined to encourage growth in that direction. The only problem I had with this job was that the roses had enmeshed with the Confederate Jasmine making one big tangled mess. To top it all off? A wisteria has joined forces with the other two making it almost impossible tell where one ends and the other begins with the exception of the ...thorns! After all of this..I will probably dream that I am sleeping on a bed of nails like some fakir or something!

Smells from the Garden!

Just mentioning a rose garden conjures up memories of wonderful scents that float upon the breezes. I have about twenty-five rose bushes bordering the fences of an enclosed garden. This picture from earlier in the year shows some of the "antique" climbing roses that are on the fence. I do call this my "Rose Garden" even though there are blueberry bushes, herbs and daylilies mingled in with the roses. I love the little garden and in Spring, the area smells delightful. Even though it is far from Spring, today's walk brought back memories of odors all right..memories of not so wonderful odors. I keep the garden under the roses heavily mulched and that brings some unwanted guests. As I wandered about today, a nasty odor accosted me. Oh, yuck! Devil's Toadstool! Stinkhorn! King's Crown! Whatever you call them..they stink! Actually, these stinky things are Clathrus Columnatus, or the Columned Stinkhorn, They will pop up anywhere but seem to love mulch..and I have a lot of mulch! So I have a lot of stinkhorns. These things smell a lot like poop! And I am not particularly fond of stinky poop! I have been trying rid the yard of my Clathrus Columnatus by digging them out of the mulch and discarding them on the burn pile. Dumb! These things do not act like normal, old, run-of-the-mill mushrooms. They do not spread their little spore things by poofing them out like dragons breathing smoke. Oh, no...that would make it far to easy to eradicate them! Instead they get critters to do the dirty work for them. All that stink invites flies, gnats and crawly critters to dine upon the goo inside the arms of the fungus. Then these same creatures unwittingly plant more stinkhorns by..wait for it..pooping. Then a strange thought comes to mind...Why would anything want to eat something that smells so bad? Beats me..but they do and then when nature calls, more of these smelly entities are strewn throughout my gardens. I am so happy..right? Are you kidding? These things are awful. Anyway..as I said I have been trying to rid the yard of them but to no avail. So...I think I will embrace these as exotic additions to the garden! I will tell people that they are some strange beings that have taken up residence in the mulch. Perhaps if I can come up with a convincing story of how rare they are, no one will question the stench that bushwhacks the olfactory system. .... "Yes..these lovely fiery red 'shrooms are amazing!" "I searched high and low to find such exquisite specimens for my gardens!" "The Clathrus Columnatus is my pride and joy!"... Well, do you think that will work? Something tells me that it won't. Something tells me that no matter what I do these things will still vex me for years to come. Something tells me that perhaps I should just accept some of what nature throws at me and not complain. Or most likely, I will still hold my nose and dig the smelly things out of the garden all the while thinking I am doing something of some use. Yep, most likely.

Painting the Roses Red!

Painting the roses red..something from "Alice in Wonderland" a most unusual tale written by Charles Lutwidge Dodgson better known in the literary world as Lewis Carroll. No..I was not painting my roses red, but rather painting the masses of windows in my livingroom. And it is red! To be certain, it is a dark red..so-called "Barn Red" but red nonetheless. In my minds eye last night, it was gorgeous! I was right! This is one of those times when something so off the wall..so weird..so eccentric..turned out well. Admittedly, this is not for everyone. Not many would want red in their livingroom..I did. The only thing that was not correct in my imagination last night (before I started painting) was the amount of time and effort it would involve to paint said windows. I lounged on the sofa staring at the windows with their newly installed casing boards..thinking of the possibilities. In that vast imaginary world of my mind, I was going to complete the painting in about two hours..HA!!! I awoke early this morning and pumped myself full of coffee..two huge mugs and I was ready to paint! I popped Christmas albums in the CD player and turned it up loud..my neighbors across the Bayou would surely enjoy waking to the lovely sounds of Christmas! Several of the windows were flung open and I, armed with a multitude of paint brushes and rags started right in painting the first window. I sang as I worked..I was happy! My red windows were awe inspiring! Nothing would stop me until I finished! I painted! ...... I painted...... I painted some more. Oh my..this was taking longer than I thought. I painted. Why did I talk my husband into putting ten large windows in this room? Who in their right mind needs ten windows in one room?? I painted. For seven hours, I listened to Christmas carols and slapped paint. At the end of seven hours, I collapsed onto the sofa. I stared at the windows..the half-painted windows sat there staring back. I think they were smirking at me..the windows knew! They knew that I would never be able to complete this task in one day! I am not quite sure just how windows think but after seven hours with a paintbrush in hand, anything is possible. Just a thought.. how come my house is a meeting place for everyone and their brother until I start a major project? Nary a sole stopped in to offer a helping paintbrush-wielding hand. So tomorrow..I start again..paintbrush, rags, Christmas music..I WILL complete this task! I WILL have my red windows! I WILL collapse in a heap on the sofa again tomorrow evening and vow never to change paint colors again on these windows!

Speaking of roses, I am not sure what is happening in my rose garden. Three of my largest bushes have bit the dust. Almost overnight, they went from healthy blooming bushes to dried crispy brambles. It makes me sad to think that I could not save them. There did not seem to be any dire disease that caused them to wither as it was not a slow process. They literally went from healthy to DEAD in two days, almost as if they were burned. The strangest part is that the neighboring bushes are still fine. I did notice a tunnel under the mulch causing me to wonder if some critter chewed the roots. After the painting is finished, I will rake back the mulch and see if the cat, Ms. Put is not doing her job of keeping the garden rodent free. There was one beautiful yellow rose trying to cheer me..I hope whatever has attacked the others does not take a notion to besiege this one, too.