One branch at a time!

Over the weekend I began something I have been threatening to do for several years.  I began cutting out the humongous rhododendron bush outside this office window.  The one that’s been home to wild cats over the years.  It’s gotten so big that I could easily walk into it, and maybe not make it out.  Now, that doesn’t necessarily help with cutting it out ~ it’s a big project. 

So I started cutting branch after branch of this monster and laying them to the side.  This means not only do I have a monster of a flowering bush but have begun a monster pile next to it.  I didn’t really give a lot of thought to what I will be doing with the branches as they come out.  If they go on the burning pile, well, that’s on the other side of the house.  I have never driven the tractor around in the yard but I may have to learn for this one. 

The tractor is one of those “this is mine” things.  I mean, I guess I could go out there and start the old thing up and back it out of the barn but I just don’t think it would be looked upon favorably.  Now, I talk about that like we are on 100 acres of prime farm land..back out of the barn indeed.  Most of you know that is not true and I’m talking John Deere lawn tractor here.  But, there is the backing up thing, never one of my strongest driving skills, and besides the cart is not attached so I would also have to figure that out.  Not going to happen. 

What will happen instead is, even though he wasn’t ready for this project quite yet, hubs will have to hook up the cart to the tractor and haul my branches around for me.  Thrilled he was when he came up from a short boat ride and saw I had started the hacking of the branches.  As we stood looking at the bush following my 30 minutes or so of hacking, and barely a dent made in this thing, I saw bees swarming everywhere.  How I didn’t get stung is beyond me but it became obvious the bees were coming home for the evening and my branch cutting was over for the day.  And, I was hot. Thirty minutes of work is good for one day, right?   

I am headed out there again in a short while to invest an hour of my day in branch cutting.  I guess I'll drag some branches down to the burning pile in the little wheelbarrow.  I hope the bees are out on their dailies! 

Hi dee ho, neighbor.

My 92 year-old mother-in-law passed away recently and sending her off has been an emotional time for sure, but, the last few months have also brought this very close-knit family even closer. Her five children have done an amazing job of coming together, expressing their goals and taking steps to bring her estate to a close. Ready to move forward, each of the kids has walked through her home and selected items that were meaningful to them, or simply could use, and on more than one occasion, shared a story or two and tons of laughter, tears rolling down their cheeks.

The next generation has been coming in and selecting a few things as well. It's been equally fun with them, as they walk through the house and pick up items, turning them over and over in their hands as they remember their grandparents. From plastic glasses in the kitchen to beautiful cut glass vases and pitchers stored in cabinets to treasured antiques and oddities, it's been fun to see what attracts the eye of these young people, and to listen, listen, listen to their stories, their memories.     

I was lucky to have lived next door to this remarkable, kind lady for all but one of my married years. She was, as was my father-in-law, who has been gone ten years, a great neighbor. She shared our joys, she was supportive when we had sadness.  She taught me how to be a good neighbor, I hope, to someone new next door.

I may not bake pies or keep my flowers as weeded, the birds well-fed as I should, but I know how to be a neighbor! I had a really good teacher!

Five more, just five more minutes.

Last week I waited to hear how my little granddaughter liked her kindergarten experience.  Her first day brought back memories of her mother at age 5, of waiting for the bus on her first day and being so very excited, and me, so reluctant to let her go.  I know this little girl will bloom in school, she is smart and confident, like her mom.  She was not nervous, just excited, and walked in to the school from her mom’s car, one glance over her shoulder, approached by the principal and invited to walk in with her out of the line-up of other kindergarteners.  Holding hands with the principal, our girl marched in to her school career.  Not a bad start.

We know, of course, that school changes everything.  Now we have to be more deliberate about visits, weekends, vacations and holidays.  We lose some of the freedom we had to “face-time” before bedtime as bedtime comes earlier, without the carefree “five-more minutes”.  Now it will be “not on a school night” and waiting, waiting for spring break, or fall break, or the seems-like-light-years-away, summer vacation.

Yes, things are changing, and it’s difficult to let some things go, but, oh, the places she will go, the lessons, the learning, the fun of being in school.  Special thoughts today for all the adults who will cross paths with my little granddaughter ~ she is kind, she is joyful and she is confident, a great foundation on which much can be built.  I envy the hours you will get with her as I wait for just five more minutes. waitwawawait for just five more minutes  as  grrgrowngrooldHold

Lucky.

I am, without a doubt, lucky in love as they say and have a fantastic husband.  I’ve known this for years, beginning with when we were first married and he insisted on doing all his own laundry.  At that time he was the manager of a men’s clothing store, one of several fashionable stores in a small chain.  He was very particular about his clothing, the care instructions…all of it.  I did not have a problem with his wishes, asked that he leave my clothes alone, but to have at all the towels and sheets he cared to tackle. 

Now, to add to our backstory ~ after hubs and I were married for, oh, about 30 years, he revealed his mom and dad always said he was a klutz, didn't like it when he used tools or had a project as they said he was an accident waiting to happen.  Over the years, I’ve been hit with boards, stepped on, elbowed - hard - bonked on the head, accidentally punched. bruised…that’s just me.  I couldn’t even begin to tell you what he has managed to do to HIMSELF over the years.   I had often thought to myself “Man, he is accident prone…” but to hear him say that his mom and dad thought so as well?  What else did he keep from me?

So to tie these two things together, one day last weekend hubs came up to me and asked where I had bought a small light bulb, which he held in his hand,  for one of our decorative lamps.  He was hanging this lamp, you see, and bobbled it around and broke the filament in the new light bulb.  Easy? Common? No, but, I've gotten use to this kind of stuff.  And, while he did not break the lamp, thankfully, or this would be a whole different post,  I should know not to buy just one of something that is part of a project. After giving him the location, he nodded and walked away. 

A few days later, I was emptying the dryer of his laundry ~ the drawback, he often does not quite get ALL the steps to “doing a load of laundry” completed.  I was in a great hurry, annoyed, as I had company coming for the weekend and sheets and towels to wash and didn’t really have time to pull out this load of laundry. But, again, I know how lucky I am that he does his laundry, leaves mine alone and is always ready to help switch out the bedding or throw a load of towels in. 

I felt a little jab, a paper cut type sting, as I pulled his load of clothes out of the dryer.  What the heck? A little dab of blood.  The tinkling of glass.  Huh? The tinkling of glass?  That scratchy sound as something brushes the inside of the dryer as the clothes are moved around.  Now,  I have a stacking washer and dryer and it’s tough to see into the bottom of the dryer but on my toes and yes, there are shards of fine glass in the dryer, all along the filter, in the bottom and now, sparkling on the floor.   What is this?  Carefully sorting through the clothes…there it is, the screw in portion of the light bulb in his cargo shorts pocket. Luckily, my cut was superficial and his clothes all survived being tumbled around with broken glass. 

Who puts a light bulb in their pocket?