Catch-Up

In case you were wondering where I have been . . .

Come sit down with me here in the sunroom, my favorite place in the house.  

We'll watch the birds, drink some tea, and have a catch-up.

🌲🌲🌲🌲🌲

First of all, we finally got to the top of the list for removal of trees damaged by Hurricane Matthew last fall.  

 Fortunately this huge old long-needled pine didn't come down, but it lost some very large limbs.  We have been tiptoeing around it for months because the biggest limb got hung up on a stub of another limb and remained dangling in the tree.  

We removed a portion of the fence also damaged by the hurricane so that the tree service could drive this small tracked vehicle into the backyard.  We call them cherry pickers here; they raise the man with the chainsaw high into the tree and maneuver him into position.

 I'm not good at estimating heights, but this guy was working waaaay up in the air!  

It took six men a couple hours to clear out four giant limbs, cut them up, hand-carry them to the street, and put parts of them through the woodchipper.  Another neighbor hauled away the largest logs for his fireplace.  

📞 📞 📞 📞 📞

 

 

The political situation here has only gotten worse, in my opinion, and we spend time every day calling congressmen and our state government to beg them to stop what is going on in Washington.  Mostly they respond with something that has nothing to do with the issue you have addressed, but one feels one has to do something.  Wednesday our senator was supposed to appear at a Town Hall meeting in a town a half hour away.  We brought our protest signs and hoped, but the senator chose not to appear.  So disheartening.  

🌸 🌺 🌸 🌺 🌸

 

The camellias are almost done blooming.  We have several species and these are the largest, which you can see here  are almost as big as my hand!

Now the azaleas have started and we have lots of those, too.  

It continues to be exciting to see what new has shown up in our garden!

🌅  🐬  🌅

 The weather has been gorgeous, in the 70s most every day, and most days we walk the beach.  

A couple days ago the beach was littered with dozens of dead jellyfish.

They aren't really fish, more like a floating mouth and intestines in a big see-through muscle and a trail of tentacles behind.  

They have no brain but some have an automatic response that releases cells that are a painful toxin.  It paralyzes prey, and if it hits human skin it causes burning welts that really hurt.  Others kinds take in their prey with water and filter out the food part.  I'm pretty sure the ones dead on the beach this day were Cannonball jellyfish, not a stinging kind. 

Apparently jellyfish travel in groups and sometimes the current washes them up on shore.  As they are 93% water, once out of the water they quickly die.

🏡. 🏡. 🏡

 

And yes, it's only February but gardening has  begun!  Supposedly you can grow new plants from cuttings of celery, romaine lettuce, green onions, etc, and plant them in the garden when the roots grow.  

Why not try it?  Soon we will have a small salad from nothing!  

In the outdoor garden I have planted peas, greens, basil, beans, and we have a fig tree coming.  Mmmmm . . . good eating ahead!

😂. 😂. 😂. 

  

He who laughs last ... lasts!