It's So Dark Out

I just happened to pop up from bed this morning thinking I had an appointment today and had over slept. It was 4 A.M. and still dark out. Talk about confused! No, I didn't have an appointment but in the back of my mind I thought of the car's trunk just crammed with my load of newly purchased plants for my flower boxes. I knew I had to get up and get them out of there so they could breath. And yes, I did go overboard but such a pretty case of 'overboard'. I said to the lady helping me fit them into the car, "I wish I could just drive home with the lid open. All these flowers are glorious and should be seen, not closed up in the trunk." She laughed at me and said, "I'll see you tomorrow." Hmmm, I don't think so. However, there were a few new specimens I'd never seen before and I'm sure they would add height to the box gardens. Yep, she knows me!

Since it's dark I certainly can't describe the day but I can say that with hubby sleeping and the AC turned off to give it a break, it's mighty quiet in here. Of course I hear the droning of my fridge as it chugs along. That sound certainly isn't new. The fans are gently whirring, waiting to be turned on high as soon as it starts to get warm without the AC on. I just get so tired of all the noise, my mind needed a break also. Did I mention I'm not that much in love with noise?

Gee, I'm also questioning new sounds I haven't heard before, like some banging from outside. Perhaps an early wood pecker breaking in on the soothing quiet. I love it but can now hear the ice maker kicking in and depositing ice cubes for my ice water. The ice cube container has to be shared with hubby's pop sickles so I have put a divider in it. LOL, sometimes it's quite a sight when he overloads his side with his bounty and all my ice cubes go over the top and down into the fridge. Then I must turn off the ice maker until there's room for the ice! It's a good thing I can drink cold water from the faucet.

I don't hear the birds at all. I guess it must be too early for them. For me too to be truthful. I tried to go back to bed and get some extra Zzzzzzzzzz, but my mind wouldn't calm down and let me. At least I can write in my blog without any disturbances and finish before too late in the day. And I can also unload my bounty being held prisoner in the dark car trunk. I just have to wait a little longer for the day light to catch up to me.

This is about it for now. I have to rescue my prisoners and get dressed, in that order. It is getting light out and I can make my way to the car. I forget what the weather is for today so must find a safe place for them. If it's sunny and hot, they will wilt, if it rains they will be beaten down. For sure, it's time I move my carcass and get it done. with a car short, my son has to borrow mine. I don't think he'd appreciate a trunk full of flowers and neither would I after spending so much time choosing just the right ones. Yesterday I had a trunk full of lawn chairs I had forgotten about so had no room for the flowers. Oh well, back home again to unload only to go to the nursery and reload. What a waste of gas. I certainly didn't "go green" and I hope I wasn't spotted by the "green police."


Have a happy day! I intend to.

Another Sunny Day, Joy!

Joy oh Joy, the birds are back and singing. It didn't take them long to find the fully loaded feeders after their being empty for long. I think they must have been waiting in the trees, just bursting to pounce on the feeders and fill their greedy little bellies.

Yesterday we took a drive to find flowers for the planters and it was mighty windy and the car was bombarded with all the tree droppings and those little dry things that look like tiny airplanes which dive bombed us the whole trip. No wonder people are having problems with allergies and respiratory conditions. Clinics and doctors are pretty busy keeping up with it all.

With the wind and the closed in area at Home Depot, it was like a wind tunnel and cold. Snapping leaves of the larger plants smacked me in the face a few times and when one tree like specimen slashed me in the ear, I settled for garden shopping outside at Stop and Shop. So brave am I. (Smile).

We bought lots of good stuff at Agway. Huge bags of bird seed and larger bags of something or other for dusting our lawn to get rid of grub worms (eek, you can see their teeth close up). Not really but they sure are ugly looking buggers. Also something in a long cone shaped thingy with the word Peanut on the label to stick in the holes made by the moles or voles. They eat it and die. Slaughter, slaughter the darn devils! They have made our yard, both front and back a literal obstacle course. One looks like a drunken sailor when trying to transverse one end to the other.

Bird feeders have been moved closer to the house and the long Shepard like posts will be used for hanging pots of colorful flowers. On the bad side though, on windy days those baskets are heavy and will be like an arsenal to anyone close by. Usually we take them down when it is fierce out. Saves on broken windshields and such.

Hubby just made a charity run with son to the auto dealership's service department. Car won't start and our expert is in Florida now. Things just seem to go to pot all at once with our cars. Two in the garage this week and now this one that is our DIL's. Of course it must be worked on by certified mechanics. Our son is just a shade tree mechanic but he has changed transmissions, welded in new steel paneling, etc. for years now. Our garage is always full of trucks belonging to friends and we must wait our turn for our vehicles to be looked at. I'm losing patience at this point. Number two son is out of range and we miss his expertise. Oh, enough about vehicles not operating. That seems to be our whole life here in the boonies. Bird song and the aroma of oil and gasoline.

I just had to stop my complaining to put a warm pair of socks on. Cold feet, warm heart. That's true if you believe it. I say cold feet, miserable mood and yet sometimes I'm just too lazy to get thy butt up from the seat to find a pair set aside for winter mornings in Connecticut's Spring. We certainly have had some cold nights and real cool mornings. I think we will go from winter to summer and spring will just be a memory from now on. It seems to follow that way the past few years or else I have some memory loss.

My burgundy clematis are wide open this morning and showing their bright yellow centers. They look like beautiful stars and I need to take pictures before they are no longer. A beating rain would just do them in.

I did plant my morning glories last night before dark. I was already out this A.M. checking on them to see if they were somehow peeking above the soil. When I see Jack from the Beanstalk I will know they are okay and need staking. I did that last year and ended up with so many vines I had to tie some together and string them up to a post. Just beautiful until we left for a week and they didn't get any water. The hot sun just baked them. Needless to say, my heart was broken.

Well, I better get dressed and go to another nursery to find a few more plants in colors that please me most. Mauve, purples and bright fuchsia. I also have to find some white trailing things (I used to know the names of all these plants but somehow I have lost them) that look beautiful as they fill out the boxes. I'll remember the name after I get off the computer. Vinca Minor is also a graceful trailing plant that looks lovely in the planter boxes. It just adds so much to the effort.

I will take pictures when I am done with all this planning and add it to a post. It is a shame they are all annuals, but they are instant color and I need instant gratification. Plus with some in bloom I can move them all around until I get just the effect I want and then I plant them with high hopes for a beautiful color display. Made especially for the hummingbirds and butterflies, and for my delight also.

Happy day!

Where Have I Been?

Well, I guess I have fallen back into my bad habit of never completing what I have started. I really thought this would be a cinch for me but it has turned out to be a chore. I guess it must be spring fever even though our weather is more like winter.

Allergies have taken up most of my time and energies. All the beautiful trees now have leaves of varying shades of green, but the pollen is still bad and I find I must stay inside most of the time. Even with allergy medication, I had to go to the eye doctor who put me on eye drops because the allergy med doesn't have enough antihistamine in it. This is a new thing for me! What is happening to our world?

I have noticed the birds have stopped coming to visit and wondered what the problem was. The problem was and is, my hubby hasn't filled the feeders in two weeks. His morning ritual has fallen by the wayside as the feeders are hard to get to with all the walled levels and the ground is full of holes where the moles, voles or whatever have set up house keeping. One fall and it could mean a hip or worse. Time to move the feeders in closer to the house.

Since I've been cooped in the house I have decided to go through all the boxes of pictures we have stuffed away all these years. Some of the babies defeat my memory. Why or why didn't I put names and dates on the back of the pictures?! Of course I never meant to get older and now notice my memory is slipping away little by little. With so very many pictures, whichever I have forgotten I have others that replace them and are much easier to recognize. Of course the old cameras didn't help any with the black and white film and the fading. Many I just need to toss because my children and grand children won't have any idea who they are or even care long after I'm gone. I just wish I had asked more questions of my parents so I could pass on information that the children might need or want to know someday.

I think I need a flower boost. That's what's ailing me. Cold nights and cool days and not a flower planted yet. I did soak my Morning Glory seeds last night so as soon as it warms up some I will get out and plant those. I will enjoy checking on them each day to watch their progress. I think I will do up long planters with cascading petunias in fuchsia, deep purple, white and pink to brighten up the walls and my spirit. I am always happy around flowers and petunias are safe because I am not allergic to them. I will also plant some Heliotrope for their light and lovely scent of baby powder, and its changing shades of pale hyacinth blue to the deeper variations of purple.

At present my Clematis is in full bloom and had so many buds I was anxious to see them open. So much so that I asked my hubby to cut a little 8 inch sprig of leaves from the tree brushing against it in order to save the buds from being knocked off. Hubby did better than that, he cut off a large branch of tree and needless to say, it came down with a crash and landed on my beautiful vine full of buds and knocked some completely off. I can't believe how upset it made me. I could have done it myself and should have but couldn't handle the lopping shears. Oh well, I'm learning.

He is the same beau who continually mowed down my mom's lilacs every year while trying to be helpful. She warned me about his not knowing a weed from a flower. Now we have all kinds of little oaks sprouting up which have ROOTS that go on forever. I have and will continue to have a tug of war with them for some time to come. The plants were pulled out since he didn't realize they would eventually flower. The tiny tree starts looked important to him. At least we got rid of all the spearmint that was overtaking our yard. Now I know you plant the mint family in pots.

I think I will buy some nice silk flowers and spray them with a preservative to hold their color and sneak them in any empty looking spots. As soon as I plant a beautiful fully blooming addition, I step back and admire it for the day. The next morning the plant is gone, pulled down through a hole in the ground. Others get chewed off at the very bottom of the stem. The only thing that has lasted through the winter and is now filling out is my Mother's Day Butterfly Bush which for some reason, nothing out there seems to find it tasty.

Sssh, the sun is now out and it is supposed to be cool, a nice day for planting. Now I have to get my butt in gear and go to the nursery to buy my flowers. I'm excited and leery about that part. I always tend to over buy and my back suffers for days as I try to get everything planted before they die. I will reign myself in though, I promise. Like I did last year and all the years before them. The only thing I really have going for me now is I have learned to plant flowers in pots and decorated planters. My stone walls will look beautiful but the rest of the yard I can no longer get to. Oh well, it really doesn't matter in the overall scheme of things.

A LIttle Bit of This and Some of That

Oh dear, so much time has passed since I last wrote and I feel as if I have given up on my blog too and I promised myself I wouldn't be a quitter again.

I was trying to so hard to put this together in some kind of order last night, but just couldn't see straight to type because my head kept hitting the keys and waking me up.

I always wanted to be a nurse (truly) and go into the Peace Corps. I also wanted to go into the Armed Forces to get the education to become a nurse. I was also pursuing a singing career but gave that up for my hubby, along with my other aspirations.

I enjoyed being a mother but it was hard. I had my first child at Fort Carson Army Base in Colorado. Within a month hubby was sent to Germany due to the Berlin Crisis. I went home and lived with mom and dad and I couldn't wait to get out of that house so took out a loan to join hubby. What a rude awakening to go to another country with a one year old and not have housing. We lived in an apartment in a small German town. Two days after arriving, hubby was sent to the Congo. He was a helicopter mechanic and his MOS was critical. So off he went and I was on my own with a one year old.

While in Germany I got pregnant with my second son and he was born in a German hospital. I loved the Catholic nuns there. They were so kind, unlike the army hospital where my first was born. My second son was brought to me right after birth and was allowed to have his crib in my room. When I was able to go home, our first son, Mike, adored his new baby brother and was quite a little helper. After a year, I got pregnant again (yes, it WAS the water) and in my 7th month my husband was issued orders back to the states. I was excited but also very sorry to leave my German friends from whom I had learned to speak a type of low Dutch and we got along fine with our close neighbors. The trip and flights home were a nightmare but that's another story.

We came home to the good old states and were stationed in Georgia. I was 8 months pregnant and then hubby was sent to the Dominican Republic because of the uprising and fighting there. I developed Toxemia and had no one to help me out. That was not a happy experience but I got through it without my mom coming, (whatever made me think she would?) and our third son was born.

It was now time for my hubby to get out of the Army and he wanted to reenlist for the 3rd time. I said no because I was tired of raising three small ones on my own. He was discharged and three days later his whole outfit was sent to Vietnam. He was sick about it and felt he had let his buddies down.

Life in Georgia was much different than I had imagined. The heat was unbearable and the weight of the air nearly suffocated me. Both Jon and I ended up in the hospital with heat exhaustion. Life styles are very different in the south. You did what you had to in the early morning and afternoons you napped if you were lucky. I learned the two most important words to suit that time of life, AIR CONDITIONING. Two years there and we were ready to come home to Connecticut.

After seeking employment for weeks on end, hubby finally found a job but the drawback was it was three shifts. It was a nightmare but I found ways to keep the little guys quiet so hubby could sleep during the day time. The children were ages 1, 2, and 4. And did I say very active! I had always been very creative and my imagination really came in handy.

I was a stay-at-home mom and when the children got older,I was a den mother, school room mother, Sunday school teach, and class party planner. I was also the one who picked up sick children from school for working mothers and kept them at my house until They could pick them up after work. I did everything I could with my boys and while we weren't well off by any means, we got by and did a lot of nature hikes, crafts, etc.

I have to say those days were the most fun. I never feel I missed out on anything by being a stay-at-home mom. I finally went to work when the youngest was 12 years old. I had done my share of Room Mother, Den Mother for all 3 of them, baking cookies and having cookies and milk ready for them when they came home from school. But I now needed to get out and help moneywise so we could eventually own our new home.

Finally, after 16 years of marriage, we found a few acres out in the boonies and paid on it until we were able to start building. All in all it took us much longer than we expected and I was finally working as a secretary to help with the mortgage payments. It was so exhilarating to be free and on my own for most of the day. I also needed to be around grown ups so I could increase my vocabulary again. Raising children and always having errands to run for last minute school projects, cookies for a special day, and a number of other little emergencies kept me busy for a number of years kept me out of grownup circulation

Those days are now over and have been for some time now. But all this rest and relaxation is getting to me and I seem to be going through a new phase at this late age. Maybe I need to get back out around young people again. Others my age seem to be forgetting too many words, and I think it's contagious!

All's Quiet Again

I lost my little tenant. My friend who is an Animal Control Officer called to say she was on her way to pick him (her) up and bring her to a lactating mother cat. While here she and my hubby walked up in the woods and flushed out the mother cat. Kim got down on the ground and stuck her flashlight in a large hole and there were the other kittens, all frightened and looking at her with large eyes. Sooo, she carefully scooped them out and took them with her. I couldn't help it, I shed a few tears.

I would love that little kitten but Alie (my other cat) did not and wouldn't come near me. Even after the kitten was gone. Last night she finally allowed me to pet her when she jumped up in my face so I would notice her and not that bratty kitten. She is still sniffing around for it. LOL, talk about getting one's nose out of joint!

Today Kim and her assistant are coming back with the traps to try and catch the momma cat. She is that grey feral cat but I've got her coming to the house to eat at least. We'll see what happens today or tomorrow because we need to get her back to her kittens.

When MY kitten, little Brat, was put in the box with the other kittens, he was so happy he pounced all over them. I can only guess what the poor little thing was thinking being stuck with me for a so called mother. Oh happy day, together again!

Later after they were situated, Kim called to tell me they were all doing fine and little Brat was so happy to be with the rest. She also said they were all healthy but SHE was the runt of the litter. Feisty, she is the loudest and most advanced one. She doesn't have to tell me, I know! I can't help a bit of pride here...

I am tempted to go and get her when she is old enough to be put up for adoption, but then we just bought two new recliners and they wouldn't last long with 'The Terror.' I will say those mothering instincts really kicked in fast.

Today is another rainy and dreary day. A good day to clean but I'm still tired from being up all night with Brat. But I wouldn't hesitate to do it again if I had to. Now to see if we can catch the mother cat. I'm kind of doubting it but sure would love to be proven wrong.

Kim has told me to be sure to set them during the daytime and not at night. Living in the woods I'd be likely to catch skunks, raccoons and heaven knows what else. So we will set them today when Kim comes and see what happens. I so hope the mother cat cooperates so she can be with her babies again and I can quit worrying about her. She must be frantic without her litter. I would be too.

We've Got Kittens!

That stray grey cat we've been feeding had kittens. Dad was tearing all the junk out of the back of the garage building and heard something crying as if it were hurt. He found 5 kittens and without coming in to tell me, he put them in the cat carrier. Then he came in and told me and went looking for something to shelter them from the cold. Momma is wild and won't come near us and there is no way we can catch her. When I came in to get a warm quilt to warm them tonight he was building a little shelter. I went to the cat carrier and she had removed two of the kittens already. We padded a box with the quilt and put it in the same place he found the kittens. But I think she will move them to another place. He didn't know that you can't disturb a nesting place that momma made. Anyway, the quilted box is out there with the same tarp over it and I'm hoping she will bring them back. I wish we could catch her because this is what she does and every batch has been killed or born dead. We fed her special food and she had plenty of water everyday. I hope she is healthy enough to nurse. The kittens look to be about 2 weeks old and are adorable. One is a real cry baby and just wanted to stay inside my jacket close to my heart. I feel so bad that we interfered. I will take them to the shelter where my ex-DIL works when they are old enough or she abandons them. I don't know what will happen now that he moved them. He thought he was doing right with his big heart, but we can't do anything with the kittens without the mother to nurse them plus half are gone. I guess I just have to pray that momma knows best and try to keep away from the area.

Well, I am now mama to the black male. She hurried off with the others when I was in the house and left him. He was so vocal I imagine she thought he would bring danger to the others.

Anyway, it was getting really cold last night and it didn't look at if the kitten would make it so I brought him in, inside my jacket. Once warmed he snuggled in for a nap. I was hunting high and low for the eyedropper bottle I bought for just such an occasion if the need arose and sure enough, it did. I put milk and a little warm water in it to thin it out a bit and tried it. He did just fine and between feedings and naps on my chest, I managed to keep him somewhat quiet.

Last night I fed him and put a quilt down on my sheet and put him on it and folded it over to snuggle him so he wouldn't feel all alone. LOL, I was up most of the night with feedings and once I got him quiet, fell asleep with him next to me but higher up so I wouldn't roll over on him. Not to worry dear old senile girl, I woke up this morning to find him cuddled in my neck. I really had to go to the bathroom but didn't want to disturb him since we were up most of the night.

This morning, different scenerio. He attacked that eye dropper as if his life depended on it. I had no problem getting milk down him. Then I addeded a little warm milk to cat food to soften it and tried putting it in a flat saucer on the kitchen floor. Man he was in that plate and gobbling it up in high fashion. After cleaning him up I needed a break so put a quilt in the bottom of a tall cardboard box that he can't climb out of (yet!). He finally settled down and is sleeping. And I'm trying to get back to normal for a few hours at least.

As for loud mouth, people don't want a kitten that is not ready to eat on it's own. I can't leave him out in the yard for the mother to find because I don't think she really cares about him and the wild animals would just eat him in one gulp. Tonight I have a Bible group meeting in a town an hour away and I'm dreading asking Kert to kitty sit.

Everyone has been telling me to trap the cat, did that but didn't work. Now with kittens hidden in the woods I wouldn't dare do that. Later, definitely. I will try to get through the week with the feedings and when the crying gets too loud and he's just being a brat, I will put him in the high box with the quilt and teddy bear. Maybe I'll stick a small clock under the folds to fool him into believing it's a heartbeat.

My cat Ali just hit the door with a whamp and scared away the mother cat. Darn but she is jealous and she is a pain in the butt. I'm in for the long haul I guess.