Monday

 It started with a good grief feeling.  Doug woke me up after 9 o'clock.  Now what was that all about.  Could it be that the last time I looked at my watch it was 1 am.  Probably.  But 9 am.  The morning was half over, and I missed it.  

Still the same old, same old with breakfast and all the other morning stuff.  I did some paperwork that will be needed for the Live Strong program for people with cancer held at the Y.  That program starts next Monday.  I need a doctor's signature to make me legal.  I'll get that on the 30th. The program starts on the 22nd of this month.  They are letting me in anyways. Yep...Rules are made to be broken, grandsons!  Maybe I should think of hiding from their parents. I'm just exceptional!!!Perhaps. 😂

Then it was time to get that walk around the block with Stella before the heat was upon us again.  I met Cory, also walking and stopped for a while to have a great visit.  Cory grew up next door, the age of our boys.  She lives in Colorado now and is here helping her mother gain mobility after hip surgery.  

Then it was home again to cool off. I remembered that today I wanted to start the take down of the garden getting it ready for winter and the coming spring.  The first to go were some tall cleomes that blocked the view from the kitchen window.  Now I can see more flowers with more butterflies.  What a gift.  

There was time to pick another bucket full of zinnias for drying.  This is the third bucket.  The second bucket full didn't fare so well being left after drying to sop up a rainstorm with a lot of wind that blew the flowers with seeds, hither and yon.  What a bummer.  I'll be thinking drying zinnias this time. 

It was a HOT job of stooping.  It always seems that the second half of filling the bucket goes twice as slow as the first half.  

Then lunch time came with the fan about 3 feet from me.  Flower picking was a HOT job.  

And then came another HOT job.  The BESusans are on the way down.  Some places worse than others.  In years past it was at least a 6 week job of filling B Blues to clean the garden of BESusans.  Then came Christmas 2024 with a gift of a hedge trimmer.  

                       The trimmer ia sitting on top of a lot of evidence the trimmer works.  Yeah!

The perfect thing to do the garden cleaning job.  This afternoon it started and all the Susans will be a thing of the past in a few days.  There will be B Blues at the street with contributions to the B Blue trucks.  What I cleared in 10 minutes would have taken much longer for sure. 

                Before the trimmers.  It's just a big mess of once beautiful BE Susans.  Not anymore.

            After picture.  More to my liking in September.  One little corner nearly ready for winter.                    A good raking would help. Woo, it was a hot job. There is a mock quince bush ready to stand alone. There is plenty to do in the garden so it's a sure thing the sewing machine will be quiet for a while.

With an improvement in the learning curve with the trimmers, who can guess how long it will take.  The B Blues will get their contribution when it's cooler this evening.  The scales should have reported a few pounds gone, but that didn't happen.  

More trimming will be coming my way.  Doug bought the trimmers for me.  So, I'm using it until I can't.  He has his own new chain saw that I'm not touching until he can't. Thats fair, I would say. 

Another sitting with the fan and a huge water with ice and lemon.  That's just the best. Then add a good sleep and life doesn't get much better.  Well, another cook in the kitchen might be a little better. 

Caterpillar count.  While cleaning out the cage, I counted 15 chrysalis and two caterpillars who should be thinking chrysalis. It's time kiddos.  The zinnias will stay around for a while providing nectar for the newborns.   I would say what I thought would be an easy day had a bit of something else.  One B Blue is stuff with more waiting to be moved to the second B Blue.  More work tomorrow.   No beautiful colorful zinnias today.  Just work.