.Last night, the thunder and heavy rain woke me up in the wee hours and that’s really unusual because when I sleep I’m totally out it. The good thing is that I haven’t had to water our new plantings for the last couple of days. The first day or two, I used so much water that I will probably owe my soul to the Water Department next month!! (frown) I talked with the landscaper and made arrangements for an irrigation sytem to be installed in the next h or so. Life should be easier for me then and I’m sure the plants will be happy to get regular watering. Dick planned to do this a number of years ago, but it seems I am only now getting around to it.
This photo is one I made a couple of weeks ago during a particularly violent thunderstorm. I posted it on my flickr site. It's one of many such storms we have had over the last couple of months. As I said in an earlier blog entry, it always amazes me how Mother Nature often makes a potentially devestating happening be unusally beautiful at the same time.....dark, ominous clouds, high winds that made our willows blow straight out sideways, an eery golden and pink glow. The lighting during each stage......as the storm first approached, as it got worse and worse.....as it was winding down....and all the way into the calm after the storm.....is hard to describe. I lucked out and was able to capture it. It was surreal!
As I think back to that day, I'm reminded that being out in the open with lightning is not a bright thing to do, but having "photo fever," I couldn't help myself.
I’ve waited for several weeks.....I was up early each day thinking that they would make an appearance. Noooot! We have dealt with Chris in past years and because of knowing the good job they do I fussed, but not t-o-o much, because he is in such demand that the delay was really unavoidable. He came this week and he was a welcome sight.....I came close to hugging him. The beds around the house were in bad need of “cleaning up,” edging and fertilizing. Then came the new plants. His folks worked for almost three days and I couldn’t be happier with the result. A number of neighbors have said how nice things look and I had to admit that I really can’t take credit for it because I turned Chris loose and he did his thing. He really knows what he’s doing and it was such a load off my mind not to have to go through what Dick and I have always done together in past years. I was so fortunate that Dick inherited his “green thumb” from his Mama B. They could grow anything and have helped me to somewhat follow in their footsteps.
I gardened on our porch today in our porch boxes. It seemed, when I was planning what I would do, that it would not take long. Boy, was I wrong. Five boxes became a real project. Honey and I went to Lowe's to get a few more plants. They don’t mind her being there; so I could take her with me. She loves the ride in the car....... and then she rides in the cart as we do our thing in Lowe’s and makes a hit with the folks we encounter along the way because she is willing to greet, be talked to and be petted by doggy lovers as we go about finding whatever it is we went for. Also, it’s funny that she always makes for smiles at traffic lights as she sits in her car seat, with her red bows and perky demeanor, taking in all her surroundings.
The day was in the 90’s and to make things worse, it was so humid that you could almost see droplets of water in the air! This is somewhat of an exaggeration, but not much. I was dripping wet with persperation, my clothes were soaked and I was thoroughly exhausted by the time I finished. We keep the house cool and it was such a relief to finally finish and come back in for the night. An interestng sidelight to my last comment about keeping our house cool.......... it brought back memories of when Dick’s brother T and sister N were teenagers and visited with us in Asheville, NC. I can remember that they went home and told Dick’s folks that we kept our house cold enough to be a meat locker and they expected to find slabs of meat hanging from the ceiling!!
How neat it is to have a project erased from our “to do” list..............
I heard from a friend today about sensing caring people's feelings without hearing their words. This struck a nerve with me. One very simple example occurred several months after Dickie went away. I was in a store waiting to check out and a business acquaintance who knew both of us well walked by and nodded "hello" as she headed for the front door; there was a nod, but neither one of us said a word (I guess the uncomfortableness of expressing concern for my loss was too hard for her). I somehow knew what she was thinking, but didn't say. It was awkward for me, too. She didn't want to open my wound and I really didn't want her to; but, at the same time, I did want people to remember the special guy that Dick was.
.........after she passed me and headed to the door, I suddenly realized that she had turned and was heading back toward me. She hugged me (even though we had really never been close before)........ there wasn't a word spoken, the heart-to-heart connection said everything that could be said. She was with me in my grief. I have many memories of friends, relatives, neighbors and work associates who were so very, very kind (and vocal) and they will always be special to me because of their support........ and that they remembered the extra special person that Dickie has always been. Both ways of communicating got through and meant the world to me.
My reason for writing this entry is because I don't believe that some folks fully understand that heart-to-heart feelings really do "get through".....and maybe even moreso than words! It is hard, and uncomfortable, for us to express our support for those who have lost important people in their lives. This experience was very special to me and taught me a valuable lesson for living!
The day before yesterday, I awoke to the disturbing sound of what I thought to be "hammering." Honey was upset and tried to help me find out where the sound was coming from, what the reason was.......and WHO was responsible for it. We haven’t contracted with anybody to do work around the house, so it was a real puzzle. It was disconcerting to find that a piliated woodpecker decided that there were tasty morsels in the frame over one of our windows in our lake room. It wasn't hammering after all, it was an unwanted visitor doing his/her thing! Noooottt good! We went about out business during the day with intermittent distractions to open the window and encourage our feathered nemesis to go his/her way and leave us alone. Thank goodness we were able to get our message across; our feathered visitor hasn’t been back again! Also, it was good to know that he/her didn’t do damage! I really hate to, but I plan to spray the small hole with a bug spray to discourage any further visits! I can't help but wonder how in the world a bird.......big, little or whatever......can pound it's head into solid wood and come out unscathed??? In the past we have had occassional visits by borer bees and I found by accident, when we didn’’t have bug spray on hand, that WD-40 does a marvelous job of discouraging them. Don’t laugh.....it really works! Passing along this gem of experience is my “girl scout deed for the day” (smile) !
