Snippets of Thursday

J. has been tinkering his second hand haying machinery for several days.  Today he cut down the first of the crop.  He and J.M. sagely wagged their heads and agreed that the up-coming fore-cast isn't the best for haying, but there comes that point when it has to be cut.  The sweet scent of drying grasses and clover is soft

on the warm air.

I have crippled about today--remembering the years when I could garden by the hour without more than a twinge or two to show for my efforts.

Oh, groan!

Yesterday I snipped blossoms off our first year strawberry plants.  In the afternoon I picked sod out of the smaller flower border, raked it smooth, moved the rosebushes farther apart--after viewing J.M.'s of the same variety which he set too close to their front walk.

I scattered seed of dianthus [I like the old name of gillyflowers] poked in some nasturtiums from an older saved packet.

I talked about picking the sod from the larger border.

J. went out this morning and hoed it, so the eventual task should be easier.  Maybe tomorrow [?]

Neighbors we met at church stopped late this afternoon with 2 qts of strawwberries from their garden and a loaf of fresh whole wheat bread.

The berries were so good that we made a quick run up to the junction Wal Mart for whipping cream.

I haven't gotten a good photo of the cardinals and their nest in the un-named spreading shrub just outside the dining room. Their pleasant voices drift in the opened windows. The cats watch them. I watch them.

Last night at midnight, I turned on both lights in the bathroom which also faces onto the cardinal's home. [Yes, I was picking at a tick!]

It took a few moments to register that the cardinals were complaining in very loud voices, as the bright light spilled out to their leafy abode.

I can imagine the conversation: "What are you doing with those lights on?  You'll wake the children and nobody will get any sleep. TURN OUT THE LIGHTS!!

Chastened, I did so.

A thank you to all who commiserated with me about the ticks.

Glad you enjoyed the write-up---striving to see the ironies of life is a sanity saver--sort of.

What a plague.

We have talked with a number of area people who agree that they are a serious nuisance. Apparently this isn't an area where tick-borne illness is common. I pray I won't be the exception.

I have annointed my "bites" with tee tree oil, slathered on tick repellant.

The cats have sniffed and told me I smell bad.

I'm headed off to shower, but I think I may as well get used to the odor of the preventative measures.