Weeding and Playing...

This week, Claude and I spent a good deal of time in our back yard. The proof of this is Claude's jeans!! I suggested he was just being stylish as many women pay top dollar for jeans with tears made by the manufacturer today. 

On Wednesday, May 12th, I weeded flower beds. I tried to remember to take a before and after picture of the flower beds. The pictures are before and then after of each bed. I did one other bed but forgot to take pictures of it. This day Claude trimmed the burning bushes along the south side of the house and the lilac bushes in the front flower bed. Sure is nice to look out my bedroom window and see clean beds. No one really sees the back of our home. I guess all of this is really for us.

On Friday, May 14th, we again began our day by working on the beds in the middle of our hill. A little explanation about this portion of our yard. We have an altar here. That is what Claude has named it. It started because of an enormous rock on the lot we used to own next to our home. Claude pulled that huge rock out with lots of effort and his Jeep. Then he drug it to this spot on our property and used it as the base of this altar made of rocks from all over our property. After building the 'altar', Claude then used more rocks to make steps down the hill to this altar and purchased stone to make two flower beds, one on either side of the steps. Over the years we have planted monkey grass, that we got from our daughter Andie, as well as other things. The only thing that has really taken hold and stayed was the monkey grass. I didn't weed these beds at all last year. So, this year we are going to get these beds into shape. I took these pictures of the beds before we started to work. Sadly, the full  of the view of the altar is not in these pictures. Part of it is on the left side of the first picture. 

I spent my time pulling weeds. I was able to clear the steps and the right flower bed and start on the left flower bed. Claude brought the edger and worked around all the edges of everything. Then he spent time measuring and figuring the number of bricks we would need to create four beds out of the two beds by building a little wall across the middle of each bed. Then Claude got the weed spray and went to work on some areas we really don't want anything growing in. When we decided to call it a day, I took these two pictures of the progress. You can clearly see the altar in the second picture. There is still lots to do but it will wait until this coming week before we make the next bit of progress on this big project.

We were entertained while we did this with the Canada geese that come each spring to nest along Eagle Creek. There seem to be more of them this year than in years past. They flew over in groups of three or four and landed in Eagle Creek. All the while they were honking away. They floated on the creek for a good while. Then they all got on the flat land along the creek. They walked in a group eating bugs in the grass from one end of our property to the other end of our property. While they did this they again made lots of noises at each other. They would also rush each other with wings vigorously flapping and loud honking. It was quite the display. Add to this the two roosters across the creek and an owl that was not happy being awakened during the day and you can tell we had quite a bit of entertainment while we worked.

Thursday, May 13th, we began our day by heading into Georgetown to get a biscuit at ChickfilA. This is Claude's favorite place for a biscuit. We followed this by a walk in Moss Park. The Canada geese that nest there have babies. We had this little family cross our path while we walked. Clearly, they are used to us humans as they felt no need to hurry out of our way. They didn't even honk at us.

We took Papa his treat with new reading material and I filled the birdfeeder. He was sitting up on the side of his bed so I got a great grin and wave and we blew kisses. We did a bit of grocery shopping at Walmart and Claude picked up a few things at Lowe's.

Then home we drove where I altered a curtain Katelyn wanted to use as a valance in her kitchen. Then I boxed the valance up and got it in the mail to the Roper's. As of this writing, the Ropers received their valance and have it in the window. They are happy.

We were finally going to be able to attend a band concert for Bailey. Our last band concert we attended in person was December 2019. We were fortunate that Hayden had a recorded one of the Euphonium section of his band that we were able to view. With everything shut down, we missed two KMEA contests for the kids. Oldham County Middle School held an 8th grade only band concert and each student was allowed to invite up to 6 guests. Joyce flew in from Maryland. Joyce is Michael's stepmother. Claude and I drove over. Andie, Michael and Hayden also attended. It was great to hear them play five pieces of music. Excellent evening. Well worth the three hours it takes to drive over and then return home. 

Friday, May 14th, after our weeding, we drug our tired, worn-out bodies to the Jeep and headed to Hardee's for a burger, fries and a soda. They even gave us a free soda. As we were leaving the drive-thru, we spotted a tractor wheel into the fueling bay and get out to fill up his tractor. We don't usually see this action. There are lots of farmers and lots of tractors. I honestly haven't seen any of them pulling into the gas station for a fill-up. The cute thing about this arrangement was the farmer's best friend, his dog, sitting in the cab of the tractor. It looked for all it was worth like that dog would drive off at any moment. These are the kinds of things that amuse Claude and me.

And, before Friday was done, I got my step ladder and climbed up to get a quick picture of our resident robin eggs. I haven't been able to catch this mother sitting on her nest. I shall keep trying at that. It is getting close to time for these eggs to hatch. They are pretty though.

I enjoyed listening to three more of the presentations from the BYU Women's Conference. Love being able to get these and watch them when I have the time. 

Saturday, May 15th, Claude and I declared a play day for us. We had been diligent in getting lots of real work done at home. So, Saturday morning we got up and out of the house for a day to do as we pleased. 

We started with a biscuit from Bojangles in Georgetown. Then we drove back roads through Kentucky horse farms to Versailles. 

We have been looking at retirement communities for our next move. I saw some in Versailles on my drive with Papa. Claude wanted to see what they looked like. We found them and drove through that neighborhood. The plus side of living in one of these is there is no yard work. This would leave us free to travel at will and not worry about keeping up the yard. It is an option we want to check out. We liked this neighborhood. I checked out some of the homes with a Google search and got a feel for price and layout. 

Our next stop was The Arboretum in Lexington so we could take a nice walk. Claude opted to get on the Parkway from Versailles to Lexington. As you get to Lexington, the Parkway ends and puts you on Hwy 60. Just before that intersection, we came on a traffic jam. We could hear an ambulance coming up behind us. When we stopped this is what we saw.

The first thing we noticed was a flight-for-life helicopter in the middle of the road. The next thing we noticed as a truck pulling a huge travel trailer astraddle of the railing on the side of the road. There were plenty of police and ambulances on hand. Claude rolled down the windows in the Jeep and turned it off. We could see this being a bit of a wait. They put a body in the helicopter and it took off. Two ambulances pulled onto the highway and headed for hospitals in Lexington. Then they let our side of the highway drive on. The opposite side was behind the wreckage and would have to sit tight for a while longer. As we passed the truck with the trailer, you could see lots of mangled railing behind it. We also saw something so mangled it was hard to identify. It was a trike motorcycle. We are sure the person taken away in the helicopter was the driver of the motorcycle. I honestly don't know how they would have survived that crash. Sobering moment in our day.

We made it to the Arboretum and Claude even scored a parking spot in the shade. We made the two mile walk on the paths in the Arboretum. I only took two pictures. Claude found a cleverly made seat while I was trying to unsuccessfully get a picture of a cardinal on a tree branch. I saw a couple of bushes like the one in the bottom picture. They looked like they were full of fuzz. Not sure what they were. The bush looked like a lilac but the blossoms just looked like fuzz. 

We were planning on going to Hall's on the River for our meal-of-the-day. I told Claude not to leave until I did a Google search to be sure we could eat there. Good thing I did. We learned they were temporarily closed. On to Plan B. We would dine at City Barbeque. Yum!

We drove back to Sadieville and spent the rest of our afternoon sitting on our deck reading Church magazines. This was a very pleasant day filled with things we wanted to do. 

Sunday, May 16, 2021, has been a good Sunday. Church, a couple of Zoom meetings and a Sunday School group on Zoom. We are going to friends for dinner tonight. So, it has been a good Sabbath Day.

This week the CDC said masks were not necessary for those who are fully vaccinated unless they are in a tight space with a lot of people. The world is trying to find its new normal as the pandemic lessens. It will be interesting to see if we go back to business as usual or if we have learned things during this time of quarantine and masks that will make our lives different, maybe even a little better. I don't want my world to get so full of having to do 'things' that I lose this lesson learned of having more time to accomplish the things I want to get done. I don't mean this in a selfish way. But sometimes we fill our lives with things we think have to be done. Then we are overscheduled and we wear out emotionally. I have appreciated the time to recharge emotionally and want that lesson to stay with me.