Overcast Morning, Rainy Afternoon

6:30

8:00

I woke with the birds at first light and came downstairs to turn on the coffee at 5:35.  I stepped outside to enjoy our handiwork in the garden although cutting back the red twigs has definitely left a big gap in our garden.  It's a delightfully cool morning, as I sit out on our front porch, listening to the birds, watching them fly around, gathering bits and pieces for their nests.  One even flew through the porch as I was sitting here.  A few mallards are cruising by, the purple martins are trilling.  It's 56º, cool enough to wear a fleece.  On my paddle, I finally photographed a heron, standing on our neighbor's dock.  And, unfortunately, I had a first sighting of the ugliest birds around, turkey vultures.

A Noble Heron

 Vultures Are Back

Yesterday we woke up with no plan, perhaps because it was a Saturday.  I got in a quick, rough paddle before settling down with another cup of coffee and trying to decide what to do with our day.  It did not look promising outside and we thought of driving off somewhere, perhaps to look for some perennials or bushes for our garden.  Evie, however, decided to put together her world famous vegetable soup, so I gathered various cans of beans and tomatoes and for the next forty five minutes, she was busy in the kitchen.  I gathered the trash and drove off to the Transfer Station, getting home just as she was finishing up the soup and letting it simmer. 

By 11:30, we both decided it was not going to rain and we would do some more damage to our backyard.  I decided to make a few trips to the gravel pit, shoveling gravel into a couple of buckets and spreading them on both our driveway and alongside our house where we have placed a waterproof storage box.  I had no trouble with the pit manager and I also brought back a bucket of top soil to use on our compost pile.  I feel surprisingly good this morning despite the shoveling and spreading of both dirt and gravel.

I then had lunch, Evie's soup and a sandwich and watched a few minutes of TV before deciding to finish my book, LITTLE FIRES EVERYWHERE by Celeste Ng, and taking a nap. When I came back outside, Evie was working on clearing the weeds from the red twigs but wanted me to do some trimming.  We wanted them to start their new branches from the base so we ended up giving all of them a good haircut, hoping they will grow back quickly and create a wall of red twigs and leaves.  I fear it will not happen until next year.  I cut enough branches so that I had to make a couple of trips up the hill to get rid of the red twigs.  While I was doing this, Evie was cutting the lawn for the first time, taking her time, wearing her brace so as to not bother her back.  She did pretty well which is encouraging for both of us.  We finished up our work just after 5:00 and I took a shower before we settled on our front porch for a glass of wine and appetizers. 

Wine Time On The Porch

Around 6:30, Lori and Tim, walked over after working in our neighbor's yard.  They are both from Buffalo and are helping out next door, getting the house and yard ready for Bill and Joyce.  We had a fun time talking with them, lots of stories about their parents and uncles and aunts, especially Bill and Joyce. We sat out on the porch, sipping wine and talking until after 8:00 when they decided they better head home to Buffalo before it became dark.

Earlier in the day, Evie had putt together a pasta sauce of mushrooms and sausage, so she heated that up, boiled some noodles and made a salad and dinner was ready by 8:45.  We watched  Real Time with Bill Maher, lots of laughs and insights into the current political situation, as he had one of our favorite conservative columnist on, Brett Stephens from the NYTimes and formerly Wall Street Journal.  Despite being a  Republican, he's a Never Trumper and thinks the Dems motto ought to be: MAKE AMERICAN SANE AGAIN.  I could not agree more.  It's reassuring to see an avowed conservative speak up against the disaster of a Trump White House.  Amen