Springing

Spring has been busting out all over and this week it officially began.  With the warmer weather, especially when the skies are sunny, I have felt a spring in my steps. 

Saturday morning I sprang out of bed at 6:20.  The guys needed to be on the road by 7 am, and there was no sign of movement out of either of them.  I got Joe up, the coffee going, and soon heard Greg upstairs.  

 



I took this photo just after the guys left.  Notice the manure I had added to the dirt pile.  It is a nice, rich, black, humus soil mix.  It had rained overnight and was a cold 48 degrees out.  No morning watering was necessary so I finished and posted last week's blog.  


Later in the morning, during a walk, I took these photos of our backyard from across the pond.  In this first one you can see our house in the middle, with Allen's on the left and Brian's on the right.  Below is a view from the edge of the woods, on the other side of the creek.





I worked in the backyard for a few hours, still moving and spreading out the brush pile.  If you enlarge the photo below, you can see where brush has been removed.  In the middle of the far left edge of the photo is the remaining sticks and leaves still to be pulled and raked down towards the creek.

I showered, ate lunch, walked Maggie and was off to my seven hour work shift just before 2:00.

Getting home at 9 pm, I first got Maggie out for a walk, and right away she peed and pooped.  Poor girl.  It was then popcorn for a late dinner while catching up with family and friends on the computer.  I didn't go to bed until almost 11 pm, very late for me.

Sunday, March 20th, the first day of spring, I did not get up until 7 am.  The day started pretty, sunny, yet rather darn cold... 34 degrees.  I had to be at work at 9 am, so took Maggie for a fairly long walk.  
















The hyacinth and daffodil were very pretty.



 
Along with forsythia...  
 
 








...the Magnolia (in later photo) and Pear trees were in full  bloom.

 



 







The cherry and crabapple trees weren't too far behind.  But lagging after all of these were the dogwood, redbud, and rhododendron. 

 
I worked from 9 to 1:30.  Janice had left her shift a little early, so I was on my own for 40 minutes.  And wouldn't you know, we then got real busy.

 






By the time I got home, it had started snowing, and came down in big wet flakes, fairly heavily at times.  I took Maggie for a walk and got the above photo of Carole and Allen's Magnolia tree.  Seen right, golfers were still out on Druid.

I was hungry, cold and putout by the weather, so got a fire going, made a big pot of soup, put on my PJ's (thinking the heck with groceries and working out, I wasn't going anywhere the rest of the day) and sat and watched two hours of home renovations on HGTV.  I was about to get started on my Bible Study (at the TV tray in front of the fire), when I remembered I had a dinner date at 5 pm.  Shoot, I was full and tired, but I got dressed, walked the dog, and headed to Shirley's house.  I'm so glad I went.

Her grand daughter Kyah (who took this photo) was there and Judy also came over.  As it continued to snow, but not stick, we enjoyed Shirley's pizza and Judy's salads and our lively conversation.
I ate as much as anybody.  
But, needing to get home to feed and walk the dog, I left the party about 8:30.  
Maggie was glad to see me.  I stoked the fire and did a little reading in my Bible study guide, but was just too tired to stay with it.

This lone deer has been coming regularly most mornings, and was here, as usual, just after the sun came up on Monday.  

 

It was 36 degrees out when I first walked Maggie, put out the trash, and filled and hung bird feeders. 

 
My poor daffodils were spotted with ice and bent over.  I hoped they would be springing back up once it warmed up.

 
 


I got a fire going, and took the dog on short walks between my cups of tea, breakfast-es, blogging, and internet talking. Lower photo taken using the selfie stick.

 


It was shortly before noon when I finally started on the readings for my Bible Study.  Scheesh, why do I procrastinate on this?

 
 
Maggie had just moved off her bed, having gotten too warm in the sun.  She and Stevie still wrestle rather roughly.

Enough already, I finally decided to spring into action and get back outside to finish removing the brush piles!  I worked 1-5 without taking a break for food, water, or restroom.  And I got it all done!

Seen below is all the brush I had moved and spread out along the bank of the creek.  Quite a bit of it is also buried at the base of the hill, where I had raked years of old, rotten leaves, over the top of decaying logs and sticks.

In the photo seen left, there had been a lot of brush that I piled on top of a mound of dirt that had been piled between the rock and the water's edge when they dredged it from the pond 18 months ago.  I removed the brush and lowered the pile of dirt, spreading it out.






This rock seen right was under three feet of brush that extended along the edge of the hill for about 15 feet.  Now the slope is more gradual, there is a better view of the creek and its bank, and the brush along the bank will catch more of the leaves so they don't wash into the pond.
After leftover soup for supper, Maggie and I went for a long walk.  I took the above photos on our way out and it was dark by the time we got home.  The full moon has been lighting up the sky during my early am and evening walks.

I started out Tuesday feeling a little rushed, and, as it turned out, a continued myriad of irritations really did me in.  The traffic jam on Peavine (so a house could be moved down the road) was the straw that broke the camel's back.

I was late getting up, unable to finish all of my Bible study homework, interrupted by text messages from Joe, the cat was hacking, the dog wouldn't pee or poop and when I finally left for Bible Study, the garage door wouldn't shut behind me.  I finally got out a step ladder, disconnected it, and closed it by hand.  Thinking I could make up time on the road didn't work for me either because a big semi pulled out in front of me and then crawled along Peavine, ten miles under the speed limit.

Bible study was good, but I left Church in a hurry (even though I needed to pee) because I was to meet Greg and Joe at the marina for a pontoon boat ride.  Well, while rushing to my car, I got another text saying the cruise was a no go.  I then slowed down, chatting with Shirley and two other ladies out in the parking lot.  Then I  headed home down Peavine.  I was feeling a bit irritated again because I had originally planned to go shopping, but didn't bring my long list because there had been a change in plans with the pontoon cruise taking precedence.  Well, now I had time to go to town to shop, but I didn't have my list.

The next (and largest) agitation to hit me, occurred about half way home, when I ran into a traffic jam.  My lane of traffic was shooed off Peavine, onto a detour.  But no signs or directions were given as to which way to go.  A line of cars backed up on the little country road and we sat for probably 15 minutes.  People started turning around.  I looked at my GPS, found a different route back to Peavine and turned around also.  Well, my GPS lied.  The only road available, which I took, was a dead end.  So I did another U turn, and got back into line, only being much farther behind.  Opposing traffic kept traveling by as the line I was in slowly crept forward.  I finally stopped an on-coming car and asked if our line was able to get onto Peavine.  She said no, there was a house in the road that was being moved.  So I did yet another Uey.

I ended up back on Pevine at the spot where I had originally been detoured off nearly 45 minutes earlier.  I could not turn right to go towards the Glade because the truck, with the house was coming.  I asked a worker how long it would be and he said ten minutes.  So I decided to wait and pulled into Mrs Miller's donuts parking lot and took the above photos.  At one point the truck stopped and men got out to secure some straps.  Finally, maybe after 15 to 20 minutes, the house passed by (seen in left photo), and I was on my way.  But what to my wondering eyes should appear?...

... another road block!  This time, oncoming traffic was being detoured (I think down the road I was supposed to have come out on) instead of letting it get backed up behind the house.  I was third in line, but waited again.  After several minutes, feeling exasperated, frustrated, and down right pissed off (plus by now I REALLY needed to pee) I got out and walked up to the policeman and told him I had been stuck in this traffic for over an hour and really needed to get home to use the restroom.  (I actually kind of vented because as far as I could see, the traffic control was unorganized, uncoordinated, and terribly confusing for us motorists.)  He told me to get back in my car and I would be on my way soon, which I did, and soon was. 

I arrived home to the garage door left wide open, a new kayak on the front lawn (pictured left later in the day when it was moved to the back yard), and the guys were off having more fun golfing.  I did relive my bladder, but when I went to eat the rest of my soup for lunch, it was gone.  And so was all the lunch meat.  If only I had taken my shopping list and gone shopping after Bible study, life would have been better! 

My anger would not abate as I ate my bowl of Cheerios for lunch.  I was to meet Jan and Terry at the barn but did not feel like riding or socializing.  And I was worried about taking my frustrations out on Amiga, or, worse yet, the way things were going, it seemed like the possibility of a mishap was highly probable.  But I went.  The barn, and horse, and ride, and friends did me good.  Amiga got a tad nervous out on the trail a few times, but overall did a great job and was a lot of fun.

I got home with time enough to move this rock (seen left) up the hill (flipping it over and over) and then water the grass seed, which was just starting to sprout.  

Joe, Greg, and I, met Lisa and Nolan at La Costa and together enjoyed laughter, stories, food, and drink.  It was a wonderful ending to frustrating day and I was delighted that my mood had sprung back to one of happiness.

Wednesday was a pretty day, warm, although windy.  I ended morning computer time to go out and putter around in the yard, including watering grass seed.  Next I was off to the barn.  I took Amiga on a two hour ride before RJ came to have a lesson on her at 2:00.  Seen right, Zorro trotted over to say hi to Amiga and me, as we were returning to the barn.

 

I gave RJ some horse care info, showed him how to work with a horse on the ground, how to hold a lead rope, etc.  Seen left, he is feeding Amiga a piece of apple treat.  We got Amiga ready to go, raising the stirrups, tightening the girth, and putting the bit back in her mouth. 

 


All us ladies at the barn liked RJ's riding helmet, which is designed to look like a cowboy hat.  I may have to get me one of these.


 







We worked in the pony pen for over an hour.  RJ did great.  Amiga got a little confused and/or frustrated a few times and I finally got on and worked with her for a few minutes to let her know she needed to straighten up.

Amiga did calm down and do better, but I think she really wanted to get back out with her friends and eat.  I kept a lead rope attached so she couldn't run off with RJ and we stayed in the pony pen (video).  She is a sweet horse.

Joe was off playing poker by the time I got home at 5:15.  I needed to water the grass again, while Maggie watched from her tie out, and then took her for a 15 minuter walk.  I came in and "collapsed" on the floor to give my tired body a rest.  It was a big toss salad for dinner and early to bed. 

It rained overnight and was still drizzly off and on all Thursday morning.  After blog work and tea, I headed to the grocery.  Next I put in my 2-8 work shift.  There was yet another schedule change, some confusion on my part, and frustration at and from me.  I was quite upset, but waited till I got home to vent.  Joe got the raw end of that.  The frequent changes of my work schedule, days and times, is driving me nuts.  I have found it very difficult to make plans around my work schedule, and inevitably I end up needing to find a sub at the last minute.   

 
I went to bed upset and did not sleep well, getting up much sooner than the sun Friday morning.  I typed out my feelings as I vented and sought advice from sister Carol.  And I also composed a note to my immediate supervisor, that I let sit while thinking about my dilemma.

 



I needed to clear my head and get a different view of life, so Joe and I went on a hike.  Shirley's grand daughter, Kyah, joined us.

 




Maggie really liked the extra attention from Kyah, but might have gotten a little bored with photo moments, as did Joe.

 

We hiked the Forest View trail, enjoying the scenery and exercise.



 

These two photos were taken to show this large rock that is part of the trail.  Seen right, looking downhill as it goes past me, and seen left, looking up hill as it goes past Kyah to where Joe and Maggie are waiting.

Once home, it was too cold to work out in the yard, so I stayed inside, blogging, chatting on the internet, and completing four loads of laundry.  I also re-worded and sent to work my e-mail to kind of vent, and hopefully communicate.

Late in the day, Joe took me to the driving range and I hit some golf balls for the first time in several years, long before I broke my wrist.  My hand and wrist are a bit arthritic and were a little stiff, but got limber as I swung and hit balls.  My stroke needs work, but surprisingly, I did have a few good hits.  I think I may start up golf again.


We had dinner at Red's with Shirley and Kyah, and then went into the bar for some fun with karaoke.  Brian joined us a little later for a few beers.  Kyah sang three or four songs and there was dancing (video) to several of others.  We got home quite late and I knew this blog was not going to get finished before bed.  The week definitely had several "down" moments, but springing back up with prayer, laughter, food, fellowship, exercise, nature, music, singing, and dancing is how I coped.