Yes ma’am!  Zebra grass does not belong in small spots.  Zebra grass — in my most humble opinion — belongs far, far away from cottage gardens.  Why did I plant it to start with?  Oh yes.  Because it would get tall and be nice at the back of the border.  Wrong.

Remind me not to plant zebra grass again.  Okay?  It may have taken all of 5 minutes to put in the ground, but after 3-4 years it has taken hours of digging to get it out of the ground.

See that big crater?  I dug that.  See that big blob behind it?  That’s the old zebra grass root ball.  One invasive zebra grass plant down, two to go.

I did have good company while outside.  Very good company.  He was always close by, pouncing on the long blades of dead zebra grass that would occasionally sweep the ground before him.

Fluffy stopped playing from time to time to drink from the goldfish pond. 

All this stuff was earlier today, before I went to work.  Here I am back home now.  I sure can tell you, after waiting on the same old customers just wanting boring stuff like bread and cakes, it sure was exciting to come home and find Darth Vader waiting on me.

Happy Saturday,

Lynn

As fate would have it, I lost my other grandmother on Friday night, 2/1/2008.  I devoted yesterday to attending her funeral.  If you remember, my mother’s mother died on Thanksgiving Day.  The grandmother who died Friday, of course, was my father’s mother.  I was not as close to her, but it was no one’s fault.  It was due to divorce, and maybe personalities.  I’m not sure.  Whatever the reason, my honor towards her was not diminished.  She gave me my dad.  What are the things I can tell you about her?

• She was beautiful.  She had naturally wavy, auburn hair and fair skin.
• She was smart.  And witty.
• She was a private person. 
• She had a mind of her own and had the guts to wear whatever she wanted.  She always looked good in whatever she wore.
• She lived to be 92, was a homemaker and had five children.
• She loved to garden and she loved the beach.  She had a big collection of seashells.
• She loved hats, almost always had one on, and looked stunning in them!

I’ll decline to put a picture of her here.  She was such a private person, I feel that even now I should respect that.

So another funeral, and I’ve lost both grandmothers within a couple of months of each other.

I’ve really been doing a lot of thinking about how quickly life passes and how busy a person can be all the time.  There are constant distractions, including my computer and the internet.  I have set time limits.   

I have a lot of playing dolls to do this year, after all! 

I want to relax more.  I want to just sit and be.  I want to look at a book from cover to cover without feeling like I need to be up doing something.  Why is it so hard to do anything like that anymore?  Is it that way for you?

I drove about 45 minutes today to meet my mother halfway between our two homes.  We met in a Goodwill parking lot.  Ha ha.  You know what we did, right?  I’ll get to that later.  

We sat in her car and looked at the 70-some old pictures I recently received from my cousin.  Then we looked at my mother’s dozens and dozens of photographs that have surfaced since her own mother’s death.  I want to do more things like sit and look at pictures. 

Over the next few days, I’ll try and share some of the wonderful things I found today at the thrift store.  Oooooooooh, I found some great stuff.  But more about relaxing and just being.

I found a book today about something I’ve been thinking on.

It’s a book on water gardens called… Water Gardens!  Yes, I want to entirely re-landscape the bed around my goldfish pond.  I think I’ve mentioned before that my garden has great bones.  It’s due to the yard layout, the way I put my paths and arbors in, and my husband’s hard work in putting in some short walls to terrace our sloping yard.  Yes, I want to do yard work (was I just talking about relaxing?), but I want to enjoy it.  (Actually, I love gardening.  It’s my thinking that gets me in trouble!)  I want every task to be done in its time and not lose my mind over it.

The bed I want to redo is nice.  About 12 feet x 16 feet.  I am totally pulling out the nandinas.  They are invasive and I already have a nice specimen-size nandina elsewhere in the yard.  The zebra grass is coming out too.  It’s too large and falls over on top of the goldfish pond.  It’s well beyond being on my last nerve!

I sat poring over garden books this evening.  Tasha Tudor’s Garden is one of my favorite books.  I love her gardens. 

I also looked at Martha Stewart’s Gardening: Month by Month.  (She’s so organized!) 

I was thinking tonight about something a very dear, very elderly, very-close-to-me, sweet lady said to me. “It wouldn’t hurt you to slow down.”

If I am lucky enough to live as long as my grandmothers did, my life is half over. From here on out, I am on the downside of the mountain. But my dad’s dad died at 53. My own dad died at 70. Two of my uncles — oddly enough — died unexpectly from illness, each at 49. I could have 4 years left. I could have 8 years left. I could have 35 years left. I could have one day left.

I have spent the first 45 years of my life in very high gear.  I have always had an agenda, always had so many things I wanted to accomplish, always put stress on myself to get too much done. I want to enjoy the time I have left.

Yeah, I have to work, but I do happen to love my job.  (Thank goodness for little miracles.)  We have homeschooling to do, but I refuse to get so pressured that it’s not fun. I know for sure my cleaning schedule is not going to get even one little bit bigger than it is.

I am clinging tighter to my goals for 2008. I want to sink deeper into Proverbs, play dolls, garden (leisurely), and soak up all the joys that come from life.

As someone told me recently, it wouldn’t hurt me to slow down.

Lynn

It was down in the low teens here last night.  Brrrrr.

The sky is blue today and the sun is bright, so I think the icicles hanging from the roof will melt.

I did go out and place a window over the goldfish pond.  (We have a bunch of windows standing in back, waiting for the day husband builds the greenhouse.)  It should help heat the water up today.

Lynn

Let it snow!  That’s what my children were saying yesterday.  They really wanted snow, especially my youngest.  We didn’t get enough to really play in though.  The foliage is pretty heavily laden, but many patches of bare dirt and pavement are lacking snow.  It just soaked into the ground and made mud.  At least it will be mud when the temp rises.

It’s pretty where we actually have snow.  It was really a soft, flaky snow that fell. 

The goldfish pond is completely frozen over.  I’ll have to go out soon and break the ice so they can get some fresh air.

Lynn

a house warmed with coal, you haven’t lived!!!

Long, long ago my house was heated with coal, and there’s dust to prove it.  I pulled down one of the storm windows upstairs this morning to wipe some of the condensation off.  It was really looking bad as it streaked through the coal dust.  I have mentioned before that you can tap on the walls here and get a shower of coal dust from between the walls and ceilings.  Coal dust is hidden everywhere and probably always will be.  In fact, I dig up coal when I am out in the garden, evidence of a time when coal was kept in good supply for heating through the winter.

Dust in my house is black.  That’s what it looks like!

All the rain we have had lately, combined with my new pond pump, has made my goldfish pond clearer and clearer.  My little spot by the goldfish pond is such a respite these days.

It’s a tiny spot, but the reflection of the sun on the water is magical.  It is so relaxing to watch the fish.  If only you could hear the water.  I’ll try and come up with a little video.

I took a picture of one of the goldfish eating.

I am off to work soon.  There is a kielbasa stew in the crock pot and a pot of brown rice for my family to eat tonight.  Today is my “Friday,” so I look forward to a couple of days off.

My youngest, my daughter, is sick today.  So I thought it would be fun to revisit Madeline.  We curled up on the love seat (or as she mistakenly calls it, the “love couch”) with some books.  It was fun to read Madeline and the Bad Hat.  Then we looked at France in our atlas. 

It was interesting to note just how many countries border France.

I hope my baby is better soon.  She has some chicken soup, but I am about to go get her some things to drink that might help settle her stomach a bit.

I was looking out my office window this morning and noting the clarity of the water in the goldfish pond.  I am very happy about this.  My new pump is working wonders!

You can see the piping to the pump and the empty clay pot that the fish hide in.  You can see the rocks that line the pond.  It’s great!  This is the view from my window — a little slice of the garden.

I walked out to feed the fish and my little darling wanted to go with me.  I think she enjoyed getting out in the sun for a few minutes, even though she is scared of all the bees that are visiting the flowers around the pond right now.

On the way in, I tried to show her just how uninterested the bees are in her.  You can even pet the bees when they are sitting mesmerized on these flowers and they won’t even move!

She would have none of it!  That’s okay.  ~:-D

Have a great Monday,

I walked out to the goldfish pond this morning and there at the top of the rain barrel was one huge praying mantis!  I have rotated the picture so you can see the praying mantis sitting horizontally.  This praying mantis was almost as long as my open hand!  As I moved toward it, it would move its head to keep a clear view of me.  It even lifted its front legs up as if it were going to challenge me.  I hated to fall in the goldfish pond, so I kept my distance and only took a couple of shots!

I need to get outside and read before heading out to work.  I love having my quiet time by the goldfish pond.  The sound of the water falling continuously into the pond is very soothing.  It’s Friday though, so I did my usual bill paying and mail opening this morning.  That takes way too long!  Sigh.

The last couple of days have been great, in spite of some health issues my husband deals with.  I so much wish he did not have to deal with them, but he is brave and handles it with a nice attitude, and I try to be encouraging and keep looking up!  What else can we do?

Anyway, the garden is bright and sunny today.  I would not complain about rain, no!  Still, one has to appreciate a sunny morning by the goldfish pond.  I was happy to see one of my water hyacinths in bloom.  Now lest you go out and buy any water hyacinths to place in any natural body of water, water hyacinth has been deemed one of the worst weeds in all the world!  Mine grow in a very controlled atmosphere and I love the way they bloom.  They are not going to take over the waterways here and they make me smile.  Here’s a picture of the bloom I saw this morning.

I’m off to pick up a prescription this morning.  Later on today I have to go to work.   But it’s okay.  I’ll pick an herb to study while I am working.  One can do that where I work.  Cool.  I also had a nice conversation this morning with my best friend in the world.  I have had some nice quiet time in the garden reading.  I have a lot to be happy about today.

We really enjoyed our trip to the landscaping business that has the beautiful ponds and huge koi.  My daughter did not want to leave.  The owner gave her a big bunch of food to feed to the fish.  He was so nice.  We could have stayed on and on, but I had to get home and get ready for work!

Isn’t this gorgeous?

We were standing on a nice, sturdy bridge over the water.  My daughter loved feeding the fish.

As I said she didn’t want to leave!  I personally enjoyed looking at all the plants.  Look at these water lilies.

I tried to get a picture that would clearly illustrate just how big these fish are!  You can see in comparison to my daughter’s arm how big one of the fish is.

Last is just a picture of all the fish swimming out to get the food that’s just landed on top of the water. 

We bought a water hyacinth today and got a few free little fish.  I think I am going to need a bigger pond!  ~:-D

More later,

We had a wonderful rain yesterday!!  I am so thankful.  My goldfish are thankful too, I think!  Just a couple of days ago I was pondering over what to do about the goldfish pond.  My solar pump died a couple of weeks back, but for an investment of about 30 dollars, with it lasting a bit over a year, I don’t think that was too bad.  This time, however, I really wanted something electric and strong and having a filter.  So I went shopping to an unbelievable landscaping business.  I am heading back over there today and taking my daughter, just so she can see the huge koi they have.  I will post pictures later today.

I bought a Pompe submersible pump (500) and it really began pulling the sludge out of the pond immediately.  I added several gallons of spring water to the pond as the drought had pulled the water level way down.  This helped tremendously, but the rain we had yesterday and last evening was just the ticket!!  The water this morning is the clearest it has been in such a long time.  A lot of old, dark water was washed out through the spillway that is set up between a couple of big rocks placed around the pond.  (The water can get out, but the fish can’t.) 

I am not sure you can tell in this picture, but the fish can be seen to a very good depth.  I am so excited about this.  I also feel pretty good about these little fish being alive in my goldfish pond for over a year now.  One, in fact, is getting to be a big fish!

I am off on my little koi field trip with my daughter.  Will post more later today.