Weeds and Trees

A warmish day on Saturday had us all out in the yard working. There were three of us working in our yard and according to a young neighbour out riding his bike, there were several others in the neighbourhood also taking advantage of the day to clean up their yards.

We tackled the weeds and the Crepe Myrtle trees. A lot of pruning was needed - some of the tree branches we cut back were about 20 ft tall...... the pile picked up by the boom truck this morning was huge, most branches were longer than the back of the truck. The driver did a good job of stuffing it all down. Those branches were thick too and I have the sore muscles to prove that the work was hard. When is Frank going to buy a real chainsaw I wonder?

Our weeds are a different challenge....we have Rattlesnake Weed (Florida Betony)....the name given due to the underground tuber. It is segmented and resembles the rattle of a rattlesnake.

How to control Rattlesnake weed: Advice given at every source "Maintain a healthy, dense lawn by fertilizing and liming according to soil test results, and mowing at the proper height and frequency. Healthy turf grass mown at the appropriate height will reduce the growth of Florida betony".... In other words, we have unhealthy turf grass, therefore we have out of control weed issues!! There are no real chemical solutions to the problem - we have tried them all.

The tubers can grow up to 8 inches or more in length, (I had a better photo from a few couple of years ago, but can't find it now -several nice 6 inch tubers - crisp and delicious in salads I am told). The long thin underground root stem part (seen as the white part in above photo) is extremely fragile and acts like an underground network by branching off in every direction.

Pulling the weed, breaking the long root stem only encourages more growth, so actual digging up of the underground tuber is what is required. The personality traits required to tackle this job are: patience, determination, attention to detail, and the ability to use a few un-lady like words.

99% of the weeds we pulled on Saturday came up without the tuber. So we have been successful at encouraging a new healthy crop of weeds.

What kind of horror weeds do you have where you live?

Can you believe that I still use my old high school ruler!! that thing is old!!

Putting Away The Beads

Mardi Gras is over, the decorations at home are down, the towns are quiet again, and everyone has had their share of Kingcake and Moon Pies..... it was busy, and it was fun -even more so when you have a "first Mardi Gras" out of town visitor to share it all with.

Over the Mardi Gras season Mobile had 39 Mystic parades plus a couple of coronation events - across the Bay on the Eastern Shore where our little town of Daphne is, there were 17 local parades. Most parades are followed by Balls, there are also Mystic societies that do not parade but do hold a Ball....it is all over for now and plans for next year are already underway.



Inside one of the bead shops...this one is warehouse size. Parade float riders come here to buy beads by the box, Moon Pies by the box, soft toys, feather boas, etc... all to throw at the crowds, each spending many many hundreds - $500 is considered doing it on the cheap! ...we came to look & watch and laugh....a fun side trip.



My beads are away....but it looks like someone else still has some work to do!

Waiting

I was in this waiting room yesterday (annual doctor visit)....I wouldn't mind waiting a while in there, but it was not to be...just long enough to snap a few shots. If it had been any other waiting room, I would have been kept waiting!

Hearts for Valentines Day

flower market in Paris

What's with the weather!!!

This week we saw a little bit of spring. Down in Fairhope the spring flowers were busy showing off........

Then the south had a very rare winter snow storm. They closed the schools, the cities closed down, we waited, we waited all day and then it arrived...at our house it lasted ten minutes!! it's a good thing I rushed out to take the photo when I did otherwise I would have missed it while blinking.

A Handmade Gift

A bit of catching up is needed here, with a fun house guest and a busy Mardi Gras, blog posts have been neglected...there is lots I want to show you, it was a week of special moments. All coming in a post soon!

But there was something special that I will show you now.....it arrived in the mail.....(how sweet it is to get anything other than bills in your mail box these days).....a handmade thank you gift....from a young New Zealander, who has an interest in sewing. I am sure Macara won't mind me showing off her beautiful needle case.

Love the detail, the change of thread colour for each petal.....

The coordinating colours, the tiny ribbon rosette....

All the beautiful and neat hand stitches, the perfect corner folds...

I love it, I love that a young girl has an interest in the art of sewing, I love that her Nana is sharing her own love of sewing with her and, I love the fact that I will smile each time I use it.
Macara made my day, and I can't wait to see the photo she has promised to send me of a quilt she is making.

The Final Tale of Baby-Girl Squirrel

I know my readers down in NZ have been following the story of Baby-Girl Squirrel with interest. Maybe because it was so cute watching her grow or maybe because of a love for wildlife, especially baby wildlife, or because down there, New Zealand has no squirrels, so squirrels are a bit of a novelty. Up here they are not so novel, considered a pest by some and people might wonder why I would go to all that trouble.
Her rescue was a sweet experience for me, rewarding and enjoyed by the whole family. The result was that we gave a wild creature a chance at life.

Since her release a month ago, after those first three days she has come and gone daily, visiting for a free handout of those pecans that she loves so much. Over that month there were some very bitter cold nights and we wondered if she had found somewhere warm to sleep. We wondered if she was being welcomed to the neighbourhood by the other squirrels, we wondered a lot of things.....
She survived a month and we were pleased...well done Baby-Girl!!...
One recent night we had a dreadful storm, the rain was fierce.....and if you were a squirrel and were sleeping out in the open, you would have been washed away, I wondered if she was safe in a hollow of the tree.....so that morning when she didn't visit I wasn't surprised, she didn't visit that evening nor the next day, and now well over a week later we still have not seen her.
So now we wonder some more.......