Overload

Our unseasonably warm weather has faded and rain has returned and with it the latest jigsaw puzzle was brought out. 

This one although not that large (500) pieces was a real labor intensive pain in the arse.

For the last year there has been so much construction going on around us that it dosen't take much more than a light sprinkle of rain added to the construction noise to make this old gardener quit doing what he loves doing more than anything else and join MeMa in a quite session of puzzle making hopla.

The storage facility at the end of our street is still in full swing, dozens of workers making all sort of noise.

The ten large homes now behind our once very private back property are almost all sold and filled with families.

Our next door neighbor's upper addition and rear add on is turning out to be a a bigger project than we thought.

Today the city engineer team has informed us that very soon they will be returning with heavy machinery to "jackhammer" the street, sidewalk and curbing in front of our home and adding a large ADA approved curb cut with wheelchair ramp. 

 I think we will be spending more time at the cabin were it is so quiet one can hear a deer fart.

It happens.

A Bouquet of Hummingbirds

For the last four or five years we have been feeding a bouquet of hummingbirds and yes that is your trivia for today, a bouquet!

 Anyway this spring as we sat on the porch with those little hummers humming around us we noticed one take off and land in our Monkey Puzzle tree.

 Then he hopped deeper into the branches and fed his mate who was sitting on a golf ball sized nest. I thought what a perfect fortress of protection. The nest was just sitting on top of one of the prickly branches and nothing can get to it.

Today we put the ladder up and removed the nest as they typically only use the nest once and the weather will soon destroy it. It will look really cool in my museum case.

Ho Hum........

Originally I said that staying home didn't really change life for a couple of retired folk but it has. 

Today I was reading my journal from the previous year, and retired we may have been then as well, stay at home was definatly not the case.

I am amazed at how much we crammed into a day, going here coming there. We were        
gad-abouts,  plain and simple.

 

Now, our cars have not been out of the garage in a week, maybe more. 

My journal entries lately are an embarrassment compared to last year at this time.

We did manage to finish a jigsaw puzzle. Whoopee! 

Oh, we took Roxy for a walk and talked to a neighbor......

 yep, thats what these two old retired folk did today.

Completing The Waterfall

 Laying the fabric was the easy part, the koi are very curious.

 Gathering the rock I have stashed all over the garden was the hard part.

 I take that back, carrying each rock across this narrow wall was very difficult and could have been a really bad experience.

 Tried like heck to use the rock we had but the last flagstone was just to small to work, no matter which way I flipped it.

 A quick trip to the quarry and the new flag fit like a glove.

 These Koi really are very curious creatures.

The finished waterfall. Enjoy!

Escaping The Din

It had been a couple of years since I last cut the old fronds off the ferns at our cabin. The construction noise nextdoor at home was getting annoying, so we packed a few things into the car and an hour later had complete quiet.

 Fern alley was beautifull last spring but by this time it was difficult to access the water shut off and such.

We certainly are not short on ferns.

Cutting them down was the easy part, the clean-up was much more work.

 While I carried bucket loads of debris into the woods MeMa restacked the woodpile.

She discovered these two sleepy newts in the pile so she set them aside and then carefully replaced them in the woodpile so they could carry on with their hibernation.

I neglected getting a photo of MeMa climbing around on ladders cleaning out the rain gutters a job that usually takes two of us. Sometimes its humiliating being married to a dynamo. I was however very pleased that my extra braces were the solve all, no more replacing the darn things every year.