Cold Spring

Stones for raised garden wall ordered this morning from Lowe's

Man, is it ever cold outside. This is one cold spring. 

I wasn't expecting it to be this cold when I returned from California a couple of weeks ago. 

Three weeks in a row we've had a Nor'easter tearing up the East Coast. Thank goodness, we didn't get any snow here in southern Delaware. The but cold bitter winds make going outside not comfortable. 

Yesterday I had a load of forty bags of mulch delivered. Last week I had a local landscaper edge out my flower beds. That was expensive. I decided not to lay out any more money and lay the mulch myself. I need the exercise anyway (I tell myself). 

This morning I ordered a skid of seventy stones to build a raised garden. Yes, I will build that wall. I need the exercise (I tell myself).  

I've always loved working in my yard. I hate painting but I could do yard work all day. I find it relaxing. But as my body ages, I have found I can't keep up with all that needs to be done.

Me with my hired landscaper (still smiling before the job was completed and paid for)

Four years ago I hired a local Mexican landscaper to help. At first his prices were competitive. He charged by the job. This year he changed his pricing and charged by the hour. Thirty dollars an hour. Yep, you guess it. He charged me for thirty-six hours but no way did his crew work thirty-six hours. And his "crew" often existed of just one guy. I hate situations like this. I confronted him about the hours but didn't get too far. He  speaks limited English. His understanding of English is selective. If I say something he doesn't want to hear, he acts like he doesn't understand me. But if I say something he wants to hear like "I'll pay you $1,000 to edge my lawn", he has no problem. I'm not a good bargainer.  I prefer to pay by the job. If it's a good job, and I consider it worth it, I'll pay. If I think I'm being overcharged, I don't use that person again. I won't be using Miguel again. He did do a good job, but overcharged. There, I feel better now after this rant. One of the reasons I keep a blog, so I can vent.

Now, I'm waiting for that sweet spot of weather between the crisp coolness of spring and the muggy hotness of summer so I can lay that mulch. Hope all that exercise can cause me to lose a few pounds. 

Yard Work!

One of my favorite activities is yard work.  I find working in the quiet and peace of my back yard not only good physical exercise for my body but good mental exercise. 

It's interesting but both of my brothers hate yard work.  My brother Isaac, the brother who inherited the family home, has been busy cutting down as many trees and shrubs that my father planted over the fifty some years he lived there.  

My brother John, who lives in South Carolina, has just about finished taking out anything that grows on his ranch house property and paved over his back yard.  He now has the biggest parking lot in his neighborhood.  But both of my brothers can build.  They are both good carpenters.  I am not.  I am not mechanically declined at all (and "declined" is not a typo).  

I like my backyard.  Next to walking, working in my back yard, especially raking cut grass, is one of my personal, guilty pleasures. 

One of my big frustrations with my leg injury is that it prevented me from working in my backyard.  When I got the news from my doctor after my leg surgery that my recovery would be "eight to twelve weeks", I immediately thought "there goes the spring."

Well, I'm glad to say that yesterday, after my physical therapy session, I felt confident enough to do a little bit of yard work.  

Raking grass is one of my favorite activities. I like the feel of the gentle wind on my face. Listening to the birds' chirping, getting things sorted out in their little world. The quiet, peace and tranquility of being by myself in my own backyard.

I think a lot of my pleasure of working in my own backyard comes from my youth of growing up in a second floor apartment.  Our family didn't have a "backyard" until 1958, when my parents built a small 1,100 square foot, one bathroom (five in our family) ranch house in East Brandywine Township, Downingtown, Pennsylvania.  I was 16 years old at the time and only had a year to "enjoy" my own land.  But it wasn't actually "my" land, it was my father's and he was very possessive.

120 Washington Avenue, Downingtown, PA - 2nd floor apartment front - where I spent the formative years of my youth and missed having a backyard unlike most of my classmates whom I envied who lived in "normal" homes with backyards

After graduating from high school, joining the Army, getting out of the Army, I was back to apartment living again.  

Our family's Boot Road, Downingtown PA second floor apartment - house not there now - no back yard (of course) again - 1954

I lived in three different apartments until Bill and I bought a small townhouse in center city Philadelphia with a very small back yard.  Actually not a "backyard" like I wanted, it was a paved (flagstone) backyard with small raised beds.  To satisfy my green thumb Bill built a roof deck with flower boxes.

Our Philly townhouse back yard (still no grass) - 1969

A view of our roughneck at our Philadelphia townhouse which I expanded my "backyard" with flower boxes - my green thumb needed this

The view from our roughneck of our Philadelphia backyard - 1969

It wasn't until 1980, when we moved to our 6.875 acres in East Brandywine Township, that I finally had my own backyard.  Of course I had to share it with the deer (oh did I ever) but at least I had one.  But I still didn't have what I really wanted.  What I really wanted was a neighborhood back yard.
When we moved to Delaware I finally had my neighborhood backyard.  The year was 2006, a long wait for a back yard.

Our East Brandywine Township home - my first "backyard"- 1980

This is a long post but I had to tell you this aspect of my personality.  After all, that's what this blog is all about . . . . me.

My backyard now - finally - my dream come true - where I go for peace and tranquility - 2015

Aching All Over After Working in the Backyard

Bill ready to attack the top of the pine tree with his snippers

The last time I hurt this bad was when I went out for the track team in 1957.   I feel like I've been hit by a Mack truck!  My whole body aches.

That's me, bottom row, on the right. kneeling and in pain

So what did I do to bring me to this state?  I took advantage of the mild spring weather the past two days and I've been working like an illegal immigrant on my backyard.

Ron's giant Pampas Grass begging to be trimmed

I want to get all the hedge trimming, weed pulling, and planting new bulbs in the ground before the mosquitoes take flight looking for my warm blood, nubile bod.  Yes, I want to get ahead of the game.

"What a mess!" (the grass, not me)

However, I fear I pushed myself too much yesterday.  Not only did I cut back my two monster Pampas Grass plants (they look beautiful in the mid summer but man oh man are they ever a bitch to cut back), I spent about two hours raking cut grass.  I kept telling myself that all this raking would help get rid of the spare tire I developed this past winter.  I'm one belt notch up and the pantaloons are snug.  I daresay I probably should be wearing size 33 waist pants but I don't want to go there since I've managed to stay a 32 waist all my adult life (with a few inexorable exceptions - not bigger but smaller when I was in the throes of an unrequited love affair I dropped to a 30 waist).

Bill came out later and topped our pine trees which are on the border of our backyard.  That is a messy job which I hate to do because of all the pine tar I get on my hands.  I'm glad Bill took on that job.  Thank you Bill!

I have developed a backyard which is very bird friendly and they know it.  I have seven birdbaths which I have to clean several times a day.  I don't know why but some of my avian friends seems to think the bird bath is a toilet and they occasionally leave "deposits."

I have many bushes which I keep trimmed which make them thick and safe for my feathered friends.  The bluebirds haven't settled into their house but they're looking it over.  Purple Martin scouts have already been detected checking out the newly cleaned quarters.  I've already had to pull out one house sparrow nest from my Purple Martin house.  The robins, cat birds, and finches are also regulars at Casa Tipton-Kelly's Backyard Wildlife Habitat Hacienda.

Spring has arrived and I am glad of it.  Now if my body can keep up with the physical demands.  When I went to bed last night my body literally ached all over.  It was one of those "good aches", if you know what I mean but I was aching.  I feel like I got mugged.

Today I rest.

"Need some mulch?"