Simply Saturday

True to his word, Miguel showed up at 8:40 a.m.  We had had torrential rains last night so my over the calf garden boots squished as we walked to the back yard.  Here's what poor Miguel saw:

Two Beds and More Before

By 10 a.m., this is what Miguel had accomplished with his trusty pick axe. This included putting together the raised bed kit.  That soil (with landscaping cloth underneath) is 12 cubic feet (12 bags weighing about 40 pounds each).

After Miguel's Hard Work

I am so happy with the results.  I wasn't much help because I had hefted 3 bags of soil onto the yellow plastic Little Tykes wagon that is now about 30 years old.  My back told me to not do that again.  I did a lot of bending to bring the weeds to the composter.

In the past, I have failed at compost.  No more.  That is "dry" that you see on top from last year.  It lived on the ground under the lawn cart to the left of the composter.  Most of it is filled with the green from today's efforts.  And I dumped some compost helper onto it and stirred.  I have no idea what compost helper is and I don't think I want to know but it almost looks like rice-like pods of graham crackers.

After that I was pretty pooped but made coffee -- COFFEE!!! -- I couldn't believe I was functioning.  Did a bunch of dishes, played some computer games.  Gave Ann a call and she came over.

Neither of us had had lunch so I made penne pasta with pesto (store bought) and shrimps.  On the side, I made hot chicken Italian sausage with onions and mushrooms.  The shrimp and sausage had been frozen and I had the pasta.  Not bad for someone who didn't shop!  Of course, after chatting ourselves out, we had to go to Flayvors (Cook Farm, Hadley) to get ice cream.  I had cow spot ice cream which has lovely small chocolate disks filled with peanut butter and Sally's coffee grounds which is coffee ice cream with very fine chocolate cookies making the "grounds."  We had fun watching the chickens wander around but we didn't visit The Girls.  I don't know if you know what a cow farm in spring smells like, but the ice cream stand was close enough.  

I had been kind of embarrassed for Ann to see my place.  The lawn mower guy hadn't come since Mothers' day and it looked like an abandoned house with high grass and even higher dandelions gone to seed.  But when we got back from Cook Farm, I was delighted to see that Lawn Mower Guy had come and gone!

The poor guy next door is still mowing his lawn with a motorized push mower.  He goes BRRR BRRR BRRR BRRR for about 20 to 30 seconds and then it dies because it is so clogged with wet grass.  Can you say annoying noise?  But I am so tired on his behalf (I think he's only 30 something) that I can put up with the noise for a while.

When I took the picture of the new beds in back, I had to bring the wagon back and I stopped at the lilacs to the left of the garage as you face the house.  This year is weird -- I thought all of the purple double lilacs had left.  But no, I saw one (count 'em one) clump of purple.  You will have to look really hard to the left.

See it on the far left.  It's way too high for me to cut and (obviously) difficult to see.  That's o.k., the lilacs have increased my allergy misery threefold.  They remind me of some people: I like them a lot, but after a while they are really irritating.

Here's a shot of the (single) white lilacs which have taken over.  Yet another instance of the whites bullying the neighbors of color.

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Now that I am "House of Cards" -less, I have just watched my first episode of "Orange Is the New Black."  That's definitely a must watch series.  But, wow!  I may never get my laundry done at this rate.

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It's time to go put my camera batteries in the recharger.  I know, I know: will the excitement never cease?  I also have to decide whether to finish the Evanovich book or to watch more Netflix.  (Yes, I actually read.)  

In fact, reading caused me to Google the definition of "schadenfreud."  For the life of me, I can't figure out how to work that into a conversation -- especially since I'm alone.  Not so sure it will fly after church tomorrow.  I'll bet Emily will like it.  She's coming tomorrow and we're going to see the new "X Men."

I also may take a bath in linament.  Wait a minute.  I don't know what linament actually is.  But it sounds like it will fix my aching muscles.  Ciao. I'm off to Google.