The 21st Century Matriarch

1990 06 img917.jpg — Thirty years ago – June was a busy month. I had rejoined the work force part time and my daughter was adjusting to day care very well. The high with her in June 1990 was her enjoyment of a small swimming pool. The first time was a little too cool for her, but she still liked being outdoors and in the water. The next time was warmer and even better.

The low with her was a trip to the hospital early one morning when she had croup. I held her in the vapor tent, and she got better…enough that they didn’t have to medicate her. There were evidently other children with the same problem that night. We were all very hungry for breakfast when we go home.

I picked 7 pounds of strawberries at a farm that is now a housing development. It only lasted a couple more years after 1990.

We had a chipmunk that came up to our deck. My mother-in-law put out seed for it. The baby and the cat were intrigued by the rodent’s antics.

We were on the wait-list for a senior living facility for my mother-in-law…hoping that she would get in before I went back to work full-time and she would be alone in the house too much of the time.

We were primed for a bit of travel in early July….a weekend away for a road trip.

Unique activities for yesterday:

More pictures from Texas. Since I had yard pictures from 2 of my 3 sisters, I asked the other sister for a picture and she sent more than one: sunflower, lantana, hibiscus….and a bunny!

Then she realized that there was more she wanted to share: lavender hibiscus, blue salvia, dusty miller, and red yucca.

Her yard probably has less grass as the years go by! She has quite a riot of color.

I was out early on a morning that started out in the 70s – to do a little work in the front flowerbeds. I got sidetracked by some of the vegetation and did some photography before I got any work done.

There are a few clover plants. I leave them although I am often tempted to eat them. Supposedly they are edible from root to blossom! I’m letting them go to seed and hope that they’ll grow amongst the day lilies again next year.

The wild strawberries have grown better than usual this year. They cover the area near the down spout from the gutter. They’ve even crowded out the mint that used to grow in that space….and the horse nettles are not growing there this year either.

20200612_065052(0).jpg — I did notice some black berry vines against the wall of the garage. They are wild and only produce tiny berries….and the thorns are bad. I pulled/cut them.

20200612_071315(0).jpg — I left the Virginia creeper climbing up to the brick for now. When it gets to the window level, I’ll cut it. It looks artsy at this point….in the mottled light.

The milkweed is up but is late blooming this year because of the odd May temperatures. I haven’t seen any monarch butterflies yet this year or any evidence that the milkweed plants are being eaten by anything…not even aphids (yet). There are some with curled leaves which I’ll probably cut down in an effort to keep the rest of my milkweed patch healthy in the event that the Monarchs come and need the plant for egg laying/caterpillars.

But the best discovery of the morning was that the day lilies are blooming…and the deer have not even nibbled in the area (in previous years we’d be on our second wave of day lily leaves and the bud stalks would be chomped)! I cut two stalks with open flowers and large buds to take inside.

Tomorrow’s post will feature the small critters I discovered….and managed to photograph.

Unique activities for yesterday:

Mowing the yard – finding a baby oak. The grass is growing fast with the combination of warmer temperatures and periodic rain. We waited a day or so since the last rain. The dew was dry by about 9:30 when we started. There is one place that stays wet in our backyard – where the extra water from our neighbor’s sump pump runs down the slope from their yard into ours. The grass is very lush there and – so far – seems to be thriving with the extra moisture and not too damaged by being mowed when it is wet. I noticed an oak seedling and pulled it out so I could photography it rather than mow over it. Part of the root did not come out of the ground, but the acorn did! If I were doing pre-school field trips, this would be an excellent specimen to share with the children.

Overall – my husband and I were mowing/working for about an hour. He did more of the mowing this time and I trimmed low hanging branches from the plum, maple, and tulip poplar. There is still one low branch on our cherry tree that I almost always manage to hit (with my head) and it is too large to cut without endangering the balance of the tree.