Saturday again

We have had a little bug, Bug and I.  A stomach thing.  It is hard for me to know when I am sick and when it is the meds.  The symptoms can be quite similar.  So what difference if I am sick or just having side effects?  Well, when someone else gets what you have been dealing with a few days.  Terrible to say, but it does make me feel better, just knowing that it is a flu and will go away soon, and to make sure that I do not spread it anymore then I already did, when I did not know what I had.  And I try very hard to not spread anything.  remember wash your hands.

So we have both been a little under the weather.  Which is really funny, because we would mention to each other that we were not feeling great, but with both of us being bull headed we would just keep working.  Let me tell you the old adage to "walk it off" does not help a flu bug.

We still accomplished an amazing amount of things.  The barn is clean, now just organizing the boxes that are on the shelves.  There is still plenty to go through and throw out, but the floor is cleared.  And the second horse barn that was never finished and still had dirt floors now has a wooden floor from floor boards of Osgood Marine Ways.  Literally a hundred years ago they were laid down in Gulfport, Florida.  Seriously these 2 plus inch thick pieces of marine wood were the original floors in Osgood Marine Ways when Larry's grandfather dredged the land and then built the marina.  He did not own the land he dredged.  People didn't need to own land back then (ha!) and so instead he signed a 100 year lease with the city.  That lease is up and the land is now a park.  I still had a half dozen or so of the 14 foot boards.  Boards that weigh much more then I do.  Boards that have been carefully moved and stored for decades.  And now, they are making a beautiful floor for the area that was meant to be a second horse stall.  Instead now is a work bench on top of the old sturdy floors.  After the work bench had been built my mind clicked into go and I remembered I had another board that had been a work bench.  This heavy board also has a huge heavy vise attached to it.  It will make another fine work bench, although it would have been nice if I remembered it before he had made the other bench.  Oh well.  My mind comes and goes, but the crazy meds keep me from worrying about it. 

So the barn now can hold the golf cart, the lawn tractor, my garden wagon, 2 Harley Davidson's and still have plenty of room to work.  Many projects have already been completed in that space, and soon I will be able to get out there and start working on some projects of my own.  My garden bench is coming along wonderfully also.  The sink and water is set up.  The top of the bench chosen, the shelves and decorative attachments discussed.  Now, just to put it all together.  And I will be a gardening fool.  Shoot, I have already gotten out and done more work in my gardens this month then in the last several years.  It is heaven.  Here is a little of that heaven:

the garden on the east of my front porch

patti pan squash

the caladiums are named "Kathleen".  The garden in front of my little porch with flamingo, caladiums, native azaleas and native easter lilies

shooting star hydrangea from Ms Moon

Just one hydrangea with so many beautiful colored flowers

isn't that one flower head just gorgeous!?!

Just one bush with so many colors

in front of my glass house

The green is more like mid summer then spring June.  I am enjoying the hard work of the garden.  It will take me most of the summer to get my gardens back in order.  That is just fine.  I have a few trips coming up, and they will take me from my gardens more then enough. 

We are set for Spain.  I am even getting excited about going back to that little community and seeing such precious sweet friends.  I need to get focused on getting everything I need to take on the trip.  We have been hitting all the goodwill's in the area on Tuesdays.  That is old people day.  We get 25% off what is no longer cheap prices.  Don't get me wrong, they are for the most part cheaper then retail stores, but not always.  Goodwill's have become too cool and now the prices have crept up.  But OB is teaching me how to bargain shop, and Ms Moon had already shown me how to watch for name brand items and I have taken 3 garbage bags, overflowing up to Wag the Dog.  All of these clothes are either way too big or I have not worn them for at least a year.  That has given me room to reorganize my closet and now most of the clothes fit me for the most part.  It is amazing when you go on old people day how much you can still buy for a great price.  I have bought some great name brand beautiful skirts and tops for the Spain trip.  I actually had one woman say she liked my outfit.  I took that off and did not buy it.  I wear clothes, not outfits.  I don't even consider my clothes that I wear on stage as outfits.  Some are more like costumes, most, are just clothes from my closest.  I still have a very diverse closet thanks mostly to my mother's legacy and inclination to learn about other cultures through their food and clothing.

Yippeeeee!!!!

After dropping off our contribution we headed over to the Opera House which was already starting to fill up.  It was the Rotary Club kick off dinner for the Watermelon Festival.  The Rotarian's served chicken perlou.  It was delicious.    Everyone was there and it was nice to hug and say hello to so many people.  We had wanted to go to the bed race, but we wimped out and came home.  We started to work on a few projects and before we knew it we had missed the race.  That is okay because really we weren't feeling all that great.  So instead we sat in the front yard with a fire in our new fire pit.  OB played his guitar and the flames, the animals, it was wonderful, magical, perfect.  We just sat there and enjoyed the quiet evening in the woods and country.  The dark of the night slipping around us, the flames in the small above ground pit casting shadows up in the leaves of the trees.  The music from the strings reverberating against the wood of the guitar.  The music dancing with the song of the insects.  The smoke, energy from the wood and heat and oxygen, lifts up like memories of the trees themselves.  A beautiful perfect night.

A new day now filled with possibilities that stretch out before me.  I am happy.  So happy.  I have seen some of the worst times anyone should have to deal with in the last 5 years, and yet in the last couple of months I have never been happier in my whole life.  It is like I am slowly shedding the old sad parts of my life and learning how to make room for laughter, happiness and life.  

Bob and I enjoyed life and our new hammock

Real life. I still have time for more life.