Ow, my hands and arms are all sting-y from the palmetto thorns today.  I woke up with all intention to get my monthly billing out of the way first thing, but then thought to set the sprinkler up in the yard.  As I looked around the property, I noticed the natural walls I line the driveway with each season using bamboo and palmetto fronds were deteriorating.   I got my wire cutters and disassembled the west wall.  It took about 5 minutes as the dead fronds just dissolved.  I saved the longer young bamboo stalks and took the old, rotted ones along with the palmetto remnants out to the street.  I took stock of the ficus growing there, and began to weave a wall using the young bamboo and a few sturdy older pieces.  One purpose of the wall is to give me privacy when someone pulls into the driveway.  Another is to block the view and sound from neighbors to give us all privacy.  I repeated the wall on the east side, and hung some longer bamboo between the loquat trees.  The loquats are bearing fruit like crazy!   Continue reading →

A friend I usually text with called last night and he sounded muffled, far away and in a tunnel.  I could catch every 4th word or so.  He has a Motorola Triumph and it seems this is a popular problem with that phone. His is out of warranty so I Googled and found a fix:  ”My wife has taken back her phone 4 times now to the store and got another brand new phone and nothing fixed it. This is because all the phones at that store came from the same batch or date manufactured. Some dates are effected while others are not. The problem is with the Noise Cancelation Device. On the back at the top of the phone, above the camera is a little rubber strip cover. This is glued in place but with a thin knife you can easily and carefully remove this.   Continue reading →

I love the night sounds of nature, especially being in it and away from “the box.”   “The box” meaning being surrounded by electricity: the hum of the refrigerator and tv, the sound of the water pump, the buzz of sitting next to an electrical outlet. About 2:00am, I heard a giant weird crash outside and went out to investigate.  I could hear something crashing off into the woods. Poor whatever it was scared itself.  It sounded like a mastodon, so was probably a raccoon.  It was only about 50 degrees out there at 2:00am.  There is a beautiful night sky, and it’s supposed to get down to 38.  I can hear the wind chimes in the garden and the leaves rustling overhead.    I feel refreshed just being in nature.   Whether I am walking through my little trails and gardens here, or sitting out at the firepit under the big oaks listening to the lizards and squirrels and birds at play, nature relaxes and renews me like nothing else. Continue reading →