I spent yesterday \u00a0alternating lazing about with doing some yard work. \u00a0It was one of those days when the mood flows in and out of euphoria, a beautiful sunny spring day, 80 degree weather, jays and cardinals in the sprinkler at the east garden bird bath, wrens and doves at the bird bath in the courtyard. \u00a0 For awhile there was a lot of bird calling and squirrels chattering when the young hawks came on the scene, but they didn\u2019t stay long. \u00a0 I raked the dried oak leaves into mulch for the plants in the yard. \u00a0I\u2019m a firm believer in mulch. \u00a0My jungle yard is proof it works. \u00a0I pulled a few wheelbarrows full of wedelia and ferns out of the garden area to the left of the front walkway under the giant oak, and raked another few wheelbarrowsful of dried oak leaves out of there, using it as mulch for the giant philodendron and turk\u2019s cap and bottlebrush in the front berm. \u00a0My cats Izzy and YinYang lazed about under the bamboo. \u00a0<\/p>\n
I pruned back the spent palmetto fronds on the east path into the backyard. \u00a0I cut back more of the eleagnus around my back porch and located the yellow jacket hive I\u2019d disturbed last sunset and gotten 3 good stings for it. \u00a0I dispatched the hive and was careful in cutting the eleagnus not to disturb any cardinal nests that might be hidden inside. \u00a0I left the eleagnus cuttings on the ground to be dealt with another day. \u00a0I\u2019ll probably just run over them with my mulching mower and rake them underneath the shrub. \u00a0I\u2019ve never had luck transplanting eleagnus.<\/p>\n
I watered the plants and trees along the property line, the crepe myrtle, the arbovitae, the oaks, the turk\u2019s cap, the arbicola, the mulberry, the loquats. \u00a0I set the sprinkler out front to water in the grass near the road and the privacy line of loquats. \u00a0I moved one of the tables on the front driveway to a spot closet to the road, so I could add a chair at sunset. \u00a0I rearranged plants atop the table as a privacy hedge so I could have full view of the street yet not be facing and staring into my front neighbor\u2019s property. \u00a0It was dusk as I moved the sprinkler and I heard a passing neighbor kid say as they rode by on bikes, \u201cLook, she\u2019s out in the yard<\/em>.\u201d \u00a0Sheesh, I\u2019ve become the neighborhood weird old chick that kids ride by to catch a glimpse of\u2026<\/p>\n I\u2019d doused myself in Skin So Soft so the misquitoes were not troublesome. \u00a0They were out and so were the bats, buzzing about, sonaring so close you could hear their wings flap and think you\u2019re being dive bombed. \u00a0You\u2019re not being targeted, they know where you are, it\u2019s dinnertime and they\u2019re just eating misquitoes.<\/p>\n It was a perfect golden day and a perfect waxing moon evening. \u00a0I feel so blessed that I\u2019m the one who gets to life my life. \u00a0Life is good and it keeps getting better. \u00a0Do I believe it because I experience it, or do I experience it because I believe it?<\/p>\n