Spring is here!! I’ve been outside—OUTSIDE!!! For so long I have sat by the fire, imagining what all I would do as soon as it warmed up… I was almost overwhelmed, wanting to do everything!! But I have calmed down…
I planted seeds: peas, carrots, beets, radishes, lettuce, spinach, and mustard. My zucchini and yellow squash have been set out. Cilantro has been planted. Casey planted the asparagus.
We had to move the 4 leftover rose bushes out of the veggie garden where they had spent the winter. I moved around some daisies in the north garden to make room, and it’s rather full now.
The lawn was a sea of flowers, but the dandelions were all puff-balls, so we managed to mow just before the rains.
My containers are ready, and I’m going to fill them with lavender, rosemary, basil, and whatever I come up with, while it rains the next couple of days. (it’s a Warm Rain, not even Snain, nowhere close to snow)
I’ve been trying to write something all morning. Well, I have actually written a lot of words that didn’t go together and so I threw them away. I simply have nothing to say…
Swing out
To Lake Nostalgia
Route 5 to Laughing Pines
Get off at Funway West
Drive into Springtime
Drive into Springtime
That’s the chorus of the song that’s been stuck in my head all week: Springtime by Donald Fagan, from his album Kamakiriad. It’s a regular seasonal song since 1993.
Still killing time waiting for a sustained show of warmer weather, on Monday I drove over to Southern Illinois (a very different beast than Northern Illinois) to visit with a couple of oldsters that I love.
Uncle Jr. is doing great the nursing home–even received the “Resident of the Month” award!
A new stop on the tour is Mt. Carmel, where a wonderful lady who was one of my mom’s best friends has been ensconced in an assisted living apartment for about a year now. I “lost” her for a while last winter when she had a couple of bouts of pneumonia that resulted in her move. She is happy enough in her new digs and as beautiful as ever at 90-years-young…
It was a decent day for a drive, but I had just started in with a bout of cold?allergies? We’ll just call it an influx of Snot. I had to cancel my dental appointment for Tuesday and am living on Allegra now with no end in sight. >sigh<
I’ve been haunting my local plant markets, especially Ronnie’s (Variety Village), despairing that they would never return. Thursday a.m. I arrived as they were unloading the trucks!!! In addition to visiting with my seasonal friends, I bought up herbs, some perennials, and seeds. I got 7 kinds of basil! some I’ve never heard of!
Friday morning we shopped at Hillside Gardens, where I prefer to get my veggies, and picked up some great-looking tomatoes and peppers to babysit. Puh-leeze, I know I can’t plant them for a month, but I keep them on the porch and talk to them until the time arrives. I can, however, plant some peas, and am ready…
Casey moved around and re-organized our “shed” (it’s the old 1931 garage-without-a-driveway) so that I could have a sunny, new spot for my gardening supplies… (windows still need to be washed)
Even though I feel like hell, I’ve got a much better Attitude of Gratitude for the blooms and buds that pay no attention to the weatherman, greeting me as I walk into the woods. Wearing my workboots is thrilling!
The temps have plunged again, and we’re still keeping the fire going in the fireplace. We’ll meet up with the Jrs at Denny’s and come back here to play this afternoon.
This week I’m going to get those peas planted, and those roses moved, and the daisies, and bring in the new soil for the garden beds so I can get the spinach and lettuce and beets and on and on.
For now, I just keep “Springtime” rolling through my mind…
I am in a cycle of griping about the weather and have begged for a week now to go back down where it’s warm and sunny. I can assure you that next year we will not return until mid-April. We’ve had to re-winterize the trailer (pull batteries and add anti-freeze) and that just exacerbated my grouchiness.
In an effort to lighten up, I bought two budding hyacinths and their sweet aroma wafting through the house has certainly helped.
My African violets are blooming again,
and my orchid looks happy…
I bought a new bonsai at Epcot and it’s feeling quite at home.
I Know that there is a happy ending to all of this, and that it’s sooner than later that I’ll be outside in the garden… I could be cleaning the house, I suppose, but I’m going to follow the guidance of my Guru Margo: do some reading and catch up on my Goodreads goals; watch some Netflix (learning to speak in a scots accent by Shetland); and just Relax…
I’ve got a few pictures of the Flower and Garden Show at Epcot to share. You’ve probably seen pictures of their beautiful topiaries…
but the abundance of blooms fills the park…
I am really inspired by this garden in particular…
It sorta bums me that I didn’t stay down south longer, but spring is capricious Everywhere, and besides, I missed my Eville grandies. We got together on Friday and played Easter Egg hunt in the house, filling our plastic eggs with chocolate kisses.
My ass-pain is back… Last time, I blamed my hip, remember? Well, a hip x-ray showed only minimal arthritis. I had slipped on ice back in 2014, landing on my gluteus maximus, which was actually pretty maxim-ous at the time. A couple of weeks later, I traveled to NYC and was in Severe Pain… Ever since then, the piriformis, a muscle deep under the glutes, has tended to spasm whimsically. Last November I knew there was some piriformis involvement, but missed that it was the catalyst. Sunday we were walking in the woods, uphill and down, and it is irritated again. This time, I’m right on it with ice and NSAID’s, and an appt. with the doctor on Wednesday if things don’t clear up.
With the weather so shitty, I guess it’s as good a time as any to be laying around…
The week at Disney World flew by! We arrived at Fort Wilderness campground on the 17th. Our site was right on the corner, a little loud, but perfect for people-watching and listening from behind the trees…
We took in a nice sunset from the dock…
The Joses were due to arrive at 9am the next morning, but met up with faulty planes Twice, and didn’t arrive till 4 or so. They stayed over at Wilderness Lodge, a quick boat trip away from our campground. We met up with them at Disney Springs and bought our ears!! Then back to our homeplaces to rest…
(We use the Disney Memory Maker Photopass which pays for any pictures taken by the Disney Photographers who are placed all over all the parks, and even on the resorts… These include the pictures they take from the rides and with many of the characters, and in the most iconic kodak spots. Because I am an annual passholder, I get to keep all of the pictures forever in my Disney account, but that is a pain when you have to scroll through 400 pictures from our last trip to get to the new ones. While Disney IT gets those deleted, I have to use the pictures taken from my camera. Of course, this means you will have to endure the Movie made from the Disney shots later this week…)
On Monday we were in the Magic Kingdom…
Tuesday at Epcot…
Wednesday at Hollywood Studios, or as I like to call it, MGM… (Who knows what they’ll call it next)…
Wednesday evening, back to Disney Springs, where Eliza danced!!!
Thursday was All-Day-Magic over at the Kingdom…breakfast at 8am with the fellas from 100-acre Woods…
We had Terrific spots to watch the castle show and fireworks, but you’ll have to take my word for it, since I didn’t take any pictures this year.
After the fireworks, we braved the cold-ish temps to ride the Seven Dwarfs Mine Train—this was the only time I could get a fast-pass, but it was a great way to finish off our trip! (pictures later via Disney)
We said our good-byes to the Jose’ kiddos on Friday…
..but we stayed another day, so headed over to Epcot to dig in to the Flower and Garden Festival… I’ll share those pictures in another post.
I would have stayed in Melbourne much longer, but it’s that Snowbird infestation that snaps up all the good campgrounds. The closest we could stay was here at space coast rv in Rockledge and it is not our style at all, with narrow alleys between crammed-in sites. The cost is waayy more than it’s worth, and the wi-fi is extra! We are in this particular area mostly because my Aunt Shirley lives here, very close to her daughter-caregiver, my beautiful cousin, Kim.
We spent Thursday afternoon with Aunt Shirley, took her to the grocery store, and enjoyed a little chicken together. Kim came by and we followed her home and the evening flew by, jabbering and yacking and doing a Whole Lot of Laughing! I love that girl! And her daughter, Shianne, too! And her son, Jon-Jon! We had a blast…
The next morning, we were heading down to the beach and as soon as we started the car we noticed it was running really bumpy, missing a beat kind-of. We turned around, went to an Autozone near our camp and did a diagnostic scan: #3 cylinder mis-fire. Back at the trailer, Casey got under the hood and found a hose was dripping antifreeze right on that spark plug. He walked over to the Lowe’s right behind us and bought a hose clamp, put it on and tightened everything. We proceeded to take a Test Drive down to Melbourne Beach…
The hose clamp stopped the leaking, but the mis-fire continues and will until we can get back home… We drove by Aunt Shirley’s and gave her (and her dog, Leo) another hug. Back at the trailer, we started to ready for leaving.
We toured a campground that is just what we are looking for — perfect location, lots of trees, and space between the sites. Our current plan is make Melbourne our March home in 2019, maybe forever. I really like it here!!
We’re leaving about 10:30, driving the 1.5hours to Disney’s Fort Wilderness Campground, where we’ll be staying for a week. The Jose’ family will be arriving Sunday morning and we’ll be there to greet them and kick off another Great Disney Adventure.
