I was talking to one of my NY friends yesterday and told here I would be staying in MI for the next two months. She seemed horrified at the thought of this and asked me what I was going to do for two months here in the "wilderness". I assured her I would have plenty to keep me busy.
So today, as I'm sitting in my reclining lawn chair in the shade of the big maple tree, I got thinking about just what I would be doing this summer here in Gladstone, MI. I came up with the wonderful answer of NOTHING !!!! That is pretty much what life in the country comes down to when you don't have a job, crops to tend to, cows to milk or pretty much anything else that HAS to be done on a daily basis. Every morning The Man and I get up and figure out just how much energy we have for the day. Some days we/I am fired up and ready to take on the world and then on days like today sitting in the shade is about all we are capable of doing. The occasional moving of our chairs from one spot to another is EXHAUSTING ! We sit in the sun until we get too warm and then move into the shade until we get to cool and then move back into the sun. It's a tough life but someone has to do it !
I've been talking with my children every couple of days and all three of them keep telling me just how HOT and HUMID it is in Florida and Georgia. They think I'm insane for even considering returning to Florida before December. (But once it starts snowing up here, probably in October, we WILL be racing south to warmer weather.). It is hard to even imagine sitting in my house in Florida where it is too hot to even walk to the mailbox. The weather here is just too perfect so although I miss my kids and grand kids I really do not want to return to the sticky, sweaty South. Up here I am outside for hours every day. Some days are spent gardening and some days we just sit back and enjoy the beauty of this place.
Since we got back here a month ago, (how is it possible I've been here a month already?) we have attacked the various flower beds that have been neglected for years. I've gotten into cleaning out stuffed closets that have been sitting untouched for years. Then I have branched out to the cellar and the garage. The problem being that one small closet flows into cleaning out another closet which flows into cleaning out a room which flows into cleaning out the cellar which flows into making room in the garage. It is a never ending cycle that I don't see ending any time soon. But the great thing is there is no time schedule or need to do any of it so when we hit a beautiful day like today we can just sit back in a lawn chair and tell ourselves we will get back to work tomorrow.
After living with The Man for four years he is finally comfortable with letting me get into my "little" projects. At first he was hesitant to make any changes in his Michigan home which I totally get but he has mellowed and is actually supportive in getting rid of the massive amount of stuff that fills this place. His favorite saying to me as I'm pulling things out of various spaces is . . .
"O H I O". . . ONLY HANDLE IT ONCE . . . which is wonderful advice that he just doesn't follow. I will find something in a closet and ask, " Trash? . . . Donation? . . . Yard Sale? " There is no "Keep" category here because everything we are going through has been sitting unused for over 10 years so if you haven't needed it by now it really needs to GO !! The ultimate question is,
" WHERE is it going to go?"
The answer to that question remains a mystery especially today when it is just too beautiful to even think about doing anything except sitting under this wonderful big Maple tree and watch the birds fly past. The "Stuff" has been here for ever so what's another 24 hours ?
Sunday, June 28, 2020
Sunday, June 21, 2020
ITS A PRICKLY SITUATION
I need to preface this blog with the statement that I AM enjoying my time here in Michigan. It is quite beautiful up here and the weather is outstanding !!! Watching the weather roll in across the fields from the Southwest is magnificent. Always a cool breeze and yet the sun is HOT giving us the very best of all weather conditions. I can be outside in the sunshine but not melting like I would be in Florida this time of the year. The weather is so awesome that I want to be outside every chance I get.
"Outside" at The Man's place is amazing. Wide open spaces bordered by woods. Fantastic for watching all sorts of wildlife. We have Bluebirds nesting in the birdhouses on the fence posts, Hummingbirds at the feeder just outside the kitchen door, Bald Eagles sitting in the trees around us and on the small island in the pond, Sand Cranes walking all around the property, nightly visits by the dozen or so deer and the other night we apparently had a BEAR visit the salt lick that is out by the pond. It is a magnificent location for anyone who loves being one with nature. There are the occasional mosquito and gnat swarms that like to visit but the breezes usually keep them at bay. We also do have some wasps nesting under the steps outside the kitchen door but the exterminator is coming on Tuesday so I don't think they will be an issue for long.
The one thing that I do take issue with is the large amount of plants that like to stab me and literally "get under my skin". We, (I) have been doing a LOT of gardening this past month. The property contains wonderful flowering plants like Lilac, Lily of the Valley and the presently blooming Peonies. The fragrance in the air is amazing which I guess is supposed to make up for the fact that I can not be out side for more than ten minutes without getting stabbed. The above mentioned flowers are the kind ones . . . not a thorn or prickle to be seen, (although the Peonies are filled with ants). The nasty plants with all the thorns are not so obvious. Rather they lay in wait for me to stick my hand into a flowerbed and then they attack with a vengeance.
It seems that years ago when Mr.Man's wife was alive someone offered The Man some FREE rose bushes that they were digging out of their yard. (Right there he should have figured out that if this person was giving away FREE rose bushes there must be a reason WHY.) But hey, free is free and never let it be said that The Man will turn down anything that is free. (And I do mean ANYTHING!)
And so Mr. Man brought home about five small rose bushes as a lovely gift for his wife. They planted them along the patio at the back of the house and enjoyed the pretty little roses that bloomed each year. Unbeknown to The Man and his wife this particular breed of rose likes to spread out underground and in only a few short years the five small rose bushes turned into a jungle of thorny monsters that are now out into the grass of the yard and better yet, under the cement patio. Some how these beasts have even managed to spread out on TOP of the patio where they have choked out everything else that was ever planted out there.
These past couple of weeks I have been sitting on the ground ripping, tearing, cutting, sawing and basically trying to murder these plants. It has NOT been easy !! I have only managed to clear about half of the length of the patio and in the process I have no less than two hundred and seventy three bandaids all over my fingers, hands and arms. I am starting to look like an Egyptian mummy.
Every time I reach into the grass to try to locate the stem of a rose plant I am attacked by the smallest of thorns that pierce any armor ever made. I am now on my forth set of garden gloves trying to find a pair that will allow me to work un injured. The first pair of cotton gloves was a joke. Within seconds I had at least a dozen thorns imbedded in my skin. (And I do mean imbedded. These thorns are so tiny they go into your skin where they hurt like hell but you can't see them. They just sit there causing all sorts of pain every time you touch anything but you can't find them to dig them out.)
Next I tried The Man's work gloves which turned out to be no better than the cotton ones. Being the genius that I am I figured if one set of gloves wouldn't work I would double them up and wear two sets, one on top of the other. That didn't help at all. Now I'm getting pissed and am determined to win this battle. I purchased a pair of "garden" gloves that are cloth dipped in God only know what to coat them in some sort of hard plastic covering. The thorns can't get through but I also can not bend my fingers to pull weeds or cut with the garden clippers.
I think dynamite might be the answer !
"Outside" at The Man's place is amazing. Wide open spaces bordered by woods. Fantastic for watching all sorts of wildlife. We have Bluebirds nesting in the birdhouses on the fence posts, Hummingbirds at the feeder just outside the kitchen door, Bald Eagles sitting in the trees around us and on the small island in the pond, Sand Cranes walking all around the property, nightly visits by the dozen or so deer and the other night we apparently had a BEAR visit the salt lick that is out by the pond. It is a magnificent location for anyone who loves being one with nature. There are the occasional mosquito and gnat swarms that like to visit but the breezes usually keep them at bay. We also do have some wasps nesting under the steps outside the kitchen door but the exterminator is coming on Tuesday so I don't think they will be an issue for long.
The one thing that I do take issue with is the large amount of plants that like to stab me and literally "get under my skin". We, (I) have been doing a LOT of gardening this past month. The property contains wonderful flowering plants like Lilac, Lily of the Valley and the presently blooming Peonies. The fragrance in the air is amazing which I guess is supposed to make up for the fact that I can not be out side for more than ten minutes without getting stabbed. The above mentioned flowers are the kind ones . . . not a thorn or prickle to be seen, (although the Peonies are filled with ants). The nasty plants with all the thorns are not so obvious. Rather they lay in wait for me to stick my hand into a flowerbed and then they attack with a vengeance.
It seems that years ago when Mr.Man's wife was alive someone offered The Man some FREE rose bushes that they were digging out of their yard. (Right there he should have figured out that if this person was giving away FREE rose bushes there must be a reason WHY.) But hey, free is free and never let it be said that The Man will turn down anything that is free. (And I do mean ANYTHING!)
And so Mr. Man brought home about five small rose bushes as a lovely gift for his wife. They planted them along the patio at the back of the house and enjoyed the pretty little roses that bloomed each year. Unbeknown to The Man and his wife this particular breed of rose likes to spread out underground and in only a few short years the five small rose bushes turned into a jungle of thorny monsters that are now out into the grass of the yard and better yet, under the cement patio. Some how these beasts have even managed to spread out on TOP of the patio where they have choked out everything else that was ever planted out there.
These past couple of weeks I have been sitting on the ground ripping, tearing, cutting, sawing and basically trying to murder these plants. It has NOT been easy !! I have only managed to clear about half of the length of the patio and in the process I have no less than two hundred and seventy three bandaids all over my fingers, hands and arms. I am starting to look like an Egyptian mummy.
Every time I reach into the grass to try to locate the stem of a rose plant I am attacked by the smallest of thorns that pierce any armor ever made. I am now on my forth set of garden gloves trying to find a pair that will allow me to work un injured. The first pair of cotton gloves was a joke. Within seconds I had at least a dozen thorns imbedded in my skin. (And I do mean imbedded. These thorns are so tiny they go into your skin where they hurt like hell but you can't see them. They just sit there causing all sorts of pain every time you touch anything but you can't find them to dig them out.)
Next I tried The Man's work gloves which turned out to be no better than the cotton ones. Being the genius that I am I figured if one set of gloves wouldn't work I would double them up and wear two sets, one on top of the other. That didn't help at all. Now I'm getting pissed and am determined to win this battle. I purchased a pair of "garden" gloves that are cloth dipped in God only know what to coat them in some sort of hard plastic covering. The thorns can't get through but I also can not bend my fingers to pull weeds or cut with the garden clippers.
I think dynamite might be the answer !
Wednesday, June 10, 2020
GUATEMALAN NINJA
It seems my identity is slowly evolving the longer I remain in Michigan. When I lived in New York I was identifiable as wife, mother, Girl Scout leader and all around typical housewife . . .
aka. alcoholic lunatic. When I moved to Florida I evolved into Palm Beach retiree complete with wearing makeup almost all the time and changing my wardrobe from brown and black to colorful tropical items and switching from sneakers to sandals.
But Toto is no longer in Kansas and I am no longer in Florida so I must evolve once more.
Out of necessity I have not only had to evolve my wardrobe but also my behavior. I have gone from Palm Beach debutante, (ha!) to Guatemalan Ninja. All in the course of three weeks. And the reason for this drastic change ? You guessed it !! . . . The Man.
These days I get up in the morning and put on my cut off jeans and a ratty tank top and head outside for a day of landscaping. I have a new found appreciation for the amazing lawn care workers all around the world, but especially in Florida where they are working three hundred hours a day in temperatures exceeding two hundred degrees. Not to mention the days when the pop-up thunderstorms catch these workers holding a metal rake while standing in the middle of a golf course. They are true heroes.
Lawn care in Michigan is a bit different because the temperatures aren't that high but I am still feeling the burn. I have been "gardening", weeding, raking, weed whacking, trimming and sweeping. I must admit the weather has been perfect for all of the above and in spite of the muscle burn I am almost enjoying the physical labor. The Man is delighted to have his very own personal honorary Guatemalan to assist in all this. What he does not know is that when he isn't looking I turn into a Ninja.
The house and property here belong to The Man. I respect that and try very hard not to trespass on his "stuff". He likes what he likes and I get that BUT there are just times when things NEED to be done differently than he is used to and that requires the stealth and cunning of The Ninja.
I actually began my Ninja training in Florida during the winter when The Man is staying with me. It began with the temperature of the house. Man likes it hot, I like it cold. Man refuses to put ON any more clothes in order to stay warm while I can not take OFF any more clothes in order to stay cool. (And don't think it is just a ploy to get me naked because THAT is not a good thing, believe me !)
So each day I have the thermostat set to 78 degrees during the day so The Man will not be cold. I can live with that unless I am cleaning or cooking and then I have to turn the AC lower but it has to be done when he is not looking. Fast forward to Michigan where it is usually pretty cool in the house. I am in Heaven but you know who is cold. It being his house he is in charge of the thermostat, except when he isn't looking. It can be 85 degrees outside and The Man is turning on the heat because the house is "cold". A simple fix would be to just open the windows and let the warm air in OR, even more radical, GO OUTSIDE !! Because neither of these is going to happen the ninja lies in wait for The Man to go to the bathroom or become otherwise occupied so I can run into the bedrooms and parlor to open windows. With luck there won't be a breeze to give me away. Eventually he realizes the windows are open and will go around closing them before bed. This diversion is my opportunity to turn down the thermostat. At night I wait until he is in the shower then sneak around opening windows in the bedroom just enough to allow air to circulate while we're sleeping so I don't melt. There are no ceiling fans here so I depend on the nice evening breeze.
Ninja-ing continues into the other parts of the house too. Throwing out small amounts of crap that have accumulated in dishes and trays on different pieces of furniture all over the house. Some people have A (ONE) junk drawer. Here there are junk drawers, trays, containers and closets. I am managing to very slowly eliminate stuff that has sat for years and never once been used. So far I have succeeded in my quest but it's only a matter of time until I get caught.
At that time I will plead insanity . . .
aka. alcoholic lunatic. When I moved to Florida I evolved into Palm Beach retiree complete with wearing makeup almost all the time and changing my wardrobe from brown and black to colorful tropical items and switching from sneakers to sandals.
But Toto is no longer in Kansas and I am no longer in Florida so I must evolve once more.
Out of necessity I have not only had to evolve my wardrobe but also my behavior. I have gone from Palm Beach debutante, (ha!) to Guatemalan Ninja. All in the course of three weeks. And the reason for this drastic change ? You guessed it !! . . . The Man.
These days I get up in the morning and put on my cut off jeans and a ratty tank top and head outside for a day of landscaping. I have a new found appreciation for the amazing lawn care workers all around the world, but especially in Florida where they are working three hundred hours a day in temperatures exceeding two hundred degrees. Not to mention the days when the pop-up thunderstorms catch these workers holding a metal rake while standing in the middle of a golf course. They are true heroes.
Lawn care in Michigan is a bit different because the temperatures aren't that high but I am still feeling the burn. I have been "gardening", weeding, raking, weed whacking, trimming and sweeping. I must admit the weather has been perfect for all of the above and in spite of the muscle burn I am almost enjoying the physical labor. The Man is delighted to have his very own personal honorary Guatemalan to assist in all this. What he does not know is that when he isn't looking I turn into a Ninja.
The house and property here belong to The Man. I respect that and try very hard not to trespass on his "stuff". He likes what he likes and I get that BUT there are just times when things NEED to be done differently than he is used to and that requires the stealth and cunning of The Ninja.
I actually began my Ninja training in Florida during the winter when The Man is staying with me. It began with the temperature of the house. Man likes it hot, I like it cold. Man refuses to put ON any more clothes in order to stay warm while I can not take OFF any more clothes in order to stay cool. (And don't think it is just a ploy to get me naked because THAT is not a good thing, believe me !)
So each day I have the thermostat set to 78 degrees during the day so The Man will not be cold. I can live with that unless I am cleaning or cooking and then I have to turn the AC lower but it has to be done when he is not looking. Fast forward to Michigan where it is usually pretty cool in the house. I am in Heaven but you know who is cold. It being his house he is in charge of the thermostat, except when he isn't looking. It can be 85 degrees outside and The Man is turning on the heat because the house is "cold". A simple fix would be to just open the windows and let the warm air in OR, even more radical, GO OUTSIDE !! Because neither of these is going to happen the ninja lies in wait for The Man to go to the bathroom or become otherwise occupied so I can run into the bedrooms and parlor to open windows. With luck there won't be a breeze to give me away. Eventually he realizes the windows are open and will go around closing them before bed. This diversion is my opportunity to turn down the thermostat. At night I wait until he is in the shower then sneak around opening windows in the bedroom just enough to allow air to circulate while we're sleeping so I don't melt. There are no ceiling fans here so I depend on the nice evening breeze.
Ninja-ing continues into the other parts of the house too. Throwing out small amounts of crap that have accumulated in dishes and trays on different pieces of furniture all over the house. Some people have A (ONE) junk drawer. Here there are junk drawers, trays, containers and closets. I am managing to very slowly eliminate stuff that has sat for years and never once been used. So far I have succeeded in my quest but it's only a matter of time until I get caught.
At that time I will plead insanity . . .
Monday, June 8, 2020
IT JUST AIN'T HAPPENING
Once again I will tell you, "God HAS a sense of humor !!", and I must be providing Him with all sorts of things to laugh at. And not only am I giving God a good laugh, Husband is up there laughing his fool head off right along with the Lord. All this comes down to, "What goes around comes around" if that makes any sense.
When I was married to Husband he had several complaints about me. (Well if we're being honest here H had more than several complaints.) Besides accusing me of being negative, (his one word to describe me to my therapist), he ALWAYS had a problem with me, (direct quote), NEVER keeping my word or NEVER doing what I said I would do. For example . . . At 6:30 AM when H was leaving for work he would throw out a statement like, "Lets go for a walk this afternoon when I get home." At 6:30 in the morning I'm going to agree to anything as long as you stop talking and let me get the kids up and ready for school. Eleven hours later H would pull in the driveway, come into the house and say, "Well, are you ready for our walk?". And this is where the proverbial S - - T would hit the fan. I have just spent the day trying to get my daughter to stay in school because she has a major case of "school Phobia" and is under doctors care. I have then picked one kid up from tennis, dropped another at soccer and not gotten to put away the groceries that I bought four hours ago. Dinner has not yet been started and H wants to go for a walk, eat dinner and return to work by 6:00 PM, one hours time from when he pulled into the driveway. I now have a decision to make, go for a walk or pick the second kid up from soccer, prepare dinner and serve it, work on the homework with the kids and listen to H telling me I never keep my word. This was just one of many instances that I said I would do something but never followed through. Never once did I leave H standing on a street corner in the rain or stranded in a snow storm. It was always something inconsequential that was not going to change the course of history but it drove Husband NUTS.
Fast forward to living with The Man . . . I have learned to NEVER listen to anything The Man says because it just "ain't happening". I learned this early on when we were in Michigan and he would tell me we would go see this or that one of these days. I have yet to see "This" or "That" and have no hope of ever going there with The Man. Thanks to The Man's sister-in-law I am now getting to see some of the neat places that make up the UP. The funny thing is that when Rhonda called two weeks ago asking if I'd like to go to Fayette The Man's comment was, "Why do you want to go there? I've seen it a hundred times". The fact that he was not invited made little to no difference. It seems that if he has been to these places there is no reason for me to go. I don't know if I'm supposed to absorb his brain waves to see these things in my brain but every time Rhonda asks me if I'd like to go some place The Man tells me how he has been there "X" amount of times. Then in the next sentence he is telling me "we" can go one of these days which I know is a complete falsehood because there is no way it's going to happen.
Keep laughing Husband, I'm walking in your shoes and it is a pretty annoying !!
When I was married to Husband he had several complaints about me. (Well if we're being honest here H had more than several complaints.) Besides accusing me of being negative, (his one word to describe me to my therapist), he ALWAYS had a problem with me, (direct quote), NEVER keeping my word or NEVER doing what I said I would do. For example . . . At 6:30 AM when H was leaving for work he would throw out a statement like, "Lets go for a walk this afternoon when I get home." At 6:30 in the morning I'm going to agree to anything as long as you stop talking and let me get the kids up and ready for school. Eleven hours later H would pull in the driveway, come into the house and say, "Well, are you ready for our walk?". And this is where the proverbial S - - T would hit the fan. I have just spent the day trying to get my daughter to stay in school because she has a major case of "school Phobia" and is under doctors care. I have then picked one kid up from tennis, dropped another at soccer and not gotten to put away the groceries that I bought four hours ago. Dinner has not yet been started and H wants to go for a walk, eat dinner and return to work by 6:00 PM, one hours time from when he pulled into the driveway. I now have a decision to make, go for a walk or pick the second kid up from soccer, prepare dinner and serve it, work on the homework with the kids and listen to H telling me I never keep my word. This was just one of many instances that I said I would do something but never followed through. Never once did I leave H standing on a street corner in the rain or stranded in a snow storm. It was always something inconsequential that was not going to change the course of history but it drove Husband NUTS.
Fast forward to living with The Man . . . I have learned to NEVER listen to anything The Man says because it just "ain't happening". I learned this early on when we were in Michigan and he would tell me we would go see this or that one of these days. I have yet to see "This" or "That" and have no hope of ever going there with The Man. Thanks to The Man's sister-in-law I am now getting to see some of the neat places that make up the UP. The funny thing is that when Rhonda called two weeks ago asking if I'd like to go to Fayette The Man's comment was, "Why do you want to go there? I've seen it a hundred times". The fact that he was not invited made little to no difference. It seems that if he has been to these places there is no reason for me to go. I don't know if I'm supposed to absorb his brain waves to see these things in my brain but every time Rhonda asks me if I'd like to go some place The Man tells me how he has been there "X" amount of times. Then in the next sentence he is telling me "we" can go one of these days which I know is a complete falsehood because there is no way it's going to happen.
Keep laughing Husband, I'm walking in your shoes and it is a pretty annoying !!
Wednesday, June 3, 2020
COMING FULL CIRCLE - BY A NOSE
I am having flashbacks to my childhood in Queens, NY.
Living in Florida I don't get to experience seasons in the traditional sense of the word. We DO have seasons in the sunshine state, they just aren't "normal" seasons. Unlike the North East you can not rely on the trees and flowers or the temperature of the air to tell you what the month is. Florida has Snow Bird season . . . November to May, Rainy season . . . June to August,
Hurricane season . . . June to December, Tourist season . . . June to August, (this is different from Snow Bird season because this is when people from all over the world come to vacation for a week or two as opposed to the Snow Birds who come to nest for several months).
You can always tell it's summer in Florida because there is a LOT less traffic just as you can always tell its Snow Bird season because the increased volume of cars are driven by idiots.
Having been a Native New Yorker I know about the REAL seasons . . . Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall. I always loved Autumn with the smell of burning leaves and the cooler weather heralding in all those wonderful holidays. I DID NOT like raking leaves or shoveling snow and that is a big reason why I now reside in Flor-i-DUH !
So, this year it is a treat to be here in Upper Michigan experiencing New York style weather but in a much more relaxed fashion. Well, not really considering we have been working on this property since we got here two weeks ago. It is a wonderful place to be in the Spring and Summer. Wonderful warm days and cool nights, so far at least. It did get up to 86 degrees yesterday but being up on a bluff from Lake Michigan there is usually a nice cool breeze to blow away all the mosquitos, flies, gnats and other random insects that one finds in the country. I did not have to deal with any of those in NY or FL but it's a small annoyance to put up with compared to all the beauty of this place.
Today The Man and I came outside around 10:00 and worked on pruning some of the many apple trees after cutting the grass on the far side of the house and sawing down two raggedy shrubs that he has wanted to be rid of for quite some time. I have to give The Man a LOT of credit for doing all that he does considering the fact that he can't breathe. He puts his oxygen tank in the trailer that's hooked to the back of his ride on mower. The oxygen hose is long enough to reach to the drivers seat so he can ride all over the place without dropping dead from asphyxiation. I know I joke about The Man but I do think if my lungs were as lousy as his I would just be sitting in a chair for the rest of my life waiting to die. At the moment I have sent him inside to the air conditioned humidity free bedroom to take a rest after all he did this morning. (P.S. Humidity here is a joke, if it is 57% The Man thinks it's awful . . . He has never spent a summer in Florida!)
After we finished all he could manage for the morning we came and sat in our new Zero Gravity Chairs that I bought for him for Father's Day. (I wanted them but Father's Day was a good excuse for me to purchase them. Got to LOVE the internet ! Order it one day and it's here 3 days later!)
I dragged the chairs onto the lawn under the huge old maple tree next to the house, got the man a bottle of water and made some bologna sandwiches for a picnic in the shade. The birds are chirping, the breeze is blowing, and very best of all the air is filled with the smell of Lilacs !!!!!!!!!
As a kid in NY we had a huge Lilac bush next to my house. Every year I couldn't wait for the Lilacs to blossom and fill the air with the most wonderful perfume. To this day I can't smell Lilacs without being instantly transported to my childhood. If I close my eyes I am eight years old, playing outside in my yard while my mom did what ever moms do. I would be entertaining myself for hours, probably with a pink Spalding ball or a piece of chalk all the while being blanketed with the wonderful smell of these beautiful purple flowers.
But it gets even better . . . Because when the Lilacs bloom so do the Lily of the Valley !! If ever there was a flower to compete with my beloved Lilacs it is Lily of the Valley. These little white bell shaped blossoms popped up all around our tiny house in Queens where I would check on them every day to see if the little bells were opening up yet. Once they started to open I would make bouquets full of purple Lilacs and tiny white Lily of the Valley. I would ask my mom for a jar and bring my fragrant blossoms into the house where their scent would fill all the rooms of our tiny home. When I married Husband I wanted my bridal bouquet to be Lilacs and Lily of the Valley but my mother thought I was nuts and so I had who knows what. All I remember is that my bouquet was all white. Boring !!!!
Fast forward to raising my family in Miller Place, NY. I just talked with my daughter, Keri and I was telling her what I was doing, sitting here under the tree with the smell of Lilacs in the air. She reminded me we had Lilacs and Lily of the Valley in our back yard when she and her brothers were growing up. I had totally forgotten that but she said she can not smell either of these flowers without having flashbacks to her childhood. Like mother Like Daughter !
So it seems that God has brought me full circle from my childhood years to what ever years I happen to be in now. I know I was fidgety right after I first got up here and all I could think about was getting back to my house in Florida. The Lilacs and Lily of the Valley have cured that and I am more than content to be here in this beautiful place where I don't have to put up with temperatures in the 90's and 300% humidity. Add to that the hurricane type rain that seems to be hitting South Florida and I am thinking I may spend the entire summer up here.
Living in Florida I don't get to experience seasons in the traditional sense of the word. We DO have seasons in the sunshine state, they just aren't "normal" seasons. Unlike the North East you can not rely on the trees and flowers or the temperature of the air to tell you what the month is. Florida has Snow Bird season . . . November to May, Rainy season . . . June to August,
Hurricane season . . . June to December, Tourist season . . . June to August, (this is different from Snow Bird season because this is when people from all over the world come to vacation for a week or two as opposed to the Snow Birds who come to nest for several months).
You can always tell it's summer in Florida because there is a LOT less traffic just as you can always tell its Snow Bird season because the increased volume of cars are driven by idiots.
Having been a Native New Yorker I know about the REAL seasons . . . Spring, Summer, Winter and Fall. I always loved Autumn with the smell of burning leaves and the cooler weather heralding in all those wonderful holidays. I DID NOT like raking leaves or shoveling snow and that is a big reason why I now reside in Flor-i-DUH !
So, this year it is a treat to be here in Upper Michigan experiencing New York style weather but in a much more relaxed fashion. Well, not really considering we have been working on this property since we got here two weeks ago. It is a wonderful place to be in the Spring and Summer. Wonderful warm days and cool nights, so far at least. It did get up to 86 degrees yesterday but being up on a bluff from Lake Michigan there is usually a nice cool breeze to blow away all the mosquitos, flies, gnats and other random insects that one finds in the country. I did not have to deal with any of those in NY or FL but it's a small annoyance to put up with compared to all the beauty of this place.
Today The Man and I came outside around 10:00 and worked on pruning some of the many apple trees after cutting the grass on the far side of the house and sawing down two raggedy shrubs that he has wanted to be rid of for quite some time. I have to give The Man a LOT of credit for doing all that he does considering the fact that he can't breathe. He puts his oxygen tank in the trailer that's hooked to the back of his ride on mower. The oxygen hose is long enough to reach to the drivers seat so he can ride all over the place without dropping dead from asphyxiation. I know I joke about The Man but I do think if my lungs were as lousy as his I would just be sitting in a chair for the rest of my life waiting to die. At the moment I have sent him inside to the air conditioned humidity free bedroom to take a rest after all he did this morning. (P.S. Humidity here is a joke, if it is 57% The Man thinks it's awful . . . He has never spent a summer in Florida!)
After we finished all he could manage for the morning we came and sat in our new Zero Gravity Chairs that I bought for him for Father's Day. (I wanted them but Father's Day was a good excuse for me to purchase them. Got to LOVE the internet ! Order it one day and it's here 3 days later!)
I dragged the chairs onto the lawn under the huge old maple tree next to the house, got the man a bottle of water and made some bologna sandwiches for a picnic in the shade. The birds are chirping, the breeze is blowing, and very best of all the air is filled with the smell of Lilacs !!!!!!!!!
As a kid in NY we had a huge Lilac bush next to my house. Every year I couldn't wait for the Lilacs to blossom and fill the air with the most wonderful perfume. To this day I can't smell Lilacs without being instantly transported to my childhood. If I close my eyes I am eight years old, playing outside in my yard while my mom did what ever moms do. I would be entertaining myself for hours, probably with a pink Spalding ball or a piece of chalk all the while being blanketed with the wonderful smell of these beautiful purple flowers.
But it gets even better . . . Because when the Lilacs bloom so do the Lily of the Valley !! If ever there was a flower to compete with my beloved Lilacs it is Lily of the Valley. These little white bell shaped blossoms popped up all around our tiny house in Queens where I would check on them every day to see if the little bells were opening up yet. Once they started to open I would make bouquets full of purple Lilacs and tiny white Lily of the Valley. I would ask my mom for a jar and bring my fragrant blossoms into the house where their scent would fill all the rooms of our tiny home. When I married Husband I wanted my bridal bouquet to be Lilacs and Lily of the Valley but my mother thought I was nuts and so I had who knows what. All I remember is that my bouquet was all white. Boring !!!!
Fast forward to raising my family in Miller Place, NY. I just talked with my daughter, Keri and I was telling her what I was doing, sitting here under the tree with the smell of Lilacs in the air. She reminded me we had Lilacs and Lily of the Valley in our back yard when she and her brothers were growing up. I had totally forgotten that but she said she can not smell either of these flowers without having flashbacks to her childhood. Like mother Like Daughter !
So it seems that God has brought me full circle from my childhood years to what ever years I happen to be in now. I know I was fidgety right after I first got up here and all I could think about was getting back to my house in Florida. The Lilacs and Lily of the Valley have cured that and I am more than content to be here in this beautiful place where I don't have to put up with temperatures in the 90's and 300% humidity. Add to that the hurricane type rain that seems to be hitting South Florida and I am thinking I may spend the entire summer up here.
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