Wednesday, December 13, 2017

Satisfaction


In the interest of getting off my fat ass today I took a pretty good walk and spent a lot of time outside, trimming back frozen stuff like bananas and lilies and also roses. I have no idea of when or how to prune roses but every now and then something just overtakes me and I go at it with my pruners. Then I decided to trim up the wisteria arbor which was so overgrown that even I had to duck to walk under it. That job always takes me hours and today was no exception. I get out the big loppers and the ridiculous kitchen step stool and risk my life reaching up to cut through the tough, woody vines. But it's done now and although I have many, many other things to trim and cut back and pull, it feels like I've made a good start. Ms. Shelly is a good motivator. I saw her on my walk and she was raking her yard as usual. One leaf on her lawn is one too many. I will never, ever be that sort of yard-tender but we share a love of our little pieces of dirt and we like to take care of them. We discussed the Roy Moore loss and we both agreed that it was amazing and wonderful and positive and then we started talking about how women are speaking up now and how that's such a good thing.
I do enjoy my chats with her.

So all of that and laundry has been most of my day. Miss Nicey never did show up and I think she's gone which makes me incredibly sad. This morning when I went to let the chickens out, an opportunity presented itself to shut Joe Cocker and Pearl The Rooster into the coop and so I did. They have food and water in there so it's not cruel. They have plenty of room to walk around and scratch in and roosts to hang out on and it felt good to give the hens a day off. They moved around the yard with Mick and I heard no squawking from them at all. Miss Honey did not leave the nest though, and I know she's traumatized.

After I got all of my yard chores and laundry done late this afternoon, I finally sat down with the little project I'm working on in the picture above which is another decorated onesie for Levon. As I stitched I watched the Keith Richards Netflix doc called "Under The Influence" for about the seventh time and loved it just as much as the first time I saw it. That is heavn for me- embroidering on a garment for a baby and watching the joy on Keith Richards' face as he plays music.

I am a simple woman and my pleasures are fairly simple too. Unlike the Rolling Stones, I can indeed get satisfaction. Mostly. Sometimes. And that's good.

Love...Ms. Moon

12 comments:

  1. I will never, ever have a manicured yard either. That fish embroidery is precious! Hope you have good day, Mary. Much love.
    Xoxo
    Barbara

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    1. Thank you, Barbara! I am having so much fun with my simple embroidery.

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  2. my father said to prune roses on valentine's day but by then mine are already putting out new growth so if I prune that year I do it on Feb 1. you should prune the wisteria after it blooms as it blooms on last year's growth. I leave my banana trees alone til spring as the frozen part at the top protects the rest of the trunk. so there you go, all the things you did wrong. small potatoes compared to all the things you do right. satisfaction is probably a better indicator of a good life than happiness which is fleeting.

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    1. Ah well. As to the roses- these days they never stop putting out new growth. Ever. And I just can't stand to see the wilted bananas, all brown and mushy. I knew I was pruning the wisteria at the wrong time but I just never got around to it this year and had the motivation. It hasn't bloomed much the last few years anyway. I also took a lot of dead wood out of it. I looked up the spirea because I've never pruned it and surprisingly, I read that it needs twice a year cutting back. Once right after bloom and once just about this time of year. That will be my next project. That and the banana leaves and the frozen firespike and so forth.

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    2. I didn't know that spirea was supposed to be pruned. nobody I know that has one does.

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  3. The best yards and gardens are less than perfectly manicured, for sure.

    I love other people's roses. God bless the gallant green thumbs risking life and limb tending those things every year. Gahl, and honestly, i'm too wussy for wisteria, even (and i'm an Amazon, albeit a lazy one). Taming that stuff is intensive! And they are messy. Thanks you heroic folks for the splendid sight and smell of them!

    Do you just go after the banana with a machete? I always quite enjoyed that particular pruning detail.

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    1. Yes. I hate pruning roses and have a little scratches and wounds all over my arms now. When we moved here, the former owner told me that to trim one of the roses he'd planted, to just smoke a big one, put on long sleeves and gloves and go at it. Haha! I don't even use a machete on the bananas. I just use an old, long kitchen knife. It IS satisfying!

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  4. I was thrilled Doug Jones won in Alabama. But then I was dismayed when I saw the actual breakdown of how people voted. How could so many support a degenerate like Moore? The race was a squeaker, despite one man being evil incarnate and the other one being a good and decent public servant. I'd say I don't get it, but sadly, I do. The good news: It's not the whole truth of the thing. In spite of everything the good guy won. My tattered faith is slowly being restored.

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    1. I'm not sure that my faith will ever truly be restored but this election did help somewhat. It pointed out once again, though, that many, many people are just incredibly insane.

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  5. Something about that little fish makes me happy.

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  6. I'm sorry to hear about Nicey. Your fish is very cute! And good for you for tackling the yardwork. Interesting that what's all over the news regarding sexual harassment is also going on in your chicken community! It really IS everywhere.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.