I Really Believe I Should Get More Chickens For No Other Reason Than The Comfort Of Their Presence

I had two main goals today and accomplished both of them so I'm feeling fairly cheerful, especially since one of them involved yard work. I mentioned yesterday that I'd watered the plants that edge the fence in the front yard and how bad that whole area looked and so I figured that I could at least tidy it up, pull weeds from it, trim things back. And so I did. It is hotter again but I worked in the shade so it wasn't that bad. 

The firespike is actually looking a little better today since I got even a small amount of water on it. I love that plant for its determination and perseverance. And the fact that the pollinators love the blooms. I think it's doing quite well there where I've planted it, although it would look a lot better if we got some rain. We're at the point right now where it feels as if that will never happen again. I know it will though, and when it does, it will be glorious. The forecast doesn't call for any rain until possibly a week from now and so we are going to see even sadder greenery until we finally do get some. My native azalea, also in the front yard, but to the left of the fence rather than the right which is where the above picture was taken, looks so very, very defeated. 

That's the same plant in my header, taken last spring from the opposite side of the fence. I hope its leaf drop and droop have more to do with fall coming than it does about uh, death, but who knows? I should be watering it, I suppose, although since it is a native plant, perhaps it will survive without my help. That spot with the azalea and the rooster planter and the Buddha and the St. Francis tile, is where my gorgeous boy Elvis is buried. He was my best rooster, my favorite. He was valiant and sweet to his hens, as well as being a gleaming specimen of roosterhood. I buried him there so he could keep watch over us as he always so faithfully kept watch over his ladies. I know I have posted this picture of Elvis and a very, very young Owen many times before but it is my favorite, having such fine lads who are so obviously quite fascinated by each other in it. 

I think I shall now start telling Owen that I remember him when he was barely taller than a rooster. 

My other goal today hardly seems worth mentioning but it was one of those small tasks that barely register and can be put off for awhile but not forever and that is the shelling of the peas although I just looked back onto yesterday's post where I said I'd be picking, shelling, blanching, and freezing peas. 
Haha!

Obviously, I was dreaming. 
Perhaps tomorrow. Who knows? Not me. 

Oh! I forgot to mention that I pruned both bridal wreath spirea plants in the front yard down to nothing. Almost. 

They had both gotten so very leggy, sending out branches that hardly ever had a bloom on them, mostly just providing the greenbriar vines something to grow on. Again- we do not get the sun we need for their flowering to occur. I have another spirea planted to the west of the shed and it gets far more sun and produces far more bridal wreaths. It could use a pruning but I'll let it be for now. Too late in the year to prune it anyway, if there is hope for it to flower in the spring. 

Not to taint the mood here but I'd like to comment briefly on the "indefinite suspension" of Jimmy Kimmel from his late-night talk show because of his observation that Trump used Charlie Kirk's death as a reason to blame and condemn "the left". 
Which Trump and his fellow blind and testicle-challenged followers most certainly have done. 
Somehow, I find this one of the most frightening things that have happened recently in the MOST FRIGHTENING THINGS contest we seem to be observing as our country is being taken down like a giant sequoia which no one thought would ever be destroyed out of respect and age and the ridiculous idea that anyone would WANT to bring it down. 
Of course the Disney company fell to its ass-kissing (I could say worse but I won't) position on its knees when it was learned that the Toddler In Chief was upset because a bully had called him a bad name on the playground. 
Sorry, Jimmy! You're outta here! You can't talk about Mein Fuhrer like that! It's treason! 
Okay. Okay. I have to stop now for my own mental health and for yours too. 

I will just say that I know a woman who is dating a professor of Constitutional law and he is planning on a move to Canada. 

I think I'm going to have tofu for supper for the third night in a row! I took the trash to the dump today! Let's all think about pleasant things like these now in hopes that we can convince ourselves this is all a bad dream. A ghastly nightmare on top of the freshly cut stump of the noble tree that I am so afraid has already been felled. 

God I hate to end like this and yet, it is unwise to ignore the facts. Not only unwise, but impossible. 

Love...Ms. Moon