Thursday, March 7, 2024

Life Is Living


Well, we put the jungle back outside today. Just as it was a nice change to bring the plants in and feel as if we were living in a tropical forest, it is now nice to feel the house take a breath as it is cleared out and can breathe freely again. Can you see Maurice in that photo? I think she is happy to have her perch back. 

And the plants? They are SO happy to be outside. I gave them some trimming and drenched them all with the hose. I could almost hear them gulping the water down. I can't water them in the house as fully as I can outside so between that and not getting enough sun, they were looking a bit sad. They will perk right up though.


There they are after their soak. 

I swept the porches this morning because Liz Sparks was coming over. We'd planned to maybe get together for breakfast at the Waffle House or later somewhere for lunch but I just did not think I could handle another meal out. 
How stupid does that sound?
So she came out here and we sat on the front porch which does not get a lot of use, and it was so nice to sit in those rocking chairs and look at the trees and hear the birds and, okay- also the cars and trucks going by. 
Front porch traffic, back porch trains. 
We live a life of rather noisy peace here. 

Since I've seen Liz, she's been to Cuba for a short visit. She felt the same way about Cuba that I did when I went there, which was that we both had so many questions when before we visited, and we had so many more when we left. I think that my trip may have had a slightly more positive spin to it because we went right after Obama had visited and the Rolling Stones had played which were both incredibly symbolic events. And people seemed a little hopeful, things seemed to be opening up some. I get the sense that is no longer true. 

A country so very close to the US in miles, so very, very far from our country in every other way. I remember when Lis and I got back and spent the night in a hotel and there were like four rolls of toilet paper in the bathroom and we felt like the richest girls in the world. There are probably not four rolls of soft, cushy toilet paper in all of Cuba. Liz felt that way when she did her first shopping at Publix when she got back. We have so much. They have so very, very little. 

Liz is also going through an incredibly difficult time with her elderly parents. I won't go into any details but I will say that her entire life right now is taken up with trying to get them into a safe situation as they have become unable to take care of themselves and they are fighting her tooth and nail. From the physical realities of their situation to the infinite number of legal and financial details to attend to, she is doing it all. I can tell she is so very tired. 

I made us a little salad buffet for our lunch. I had left-over shrimp salad and the leftover salad with fruit and nuts from last night and I made a pasta and tuna salad. And then before she left, we went out to the garden and picked a few greens for her to take home. 
She is an amazing woman. I was thinking today how there is absolutely nothing about her that I would change. Not one. There is nothing about her soul or her spirit or her attitude or her sense of humor or her beliefs or her strengths that annoy me in the least. 
Even in the midst of all of this, she is cracking jokes and finding the humor in some very dark situations. 
She also inadvertently gave me some good advice about my yard. I was pointing out some of the invasive plants that are taking over. She actually went to school to study botany (as well as being a registered nurse) and she told me that she's just given up on her yard when it comes to yanking invasive plants. She just weed-eats them, hoping that eventually they'll die. She said she'd tried the layers of cardboard and mulch and that didn't work. 
I asked Mr. Moon this afternoon if I could possibly use his weed-eater. He said I could. I may have to get one of my own though. 

Here's a little part of the yard that had aloe in it when we moved here. 


Didn't know that aloe could become invasive, did you? I certainly did not. And it is prickly as hell and will rip bloody holes into my old thin skin. And all those little white flowers are on the dewberry vines which are a sort of berry not unlike a blackberry, but smaller, and grow on those trailing vines, rather than more upright ones. They, too, are prickly. There is also a Chinese rice plant in the back, and the purple version of the spiderwort thrives in that little piece of hell too. 
I do not think I could weed-eat that bed. 
I am thinking that a small charge of dynamite could possibly do the trick. 
Probably not. 

In more yard news, Mr. Moon and I seem to be having a sort of stand-off about who will pick up the millions of small branches and sticks in the backyard where the Bradford pears were taken out. Neither of us has so much as begun that chore. There's just so much more to do! But today I took the yard cart out and made a small beginning. 

I also looked for bamboo sprouts coming up to kick but did not see any yet. For those of you who do not know what that means, the kicking of the bamboo is not a euphemism. We have a great deal of bamboo in parts of our yard and every spring, runners send up shoots of it and if you are quick, you can kick those shoots over, breaking them from the root and they will quit growing in that one place. If you do not do this, you will soon be living in a bamboo jungle and will need a machete to get from one part of the yard to another. 

Florida just wants to kill us. That's all there is to it. It's not unlike voluntarily living with Maurice to stay here. We must love it for some reason. 


Are you going to watch the State of the Union Address tonight? I am. I feel as if our very democracy depends on how Joe does. 
Oh, please let his many, many years of making speeches help him to get this right. 
Please. 

Love...Ms. Moon





41 comments:

  1. There’s nothing stupid about knowing and respecting yourself. Sounds quite smart if you ask me! I am in love with your house and your greenery... and the porch and the rockers and... Our aloe vera which is enormous is kept under control because it’s in two long planters. I can see how easily it would take over a garden. And it attacks me every time I water or thin it out. I also love Maurice. Keep listening to yourself. Stop calling yourself “stupid” from your “stupid” friend in Spain.

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    1. Thank you, Mitchell. You really are a sweet man.

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  2. Yes,, Go Joe! As far as the weed whacker advice? Go decimate the crap out of those invasive weeds/plants. My only complaint is our whacker is fired up by dragging a long freaking cord all over the place. But I've been told the gasoline powered ones allow more movement but are heavy as hell. I'm old and my shoulders cannot take that shit. Maybe a battery power weed whacker? Dunno. Looking for advice here.

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    1. If you weed whack the Aloe you will have to be sure to pick up EVERY SINGLE teeny tiny bit or it WILL set down roots and grow. Also you still need to dig out the roots after you destroy the leaves.

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    2. Glen has an electric weed-whacker. I feel certain I would cut the cord in two. And River- I wouldn't even think of trying to deal with the aloe like that! I'm going to have to dig.

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  3. I am definitely going to watch the SOTU this evening! I have heard that the MAGAts will be their usual mentally deficient selves!

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    1. The Republicans seemed to control themselves pretty well except for a few notable exceptions.

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  4. Yes for the Liz visit! Sorry to hear what she is going through..... and yes for happy porch plants back in their environs. No, I will not watch the SOTU tonight....but will read about it tomorrow. I just...can...not....deal. Too much. and yes, Aloe can become invasive.....as it is here!
    Susan M

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    1. The speech was well worth watching. It made me feel much better.

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  5. I’m another who cannot deal with tonight’s address. All the cheering and/or jeering after every four or five words drives me mad. I’ll read the commentary online. Margaret

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    1. There wasn't so much cheering but yes- the weird ritual of standing and cheering every few seconds gets really old.

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  6. I'm busy in a Pod tonight on a different subject, but planning to pick up scraps of the sotu. I can't tolerate those folks who will heckle, so I'll avoid them.
    My garden catalogs are arriving and I kept thinking of you Mary, when I saw items like bigger, stronger growing crocosmia!! As if. A lot of plants we have to tend with care in this climate would call for a machete in yours.

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    1. Not that many hecklers. Just the usual expected asshats. (Pun intended.)
      Oh god! Can you imagine if I had BIGGER, STRONGER CROCOSMIA?
      What a nightmare.

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  7. A visit from a friend and a good chat over a meal can be balm for the soul, and certainly seems to have been today. My brother-in-law was the epitome weed wacker. If a patch of ground annoyed him, he did not re-cultivate it, he wacked it. Thirty five years of it, and stuff just kept growing. Neither side won.

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    1. Because he never dug out the roots?

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    2. That's rather depressing, Joanne. But I know you're right. No one wins until I die and then the plants get it all!

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  8. Although you have often shared your anxieties in this blog, I note that you have made deep connections with quite a few people - including Liz Sparks. How lovely to sit on those porch rocking chairs and chew the fat with someone whose friendship you cherish. Now get back out there and pick up those sticks. After all, you are closer to the ground than The Moon Man is.

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    1. I don't do casual friendships very well at all. I guess I used to but these days, it's my true-love friends. I don't have many but the ones I have mean everything to me.
      Why should I pick up the sticks? Yes, I'm closer to the ground but do you have any idea how long that man's arms are? (I picked up more today.)

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  9. Your porch looks very comforting and sitting among all the plants with Liz for a chat and a meal sounds ideal. I love my spacious yard and work like you and Glen do to maintain it well. To keep invasive plants under control, I use my John Deere riding lawn mower to mow around them or mow over them if I am looking to reduce or eliminate them entirely. Consistent mowing stops growth and is easier than digging them up. Be very careful with the weed eliminators. Round-up in particular has been found to cause cancer.

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    1. I don't use poisons to get rid of unwanted plants. Nope. Not me.
      Are your invasive plants that you mow in a lawn situation? I have no lawn to speak of, just different areas where things grow.

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  10. I love your porch. It's the kind of porch I'd want to have, if I had a porch. Of course nothing survives here outside in the winter, so why have a porch?

    Your poor friend. It's not easy. I took care of both my parents as they aged and got sick and then died. My siblings were not much help sadly.

    Good luck with your invasives. It would seem that Florida is trying to take back the land:)

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    1. But a porch would be nice in spring and summer, wouldn't it? I suppose it would not get a lot of use.
      Liz has a brother and he does help some but right now he's in the Grand Canyon. Can't help much from there.
      Well, Florida does want to take back the land but it's these damn plants that humans have introduced that are the main problem.

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  11. I knew Aloe was/is invasive, it's like so many of the "hen and chickens" type pants that set babies around the bases. We have some out front here and the biggest aloe was hanging over the footpath for years and finally one neighbour tried cutting it back with just the tiniest little knife, so I took my biggest cleaver and elbow length rose pruning gloves and helped her. That cleaver slid through the stems like they were butter. I could probably take out the entire plant, even the whole bed, just by hacking it all off and then digging up the roots, but I'm not going to. The footpath is clear now and that's all we need.
    Keep kicking the bamboo though.
    I'm glad you had a lovely visit with Liz and hope she gets her parents sorted without too much more trouble.

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    1. I'd be perfectly happy never to see another aloe plant that wasn't in a pot again in my life. Good job on getting that aloe that was hanging over the footpath.
      Yes. Bamboo kicking is an eternal job.
      Liz's parents are not going to be sorted out easily or quickly. It's just going to get worse from here, I think.

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  12. I had no intention of watching Joe tonight, but I did and I must say he delivered grandly! MTG in her maga hat getting spanked by Joe Daddy rather tickled me.
    God the repugants are repugnant!
    I love your home by the way. Charming and wonderful especially because you are in it but really wow, so lovely!
    The chill up here in the PNW is trying to kill me. Death by garden or death by chill- tough call....

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    1. Linda Sue- I agree with you. Even Glen stayed awake through the whole thing which is huge. You are so right about the repugnants. I believe that some of them (you know who) are literally simple-minded.
      I think you would like my house. It wanders and turns and goes from here to there to here again. Perfect for children playing games.
      Death is death. But yes, I guess at some point we have to make a choice about how it's likely to happen.

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  13. I am so in Love with the look and character of your lovely Historic Home! I miss mine and often Wish I had not been in a position to have to Sell it... I still kind of pretend it's still ours. The Home we're in is great and built in 1980 and was Custom, so it's lovely, but, there's just something about a Historic Home that appeals to me strongly and here in the Metro Phoenix area there are so few left and all are unaffordable now. Your Porch looks like a lovely place to Entertain a Visitor. So sorry your Friend is going thru the Trials of Aging Parents needing a transition... been there and done that... now that I'm Old myself I do understand the resistance my Parents put up, even with the best of intentions it's hard for everyone. Accepting one's limitations of Aging and losing some independence, or all of it, is terrifying. Weed whacking some invasive things is a good idea for those you can. I think Florida being Tropical has something to do with how lush everything easily grows there, a Blessing and somewhat of a curse if you don't want it thriving and getting out of control. I always liked Cuban Interiors of their Older Buildings, a very Rich Culture and yet, yes, a Poor Country with a lot of lack and Generations of oppression.

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    1. I'm sorry you had to sell your beloved old house. They are special, aren't they?
      Aging parents are a very difficult thing to deal with. You're right- the pain of losing ability and independence is horrendous to watch and to experience.
      You are right about Florida. Our part of it is not what you'd really call tropical but it is verdant, for sure.

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  14. Get those little grand-kids of yours out and pay them .10 a stick (or whatever inflation makes that) to clean up the pear branches.

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    1. I think I'd have to pay them by the cart-load. I've thought about that, Susan. I may do it yet.

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  15. Years ago I had a friend in NY who had a large potted bamboo in his apt. He was from Florida and joked that he had spent his childhood cutting bamboo from the family yard and here he was nurturing one in his home.

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  16. I think you should hire a yard service to clear out those areas that are overgrown with invasives. Also, I agree with Susan - get some grandkids to pick up the sticks. It will be a fun challenge for them and you can pay them if you want.
    Nice to have a quiet time to visit with Liz. I am sure it was helpful to both of you.

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    1. Yep. I think I'm going to have to end up paying somebody. Probably grandkids AND professionals.

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  17. I love your front porch. I love your old house and I've never even been there. I had a pot of those very thorny aloes and when it bloomed it was really nice but the first arctic vortex killed them and I can't say I'm sorry. we bought the lightest weight Stihl gas trimmer finally since those electric ones are a piece of shit and the last one I bought started malfunctioning just a few weeks after I bought it. the gas one is around 9 pounds which I can handle easily and I can even start it myself though it does take a few tries.

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    1. I would be so happy if my aloes all died. Each and every molecule of aloe.
      I might have to get my own trimmer, Ellen. Glen's is electric and I know damn well I'd end up cutting through the cord.

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  18. It must be great to have your front hallway back! I know what you mean about the annual shifting of the plants -- bringing them in is a nice change, but so is getting them out again. Plants WANT to be outside.

    I would think weed-eating that aloe vera bed would be a very messy proposition.

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    1. Some changes are hard and some are quite pleasant! Plants do want to be outside. I have certainly seen some beautiful indoor plants though. Ones that get lots and lots of light do well enough, I guess.
      Yeah. I can't even imagine trying to weed-whack aloes. Aloe gel would be flying everywhere!

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  19. Joe did ok! Your yard is a kingdom. I love thinking of you rocking on your porch and imagining myself in the chair next to you! My heart goes out to Liz. That elder parent journey can be mind bending and heart wrenching. I hope she manages to get them the help they might not know they need.

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Tell me, sweeties. Tell me what you think.