Taking Care Of Business

The star hibiscus has another bloom and I worship at its feet. 
I mean, you know- metaphorically. There are some things that are simply so stunning and so lovely that it's impossible to ever truly take them for granted. This flower is one of them. 
Another pragmatic miracle as I like to call these things. 

I've had such a great day. When I woke up I told Mr. Moon that I was going to make a list of things I wanted to do today, simply for the pleasure of crossing them all off as I did them. 
"Just for fun," I said. 
Somehow I knew that today was going to be productive. I think this feeling is part of my sudden and unexplainable good attitude. 
Of course, this being me, I do have a dark fear that having discovered this weird feeling of happiness, I will soon be diagnosed with a terminal illness and I'll feel even worse than I would have because I JUST STARTED BEING HAPPY! 
So unfair. 
Well, that could happen. 
Meanwhile, I did make my list and I did check off everything on it. 

And honestly, I just like to make lists with a fountain pen. 

So yes, I cleared and cleaned off my back porch table where I live and washed the tablecloth and towels and other laundry. I put a clean tablecloth back on the table and threw away a bunch of clutter that had been taking up space. I also got rid of a bunch of spiderwebs under the table. For some reason this year, we have a lot of very, very almost fluffy spider webs. I don't know how else to describe them. They are nothing like the webs the golden orb weavers make. I haven't even seen the spiders. They're almost invisible and they seem to like to live under tables and chairs and the webs feel mysterious and annoying when you brush up against them with a leg or a foot. So I made a concerted effort there and swept under the table and around it. 

I took the trash to the trash place, I stopped at the post office, and I took all of the paper and cardboard that we stash in the pantry out to the burn pile. I had thought that Mr. Moon and I had an agreement wherein I would deal with the household trash and he would deal with the burn pile stuff. 
I seem to have thought wrong. 
At our age we appear to have what I might call "selective memory" issues. He has no problems dealing with all of these legal issues that Tom left behind but when it comes to remembering that he's supposed to take out the paper and cardboard, he simply cannot. 
Ah well. Not a big deal. 
I poured clog destroying chemicals down my shower drain because it has become more than a puddle in there when I shower. It's like a shallow pool for my feet. Every night when I take my shower I vow to remember to do that the next day and it's been about a week now that I've forgotten every day until I get in the shower the next night. And you can't just pour that shit in and leave it. You have to flush it with hot water after about fifteen minutes so that requires some attention. 
But things are flowing nicely in there again. 
And lastly but not leastly, I watered my front porch plants. Such an easy thing to do but I don't enjoy wrestling with the hose situation. 
Good Lord. That's not even worthy of being a first world problem. 

What I really wanted to do after checking all the things off my list was to do more clearing of the chenille plant and other invasives by the side of the house where I was working the other day. However, that area was in the sun by the time I got around to it so I decided to tackle the bed to the right of the driveway, aka dirt entrance to the property, which I spent so many hours working on last year to what was obviously no avail because this is what it looks like. 

The crocosmia is worse than ever but my determination is strong. As you can see, there are other weeds growing in there and I got out my shovel and dug some of the larger ones up and then got on my knees with my trowel to once again battle the roots and bulbs of the crocosmia. I was quite surprised and delighted to find that for some mysterious and unexplained reason, the dirt in there is now soft and so easy to pull roots from. Is this because of all the rain we've had or is it because of the work I did on it last year? 
Who knows? 
Not me. 
But I got this much done in just a few hours. 

It would have all been an absolute pleasure (you know how much I love to weed) if it hadn't been 95 degrees in the shade. I had sweat rolling off my face and everything I was wearing was soaked but I still managed to enjoy myself. I also discovered some crepe myrtle plants which had come up from the root system of the one I planted on the other side of the fence. I had no idea that crepe myrtles spread like this and guess what? This can result in dense thickets if left unattended, according to what I'm reading online. 
Oh great. Now the crepe myrtles are going to become invasive. 
Well, I need to keep an eye on them, obviously and I will try not to leave them unattended. 
And I also have this. 

It's hard to tell but that's a loblolly pine, also known by about ten other names including "southern pine." I've been watching it for over a year now. It is totally a volunteer, quite possibly planted there by a winged seed from a nearby adult. It was just a tiny sprig when I first sighted it and I have carefully weeded around it, mostly just to see what would happen. It's gone through drought and being choked by the crocosmia and yet, has survived and is growing. Yay, little pine! Keep on living! It's probably a little over a foot tall now. 

And that's the story of me today. Mr. Moon and Jim worked from 8:30 to 5:30 on Tom's stuff. A conference call with an attorney was involved as was more delving into the depths of some of the items in the many sheds and so forth on Tom's property which is hot, nasty work. 
Jim has hit the road home to St. Augustine after spending the week here. I am amazed at how both men are still managing to retain their sense of humor about the whole situation. You just have to. 

Here's a lamp Glen brought home, thinking I might like it. 

Cleaned, rewired, and with the shades replaced as several of them are broken, it might be worth keeping and as we all know, I need more lamps. 
It's heavy enough to be used in an Alfred Hitchcock type murder if one has the strength to heft and swing it at someone's head. I'm serious. It must weigh twenty pounds. At least.

Oh, Tom. 

Wild and invasive morning glories. 
At least they bloom. 

Love...Ms. Moon