The Weekend Review

I was so excited when I came home from the lake the

other day to see that my daisies are blooming.

Yeah, I spent last week at the lake. I worked myself nearly to death. I weeded the flower beds again. Y'all, I have an invasion of nutgrass. Do you know what that is? It's grass from the devil! Beelzebub, himself! You pull and pull and it just keeps coming back and sometimes, overnight! It's a constant battle, but I'm hoping to conquer that soon. I did a little research and ordered some nutgrass killer. It's called Sedgehammer. I'll let y'all know, if it works. Anyway, I planted more variegated liriope...I'm not even gonna call it border grass because I'm so ill about that other one.

I, also, made a wreath for the front door.

The grapevine and bow was left over from Emily's wedding.

Oh and I, also, planted a few more petunias around the fire pit.

This was before I put down the pine straw.

 

I wouldn't be able to keep these plants alive, if it wasn't for Cliff's tenacity in making the sprinkler system work like it's supposed to. So, flower planting is done and now it's time to get back to painting. It's kind of hard to get anything done quickly because we're only there a couple of weekends a month. But, I have no doubt that we will have everything to our liking by the end of the summer. Cross your fingers!
  
The critter situation has been raised to Defcon 3. It appears I've got all new critters to worry about. I haven't seen any more deer damage, since I put out the Irish Spring soap and hung the wind chimes in the Crepe Myrtle. But, I saw a rabbit sniffing around my purple verbena. I jumped up and ran to the door. I scared the bejeebies out of him and he ran off. I know he came back, though, because I saw the top of another flower chewed down to the ground. We have a plum tree and a peach tree, both loaded with fruit. I've been told the squirrels will eat both. And there are two squirrels, that I know of, hanging out in the yard. Oh and get this, Cliff told me the other day that he thought a surveyor had been looking for the property line, at the edge of the water, for the property adjoining ours. He saw some small trees and bushes chopped down. And then later, he saw a beaver swimming in the area and noticed that the trees that were cut down were consistent with a chewing beaver. At my home in Andrews, we are surrounded by woods and I have never had as much trouble there with critters as I have had at the lake.

Now having done yard work all week, I took it easy over the weekend. Saturday morning, I rode the bike, just kind of hung out and later, at midnight, Cliff and I went out in the boat. A moonlight ride. He put a lounge chair cushion in the bottom of the boat for me, in case I wanted to sleep. I took advantage of that and dosed off, once. I jerked awake all of a sudden for fear that he had put the front of the boat in the bushes along the bank. That scares the freaking bejeebies out of me! I'm afraid a snake will be on a limb right over the top of the boat. That has happened before. I liked to have walked on water, when it did. Lord have mercy, that was the biggest, fattest snake I had ever seen, too. Anyway, we were not in the bushes, but out in the middle of the lake and it was beautiful. It was dark, the moon was about three quarters full and you could see every star in the sky. We saw many lightening bugs.....more than I have seen since I was a child and played outdoors at dusk. A bat buzzed us. And, and those little beavers were busy and did not like us being near, either. They slapped their tails or something on the water several times trying to scare us away. All of this, and I didn't take a ding dong picture. Oh well! It was dark anyway!

Sunday, we drove to Travelers Rest to ride the bikes on the Swamp Rabbit Trail that runs along the Reedy River between Travelers Rest and Greenville. It's an old rail trail and is about 18 or 19 miles long. Cliff ran for a while and then joined me on the bike. Afterwards, we ate lunch at the Whistle Stop Café...just a few steps from the bike path. It was a great weekend!

Lidia and Sawyer didn't come to the lake this weekend, they had a Tai Kwon Do test for their Red belt. Passed it! I think they only have two more colors before becoming Junior Black belts! Whoop! And then Friday, they had their Awards program at school, at the same time, in different buildings. So, Emily and Matt, his mama and daddy and I did the divide and conquer maneuver. Emily and Matt went to Lidia's awards program and Patty, Joel and I went to Sawyer's. I got a few pictures of Sawyer....I'll show you in a minute. But, Emily's camera wouldn't work, so we didn't get one of Lidia. Bummer! Sawyer received the perfect attendance award for the last nine weeks and he qualified for the S.O.A.R. program starting in third grade and going through fifth grade. It's their schools gifted and talented program. He's a smart boy! Lidia received the Honor Roll Award and a certificate for all A's. She is a smart girl! And if Lidia had attended this school in second grade, I have no doubt that she would have qualified for S.O.A.R., also. We are all so proud of these two. They are doing so great in school and with their extra curricular activities!

Sawyer, Second Grade Awards program.

 

Bless it, he's still sad that he won't see his second grade teacher, Ms. Gregorich, anymore. But, he got her email address and no doubt, will be in touch with her over the summer.

 

 

Ok now, I know you were wondering how many miles I rode the bike this week...so, here you go:

May 24......28.50 miles

May 26...........10 miles

May 28...........10 miles

May 30......10.02 miles

May 31......29.25 miles

 

After Sunday's ride, I have no doubt that I will be ready for this bike tour. My tush was only mildly uncomfortable and my legs said, "we can keep going!" Ha!

 

Til soon,

Laurie