It can't be May!

I looked at my calendar today and about freaked out when I realized it's May! Didn't the school year just begin? Well, no...that can't be, because we've already had Christmas. And I guess we've had Easter and the first day of Spring.

Hmmmmm...maybe I'm just not paying enough attention. I knew my memory wasn't very good anymore, but it just doesn't seem possible that it's May.

Today is not only May Day but it's the 26th anniversary of my mom's death. It's hard to believe she's been gone that long. It seems like just yesterday. I still miss her everyday.

The ironic thing is that my mom loved to celebrate May Day. She would have us kids make little pointy, ice cream cone-like baskets out of construction paper and scotch tape and use pipe cleaners poked thru either side of the little basket, as handles. Then we'd fill them with flowers we'd picked from the yard or ravine behind our house...mostly violets and dandelions...we'd sneak to our neighbors and hang them on their door knobs. We'd ring the bell or knock and run like bunnies so we wouldn't be caught. If possible we'd hide in the bushes or around a corner and watch for the unsuspecting neighbor to open their door and find our little homemade gift. We had a neighbor on one side named Jean and one on the other side named Joan. They were the ones I remember giving our little surprises to.

Anyway, May Day is both a happy and a sad memory of my mother.

Retirement is lurking on my horizon. Or at least I think it is. I'm so indecisive about it. I am really leaning toward it tho. Work is getting stressful and I have so many reasons to retire. I have a couple people trying to talk me into it and I'm liking the idea more and more. I'm not worried much about boredom because I have a bazillion hobbies and will probably take on a few more, if and when. No firm decisions yet, but I'll keep you posted.

For now the pros are way outweighing the cons.

The garden is coming along very well. I made it my goal to think outside the box this year and so far, I'm doing pretty well at it. Most rose growers, in the know, believe it's really bad to have rock or brick mulch around your roses. I'm not buying it! If Andy can get it all done, we're bricking all around our roses in each of our garden beds. Inside the fenced in area this year and outside the fence next year. What he's got done so far looks amazingly good and he's having a ball being "one with the dirt". Thinking outside the box, in this case, means laying the bricks and to hell with convention, where rose growing is concerned. Hard mulch is supposed to be bad for the roses, as it compacts the dirt too much. Well we're leaving a little open space, probably 16-18" square, more or less, around each rose, so the ground right around each rose won't be compacted. We'll mulch those little areas with bark mulch with landscape cloth under it.

Anyway, I'm not too worried because I have a super-abundance of earthworms that will work at keeping the dirt UN-compacted and mellow.

We have to do something to keep the weeds down in our yard! It's so hard to deal with them as the summer heat gets worse and worse. And of course the heat and any rain we get just makes them spread and grow more.

I have to admit that I've been very a very neglectful gardener the past couple years, for various reasons. No excuses, just fact. Nutgrass is very unforgiving and grows under the worse and most simple conditions. And it comes back. Over and over again. In fact, even bricking the beds probably won't totally get rid of it. But it's gotta help some. Hopefully.

Andy and I are trying to make up for the past two years and hopefully our yard and gardens will look better than it has for a while.

We're working on it.

Well, that's my little update for now. I hope all is well in your world and that times are good for you.

P.S. I'm working on some BEFORE and AFTER pix of the garden beds. I'll be posting them as we get done with the beds.