Tag: gardening

Feeling Better About Life

  • Spring

It’s SPRING!!! Halleluiah. I always feel happier when nature starts greening things up, and flowers start popping out. I’ve been doing some planting. After the coffin flower bed had the bottom collapse, last year, it has been redone. I’ve planted herbs and a few other things in it. I’m liking the looks of it. I’ve also planted flowers in several pots. Dick cleaned out a big, overgrown, dying vine from the patio. We’re trying out ideas for that corner. I always get excited in the Spring, and plant things. Then it gets incredibly hot, in the summer, and I fizzle out. I think we may have lost a couple of things during the Snowmageddon. We’ve already dug up my rosemary bush. Not sure if the Banana Plant survived. We’re playing a waiting game.

My new herb garden, in my coffin planter.

Yes, I still need to weed some, but I like this pot of flowers. Can’t wait until they fill out.

Great news is that we’ve had both of our covid vaccines. That’s a relief and makes me feel safer. We actually went over to our friends’ house, the other night, for dessert and visiting. I hadn’t seen them in so long! That was after we joined them at a restaurant, sitting on the patio. Yes, we’re still using our masks, doing social distancing, and being very selective about where we’re going. Ummm…yes…we did go to Winstar. I won a lot of money but gave it back to the local schools and economy.

We have our vaccines! But we’re still being safe and responsible.

It’s about time to get our Poker groups back up and going. We are all seniors, and have all had our two vaccines. In April, we’ll start back. Maybe Bunco will be next.

Our son, Chris, recently had surgery for Colon Cancer. He’s only 41. Luckily, they got it all, and it hadn’t spread to the Lymph Nodes. He’s still dealing with a stent in his kidneys and some kidney stones, but he seems to be getting better. We thank all of our family and friends for their prayers.

I had the privilege of taking care of my two grandkids, during the surgery time. I stayed with them for two weeks, had a weekend off, and then picked them up and brought them to our house for Spring Break. They had a chance to play with their other cousin, while at our house. We had Nana School, went to a park, and they are masters of Minecraft. It’s actually hard to get them off of electronics. Electronics were my leverage for getting them to brush teeth and go to bed. I felt fortunate to beat my 8 yr. old grandson at Chess. And he’s a beginner.

Big news! We are about to come to the finish line with our bedroom. Yeah! We still need to buy a new bed. We’ve gone from a gold wall to a grey wall. So much calmer and serene. But….you’ll have to wait. Hope to have the big reveal in my next post.

Leave me a comment and let me know how you are enjoying your Spring time. Are you planting things? Have you had both of your vaccines? Are you going out more?

Happy Easter,

Grandma Sherry

My Hubby Built Me A Coffin!

Has your hubby built YOU a coffin? Have a vision of your future.

What?? Yes, it’s true. This past month, my hubby built me a coffin. I am a woman who likes to plan ahead and I’ve had this vision for some time. I’ll tell you more, later in the post. But here’s a picture of his project.

Sister Cities of Fort Worth has a wonderful array of programs for youth and adults. We’ve hosted people from many different countries. This past month, we hosted two young female librarians from Kazakhstan. They were visiting , with four other young gals, to learn about our library systems. They connected through Open World program, that asked our Sister Cities to host them and provide lots of opportunities for them. We SO enjoyed our two gals! We got to know the other two host families, and the other four gals. I feel lucky that my hubby likes to host people and learn about new cultures. Here is a picture of the six gals. Not your typical stereotype of Old Maid Librarians!

Liam and Libby, our two oldest grandkids, moved with their parents to Buda,TX….a suburb around Austin. Since the kids are out of school for the summer, and really haven’t met many people yet, they have been enjoying some time with grandparents. We had them for a few days in June, and we’ll have them again next week. We need to take advantage of this time….their school starts in Mid August. Two weekends ago, we went to Liam’s 7th birthday party. Love that boy with the freckles and missing tooth! He had a Minecraft cake and theme.

So….getting back to my new coffin. I’ve been telling my family that I wanted a raised bed to plant flowers in. For Mother’s Day, Dick and Nathan decided to find some plans and alter to their specifications, a big planter. Wow. It looked just like a coffin! LOL It is now in place, in my backyard, and filled with flowers. I’ll have to see how this all plays out. Some are perennials, and some are annuals. The only problem is that when the sprinklers go off, they don’t spray up into the planter.

My yard was looking pretty good. The weeds are growing and I need to do some weeding. But overall, it looks better. THEN …two nights ago, we had a big wind storm and a bit of rain. We were out of town for the storm. When we woke up the next morning, I looked in the backyard. Our Chinese Pistache tree , which had been leaning for some time, had blown over! Oh no! My hubby is gradually getting it cut up. We need to think about getting a new tree, and where to plant it.

How is your summer going? Are you travelling? Doing any vacations or staycations? Are you working? Playing? Let me know in the comment section below, or to the side of the post. If you enjoyed this post, please press the LIKE button below. I have a lot of people give me comments and a LIKE on my Facebook sight, but not on here. Give me some feedback on here, please.

Happy Summer,

Grandma Sherry

The Spring Gardening Update

 

 

It’s time for a garden update.  So when do I really, really want to get out and work on my garden????  When it’s a cold, rainy day, and I’m stuck in the house.  We’ve had two of those days this past week, and now it’s sunny and 83 degrees.  I didn’t want to get out today, because I had other things to do.  Truthfully….I’m a major procrastinator!

Yesterday, I did some “invisible gardening”.  What???   Yes, I trimmed a little here and there, pulled a big of grass, and planted about a dozen bulbs.  No one can tell that I did that, of course, so that’s what I call “invisible gardening”.  Hopefully, it will all show up later, in a month or so.

I think the front flower beds are looking better.  A few things are starting to bloom.  I still need to put some more color in them, but my yellow lantanas are looking good, and my stella d’oros also look good.  I can’t wait for my elephant ears to come up!

The back yard is a different kettle of fish.  I’ve had some plants, from the nursery, sitting on my patio for quite awhile.  They are ready to plant.  The ground is not ready.  I need to get it all prepared.  I have a Secret Garden in the back corner of the yard.  Most of these plants will go there.  I’ve filled flower pots on the patio.  One of the wisterias is starting to really fill out.  The other one died over the winter.  We thought it might be cursed, but then we found out that the lower vine had been cut.  Duh!

 

The saddest part of our back yard is our photinias.  We planted 12 of these when we moved in, about 15 years ago.  They’ve grown like trees and shaded the whole back yard.  They’ve provided some privacy.  Everyone has always liked the lush feel of our backyard.

The photinias have all died this year.  They have some kind of fungus.  We have someone coming, in another week, to cut them down to the ground. They’ll haul them away.  My whole garden sunlight will change.  It’s sad, but I’m kind of excited to plant some new flowering shrubs, and have more sunlight to grow things.  Hope they don’t have to tear our my rose bush to get to the photinias.

Stay tuned for the next update on the garden.

We will be having a photinia memorial service  at the end of next week.

About Grandma Ruddell

Minion Grandma

Grandma Ruddell….aka Sherry Ruddell, lives in Ft. Worth, TX.  She loves to play with her Grandkids and do craft projects with them.  Grandma loves to cook and create new recipes, do gardening, travel, organize and redo her house, and TRY to exercise.  She’s hoping that she will exercise more, since she is walking her new dog, Bill.  Grandma tries to find moments of joy in her everyday life.