New Growth

You might think this picture was taken in the spring given the new buds on this branch.  In actuality it was taken this morning.  Two weeks ago I never dreamed we would see such life.  Two weeks ago we were raking up the leaves from this tree.  Not picking up, mind you.....raking up.  We had been watering just as we normally do in the summers, but it just wasn't enough.  This summer has just been....well.....record breaking!  My husband and I looked at each other, shook our heads, and said, "Well, we're either going to have to pay for more water, or pay for new landscaping.  We better decide which it will be."  We chose water.  It appears that we made the right decision. (We have, however, not recieved our newest water bill.)

I have been keeping a close eye on this one too.  For Mother's Day this year, Hubby bought me this lemon tree.  It is my baby.  As you can see, it has a lemon.  It looks more like a lime, I know, but it is a lemon.  At least that is what the tag said when we bought it.  The tree only has this one lemon.  When we bought it, it had several blossoms, but in it's shock from the transplant process to a new pot with better soil, all them dried up.  Sometimes a better environment is just not enough I guess. (I will leave you to think about that comment on your own.)

More cafeteria ecology.........  We receive, as I am confident that pretty much everyone does, lots of catalogs.  In the bleak days of winter it seems that the volume of catalogs increases.  I think it is a marketing ploy because we're all so tired of nothingness that having something new or dreaming of what we're going to plant in the spring is what keeps us slogging through the gray days.  It works!!  This past winter I started thinking about rain barrels.  We live in an area where we can have deluges, but then go without rain for weeks.  I kept watching for a good deal on a barrel as they are rather expensive and I knew my accountant husband would give me one of those looks.  You know, kinda sideways, one eyebrow up, no smile......yep...that look.  One day - Eureka!! I found one.  Fairly inexpensive and collapsible so that if he still had the look after it came, I could at least hide it.  To my surprise, he was actually okay with it, so I ordered it.  It did have to sit in the garage for a few weeks until it warmed up enough that I wanted to set it up.  The day finally came that I dug it out of the box and put it together. (It's collapsible remember.) It went together rather easy and I was really proud of myself until I got to the part in the directions that said, "Next, cut your downspout...."  Uh Ohhhhhhh.  I was pretty sure that was something I was going to need help with, and I certainly wasn't going to be able to hide it.   The rain barrel sat on the patio, unattached, for a few days.  I kept looking at it, but eventually I was going to have to talk to Hubby about it.  We reviewed the instructions together.  It really didn't look that hard, but taking a hack saw to your downspouts does require a little courage.  Onward and Upward.  It really was easy, and something we did without even grumbling at each other!

As luck would have it, it rained the next day.  We stood with our noses to the window watching to see if it would really work, and how high the water level would be.  It was incredible.  The rain barrel not only filled - it overflowed.  We only had an inch of rain or so, but we had 60 gallons of water in the rain barrel!  We now have two rain barrels.  The plants are loving the rain water vs. the chemically treated city water, and we are loving that we don't have to pay for water for our plants that are in pots.  That reminds me.....I need to go water!

Today's Gifts
- wet, cool grass on my bare feet in the early morning.
- sending Hubby off to the trenches with a kiss and then rolling over and sleeping in a little later than normal.
- the smell of clean sheets fresh from the drier.