Weekend

We had glorious weather during the weekend.  Nothing like a long winter to make you appreciate spring!

My Christmas cactus is having an existential crisis for reasons I don't understand, but I don't mind.

Friday night was a take it easy kind of night.  Both Miriam and Janelle were home sick on Friday (and that was a bit of a wild ride--I may or may not have stepped into a classroom and used my teacher voice when they were misbehaving for the sub).  

I had a sore throat (too much teacher voice?) and I did NOT want to get sick.  I canceled walking with Clarissa and had chicken noodle soup for dinner and just rested.

And it worked!

I slept over nine hours and was a new person on Saturday morning.  

Marianne gave me two prisms for my birthday.  I put one in the kitchen window at Pleasant Hill and one in my office.  It makes me happy every morning. (But I'm only here to enjoy it on Saturday and Sunday.)

I sorted through some of the stuff I got from my grandma.  I set up the clock I inherited.

It originally belonged to Tom and Mary, my great-great uncle and aunt.  Tom was my great-grandma Wood's brother.  Tom and Mary never had any children and my grandma loved to stay at their house when she was growing up.

She inherited the clock from them and it was in her living room.  Sleeping at my grandma's house, I could hear the clock at night and I loved it.

When I was in college, my grandma asked me what I wanted to inherit from her.  I was shocked by the question and said, "Nothing! I don't want to think about that."  

She kept asking me every time I visited.  I finally decided I wanted the clock.  I told her that I loved listening to it when I stayed with her.

She told me she had loved listening to it when she was a little girl and stayed with Uncle Tom and Aunt Mary.

Several years ago, the clock stopped working and she had it repaired so that it would be in tip top shape when I inherited it.  

It chimes every 15 minutes and I love it and think of my grandma every time.

I don't know how old it is but there are repair records inside of it from the 1930s.

Later in the morning, I tackled the front bed outside that was decimated by deer this winter.  There have been a few nibbles on the laurel leaves every winter and the deer definitely pass through our yard, but this winter, with all the snow on the mountain, our yard seemed to be their winter home.  Some of the bushes are completely squashed and trampled and the laurel was eaten--as in zero leaves--as high up as the deer could reach.  

Last summer, on Amazon Prime day, I had purchased an electric hedge trimmer.  Trimming bushes is hands down my favorite garden job.  I was intimidated to use the electric trimmer, but Adam showed me how.  I got a ladder to stand on to cut off the top of the laurel (I would have trimmed it more, but it needed those top leaves since there was nothing lower).

Adam said, "Does that seem like a good idea? The first time you use a power tool, you stand on a ladder?"

But I was no longer intimidated.

I did have to have Mark do the last bit because I couldn't reach across the bush.

So if you come over and our bushes are trimmed down to nothing, you can blame me.  That hedge trimmer is fun to use!

It was Spring Clean Up day in Pleasant Grove so Mark and Jack (across the street) took a load of stuff from both yards in Jack's truck.  We still had a bunch of limbs that had broken off our trees from snow.  We're getting all tidy around here and trying to recover our poor yard from the winter.

To top off a good day, I had one of my favorite all time dinners.  I had cucumbers and red peppers dipped in hummus, cheese and crackers (Cotswold cheese!) and blueberries.  Just give me fruit and cheese and vegetables and bread or crackers.  I could live on charcuterie boards alone!

Sunday after church we had Emma and Clarissa over for dinner.  We had burgers on the deck and it felt like summer.  After dinner we FaceTimed with Braeden and Anna and QE.  She got very excited when Adam was on the screen.  She is Grandpa's girl!  Clarissa took a picture of us and said we are cute grandparents.

I don't feel or look all that cute, but I appreciate her all the same.