Never leaving

I have a cranky reputation to maintain. Sometimes that's hard in the face of good neighbors. 

Even if they get enough people to sign the petition to run me out of the neighborhood, I'm not leaving because of people like this. I have a friend, N, who has been diagnosed with cancer. It's debilitating for her, and her yard, which she has nurtured for decades, is a bit out of control right now since she's bedridden. Enter L, who noticed the issue and volunteered to do some mowing, cutting back plants that have overgrown the sidewalk, and generally do some weed abatement just to keep it from getting out of hand. And here's the clincher. L doesn't even live on N's street. She noticed it while walking her dog. 

Now, I know what you're thinking. If I'm N's friend, and L doesn't even really know N that well, why have I not jumped to the task? L must be a young person who's eager to show the world that Gen Z or whatever is very willing to work in spite of all the press to the contrary. 

First, I can't keep up with my own yard given the afflictions of old age joints. Every day that I do a bit of weeding, trimming, or other cleanup activities, my joints scream in protest. Adding any other physically challenging chores to my already too long to do list is not feasible (other than occasional dog sitting).

Second, contrary to expectation, L is retired as well. She mentioned her back was complaining rather loudly after only a half hour of work, but she was still willing to help out any way she could. Now THAT'S a great human being. 

So again, this witch ain't leaving.

Pandemics and projects

I would be remiss in not mentioning the pandemic we're currently experiencing and everyone is trying to navigate in various ways. I am one of the fortunate ones who no longer have to rely on a workplace to do the right thing. I also have amazing neighbors who check on me frequently and one in particular who calls me any time she's in a store to ask me if we need anything. She has even braved Costco for us on a couple of occasions. And while the news keeps saying things are going to be opening in a measured way, my cranky self is very skeptical that things will be returning to any semblance of normal anytime soon.

With that in mind, I did do a couple of marathon sessions to make masks for us in view of the number of people who just plow through us when we're walking the big handsome Kuma fur-baby, or run up on us as we're trying to tame the overgrown weeds, bushes and jade plants along the foot path. We've even been to pharmacies and grocery stores where employees wore no protective gear whatsoever (that was before the decree that they are now required to). The masks aren't pretty in all their crumpled glory, but they are better than nothing. The problem is I'm running out of elastic and I realized I need to tweak the design a bit. I've wasted elastic by running it through a channel. I plan to take the elastic, cut it in half, and sew it on to the mask. While I do know how to sew, I'm really not that fond of doing it.

On a much brighter note, one of my gardening experiments took off amazingly this year. I took a few starts of this amazing ground cover (with permission of course) and stuck them in a pot about 2 years ago. I expected them to maybe fill the pot if I were lucky. Well, let's just say -- expectations were exceeded!

And my critter station is getting a real workout. If I were a hummingbird, dove, pigeon, crow, blue jay, and squirrel restaurateur, I'd be a bazillionaire by now. Of course, the second I walk around to the side to check on them, they scatter, but I did manage to get a fuzzy shot of a lone dove who refused to leave the seed pot. With everything blooming so beautifully, it's a cheery sight.