Fireside chat... Part 4 Dreaming of spring...

Not a clear fire photo but maybe you can see the firedogs or maybe I should say fireowls. I love the way the flames make their eyes glow. Fire in the fireplace but please don't burn outdoors. Man, it is some dry and windy. A fire would get out of hand too quickly.

Lovely day yesterday! I got up with "kneesles" so I took some tylenol and spent the day working and made my back hurt instead so I didn't notice the knees. LOL Sitting here now with a heating pad on my knees. Grrrrr... I did manage to remove the rest of the dreaded honeysuckle and whacked back all (er make that most) of the Aspidistra. Glad to go back to work today and rest up. LOL

Linked from here... http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/940325/#new and going toward springtime.

Still airish and going down tonight so we will keep the homefires burning.

Glad you got that fire going this morning. On TV they are talking about how cold it will be for the inauguration. I would not want to be there even for a historical event such as that. When it gets cold I hibernate!
Well need to get some breakfast going. My DH is headed for surgery tomorrow so I need to make a good breakfast for him as he will be on hospital food for a few days.

Good morning, everyone!

What kind of surgery is your dh having, Sheila? We will be praying for him!

My thoughts and best wishes are with you both as he goes thru this surgery. I understand it is not the first one but will hope he will need no more and this be successful. What's for breakfast? LOL

Being at the inaugeration in the cold is like being at a baseball game in the 100° + days of summer. I'd rather observe from the comfort of my climate controlled home. Have a good one...

Got a Dr's appt this morning and hate going out in the cold. I have to get so bundled up that I really can't move. Gripe, gripe, gripe. Seems like that's all I do. I'm so happy to have all those pink roses and the perfect place to put them. I'm having Ricardo pull out the flowering sago with all it's seeds. Then I'll have him fill in the hole w/soil and compost and raise it somewhat (but time will make it sink slightly) and then stagger the roses in that area. It should be quite beautiful. The sago is leggy right now from the former owner's cutting off the lower fronds and then the seed laden flower is ugly - interesting but ugly - and it takes up a lot of room and comes out across a path in front of the bed so that those fronds left have been pruned back a bit. Also, it is just green and I get tired of plain green. I want color! I'm thinking that this year I'll have him plant coleus and/or pink and green caladiums just until the roses get bigger. The soil is so nicely acid.
Well, time to get ready to go see a Dr. - routine visit - and freeze my fanny.

Ann

Morning to all. It's another gorgeous day out this morning. I've walked the doggy, filled the bird feeders and am starting a late breakfast for myself. Y'all are all welcome to join me for some biscuits, homemade pear preserves and a pot of tea.
I just love this time of year. It's so nice to be outside and not be melting from the heat and humidity. I need to find something else to putter on outside. Hope y'all have a great day.

Crow

Yesterday it was so nice...I got to go outside and survey what was coming up where. I picked up some leaf litter and put it in the compost bin being careful not to uncover too much. Today it is a little colder, but is nice and sunny I went to Lowe's to check on a garden cart and I was surprised to see the spring/summer bulbs and bareroot perennials. I brought home a couple of things.

Marilyn & Pod...He is having his third/fourth back surgeries. I say that because he had two before and this time they will do two separate procedures; one from the side and another from the back. We will just be glad to get it behind us and the recovery over with. I have had two back surgeries also, so I don't want to do anymore! We want to start traveling and enjoy our retirement.
As for breakfast, we had pancakes, ham and eggs. We spent three & half hours at the hospital having pre-op work done. Seems the doctors office didn't get the paperwork to them and we had to wait until it was found and faxed over. Just at the moment when Pres. Obama was taking the oath, DH was getting a needle stuck in his arm for blood work by a very excited black technician. LOL! He took his time to watch it on TV with us. We all said we wouldn't forget where we were at that historical moment! It was a little cold here with the wind, but not anything compared to what those brave souls endured to be there in person.

Praying for both of you, Sheila. I fully understand the pain and anxiety. God bless you both.

Christi

I hope all goes well Sheila and Herman.
Josephine.

Crow ~ too bad I was already at work at breakfast time. I'd have brought some raw honey to go with my biscuits ~ yum!

Friscoflora ~ I noticed the same thing all the bulbs and root vegies have hit the shelves. I saw lots of asparagus and also some horseradish roots which surprised me. This is my first year with horseradish plants. I put them in a half oak barrel to contain the roots. I do love that stuff.

Sheila ~ prayers for a successful surgery tomorrow and a speedy recovery. May you both live long and see many travel destinations.

LOL ~ Ann on freezing your fanny... has it thawed out yet? 8 ) I feel the same way about the cold.

Thanks to you all. I am taking the laptop tomorrow but don't have a wi-fi card so unless the starbucks has a free one at the hosp, it won't help other than off line entertainment.
I will update later tomorrow for sure.

The best to you both. Having had 3 bouts of back/neck surgery I can empathize w/both of you. Know everything will go well and you can both get going having a fun retirement.

Ann

Sheila, we're all thinking of you today and wish your DH a speedy recovery.

Crow

It was 31º and sunny this morning with ice in the cats water bowl. I can here a dove outside making its little sound along with the sounds of other birds. Is Spring just around the corner?

Jerry

Will be 78 today, 79 Thurs., and 82 Friday!

It was 27° here this a.m. , 8° colder than forecasted. Thank goodness I had the heater on in the GH. I lined the inside of my GH with bubble wrap and it added 10° warmth to the temp. Before the heater would keep it 10° warmer than the outside temps on nights it was 32° or colder. Last night it kept it 20° warmer.

Tomorrow and Friday we are supposed to be in the 70's. Yea! Grandbaby and I go out in the yard and tend to the plants. She loves being outside. She is walking but has some difficulty going up and down the slopes. She's 11 months old.

There is a proven saying, when the pecan tree puts out leaf buds, there will be no more freezes. Anyone got pecan trees?

Sheila, I hope everything went well today. Let us know.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers everyone. It was a beautiful day out today, but I didn't get to be out in it other than running out for some breakfast after DH went into Pre-Op. I finally got to see him at 4:30 this afternoon in intensive care only because he had been out of surgery for over 4 hours and STILL DIDN'T have a room!!! He was doing great and in good spirits since he had pain meds. :-) I left and went home since I had been there since 8am. He finally called and told me what room he was in around 6pm. I will see him in the morning when I have had some sleep.

Our pecan trees have little "nibs"!!!! Can't wait!

Sheila, that is great news. I pray he will have a quick recovery.

Annette, your pecans have nibs? Well if they start to swell, there will be no more freezes. It always worked for us in OKla.

The East Texas RU has been scheduled for May 16th for those who want to come. It's in Jacksonville. So close to me. ^_^ Check Mibus2's post from this evening. I can hardly wait.

Don't trust the pecan trees!!!! They are easily fooled! You have to wait for the natives - cannot for the life of me remember the name of the trees - maybe mesquites (?) - to put out their green nibs and get to looking kind of green all over. The oaks here are greening up but they can take cold. Personally, I find that dates and stuff like that are relative and certainly not exact. Winter comes when the date is Dec. 21 (?) but winter comes when it gets cold and near freezing regardless of the date, etc. I just wish we could get some warm weather so that the only place I have to weat a coat is in HEB - the coldest store in TX.

Ann

According to my now deceased ancestors, the Mesquite tree is the last to leaf out heralding no more freeze. The pecan trees are just a tiny bit ahead. This folklore from several generations of farmers and dairy people. I still stick with an "Easter spell". Easter is fairly late this year, April 12th.

Christi Lou

I don't know if any of you ever read newspaper columnist Leon Hale, but he and a buddy had a spring ritual where they drove south every year to "meet and greet" spring. They new they found it when they saw mesquite trees budding. It feels like spring's here already. I can't believe it's mid January and I'll have to run the a/c for the next few days. I think us baby boomers hitting menopause are what's causing global warming! I'm single handedly added several degrees all by myself.

Crow

They didn't have mesquite trees in OK so the pecan tree was it and still is. Like I said, they never failed us or the farmers ahead of us. But I tend to agree, winter weather really has it's own time table.

As for Easter, we had snow the day before Easter in 2007 and that was April 18th I believe. It snowed for five hours in the middle of the day. Having just come from Florida I was a little flabberghasted that it would snow so late. Then I was reminded of my youth in Amarillo and how Texas weather has it's own time table too.

Crow, that is hilarious! But wait - when you get past that time and get to be "a little ol' lady in tennis shoes" like I am, you keep wishing that you had some of that heat 'cause you get so goshdarn cold in the winter.

Ann

I must be in between. I used to run cold, now I run warm. I've been perimenopausal for 10 years. Started going through it at age 37. Finished at age 44. I don't get hot flashes, never really did. I have noticed that I can tolerate the cold better though. I guess that will change too then someday huh?

I'm 67 and still having "flashes". Terrible now that my daughter (almost 46) is having flashes and crying all the time. Eve did us a bad, bad thing.

Well I am still a spring chicken at only 61. My flashes come and go hot and cold. I am never on the same page with anyone else. If everyone is cold, I'm hot and visa versa. My hot flashes don't come nearly as often as they did during menopause. They do still come and I think they probably will continue as long as I continue. What a curse we curse get with the hormone thing.
Charlene

Yes, and then they tell us that hormone therapy may not be good for us, what is a woman to do?
Josephine.

I've been "neutered" for for 10 years and I still have hot flashes that are terrible. I told my DH that I couldn't wait to be a little old lady who was cold all the time. Well, I'm a little old lady, in tennis shoes, and I'm never cool enough. DH told me it's now official that no place on earth is cold enough to suit me after we went to Antarctica last January and I was still too warm at night. And ladies, doesn't it just really tick you off whenever you're angry, somebody tells you to calm down, it's the hormones? You'd think we were all stark raving to hear it. Reminds me of a Cosby show episode where Claire was starting "mental pause". :)

I have to try one of those passion vines. I love them. I have tried several times to grow clematis here and haven't had much luck with that. Maybe these will do better. My favorite easy to grow vines are the Mexican Flame and Coral Vines. Butterflies love the flame vine. They are at it more than any other plant I have. I've been wanting to try the corkscrew vine. I love the colors on that. Do any of you grow that and is it pretty trouble free?

Crow

I didn't do hormonal replacement therapy. Just went through it. I was really blessed to have it so easy. My hubby might disagree, but I had very few hot flashes or melt downs. Kept waiting for them but....... Maybe that was my reward for such horrible cramps as a teen.

I planted my first passion vine last Nov. It is still green and can't wait to see it take off in the spring. I already had one clematis and bought three more. Then I also have mgs to plant. there will be vines everywhere. I wonder if I can swing from tree to tree. ^_^

I don't know that I've ever had "Hot Flashes", but then I'm a guy. (smile)

I do run hot and cold. Three years ago you couldn't get me off my motorcycle and now I hardly ever ride. Two years ago I was in to having a log style cabin built. And now that that project is put to rest (finished) I am into gardening like never before.

Here is a picture of my baby maters out taking a sun bath I took this morning.

Jerry

Here is a picture of the fence I took just a few minutes ago. It's coming right along.

Thank the Lord for good weather.

Jerry

It all looks great Jerry.
Josephine.

Someone please turn on the AC!! Spring has arrived for a few days and I'm feeling it in my sinuses!

Sheila~If you need anything, don't hesitate to let me know. I'm just over the freeway!!

I read an article once about trees blooming signaling the coming of spring. I sure wish I had saved it, because it was hilarious. It said something about some trees being stupid and blooming too early and the mesquite were the smart trees because their flowers never got frozen. It was written by some guy that wrote a weekly article for the paper and I think he was sindicated. Anybody ever read anything like that?

Ah Jerry, you haven't lived until you've experienced the joys of estrogen, or the lack there of. ^_^

Those fence posts are downright pretty. My hubby bought a bike last summer. His first in many years. He was a motor cop with the City of Tampa. He rides as much as the weather will allow. We almost had a log home but it got bought out from underneath us.

It wasn't quite warm enough for the AC today but tomorrow will be warmer. Then Sat our high is supposed to be 40° and stay cold until Tues. Up and down, up and down, oooooh.

nope but maybe it's the same guy that crow is talking about in a post above.

Very likely it is the same. Wish I had the article still.

I have been going through menapause (though I am not neutered) and used to have trouble keeping warm especially at night. I used to wear flannel nightgowns and sleep under blankets and a comforter. Now I wear a cotton nightshirt and sleep under a sheet and a woven cotton blanket and sometimes still get hot. Can't sleep next to DH either. He is like a radiant heater.

lol, I hear ya. I don't get close to hubby either. He and his dog put out too much heat. Me and my dog are moderate. We have a king sized bed and share it with two chihuahuas.