Monday, April 10, 2017

Rest on Sunday

Sundays are for sleeping in, especially when one goes to sleep late on Saturday night and there are no early morning appointments to go to.  I woke up once at 9:00 a.m., when my alarm went off (I had planned to wake up then and do some house work), but, I went back to sleep and slept until my neighbor T called for our weekly Sunday morning chat!

After I woke up and had a cup of coffee, I removed the dust sheet (old bed sheets) from the second sofa in the family room, lint rollered the sofa to remove the cat fur that had got on it even with the dust sheet, and covered the sofa with a different sheet.  Then, I did a load of laundry and washed the old dust sheets and hung them up to dry.

Then, I strolled around the garden to admire the flowers and get some sunshine and fresh air:

Feijoa (Pineapple Guava) Flowers

All three feijoa trees are having flowers.  I learned that the flower petals are edible, but I haven't tried them, yet.  The birds love them, too.

This rose bloomed since I took pictures for the Garden in April post: 


Double-Colored Rose
I love the double colors and, apparently, the fly likes the rose, as well!  Do you see it on the edge of a petal?

 Later in the afternoon, I planted the calendula plants I had bought:


Calendula in the Front Flower Bed

I clustered 10 of the plants in this area, where the snapdragons and chrysanthemums had been planted, earlier (snails ate all the chrysanthemum plants!)


Another View of the Calendula

I planted the last two plants at the base of the mail box, where another chrysanthemum plant had been (before the snails ate it!):


Calendula and Dusty Miller

I don't know if snails will like calendula as much as they liked the chrysanthemums!  I try not to put down too many pesticides, but I might have to get some snail repellent!

These are the aeoniums my supervisor gave me which my gardener friend planted along the parkway for me on Friday:



Aeoniums

The landscaping leaves much to be desired, but for now, getting these planted was enough.

"Pretty Maids All in a Row"

Another picture of the bottle brush tree in the back yard:



Bottle Brush Tree

One of my cousins called in the afternoon and we had a nice chat.  Later in the evening, one of my aunts phoned.   And, of course, I video chatted with my daughter.  She went to the adjoining city to do her grocery shopping, today, as the store there was having a good sale.  She called me at least three times to ask if such and such price was a good price for London broil ($2.99/lb.) and pork loin ($1.99/lb), and frozen salmon ($5.00/lb).   I checked with my grocery ads for this week and told her those were all comparable prices to what's on sale here (generally, the grocery prices tend to be higher where she is).  She said she stocked up on a lot of meat and other items, in part to take advantage of the sale prices and, in part to make her trip there worth while!  Poor thing, she's having a scratchy throat she said.  She drank some hot tea with honey and took some vitamin C, she said.  I hope she doesn't come down with a cold and cough.  I told her to stay home from work tomorrow, or work from home; she said she'll see how she feels in the morning.  She mentioned something about a phone call she had to make or be in-on, so, I've a feeling she'll go to work.

Today, I am grateful for:
- Being able to sleep in
- Phone calls with family and friends
- Chatting with my daughter
- Spending time in the garden
- Listening to old songs from my childhood.

Monday's To Do List:
- Dr.'s appointment
- Coffee in the afternoon with my neighbor T
- Do the dishes/run the dishwasher
- Another load of laundry
- Empty the waste baskets/kitchen trash
- Take out the recycling
- Take the trash cans to the curb
- 30 mins. of house cleaning/tidying

Well, I'm off to do the litter box and get ready for bed. 

How was your Sunday?  I know some of you observed Palm Sunday, today.  However you observed the day, I hope it was a day of peace and rest.
  

18 comments:

  1. The Double-coloured rose is just beautiful. Is it scented?
    I hope your Doctor's appointment goes well for you. X

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    1. Yes, it is scented, Jules. I think it's called "Double Delight".

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  2. Sounds like a lovely lazy start to the day. Your garden is really beautiful and colourful. It must be such a relaxing place to be.

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    1. Thank you, Sharon. Yes, it was a very lazy start to the day! I am trying to focus on the existing beauty in the garden, instead of comparing it to how it used to be and lamenting. Once upon a time, I used to have almost 100 rose bushes! They grew all along the back wall and side wall and in those now-almost-empty circular beds in the middle of the back yard. At this time of the year, the garden would be full of roses. I neglected to care for them properly during the drought and especially this past year and a half when I wasn't feeling well and was told not to garden. Now I have maybe a dozen rose bushes left. They are the hardy ones that survived the drought, neglect, and rose borers. But a garden is an ever-evolving place, isn't it? As I get stronger, I'll be able to do more. That's what I keep telling myself. In the meantime, I will appreciate what I do have. :)

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  3. I was going to say that the feijoa flowers are my favorite but I so love that double-colored rose... now I wouldn't know which one to pick! Stunning, both of them. And then you get guava too, lucky you!

    I'm glad you got to sleep in (I did too!) and then relaxed. I hope your daughter feels better today.

    My weekend was lovely, the right balance of activity and rest, and the weather was the best! Now it's going to get hotter :(

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    1. Glad you had a lovely weekend, Nathalie. I read about it a little bit, last night, but didn't finish. I identified that tree with the white flowers and purple pistils for you, though - it's a Chinaberry (Melia azedarach). Very easily grown from seeds, as I have found - my neighbor at the back has 2 trees that drop the leaves and the fruit into my backyard and I am forever pulling out the unwanted seedlings!

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  4. All of your flowers are so pretty, especially the double colored rose.

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    1. Thank you, Live and Learn. If I ever buy more rose plants, I will get more of those because I, too, like the double colors.

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  5. I like your "Pretty Maids All in a Row" planted in your parkway. Glad you had such a pleasant day.

    Palm Sunday, the start of Holy Week. As we entered church we walked on branches of palms and after the service we were given a palm to take home with us. Services on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Yes a day of peace.

    Sandy

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    1. Thank you, Sandy. I hope you have a lovely Holy Week, filled with quiet contemplation, joy, and the love of family and friends.

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  6. Everything looks so nice! The succulents are so pretty too. The flower beds I have that I'm not quite ready to plant in are filled with mulch. I find that even without the color plants would provide, having the dark mulch in the beds gives them a more "finished" look. Learned that trick a few weeks ago when I created two new planting areas. So happy Spring is here!

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    1. Thank you, Carolyn. Yes, I need to weed first and then mulch all the beds before it gets too hot. Just need to get myself to the store to buy it, or ask my gardener to pick up some for me.

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    2. Please don't pick up those mulch bags yourself ... they are super heavy. You don't want to risk an injury. I wish they offered them packaged in smaller bags for wimps like me with no upper body strength. :)

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    3. I won't, Carolyn. There used to be a time when I could and did lift those bags myself, but I won't try to, now. If I shop for them on Friday and can get someone to load them in the car for me, then, I can leave them in the trunk of my car until my gardener comes to do the garden and he can unload them for me. I'll see how that works. If not, I'll give him the money to buy some for me.

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  7. I still have two blessed palms that I brought home from church and I put the ends in water as I didn't have time to make crosses with them yet. Monday seemed to go by quickly. I made a trip to return an adaptor for a bottle washer that needs to fit on my faucet.
    Bushlady

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    1. My neighbor had a small stand in front of his house over the weekend and was selling palm fronds that had been fashioned into several fancy shapes, other than the cross I am familiar with! Mondays always go by too quickly, don't they? That bottle washer sounds like an interesting device!

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  8. The pineapple guava flowers are quite striking!

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