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| Lantana Bush |
On Monday, I made it a point to walk in the morning; I walked for 20 minutes without needing to stop and, since I still felt OK, I walked for 5 additional minutes. It's rather pathetic, I know, but, I am very happy with my progress!
This particular lantana bush was covered with flowers, although the picture didn't come out that well (too much glare, I suppose).
I also noticed that some of the self-seeded osteospermum that are growing in the middle of the front garden were flowering! The plants are only about 4 inches tall! M is not too impressed by them, but, I am hoping that they will grow and become a ground cover! I might not be able to grow a lush lawn of grass, but, I'll have a carpet of flowers, instead!
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| Osteospermum Seedlings |
Have you heard the term guerrilla gardening? It describes planting seeds or seedlings on land that one does not have the legal right to plant in. Well, it seems I caught a guerrilla gardener in action, "planting" a walnut in my front flower bed!
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| Guerrilla Gardening Squirrel! |
Do you see it? Maybe if I enlarged the picture:
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| Squirrel |
I had noticed it running across my garden with a walnut in its mouth and by the time I had taken my cell phone out and zoomed in on it, it had already dug into the flower bed and buried its walnut! Then, as I approached to take another picture, it ran across the driveway and up on to the wall between my house and neighbor T's house:
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| Just a Glimpse of a Tail Near the Iron Railing |
And bounded along the top of the wall to disappear behind the garage!
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| There it goes! |
I love squirrels, although I might change my mind if I have to fight with them for my peaches and other fruits this summer! LOL. I wonder if it will remember its walnut and come back for it or if it forgets it, will I have a walnut tree growing in the front yard?
Later, I had sardines on toast for brunch and my last banana from Friday's grocery shopping - it was already a bit overripe for my liking, but, it was fine. Then, I sat down to reply to blog comments, etc.
A short time later, neighbor S called to ask if I'd like to have some strawberries, gata (Armenian cookies), and lavash (Armenian flat bread). I said, "Yes, please" and went over to collect them. Her mother-in-law, who lives with them had recently come home after being hospitalized and various family members have been coming by to visit, bringing gifts of food with them; S said she wanted to give me some of the extras. While I was there, I asked S's husband if he knew anything about the police activity down the road from us (his cousin owns the house which is rented to the people currently living there), but, he didn't know about it. It was a brief visit, but, I wore my mask and neighbor S wore her mask, too, which I really, really appreciated.
A little later in the afternoon, neighbor S called me again to ask if they can borrow my recycling bin - apparently, she and her husband were clearing some items stored in their shed and their recycling bin was full. I was more than happy to let them use my recycling bin.
I watered the garden, both front and back, on Monday, cleaned the litter box, took the other trash bin to the end of the driveway (S's husband had placed the recycling bin there, already), had a chat with Aunt C, did a meal plan for the week, and made spaghetti for dinner.
On Monday, I was grateful for:
- Neighbor S sharing more food with me
- Being able to help her out by lending her my recycling bin
- Being able to walk for 25 minutes without pain
- Water for the garden
- A sunny day
Monday's joyful activities included watching the squirrel burying its walnut in my flower bed!
It's another sunny day, today (Tuesday)with the forecast high being 71F (67F, currently, at 2:00 p.m) .
This morning, I set my timer and walked for 25 minutes, straight! Without any aches or pains! Woo hoo! I maintained a fairly slow pace - I've noticed that if I try to speed up, then, it starts to hurt. I might build up speed, later, as I improve my stamina, but, for now, slow and steady as my mother used to say. I don't have a pedometer, but, I counted my steps as I walked and I got in 2,100 steps, today. It's not enough, of course, but, it is something, and it's more than what I did earlier (my highest count when I walked 20 minutes was 1,600 steps). I am very pleased about the whole thing. My goal is to try to walk 30 minutes by the end of the month. I will try to add two more minutes to my walking time, tomorrow.
Afterwards, I ate sardines on toast, again, for brunch, and some Armenian gata that neighbor S had given me. Her mother-in-law had to be taken to the hospital, again, this morning (I saw the ambulance in front of their house and called to ask if everything was OK).
I need to get some housework done this afternoon as I didn't get half the things done, yesterday. Dinner will be a salad (lettuce from the garden) and spaghetti (leftovers from yesterday).
Today, I am grateful for:
- Another sunny day
- Being able to walk for another 25 minutes without pain
- Snow peas from the garden
- A home to maintain
- Dancer making sure I wake up, each morning, whether I'm ready to wake up or not! LOL!
Today's joyful activity has been enjoying the flowers in the garden.
How is your Tuesday coming along?
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| Snow Peas from the Garden |
It's so good to hear that you are able to increase your walking time. It doesn't matter if it isn't fast, you are moving and that is what counts. I don't think I get any more out of my walks to the mailbox and back, especially as I might stop to admire a plant. I've read that squirrels do remember where they hide nuts, but it will be interesting to see if that is true as you know where the walnut was stashed and can look for a tree later on!
ReplyDeleteI don't have any nut trees i the garden, the lack of which has been noticed, it seems! LOL.
DeleteWhat a lovely flowering bush. It looks very pretty. Glad you are still able to do your walking. I love squirrels, but they can be mischievous. I had this little chipmunk burying his nuts beneath some leaves. I felt sorry for him as the spot he was 'burying' them in is usually raided by squirrels.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Sharon. I haven't had many squirrels in the garden, before, because we had all those garden cats. Now, it's only Mama Cat and she's usually sleeping all day. I guess the squirrels are thinking it's relatively safe to be in the garden, again. I will have to be on the look out for them when the fruits ripen!
DeleteI think the squirrels are really cute until; they wipe out all the apples from my apple tree. Then I do not find them so adorable.
ReplyDeleteMy lantana still looks bleak. Fingers crossed it survived the weird freezes we had this winter.
I'm sure I won't be thinking the squirrels to be cute, either, if I find they've been helping themselves to my peaches, etc. I didn't have to worry about squirrels when I had a garden full of cats, but, now, there's only Mama Cat who is old and sleeps all day and, occasionally, Black Jack who visits Mama Cat.
DeleteThe rest of my lantana plants are still getting over being frost burned, but, I think they'll recover. I hope your lantana will come back as it warms up.
I love squirrels but we only see them in parks never in our gardens, it's to be hoped yours doesn't return to raid your fruit trees. Good to know you can walk for longer pain-free now.
ReplyDeleteThat's interesting that squirrels there stay in the parks! Well behaved squirrels! I do hope this squirrel will stay away from my fruit trees! :D
DeleteThank you, Eileen; I hope I will be able to continue to walk without pain. I'll just take it one day at a time. :)
Well done you with increasing your walking time & YEAH that it is painful during & after. Every improvement is/should be celebrated IMO. You know what I think about squirrels - rats with bushy tails. I am not a squirrel fan. All 3 of our kinds of squirrels bury Black Walnut nuts (not the edible walnut kind) & often forget because every spring I have a forest of Black Walnut sprouts. Black Walnut trees at about age 25 yrs put out a toxic in their root system that does not allow the growth of any other plant around them - hence why we don't want Black Walnut growing in the garden.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Mary-Lou.
Delete"Rats with bushy tails" - LOL! As far as I could tell, this squirrel was burying a regular walnut! We have a species of black walnut that is endemic to California and protected (at least in the City of Los Angeles). It could be a problem if I had California Black Walnut trees growing in my yard and I wanted to remove them!
Oh dear I now see that it says painful when I truly meant pain free - I guess Google spell check doesn't like some words to be together & changes (lol, but not). So yeah to pain free walking!
DeleteThank you! I knew you meant pain free. :)
DeleteSquirrels are so clever and fun to watch. However, they do love taking a bite out of peaches and other foods. We could never keep them from sampling most of the peaches at our previous house before they were ready to pick.
ReplyDeleteSorry for the delay in publishing your comment, June; it was in my spam folder!
DeleteThanks for the warning! I will be inspecting my peaches every day from now on!
Well done on your walking. Building up steadily is the best way, you don't want to overdo it.
ReplyDeleteI like squirrels as well :)
Thank you, Jules. "Slow and steady", as my mother used to say. :)
DeleteGreat job with increasing your walking time - and without discomfort too which must please you.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mary-Lou about squirrels. They are a total nuisance in my garden so I am not a fan but I am glad you find yours entertaining :)
I'm with you on the osteospermum spreading around and filling the area. It will be beautiful and certainly preferably to bare earth.
Thank you, Debra; some days are better than others when it comes to walking, as I experienced some discomfort the very next day. But, as long as there's overall improvement, I'm happy. :)
DeleteI love seeing squirrels and I think I might have more problems with the birds than with squirrels when it comes to the peaches, but, we shall see.
I'm hoping that the osteospermum will spread - we'll see how it goes as summer progresses.