June 18th - June 25th: The Week I Could Finally Say "I'm Done!"

With one project anyway...

Hello dear friends! It has been another hot week here in Central Texas, but that hasn’t kept me from looking for that one little thing that makes the day a little better…I just try to find it earlier in the day before it begins to feel like someone has left open the doors of a blast furnace outside! It’s been a productive week as well. I’ve finally completed my raised garden bed, unfortunately had to evict an unwanted interloper, converted an unused fire pit into yet another planter, and been visited by two rather interesting “neighbors”. Let me tell you all about it!

After fourteen hours of total labor time, I can finally say I’ve completed my raised garden bed project…hurray! Mind you, that’s fourteen hours in mostly two to four-hour increments spread out over weeks, so I think it’s fair to say this has definitely been a labor of love. With it finally finished and ready for planting, I decided to shift gears when choosing plants and went with herbs instead of my usual flowering plants. I love the heady aromas put off by herbs such as Rosemary, Lavender, Sage, Thyme, and Basil, all of which I ended up planting in it, and it would seem I am not alone in my love of their scents. As I was watering my newly planted herbs, I noticed an unwelcome guest sitting atop my basil plant…a big ole hairy spider! As I leant down to get a closer look and, of course, snap a picture of him, I swear to you he bowed up at me as if to say “this is my plant now, lady!”, and I’m not ashamed to admit I was very quick to let him know it most certainly was not, and he would need to vacate immediately! I thought I had won our little disagreement as I swept him off of my basil plant into the dirt and proceeded to loosely scoop up the dirt surrounding him with the intention of rehoming him in the lawn…I was wrong! No sooner had I turned away from the planter intending to gently place him in the lawn when he jumped out of my hand straight at me and landed on my shoulder! Now, dear friends, is when I have to confess, I did exactly as you would expect someone who does not care for spiders at all would, and I jumped, let out a scream, and promptly flung him off my shoulder, sending him flying through the air to parts unknown. I cannot be certain of the order of those three events as I was in what could only be described as a blind panic, but I do know they all happened within the blink of an eye! I only hope that wherever he landed, he did so safely as it was not my intention to kill him, simply to remove him from my shoulder as quickly as humanly possible! At the very least, maybe he will think twice before attempting to claim my basil plant as his own. After taking a few moments to let my heart rate come back down to a normal level, I moved on to my next project, turning our unused fire pit into something other than a place for rainwater to collect and become a breeding ground for mosquitoes…we already have quite enough of them, thank you! Thankfully, this project required much less time and effort, and within just an hour or so, I had it prepped, filled, and ready to be planted. Eric and I had taken a weekend trip to Austin a while ago, and we came across the most beautiful and fragrant flowers, something called a Moonflower. I had never seen them before and was immediately captivated by their large white blooms that open in the early evenings instead of the morning as most other flowers do, and their heavenly scent. I was fortunate enough to come across a packet of moonflower seeds during one of my many visits to our local garden centers, and had originally planned to put them in my raised garden bed, but since I had shifted gears on that, I thought I would now plant them in my newly converted fire pit. I must say I was amazed to see that the seeds I had planted on Saturday morning had already broken through the soil and begun unfurling tiny bright green leaves by Wednesday morning. Hopefully, those delicate little leaves will grow into big, strong plants and produce the lovely and fragrant white blooms I am so excited to see and smell.

Not every visitor I had this week was as aggressive as my basil-invading spider. I had two other visitors who both had quite friendlier dispositions, thankfully. My first visitor was a roadrunner who came to visit as I was working on my raised garden bed. It rather nonchalantly crossed our patio, jumped off the edge, and stopped at the end of the raised garden bed as I worked on filling it, with the largest cicada I have ever seen hanging out of its beak. It stood merely a foot or so away, looking up at me as if to say “thank you for providing me with such a yummy breakfast. I hope you have a wonderful day”, before turning away to cross the yard, jump over the fence, and run off to enjoy its meal. As I watched it run across the yard, I was struck by two thoughts: first, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one fly instead of run, and second, they look absolutely nothing like the daring and speedy bird who seemed to unashamedly love tormenting a seemingly hapless and unlucky coyote on the tv screen every Saturday morning of my childhood. My second visitor was the neighbor’s cat, Frisky, the very same one whom Lilibet had been spotted chatting with across the fence last week. Frisky’s sweet nature is surpassed only by her striking beauty. I find the coloring and pattern of her calico coat to be just stunning. Not only is Frisky sweet and beautiful, she is incredibly lucky…she was at one point one of the stray cats I also mentioned last week. Over the course of many weeks, both my neighbor and I fed her and worked to gain her trust in hopes that she might allow us to get close enough to pet her. I’m happy to say our efforts were rewarded as she did eventually warm up to us and begin to trust us. Her trust in us revealed her sweet nature, and my neighbor’s granddaughter fell absolutely in love with her, enough so that even over her grandfather’s objections, Frisky had now found herself a permanent home. I also have it on good authority that Frisky’s sweet nature has even won over the grandfather who was a self-proclaimed non-lover of cats…way to go Frisky! I would have loved to have been able to give Frisky a home here with us, but it seems she is right where she needs to be, helping to heal the broken heart of a little girl who had been told she could not have a cat at home, but no one ever said she couldn’t have one at Grandma’s house…wink, wink.

Well, my dear friends, I feel it’s just about time for me to wrap this up for today, and I thank you for taking time out of your day to read my humble stories. Finding the one little thing that makes the day better may seem a difficult task at times, but sometimes it’s just as simple as spotting a delicate flower nestled amongst the vines on your fence line, or catching sight of an intricate and mesmerizing pattern in a horse’s coat. We need only take the time to be present in order to notice the beauty this amazing world has to offer.

Blessings,

Candi 💕

Photo credit: Roadrunner (Actual) - American Bird Conservancy, Roadrunner (Cartoon) - Warner Bros., All others - Myself