Repairs

 The deck was great for most of the twenty five or so years we enjoyed it.  Then the tree grew.  The deck buckled and the boards lifted.  It got bad the last few years, but there were more important things that needed attention.  Last week a  local carpenter came and repaired our deck.

Paul replaced a number of boards, built two safer sets of stairs and railings.   Our family will get a few more years our of this old deck before we need to replace the whole thing. The dappled sunlight was especially lovely on a job well done.

"I like fixing things," he said as he worked. "The world is always breaking, here and there, this way and that. Fix a bit of it, and I feel like I am helping." - Bruce Coville

There is satisfaction of getting things done, even though I am just the project manager.  My new refrigerator was delivered. Can deck repairs and new refrigerators make me emotional? ...Yes! Moving ahead is scary.  Doing it alone is hard. 

"Smile, smile until all that's left are the pieces of your broken heart that are slowly fixing itself."
- Ammiel Monterde

I found an inexpensive basket of geraniums that I hung on Tyke's IV pole.  A staple on the deck from the very beginning.  Tyke was in an accident before we even closed on our home.  He recovered in our living room, in a hospital bed, with forty pounds of traction holding his repaired hip in place as it healed.  I was his grateful and loving nurse, and treated him with IV antibiotics for weeks.  He healed to walk beside me for another 26 years.  Sentimental about an IV pole? Hell yea!

I did plant some pots, not as I have in the past.  A local nursery went out of business.  It was where I used to find blue salvia, "Veronica", white bacopa, and other varieties scarce in the big box garden centers.

A little herb garden.

A bad year for roses.  There are a few, not like the abundance of a few years back.

Milkweed.  It reseeds itself.  I will plant zinnias today for the butterflies.  I am a month late in planting, but the zinnias are small plants with a good start.  Hope "Jerry" (the name of all Monarchs that visit our garden) won't mind waiting.

There will once again be an bumper crop of Annabelle hydrangea.  The Lavender Princesses will  help me celebrate another Lavender Festival next week.  The little patch of lavender got a good weeding.  Penny is an excellent weeder and helped with other garden chores.  She is very much into the traditions of the seasons.  I look forward to Stevie and Irene picking flowers and enjoying the spaciousness of our quarter acre.  Right now, when they are here, it's like herding butterflies.

Son Jon took to cleaning the garage.  Oi vey!  What a mess.  He worked while I entertained the girls.
Later Kristen and Doug came by.  Kristen had boxes from years and years ago in the garage, as all my kids do. Kris found many treasures, but was especially thrilled about a pair of Doc Martins she had always wondered what happened to.  Stuff was sorted and tossed.  Still a work in progress, but a start.  Later we had a fire in the yard, with s'mores and laughs, and a few tears.

A big change is in the works as Jon's wife Charlotte starts Law School and we combine households.
More on that as we go through the summer.
 

The privet bloomed this year, and the fragrance took me back quite a few years to when I wrote a story for Tyke.  I haven't been able to find it, but I know it's here somewhere.  I have been looking for different things, but the most important of them was of  a copy of vows that Tyke wrote me as we renewed our vows on our 30th Wedding Anniversary.  While looking for the story, I found the vows.  I was so very happy to find them. (as a email Tyke sent to me)

  I'll share them near our anniversary.  He surprised me that day, in front of our kids, plus *Yentl. (aka Jenny *BFF of Kristen and like one of our own.) I did some silly thing for my vows and Tyke was so serious, romantic and beautifully sincere.  Finding them again was a gift.

"Everybody talks about wanting to change things and help and fix, but ultimately all you can do is fix yourself.  And that's a lot.  Because if you can fix yourself, it has a ripple effect."

-Rob Reiner  

Thank you for stopping by and for your friendship and kindness.

Enjoy this beautiful day.

Love, Penny