Trees on Thursday

So, I've decided to do something a little different. Today, I'm going to focus on our trees. 

In January when we had our "big freeze"--we lost many huge limbs from our trees. As a result, they look decimated on one side and fine on the other. 

This is a scraggly pine and not particularly attractive. This is the good side.

This is the side you see from the street. So ugly! But taking it down completely would leave a pretty big hole in our landscape. It's already looking sparse since our neighbor lost a lot of their trees on that side. Plus we had several other large limbs lost.

And then there's this one:

This is from the street side. You can tell that it's sparse on the other side.

It's almost bare on this side. This is/was a pretty sawtooth oak. A lot of our trees seem a little lopsided now. And to top it off, we had an entire dogwood tree topple over during the ice storm. It was there since 1985 and was right in front of the house near the shade garden. Although I hated to see it go--after all, it was 40 years old, there's enough greenery on that side, that it didn't leave a gap. 

Then, you might recall the demise of this 50/60ft. magnolia tree that toppled over in 2020.

At that time, it left a huge hole.

We replaced it with a forest pansy redbud--which died within the first year. I was determined that I would get another. It has taken a few years, but I persisted!

Voila'--my new forest pansy redbud!

I just love that it adds color and a new texture to the landscaping. Redbuds grow horizontally and have pretty, heart-shaped leaves. But we do have a problem. We are currently in the middle of a drought. This is happening:

Our trees are so stressed that they are dropping leaves like crazy. We have a sprinkler system, but it has only been turned on in the last week--when the new tree was planted. In addition, we are watering the new tree. Planting in the spring is not ideal--fall is better. But sometimes you can't get what you want in the fall. So, we're making the best of it. 

Also, in the winter of 2025, the green giant arborvitae on the left lost about 4 ft. from the top. It turned completely brown. We didn't know if that meant the whole thing was going to die or what. I had my garden people cut the brown out. That looked ridiculous most of last summer--half the size of it's 4 brothers!

Now look at it this year--almost all caught up. These are the best conifers for screening as they grow 3 to 5 ft. a year! They last for 50 years--150 in ideal conditions. By next year, we should not be able to see the house behind us at all. You might recall that I was not happy that the new owners cut down the patch of woods that separated us and formed natural privacy. Pretty soon--another year or so, it won't matter.

And finally...

This is the view from my bed! I love looking out this window in the early morning. There's such a variety of colors--and that red--that's what I've been waiting for!!

What I Buy Wednesday

In August, I'm going to the beach with my friends. I always rent the car because my nephew, Zach works for a company that has several rental car companies. By going through him, I get the family and friends discount. 

So, he sent me the car code and I reserved this car--it's a 7 passenger minivan. There are 5 of us going right now, but might be 6. This should take care of us. 

I have some issues with the charges. Follow along with me.

I understand the collision, but I thought if you had your own insurance, you didn't have to buy theirs. Then, what's up with the facility charge? I'll be having the car for the week, I won't be parking it in their facility. I have no idea what a concession recovery fee is. That makes no sense to me. Next is Florida waste tire battery fee @ 2 cents a day for a total of 14 cents. I have no idea what that is, but I can afford the 14 cents. I'll be sure to collect that 2 cents a day from my friends. Okay, you get the idea--these are all nonsense fees that make no sense at all! It adds up to roughly $175!! What?? That's insane. 

I guess I'll pay it. I really don't have a choice! Actually my friends will be paying it too. In the end, it will be worth it as we always have the BEST time when we're together. 

Travel Tuesday

About a week and a half ago, Nancy and I made our 6.5 mile hike to West Nashville. It was a gorgeous day--not too hot--just perfect. 

I always like to start out with a picture. We started out at 9:30 a.m.

We were probably only about a quarter of a mile in to the hike when I realized that my shirt was on backwards.

I had to stop and fix it!

We stopped at Thistle Farms for lunch. Then hiked back.

There are some beautiful spots on the greenway. We love the quiet, the wildlife and the wildflowers. Beautiful Queen Anne's Lace along the way.

We snapped this picture near the end as we were crossing the bridge over Richland Creek.

By the time we finished, it was 1:30. 

We do this twice a year--once I the spring and once in the fall--when it's cool. It's fun spending this time together. I hope we can keep it up for years to come! 

Me on Monday

I'm a little late this time!

April by the Numbers

Movies Seen: 6

*****The Great Awakening

***The Drama

****You Me & Tuscany

*Hunting Matthew Nichols

*****Michael

*****Fuze

Broadway:

***Boeing Boeing

Books Read: 13

5 star books:

Dear Reader

The Bluest Eye

Burn Book

Erasing History 

Anatomy of an Alibi 

My Lovely Wife

Just Mercy

Kin

Podcasts:

Scrap Gals: 6

Paul Burell: 3

Lunch Out—14

Dinner Out:—6

Happy Hours—1

Bridge—3

Documentaries/Movies/Series:

Hulu:

**The Testament of Ann Lee

*****Faithful: Women of the Bible (4E)

*****The Girl in the Attic

Netflix :

*****Bridgerton (8E))

*****The Predator of Seville (3E)

*****The Truth and Tragedy of Moriah Wilson

*****Untold: the Life of Lamar Odom

*****People We Meet on Vacation

*****Stay Close (8E)

*****Hold Tight (6)

****Dynasty: The Murdoch (4E)

*****The One (8E)

*****Trust Me (4E)

*****The Woods (6E)

****Ripple (8E)

***Thrash 

**Monster: Ed Gein (3E) too scary

*The Requin

***Husband Father Killer

*****American Godfather: the 5 Families (3E)

*****Missing You (6)

*****Leave the World Behind

*****Operation Mincemeat

****Don’t Look Up

*****Diana the Musical

***Bliss

*****What the Health

***Outreau Case (2E)

**Untold: the Shooting at Hawthorne Hill

****The Short Game

**100 Humans (1E)

****Unspeakable Acts

****Audrie & Daisy

*****A Fall from Grace

***Trees of Peace

**Death at Tea Time

****Gaslit by my Husband

*****Unchosen (6E)

****Denial

****Collateral (4E)

*****The Bleeding Edge

***The Lost Daughter

***Munich: The Edge of War

*****The Postcard Killings

****Lost Girls

*****The Best of Enemies

Prime:

*****The Tudors (3E)

Paramount Plus:

***The Madison (6E)

Scrapbook Pages Completed: 15

Trips & Events:

Beach

Kevin James at the Ryman

Boozy Bingo

Highlight: I was a guest on the Scrap Gals podcast

Happy Mother's Day

I just came across this and thought it was hilarious!!

I am not a phone person, but I do believe these statistics!!

Scrapbook Saturday

So, last Saturday I went to St. Louis. I mentioned that in my Travel Tuesday post. 

One of the things that was planned for this trip was to clean out Janet's scrapbook room. My niece, Jackie faces the whole house--it's so much--too much! Jeanne and I thought the least we could do was Janet's room. It's something anyway.

After visiting Janice, we went down to south St. Louis to get started. As we started to look around, we found lots of completed scrapbook pages that needed to be put in albums. We gathered them all together and started organizing. It took us 4 hours! Janet has 274--12x12 double page layouts--nearly 550 pages!! We sorted them in to categories and did 2 wedding albums for Jackie that day. 

Here are some pictures.

The next day we went back and worked another 4 hours. We got 6 albums put together that day. I did a rough calculation. 274 layouts equals about 21 albums. We've done 8! We still have 13 to go. That will be at least 8 more hours. Jackie said that they are having their basement finished and she's had to change the work order to accommodate all of the scrapbooks. 

Since Janet has many, many albums completed on her own, we think she just let it get away from her. As I've said many times--putting together albums is my least favorite thing to do!! I used to do it when my stack reached about a foot tall. Then I tried doing it every month. Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't. Usually, I do it about every other month--it's not too much at one time. There is so much satisfaction in getting it done! 

I have offered to help my friends and I'm going to really get on that now. We need to get it done before it's too late!

Friday Funnies