Friday Morning in the Farmhouse

Good morning!  I got up this morning, did my usual grooming routine, then came out to the kitchen like I usually do to make tea.  Hot Cinnamon Sunset for me, Orange & Spice for John.  As I was putting on the kettle & getting the cups ready, I noticed I was singing a little song in my head ...

This is the day,

This is the day that the Lord has made,

That the Lord has made.

I will rejoice,

I will rejoice & be glad in it,

& be glad in it ...

That took me a bit by surprise!  Must mean it's going to be a good day   : )

We always used to sing that little song at the beginning of the Sunday morning church service in a church I attended back when we lived in Florida.  I can remember the congregation singing a stanza & then the pastor sometimes stopping us & pointing out that some of us were just standing there expressionless or looking like we were anything but glad & joyful & he'd do a little impression of what he was talking about & we'd all laugh & then we'd sing the song again   : )

The landscapers worked hard yesterday but are only about half way finished.  I am kind of disappointed that we aren't getting some of the plants we wanted.  We were supposed to get these beautiful dark green grasses that produce large pink plumes but the owner, Bob, tried to get some & couldn't so he brought us some pampas grasses instead & he's going to plant these smaller grasses that bloom pink in front of them & then there will be boxwoods in between.  I'm thinking "blah" but John said to let it go ... maybe it will turn out to look really nice & if it doesn't we can always dig them up & plant some other kind of grass there next year.  We also were supposed to be getting these gorgeous silvery butterfly bushes to plant along the side of the house.  Bob had a bunch of them at the nursery that were spoken for but said he could get more.  He couldn't & brought purple ones instead.  They are pretty too but not what we were counting on   : (   He didn't have enough of them so 3 will go in front of the a/c units & then on each side will be some kind of viburnum bushes that have large white fragrant flowers.  There was a bit of extra space on one corner so he transplanted a sweetspire from the front yard because he said it really should be in a more shady area.  Finally we expected 2 huge hydrangeas we had shown him for the back.  He brought 2 small ones ... said the 2 huge ones we picked out needed full sun but these smaller ones would do well in part shade.  I guess it will all look okay.  It will definitely look better than it has been looking ... lol!

Here is a photo of the trencher bowl I referred to yesterday.    

            

I took this photo after I brought it home in January.  As I'm looking at it here all I can see is that sticky crud on it from the vegetable oil & it just makes my skin crawl   : (   After I scrubbed & scrubbed & scrubbed it yesterday it still felt yucky in places but my arms just couldn't scrub anymore.  I took it outside & let it sit in the hot sun to dry out.  When I went to bring it in it actually felt pretty nice ... not sticky at all except on the 2 ends where I missed scrubbing.  I will work on those ends today, put it back in the sun, & then bring it in & oil it down with the mineral oil.  

I'm pretty excited ... I used my blower this morning for the first time!  Not a blow dryer ... a blower for outside!  Bought it for myself a couple weeks ago & finally decided to use it since John got grass clippings all over the back porch, walkway & garden areas next to the house yesterday when he went around mowing the landscaping area.  The blower works really well!  I've told him I don't want him to mow back there anymore.  He mows with the guard removed from the mower so the clipping fly up into the air & go everywhere.  

The landscapers are on their way.  The treadmill guy was supposed to be here this afternoon but he got his days mixed up & he's coming tomorrow instead.  Later John is going to dig me a space by the fence to plant my gourd seeds.  Life is good   : )