Valerean

When my guy and I visit Snooky Park in Lady Lake it's to walk the half-mile path around it, and to enjoy the outdoors. Generally the only people there are walkers like us, either alone or with their pets or babies. Everyone is very quiet, in the same way they are inside a church. The park is named after a local boy who perished on board the Arizona during the attack on Pearl Harbor. He was only 21 years old. In a way that always affects how I am when we visit. Calm, but also contemplative about the nature of life. Ageing is not a privilege that is given to everyone. There's one tree in particular at the park that my guy and I both stand in awe of -- this one. This tree might be as old as our country, and has been through hurricanes, endless summers of sometimes impossibly hot days and nights, and maybe even lightning strikes. It's old and scarred, and definitely stronger than the other, younger trees around it -- not because it's got so much damage. Bec...

A few days before Thanksgiving I saw a little white bit of fluff on the garage doormat, but when I reached down to pick it up it fluttered and moved. That's when I realized it was a Virginia Tiger Moth, just like the one I rescued in March of 2024 . This little one was a bit more beat up, and couldn't seem to fly away, so I collected her on a piece of paper and put her in a little habitat with some Japanese maple leaves. There she can spend her final days resting and out of danger . If she happens to lay eggs, I'll look after them, too. I know it's a bit weird to rescue a dying moth. But these tragic insects remind me to be grateful for my life, and to do what I can for the helpless.

While I was out walking the dogs last week I noticed what appeared to be sawdust scattered among the dead leaves on the side of the road. Since it's not a place where anyone would cut wood, I stopped to take a pic to show my guy. Occasionally one of the neighbors will cut down a dead tree in danger of falling across the only road in and out of our neighborhood. I was going to ask him if he knew who'd done the work. Alas, my eyesight isn't as great as it was before my cataract surgery. As I leaned down to focus my phone on the spot I realized the sawdust wasn't sawdust. Yep, it's actually a ton of tiny mushrooms, of a variety I've never before noticed here. I was completely charmed (and fooled!)

I'm writing this post on the morning of March 27th -- yes, I'm seven weeks ahead of myself on the blog now -- and I'm furious. I have to go see my doctor in a few hours and if I don't calm down he's going to think I've developed high blood pressure. I just ranted for a solid twenty minutes about this problem and I don't feel any better. Fortunately my guy is staying out of my way, because otherwise I'd probably rip his head off. I walk each of my dogs twice a day, and I go from our house to the front entrance to our neighborhood to stay away from people. I wave to other dog walkers to let them know I'm approaching, and move to the other side of the road to stay away from people. I will wait and let other dog walkers, runners, or people out walking in the same direction go ahead of me and put distance between us so I can stay away from people. Note the common goal here? There are three reasons why I stay away from people: my dogs are not fr...

Back in February my guy and I went down by the lake to watch the sunset, which turned out to be spectacular. For a few minutes the world turned all gold, orange and pink. As I watched it I thought that light truly is what sets the world on fire, and yet no one burns. Darkness can't do this. Neither can hatred. Only light.

Every morning and evening I take a walk with each of our pups, which adds up to about two miles every day. I always walk the same path from our house to our front entrance turn and back because it has a slight incline (good for my legs) and there are usually no people around, which makes my dogs happy. I clean up after my pups, but I also pick up any trash I see. It's something I can do to help keep our neighborhood clean, and it's easy enough. On this particular morning last month I found six different drink containers littering the road, which sadly is not unusual. Some were covered in ants, which I shook off before I put them in my bag. One of the containers I picked up was a heavy duty aluminum cup with the words "Infinitely Recyclable" on it, which I thought was pretty ironic. Too many people who drive along my walking route just drop whatever trash they have instead of properly disposing of it. I washed it out and tried to bend it back into ...

So that I'm not tempted to grumble about the holidays when they arrive, I thought I'd tell you a story today about a pretty remarkable work crew. I'm writing this post on November 4th, a couple of days after we joined four other people to clear debris leftover from Hurricane Milton. Me, my guy, our next door neighbors and two other men from our neighborhood with a tractor and a dumpster-type trailer with a heavy duty truck came together to remove a tree that had fallen on our next door neighbors' property. It was a huge old oak that probably weighed several tons, and it was a definite hazard to anyone who went near it. They've tried for weeks to get a tree service out here to remove it but they're all backed up now for months. It took from 10:30 am to 4:00 pm for the six of us to chop up and haul out the debris. That pic up there is the pile of branches, wood and tree trunk pieces that we removed and placed for county pickup on a vacant lot; it...

As I'm actually writing this post on October 20th I hope by the time it publishes our county will have repaired the partially collapsed road near our house. While it's closed we are forced to drive many miles out of the way just to run our usual errands. Only we still have another month of hurricane season, and two more storms were named yesterday, and things here in the country generally move at a snail's pace, so I'm not optimistic. Losing the use of just one road is a bit of a preview of a much worse disaster, and what that might force us to do. If we couldn't drive to get what we needed how could we run errands, and what we could carry back and forth? I see us riding bikes and using backpacks, which at our age wouldn't be fun, but is still doable. My guy still rides his bike around the neighborhood for exercise, while I use my stationary bike. The nearest town is five minutes by car; that would be twenty minutes one way by bike in optimal conditions ...

In September our neighbor cut down a tree that died a few years ago and has been threatening to topple over and block the road I walk every morning and afternoon (my guy reported it, in fact; no one else had noticed the threat.) When I walked past the pieces he was cutting up for firewood, I noticed the tree had been covered on one side with hundreds of mushrooms (they resemble turkey tails, but I'm not expert enough to be sure.) Moss grows everywhere here, and sometimes it creates a little pocket pasture like this one, no bigger than the palm of your hand. This tree is an old friend. It's the most beautiful one I see everyday, and has ferns sprouting from a slight hollow on the right side. In spring it's covered with honeysuckle vines. I always through the fence was built behind it until the other day, when I looked at it from another angle. Whoever built the old fence stopped and restarted it on either side, which charms me. I'm not the only one ...

We took a trip out to our favorite local farm last month to pick up some veggies for us and a neighbor, and their flowers were in full bloom. Seeing the first cucumber harvest of the year being taken away in truckloads always tickles me. The first pickling cucumbers of the year were also on sale, which I bought for my neighbor so she could make her own refrigerator dills. I forgot to photograph the rest of my haul, but it was a bag of corn, pickling spice and one of those big cucumbers we can only get at the farm. :)

Lasst month my guy and I drove to a nearby city to check out their weekend farmer's market. It was more of a food fest and craft fair, but we still had fun walking around and seeing what everyone was selling. Prices were a bit higher than our famer's markets in the country. I saw this bench and immediately wanted to steal it. :) To see more pics, go to my album here.

The other day I went over to give a plant to one of my neighbors and ended up in a long conversation about our mutual worries. We're both busy and don't often get to talk, and when we do it's usually about gardening or cooking. I am not the easiest person to talk to, either, because of my hearing impairment. But thanks to the pitch of her voice I can hear her just fine. We spent about a half-hour discussing our worries, and in that time managed to reassure each other about a lot of things. I've always known that my guy and I can look after ourselves under most circumstances, but it's good to know the neighbors can, too. My guy and I live a very quiet life, and mostly keep to ourselves because that's how we are. We hope to move our disabled nephew in with us this year, and our niece just bought a house very close to us. As we've aged our family circle has grown very small. Our parents are gone, and so are most of my guy's siblings. I'v...

We had the first burn in our fire pit last month; it usually gets chilly enough for them around the third or fourth week of October. Here's my guy lighting the wood. One of the few things I do like about fall and winter is being able to sit at night and watch the fire while we have some tea and talk. I always sleep well after that. It also helps dispose of the deadfall and tree trimmings we accumulate throughout the year. Now that I've found sugarfree marshmallows, we may even toast a few of those. :)

It's rare to have a perfect day anymore. Life's frustrations, the ongoing fear-mongering and rampant bigotry in the world are depressing (to me, anyway.) I don't like people much anymore, and I have to struggle a lot with urges to completely withdrawal into myself. Fortunately my guy realizes this, I think, and drags me out of the house to run errands or go for a drive, when he's really just trying to get me away from it all. This practice is why we enjoyed a perfect day last month by making a trek we do once or twice a year, and stopping for lunch at a roadhouse. The food was pre-pandemic plentiful and absolutely delicious; my haddock sandwich was the best I've ever had. From there we then went to the Russell Stover outlet to get some sugar-free candy for me. This is always like my personal Christmas. We were still too full from lunch when we got home to bother with dinner, but we decided to have some watermelon from the garden. This is the small...

Doubling up on my exercise every day means twice the walking, which isn't hard when you live in the country. Come along with me and Shadow this morning on the first of four walks I take with the pups. First we need to go past our neighbor's property. This walk was the day after lightning struck the old magnolia tree on their property. The road I walk with the dogs is about quarter mile in length, so it's a half mile round trip. Summer temperatures have me walking it twice very early in the morning and twice just after sunset. (Shadow, slow down, there's a speed limit!) The road also slopes down, so my legs get a nice workout. Here's where I switch sides so I can see the cars coming toward me (deaf people can't hear you when you drive up behind them.) The road is pretty quiet in the morning, and the air is cool. The trees keep most of my walk shaded so it's really nice. Sometimes there are horses in these pastures here. We do...