phases

Things and/or people around blueberry hill are going through phases at the present time. The weather is in it’s “let’s make this area a desert” phase and using its heat and drought, it is making progress in that direction. The pond is in its island making and consolidation phase – the last two islands are so close to joining that a cricket could wade through the separating water without getting its tutu wet. Plus only a two-foot span of water is keeping the island from becoming a peninsula.

The geese in the pond are in their “spreading feathers all over the water” phase. I have no idea why but small white feathers are spread all about the pond surface. It could be normal molting or they could be having big feather yanking fights, I would prefer to believe molting since I don’t like critters feuding on the property – for whatever reason, the goose down is down on the water surface.

The fig tree (that I prayed for earlier in the year) is in its ripe fig phase. I picked a few and they were very sweet – tasted a bit like ripe - - figs. If I am not forthcoming with my fig-picking phase, the crows will have picked them all because that is the phase they are in. The Rugosa rose is in its rose hip ripening phase. They are very tasty with lots of vitamin C but very small with lots of seeds.

My phase at the moment is one of ripping out. The weeds around the back of the house are a constant annoyance and while they could be mowed down, where is the satisfaction in all that? When I rip them out by the roots, they don’t return – and that is the idea. The process continues.

In the front of the house, the ripping out phase is also in effect since the shrubbery is not looking good at all, with some plants dead and some overgrown – looks very scraggly. The decision is to just rip all of them out and replace them with another type – possibly azaleas. This ripping out is much more labor intensive than the weeds and will take a while longer – plus they are a type of holly and the prickly leaves can be a bit painful. Hopefully I can be finished by the dormant season which is the natural time to plant replacements for them.

Inside the house, I am also in my ripping out phase, with the offending objects being the old carpet and flooring in the master bath – to be replaced with new plywood and ceramic tile. This is also very labor intensive and disruptive to our normal routines. This because we will have to use the guest bathroom during the ripping out and putting back and us oldsters don’t like changes in our routines.

I continue to be in my phase of loving grandkids. I couldn’t help but be amused by GM3 the other day. He has just started K5 and they came by here on the way home from his very first day of learning and he was really upset because the teacher almost took his frog out of the pond. All of the kids have a “pond” with a “frog” in it and if they behave, the frog stays there – if not, the frog departs and everyone knows about it. It seems that he didn’t know when to stop talking or to raise his hand before he started. Evidently he learned because the frog has stayed put since then.

These little ones are such a blessing, whether they know it or not. God is good, all the time. ec