Work, Work, Work

Wow, Fall has simply dropped in fast. The leaves are turning and falling from the trees. A soft and then harder frost the last couple nights have taken my plants to the brink of no return. I didn’t cover them because they were due to be weeded out of my planters anyway. My roses, surprisingly, have still survived.

I have tons of Fall planting to do, but am waiting for my shipments to arrive. Some old beds are going to get some new looks come Spring, and hopefully, once all is planted, they will survive the Winter. That word - Winter - is like a bad four-letter word in my vocabulary. Ewwwwww! Yes, I like the looks of a new-fallen snow. There is nothing more pretty when the sun is glistening off of it. That is, if I don’t have to go out and drive in it. If I can stay inside where it is toasty, then it is okay (or semi-okay). I have gotten to dislike snow. The older I get, the more I hate it because I hate to the fight of driving in it. But, for now, let’s put thoughts of that on the back burner.

Some of the plants I’ve ordered this Fall were : Rembrandt Tulip Mix, “Apeldoorn Elite” Tulips, “Cote D’Azur” Asiatic Lilies, “Destined to See” Daylilies, “Blue Pearl” Dutch Irises, “Lingerie” Fringed Tulips, Oriental Lily Mix, “Ruffled Patty” Ruffled Poppies, “Meringue” and “Pink Double Delight” Echinacea (Coneflowers), “Magic Star” Double Oriental Lilies (not shipping til Spring), “First Cherry Blossom” Darwin Hybrid Tulips, “Survivor” Mayflowering Tulips, “Cappuccino” Tango Lilies, “Candy Apple Delight” Tulips, and “Purple Flag” Tulips. These were all originally supposed to be shipped after September 27. Now, my orders show that they will be shipped, some on or about October 27th and others on or about November 11th. Hmmmm...good chance the ground will be frozen by then or it will have a cover of snow. Well, I might as well plan out my planting guide now, till up the old beds, plant what bulbs and plants I have already, put a pot where the ones who haven’t arrived yet go, get my mulching done and then see what type of weather we have by the date they arrive. Understandably, though, that since I have to arrive over 150 bulbs and/or plants, I am sure that I will be a bit cranky when it comes time to plant them. Plus, they will need to be watered once planted, and who wants to water plants if it is cold outside. Not me. But for the love of my plants, I will dutifully do so. Geez....

My time for the Fall projects is closing in quickly. I’ve got many to do and have to carefully plan out my calendar in order to get them done. We have been frantically working on my Aunt’s (Auntie) house in order to get it ready for sale. The inside now looks great, but still have a little yard work to complete. So most of my weekends have been spent at her place with little time to do things at home.

I finished getting some of the furniture rearranged at home this past weekend, after spending Saturday at Auntie’s. Yesterday was spent doing that plus making a run to the pharmacy for some prescriptions I forgot to pick up Friday. Now I need to tackle the garage and my “back room.” My back room contains all my storage totes and I need to dig out my Fall floral arrangements, because now it is getting late and I will be needing to dig out the Christmas decorations soon. Speaking of that, I was in Kohl’s last week and low and behold, the Christmas decorations were out. Not quite in full force, but they were there. And my nose was right in the mix of things there, too. I spied some new Christmas Village buildings and accessories I would like and I also saw some Christmas ornaments I wanted to get my hands on. But I held back. Didn’t quite feel right to bring home Christmas decorations when I knew I still had to pick up pumpkins for decorating. Which, by the way, I did pick up yesterday on my way home from Madison. Got some large ones, some medium ones, some small ones and some table top miniature pumpkins, gourds and Indian corn. If I would have had more time after I got back yesterday, I would have tried to tackle the back room to get the Fall decorations out, but I needed to get the mowing done. Plus once that was done, I was P-O-O-P-E-D. But that didn’t stop me until about 8:30. Then it was time to eat, and sit down to watch Desperate Housewives and Brothers & Sisters. I really didn’t have much energy left at that point. Okay, well just enough to finish up and fold two loads of laundry.

Then it was time to go to bed. Bob had made it up there before I did, and as I was shutting off the TV and lights downstairs, it was only to hear “Do you want to make the bed so I can go to bed sometime tonight!” Ooopppps, I washed bedding and had taken it off the clothesline while I was mowing and forgot about it. It was still sitting in the basket waiting to go up and be put on the bed. Yuck! There is nothing I hate worse than having to make the bed right before I crawl in, because I am usually bushed and that is the last thing I want to do. And last night I was bushed, and cold, with temps outside dropping below freezing and we refusing to turn the furnace on yet, the house was a little on the cool side. Well, at least the sheets smelled fresh like the outdoors. The only thing better than that would have been if they were my flannel sheets instead.

Needless to say....I turned the furnace on for a few minutes this morning. I had run a couple loads out to the dumpster at about 5:30 and it was brisk outside. The cats were up and ready to be fed, but Pongo was having none of that. He wanted a quick jolt outside to do his duty and then back in to crawl under the covers. I had made some cinnamon rolls last night before going to bed and set them out to rise so when I got up around 4:30, I stuck them in the oven. The smell of them baking this morning and the warmth of the oven might have made others feel warm, but I was still chilled, so against my better judgment, I turned the furnace on for a couple hours...just enough to take the chill out of the house, make Pongo quit shivering and make me finally come to the conclusion that I did not really need to soak in a warm bath this morning. Crap...maybe I should have left the furnace off. I guess I really didn’t have much time before going to work anyway since I was puttering around doing this and that this morning, I wasted any hope of a soak in the tub anyway. A warm shower had to do instead.

Temperatures around here are supposed to be back up into the 70's this week so maybe I can still get the flower beds done on Friday, but I wanted that day to be mostly a “clean the garage out” day. That is always a day Bob and I put off until we really NEED to get it done, whether it be Spring or Fall, but I’ve been in such a “get-it-done-and-organized now” mood lately, that I will probably try to do both.

Yep, my “Do It” calendar is quickly filling up. I only wish it wasn’t dark by the time I get home from work now, because if I only had a few more daylight hours at night, I could still accomplish a lot outside. Oh, well, it will still be there waiting for me on the weekends.