Jill and her tribe returned home Wednesday this week. Kari and her’s departed for Switzerland Friday. It’s just Joyce and me; and Tino the dog; and the chickens; and the guineas; quite a change from the previous three weeks of wall-to-wall granddaughters. It was nice that the little Wylies got to spend so much time on SA and with their cousins. Though Abigail was away at camp part of the time, she was around quite a bit and didn’t seem to mind being with the shorties, even seemed to rather enjoy it.
Our old grill broke down and we didn’t feel like repairing it. Instead, we used that as an excuse to upgrade. Joyce never liked messing with the propane bottle so we had a natural gas line installed and hooked the new one up to that. Saturday evening Barbara joined us in christening it. I grilled some steaks and they turned out pretty good. In my limited experience, different grills grill differently and one has to learn the characteristics of a grill before having much confidence in the outcome. I suspect the new one will get a pretty good workout since it is so easy to fire it up.
Rains of the previous week resulted in much mowing this week. The grass which had been well on its way to dormancy really cranked up but big John had no trouble with it. On Monday the city sealed our street, which entails putting down a layer of tar and covering that with gravel. The first couple of times a car came down the street while I was mowing I nearly jumped off the tractor. The sound of the gravel being picked up by the car tires and flung against the car’s undercarriage sounded above the normal mower noise like I’d run over Grandma’s good china.
Some six or seven year’s ago Grady gave us a hardy hibiscus and it had been languishing in the back where it didn’t get enough sun ever since. In the spring I transplanted it to the front where it gets full sun and it responded with a lot of good foliage. It never did bloom in the back and it hadn’t bloomed in the new spot until this week. Now it it s rewarding us with plentiful big red blossoms. The new water lily has also put up a bud I noticed yesterday. It hasn’t bloomed yet but will any day now. That’s gratifying since I was afraid it wasn’t going to even grow. Now it has sent up lots of nice pads. I had thought it might not bloom this year. Looks like it’s going to, though, and the blossoms should be pink to go with the nice white ones from the old lilies.
With the neighbors in Switzerland, I have to take care of their dog. Chris always walks him on a leash and, in fact, seldom lets him out unless he is on a leash. I found it disagreeable to be tethered to him since he is unruly and very strong. We butt heads over where to go and how fast and it isn’t pleasant for either of us. Now I have found that if I just let him go he takes off and runs around like you would expect a dog to. But once he’s worked out the kinks and answered the call of nature he comes back to where I am and finds a shady spot to relax in. He’s quite willing to come in when it’s meal time and then he’s ready to go back in the house, no doubt to enjoy the A/C. At the rate we’re going, we may be able to tolerate each other for the 12 days his master will be gone.
I’m glad you and Tino are working things out. Thank you so so much for taking care of him for us!