The day started an hour or so later today because I needed to post a professional email. The heat was telling after my usual hour and a half of morning rounds. I pushed on with my thistle clearing to the second valley oak below the retaining wall, maybe another fifteen feet. Fifteen feet and a slope clogged with thistle. The thistle was cut back and hauled away, and I applied a full gallon of Roundup on the areas that I cleared in the last two days. I may apply another round when I am back from Fresno the second week of October. We’ll see what happens when the rain comes.
I replanted a palm tree in the music room that was in too small a pot without even a full complement of soil. Next I re-potted a jade plant that was growing out the bottom of its black plastic container, deploying a beautiful ceramic pot from the front porch. Finally I transplanted one of Judy’s ivy plants that was hidden and suffering from neglect. Satisfying work, even though the midday heat was intense. I applied a Miracle Gro product that purportedly stimulates root growth and avoids transplant shock. The instructions are to repeat the application in seven days.
Stepping outside to admire my thistle-clearing work once more, I saw a family of quails scouring the far side of the back lawn. They appear to be fattening up for the winter.
I was applying the second finish coat on the fence at sunset. I had a few minutes of daylight after the sun officially set behind the horizon. The paint color is a white with the faintest tinge of pink, as close as I could come to the background house color. The pink came out proudly when back lit by the last light of day.
I have long resisted writing a diary or blog because I have always been self-conscious, writing too much for the expected reader in the future. Today may be a breakthrough. I can write just to remember the things that impressed and delighted me during the day and that I do not want to forget.
A Year at the Snake 