Random 5 for August 16 – Dad, weather, reunions, retail therapy, aging out

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On of the very few pictures I have of my Dad.

Happy birthday Dad! – Yesterday was my dad’s birthday. He would have been well over 100 years old. I always envied his summer birthday. Mine is in January when no one wants to celebrate! I drank a toast to him and celebrated his life. Wish I would have had more time with him.

A change – After a few weeks of insane heat, there is a coolness in the air. I can feel it when I walk in the morning. Maybe it’s also changing daylight but I can tell we only have a few more weeks of summer. This week we will have perfect weather except for a cool rainy day today. I want to be in the moment all the time!

Bye-bye reunion – After being hopeful for far longer than I should have, I have accepted that our family reunion will not happen this year. Too many health-challenged people to worry about. I’ll miss it as some relatives I only see at this once-a-year celebration.

A covid-19 lesson – I don’t need as much clothing. I may get tired of what I have but I have no need to shop for more. Shopping was therapy for me. Now I’m in need of therapy!

Here is a corner of the garden with the shed as backdrop. The fencing structure will have to come down.

The last year – There is a lot of outside work at my home. We have shrub borders which require weeding and pruning. Then there’s the garden and the pond. My energy and interest level is moving from in-ground gardens to pots. Simple pots. Easy peasy pots. I decided to dismantle the garden and revert it back to grass. It’s a passage and for me a big deal. There’s a time for everything and that time has passed.

So how was your week?

 

81 thoughts on “Random 5 for August 16 – Dad, weather, reunions, retail therapy, aging out”

  1. Hi Kate, I always remember/celebrate/am saddened by my Father’s birthday. I also wish I would have had more time with him. I am grateful my husband takes care of the “outside” work around our home. Fortunate this week to visit (COVID-style) with bloggers from out of town. Outdoor hikes and shenanigans. Grateful. Take care.

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  2. Cheers for dad’s birthday (Mine’s is Sept 19 – also a fall birthday – I always think of him happy in his vegetable garden working it for the final fall veggies). Having grown up as a farm boy, heat never seemed to bother him even in his 90’s…I keep reminding myself of that as I whine about how hot and scratched up I am working in the yard
    It’s hot here….multiple potential threats in the Gulf. We could use rain, but not tropical weather!

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    • No. Despite what I write, I’m not a big drinker. I’m hoping I don’t replace it with cats I’m still struggling with a replacement. I’ve had trouble concentrating to read during this lock down but I’ve amped up my walking so maybe that’s it.

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  5. Oh we had terrible, terrible heat here over the weekend! 35 celsius, and not to mention, the humidity! Ack! The older I get, the worse it is for me.Even with AC on, it was no less than 80 downstairs! (not central air conditioning, only 2 portable ac units) I am so not a fan of summer! I never have been, never will be. I felt the cool crisp fall wind blow in, and its nice! I LOVE it!

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  7. We were just commenting last night on how it’s beginning to get slightly less sunny around the 5:00pm hour. This year seems to just go on forever with no end, but I guess the calendar belies that kind of thinking. Great pic of your dad, Kate. – Marty

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  9. I have more yard than I can handle and this year has been particularly challenging trying to keep up with the watering. I’m not a summer person to begin with and I am so over this hot weather. I’m looking forward to more moderate temperatures in September.

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  10. So sorry about your family reunion! I think there is a lot of that going on this year. Although I haven’t been to either of my family reunions in quite a few years (it’s a really long trip) I always enjoy hearing about it and seeing the pictures. I know what you mean about realizing when it’s time to let things go. It always feels a little sad, but you know when it’s right.

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  11. Happy birthday to your dad. My daughter’s birthday is coming up at the end of the month. She’s on the other side of the country, so I have to trust that the PO will get her card and gift to her on time. We’ve been having a pleasant and slightly cooler than average summer. Today was our hottest day. So far no forest fire smoke.

    My granddaughter and her friends are serious about the environment. Even though they have a good salary, they dress simply and ride the bus. Her friend just had an article printed in Rolling Stone advocating de-growth. I like fashion and I like to shop, but I’m trying to cut down.

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  12. We’re in for a cooler workweek too – yay for that. We had torrential rain this morning (one inch of rain in less than an hour) and I held my breath as they’re doing construction on my cross street and they’ve made a huge mess and it’s not finished yet. Held my breath but it was okay – no flooding. On the next street, they repaired potholes and tore up the street for six months and now those folks are flooded every rainstorm. I look in my backyard, which ten years ago was my paradise but no more. I think, when I’m retired, should i invest the $ and time into perennials again – try to recreate the butterfly garden I had or just leave it as is, a colorless perimeter of green, with sad-looking shrub roses and a hydrangea which is now less than perky? If you take your beautiful garden down (hopefully not the pond too), I think I have my answer.

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      • I agree – I am weighing my options. Now, while still working, I am trying not to spend any more time doing yard work than necessary so I have a few years to decide … my boss has decided 2022 he will shut down his practice … that is not certain either. The economy, many clients retiring, merging, being acquired – even dying, has had a big impact. One of our biggest clients, the owner of the company took his 39-foot boat out Sunday night with 13 passengers. They hit a wake – boat rolled over with all the passengers into the water. Our client and a priest were lost and presumed drowned. The client’s wife committed suicide last September, not far from where the accident took place … she suffered from depression and walked into the water and drowned. They have three teenaged kids. We have some new clients, but many of our long-standing clients have had to hire their own H.R. person due to Obamacare paperwork, other rules and regs and don’t rely on my boss anymore to process grievances, do collective bargaining … it is a whole new world out there for a management labor attorney.

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  14. We just have a couple of tomato plants, a zucchini, and two peppers (one hot, one not) and even that is really too much produce for just the two of us. Pots may be the way to go next year. I envy you the rain; our summer has just started. August, September and at least some of October usually has the hottest temps.

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  18. I’m with you, pots are the way to go, Kate. Sadly, shopping is something my mother loved to do. Of course, having Alzheimer’s she merely looked around the stores. Since Covid, we don’t go into stores any longer. Long car rides out in the country are our new normal. I’m looking forward to some cooler weather, too. Not cold, just cool.

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    • Sometimes we get the best weather in late August through September. The earth is still warm so when it cools off at night it doesn’t get cold. Great walking weather. The last good anchor store in the mall closest to me is closing. It’s a tragedy. Not sure how the mall will survive. It only has the small chains with some nail salons and hair cutting places. There is an outside section with Staples, Spirits, Petco and my beloved Starbucks so I’d hate to see it completely shut down.

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  20. The last two days we had a “weather gift” of cooler days although it was accompanied with off and on rain. It was just a HINT of what’s coming with Fall but it was a wonderful hint. Ready for a change – I have not been impressed with this Summer! I switched from gardens to garden pots a few years ago mostly because of my bad back. I thought I’d miss seeing all the beautiful gardens but I don’t – I know the deer miss them though – that was their “all you can eat buffet” !! We have no family for a reunion but I’m sure I would miss that – sometimes it’s the only time you actually SEE everyone.

    Hugs, Pam

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    • Yes, I’ve appreciated Facebook because I can follow the relatives there and know what they are up to. With everything cancelled this summer and no socialing, no one is posting much. I went from a full garden of peppers and potatoes and a lot of other stuff to just tomatoes a few years back. Surprisingly I didn’t miss it. I was always trying to hand off veggies to people who were avoiding me. If I can rig up one tomato plant for us, I’ll be good. For the little we eat, I can pick up at our farmers market or our grocery store.

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  21. I hear you about the garden being too much work, but my new neighbours decided to tear out their extensive garden last week as they didn’t have time for it, and now it looks way too bare and has spoiled the view from my kitchen window, even though we have big back yards. They went extreme and tore out everything, and even cut down a new magnolia tree, and dug up a row of beautiful daffodils. It might look better when the grass grows, but I would have left a few things, including the dogwood privacy hedge between us! I mostly have easy care plants here, roses, hydrangeas etc, and a small white square garden bed for veggies. I didn’t buy any pots this year, and it was a relief not to have to water all those. Even though might be a small chore, in this heat, it meant freedom!

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    • Wow! They pulled out everything? I like having some large shrubs/trees to break up the grass just not planted willy nilly. It will look better when the grass grows. Our garden is down in our lower yard. No one can see it from windows and our neighbors can’t see it at all. It will actually look better because we get huge weeds down there outside of the garden. At least with grass it will all be mowed. I don’t over-pot. My first year here I had like 20 pots around. It was beautiful but it took almost an hour after work until I got around to all of them.

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      • 20 Pots! I thought I was bad with 11….that was the year I hired someone to water them as I was working evenings and it was too hot in the morning, and they never looked so good…..but it got too expensive, lesson learned, I cut back after that as it was just too much. Ah gardening, it’s fun, until it isn’t…..

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  22. So envy your cooler temps (rain…what’s that?). Still in the 90’s here and for the next 10 days. With a severe drought, catastrophic wildfires and hot windy conditions for the foreseeable future, I’m looking forward to ushering summer out the door in 36 days when autumn is scheduled to arrive.

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  23. I do welcome the release from the exhaustingly hot days. However, the tell tale change that we are heading towards winter is not particularly comforting to me. And in that same vane I wish we would do away with the time change. Some states don’t do it. Pick one…I don’t care which one…just pick one and stay with it.
    I tried growing tomatoes from seeds this year. I have one, very sad and sickly looking seedling in a pot by kitchen window. I am calling it the Christmas tomato. Maybe I will get one for Christmas!

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    • Hmmm…I like the time change. I don’t find it a big deal but I know some folks do. I like the later light in the summer and the early light in the winter. Different strokes. Tomatoes are touchy. They like rich soil and full sunlight. Sometimes I thing they grow better with a companion!

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  24. The weather is always relative. Our temps have dropped, but the humidity is just down right nasty out there. You are certainly right about the clothes, and I’m pretty sure any makeup I own has dried up by now because I’m not wearing makeup under masks although I know other women who do. Gardens versus pots – I get it. I took out several beds over the past few years. I still have way too many to maintain at my ‘mature’ age, but without drastically changing the landscape I can’t reduce it anymore, but I do not keep adding plants and I continue to get rid of things that are needy and require more maintenance. My raised bed veggies are pretty convenient to maintain so they’ll stay. Sorry about your reunion. I certainly understand but if there is one thing we need during this is family connections. Stay well.

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    • Our humidity broke. That was key. Makeup? I wore it three times all summer. Nope, not under masks because that would make me breakout. I get sweaty under there if I have to wear them too long. I don’t know how long we will stay in this house so anything I do I want to be “move-able.”

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    • I bought some new tee shirts at the beginning of the season and that’s it. My capris/shorts are good enough and since I buy basic you can’t really tell if the jean capris are from this year or 5 years ago! 🙂 I wear out tees but have enough for a decade.

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  26. My husband moved to pots when he ran out of space in the garden. Now we have garden and pots.

    Our weather is moving in the opposite direction–we’re seriously heating up for the first time this summer, after staying in the 60s and low 70s. This feels very wrong to me, but it happens every year.

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  27. I have a potted garden on my balcony this year (flowers only – can’t grow veg due to lack of direct sunlight). I miss my pole beans! I don’t know if I’ll ever want an in-ground garden again, but gardening in raised beds is appealing. Have you thought about getting some garden boxes instead or along with some pots?

    Deb

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    • My plan for next year is a rectangular garden box. I’ve seen them in magazines but may try to make myself. I had one at my last house for flowers on my large deck ad it did well. Didn’t dry out because it had enough soil in it. I will need to put some chicken wire around it because my critters love good food. I have my basil/parsley/dill in a pot and that’s working this year except for the dill. It got crowded out by the parsley.

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  29. The older I get the easier I like things too. Pots vs. garden…good decision. Enjoy this week’s weather. With a quiet week on pet sitting and nicer weather maybe I can catch up on steps.

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    • Even at 7 a.m. some of the mornings have been unbearably hot! Getting rid of the garden is hard for me because I’ve always had one. Even if it’s just tomatoes, they are wonderful. This year we’ve not been able to keep up with crop. There are only two of us and one of us isn’t into a lot of veggies (and it isn’t me!). Then there are the weeds. Good luck on steps.

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