First Bloom

I noticed the first rose bloom of the season yesterday on my way out the front door. While I think roses are very pretty and fragrant, I would never purchase rose bushes. I despise bees and wasps and yellow jackets a whole lot more than I like flowers so personally, I would never plant sweet things that attract them. Besides, roses are a pain in the a** to prune. I realize that these haven't had any attention for a year or so, but if I get impaled much more by those razor sharp thorns, I'm gonna rip 'em all out! In fact I'm gonna offer them to people at the hospital along with my three other major commodities of the property, rocks, weeds, and horse manure. You come dig it up, you can have it!

Right Under my Nose

Last night I fought off my desire to flop down on the new sofa and vegetate and instead managed to drag the hose around the yard and get some plants watered. I have given up on figuring out the fancy drip irrigation system that the previous owners installed. Guess I'm gonna have to call somebody in to look at it. With temps reaching the 90's this weekend I thought I'd better give whatever plants survived the long vacant summer last, a chance at survival this year.

As I was watering along the patio, I noticed a familiar fragrance that I love. As I looked/sniffed closer for the source of the perfume, I realized that what I had first thought as some sort of sage gone to weed in a valiant effort to survive, was in fact the plant that I was planning to go purchase and plant, already there in sextuplicate awaiting a long needed drink. Lavender. Even in it's gone-to-seed state the water rehydrated their fragrance, subtle yet unmistakable, lavender. Ahhhhh.

Oh boy, look what I bought.........an acre of weeds.

I am finally starting to settle in to the new house. While I am not just thrilled with the house itself or the set up of the property, I am thrilled with the location and as they say in real estate, "Location, location, location." I drove back to Lemmon Valley last night to clean out my thrift store donations which I had left in the old garage. I remembered my original intent to move to Golden Valley and after going back, I am happy that I never quite found the right place there. It's always amazing to me how the universe takes care of me if I just let it.

My biggest project is still my one acre of weeds. I made the horses corral larger and they helped clear a good portion, but it's pretty hard work moving 12 foot, six rail horse panels around by myself so the push mower, my back, and if I get really desperate, the neighbor's belching weed-eater, will have to take care of the rest.

So, now I concentrate on cleaning up this place and making it as cozy as I can. Today I have some furniture being delivered, this is the first new furniture I have ever bought, (R C Willey has some occasional good bargains in their clearance section) a leather sofa, an entertainment center and a hutch for upstairs linen storage. My old round screen T.V. is going to look p-r-e-t-t-y small dwarfed inside the middle of an entertainment center built for today's monster flat screens.