Summer!

Bunnies. John discovered them under the raspberry bushes last week. They were gone by the time I got home. Mam obviously took them elsewhere for more privacy. All that straw John bought to help deter weeds has done nothing to keep the rabbit population down. Obviously it makes good nesting material :-).

It was a busy working week for both of us. We had rain up until Wednesday and it has been drying out since. Summer has finally arrived. Sunshine and warm temperatures (in the 80s) is the order of the day. Those warm temperatures have warranted a severe weather alert in the region, warning people to take precautions against heat stroke. It's all relative, right?

We did some of our errands yesterday. Today we will get our outside chores done in the early part of the day while it's still cool. Then we'll take a break until it's time to make dinner on the grill. Dining on the deck has become an anticipated part of the day. I plan to wash windows during my outside time and make blackberry jam in the afternoon.

This coming week brings visitors. My sister Karen and brother-in-law Gary will arrive on Wednesday to stay through the holiday weekend. I will work Monday and Tuesday and half the day on Wednesday before meeting them on the ferry. John will pick them up from the airport. After that, we will enjoy the company and showing off the area when it's at its most beautiful.

Since we're talking...

This week, John underwent a procedure called brachytherapy for prostate cancer. There. I said it. He came through fine and the recovery is pretty smooth-going.  It involves internal radiation, so no surgery occurred. We're grateful to have a team of very skilled doctors and anticipate this will do the trick for him. He will have check-ins every 3-6 months to confirm that the cancer has been properly eliminated, but we anticipate a full recovery. We have known this was coming this since the first of the year, so we're glad to have it completed. He will be staying home for the next month which is a bonus.

The peas are in and the Head Gardener brought in a nice bowl full yesterday. The rabbits have been nibbling the stalks so it's good that we can harvest some before they do any lasting damage.What's interesting about these peas is that they have purple pods (and flowers) and yet the peas inside are a brilliant green. We visited some friends yesterday who have a very nice garden. The secret is that they enclose it in plastic for much of the time to get that much needed heat. But they have beautiful lettuces and more. That project has been referred to the gardening department here at the Grant residence for further study.

We got our errands run yesterday and even took time to go out to Big Beef Creek in Seabeck to see if any eagles were about. We saw only one. Next year we must remember that they are usually plentiful just before Father's Day. But the weather was stunning and the views were crystal clear. Today it's cloudy and showering lightly. We'll do a couple of things in the garden, but it looks to be an inside day primarily.

And John is not the only one who is doing hard things for the sake of his health. I have been participating in a supervised dietary regimen and have lost 17 pounds so far. In 5 weeks. It's pretty restrictive (about 700 calories per day), but it's doing the trick and I feel very good. Much better than before I started on this adventure. My fasting blood glucose has normalized since the first week.  I have quite a bit more to lose, but it looks like I'm well on my way! And speaking of that, it's time to get going. We'll talk later...

The Boys are Back in Town ...

I talked about the problem we are having with rabbits in my last post. While they are very cute and interesting to watch, they have started to destroy the garden. That means war! The Head Gardener has taken to throwing stones at them. But we needn't have worried as the clean-up crew has gotten wind of them (literally) and are on the job. Two young coyotes walked down the driveway this week and began to sniff out the small invaders favorite spots. We haven't seen or heard any active "rabbit meets coyote" incidents, but the number of rabbits we are seeing seems to have gone down. Perhaps they decided this wasn't the idyllic resort they first thought and have decided to move on. Oh, John' s still throwing rocks, but hopefully they will continue to seek refuge elsewhere. Next up: planning for a fence around the garden. The honey-do list seems self-perpetuating at his point.

Earlier this week, I saw a deer standing among the fruit trees when I arrived home. She was quite large. It looked like there was a face-off happening between the deer and a rabbit who was standing firm at the base of the plum tree. She saw me through the window and seemed undecided about which way to go; toward the bushes on the road side of the house or to the ones that lead into the woods. So, I went out on the deck and she went back into the woods. We are discussing having a dog, but to be fair to the dog, we really need to be home more often.

John was away last week, but arrived home Thursday evening.  Always nice to have him back. He will be home for about a month now before he returns to California for an office check-in. During that time, we anticipate the visit of one of my sisters and brother-in-law over the July holiday. Just a kick-back and relax sort of visit. Our summer begins properly on July 4 when the weather stays consistently sunny and warm through September.

Here are some more pictures...

Rabbit Math

Rabbit Math. You know. Where 1 + 1 rabbits don't equal 2. We seem to have grown into a rabbit resort. We have rabbits any time of day in every place in our yard. Big ones, small ones, and in-between ones. Apparently they live about 8 years and are here for the duration. We have looked on the Internet for ways to get rid of them and are offered several suggestions: planting marigolds and lavender, spreading bone meal around, putting up fences (dug 8 inches into the ground), spraying coyote urine around (and just who is going to make that coyote spray anything anywhere?) and, finally, getting a dog. Maybe...
Meanwhile, Roosevelt watches these new invaders from the windows and he doesn't seem too pleased about the situation.

Speaking of new invaders, John has happened on some mice in the yard which jump. Yup. That's right. They jump. And there's a species of mice out here that are actually called Pacific Jumping Mice. I wouldn't make this up. If one of these ever gets in the house, I will be staying at the local hotel until it jumps right out the door. My trusty mouse-catching mixing bowl isn't going to do it for this one. I will be looking at nets fairly soon.

John has been here the past two weeks. He will disappear to California on Monday for a few days. It's been nice to have him here. We have eaten on the deck nearly every night as it's been very mild, in the 70s. He will miss the return of chilly temperatures when they return this week. He has been gardening up a storm. He planted some blue peas this year and they are putting on quite a show. Unfortunately, he discovers two of the plants had been chewed clean through at the bottom. Those pesky wabbits are pushing their luck now.

The weekend is flying by. Tomorrow, I will plant some annuals that I bought today. Some will go out in our little memorial to Zoe and some will go into a big blue pot on the deck for some summer color. I also bought a nice tomato plant and will put it in a pot near the deck where it can get lots of sun. We actually do get lots of sun. It just starts a little later here. Summer will suddenly be here on the 4th of July and will last until well into September. And when that happens, there truly is no more beautiful place...

Just Smiles...

Our anniversary was Wednesday! John made dinner for us and we reminisced about these past 14+ years. A lot has happened. We feel very good about where we are in life right now. And yesterday, we gave ourselves the gift of a new dining table and chairs (and one bench). It's a lovely Amish-built set, built from maple, and should hold whatever number of family or friends come to dinner. We weren't expecting to buy one as we went in "to look". The electronics store where we were dropping off an old printer for recycling wasn't yet open and this took our eye. Once inside though, the table and chairs were there and the rest is "history". They delivered it 3 hours later.

We also did our errands which involved a drop at Goodwill and a stocking-up visit to Costco. After the table delivery, there was still the banking to do, groceries, a trip to the office supply store, and to the Home Depot. And just to make things interesting, as John was mowing, he got mired in a still- too-wet spot down near the woods. After he tried for way too long to get the damned thing unstuck (pushing, pulling, placing this and that under the wheels), we brought the little Honda 4WD down, through the rock cairns, hitched up the tow rope which I had in my just-in-case kit, and pulled it out. That was pretty easy and did the job quickly. The bigger question was how I was going to get the car out of that small area through the cairns. Team Grant came through as John navigated me with lots of arm waving and sign language and finally we got the car positioned  to squeeze forward through a pair at the end of the yard. The day ended with dinner on the barbie, a video, and bed.

Today, we are having breakfast with friends at Port Gamble. John will take his camera "just in case" we spot any whales. Maybe I'll get some weeding done today. It promises to be a beautiful day, around 70 degrees. The rabbits are still here. Apparently they have found refuge under the shed. They can be seen nibbling here and there most any time of the day. One coyote walked through the yard one morning last week, but we haven't heard them in the night recently and they haven't found the rabbit hotel. We haven't put up any bird feeders this spring in hopes of deterring the bear from making us a regular fast-food stop on his spring wanderings.

Finally, we went to California over the holiday weekend to spend some face-time with the grandson. An absolute delight! He trued 9 months on Wednesday. He's doing all the things he's supposed to do at that age; pulling himself up, finger-feeding himself, putting everything in his mouth for close inspection. And his personality is lovely. He's a sprite. He will soon have words to say and will be more mobile as he figures out he can move laterally around furniture and, finally, independently across spaces. It won't be long. John and I enjoyed just holding him and interacting with him; just to get the reward of one of his twinkling smiles. I can't wait for the next opportunity to "play".