Monday, May 26, 2014

Scarlet Tanagers and Foxes



















Day 2 of Memorial Day Weekend.  On the drive up Friday night, I kept thinking to myself - I just don't know if I can keep this up anymore?  Here we are on our 10 year anniversary of living up here and I am feeling a little overwhelmed.  I know the last two years have been a little crazy and there has been more then the normal happening in our lives.  However, it still doesn't help me not feeling that I get a little exhausted thinking about how much work it is to keep up the house and gardens up here.  Being behind a second year and with yard maintenance, house upkeep and daily chores - I just don't know if we ever get the chance to relax anymore?  After Tim went to bed last night, I sat up for a couple hours not quite having a panic attack but just feeling that we will never get caught up.  I know it's an aspect of life but this place is supposed to be where we come to get away and relax?

We got up early and I started mowing.  With how large the property is, I have to break the mowing into  chunks of work.  Today, I was only mowing the front and side yard and that took me over two hours.  I will do the back yard next weekend and then the garden and garden beds after that.  It was tiring and my hands were tingling after two hours.  Tim planted potatoes, horseradish, herbs, ferns and shade plants, and then started weeding.  I set up my Dad's memory garden for the summer and propped up the fencing for the two fruit trees I planted next to the garden.  We stopped there and put up all the deer fencing back in the garden shed and took showers and had some lunch and spent the afternoon relaxing before Tim started dinner and I went to weed for a couple hours.  Sat in the backyard and had a conversation with my Mom in San Antonio on the phone.  I really wish she would come up here for the summer but she is so afraid to be far from her doctors.

While we sat in the living room,  this gorgeous Scarlet Tanager landed in a tree limb in our front yard.  We see them occasionally and I think they are one of the most beautiful birds up here.  Tim and I are determined this year to follow local birds and get to know all the different species better.

We had dinner - Tim made his baked brown sugar chicken with red pepper sauce, gazpacho and kale salad - yum.  We watched a couple movies and went to bed.  I sat up and got anxious and sitting in the dark of the living room ticked off in my head all the things I had to get done today.  I spent a restless night and got up early to have coffee.

As I stood there in our living room looking out to our front yard and listening to the birds chirping - this red fox walked out of the woods and across our driveway and back into the woods.  It was so beautiful and I haven't seen a fox yet up here.  It's things like that that make me realize how amazing life can be here and for the moment ward off feelings of giving up.  I will just have to get used to being overwhelmed, I guess.

Saturday, May 24, 2014

Memorial Day Weekend - Finally!

























It's been weeks since we have seen the light of day or the light of Bovina.  After I came back from San Antonio and moving my Mom into a new assisted living home and driving a U-Haul with my parent's stuff back to NY - then I jumped right into a new job - I am exhausted.

We missed most of Spring.  Everything bloomed and we have so much work to do to catch up.  I started a new job - VP of design for a new textile firm out of India.  I think I was in the office two weeks and then had to fly to Mumbai to meet co-workers in the Mumbai office and tour our factories.  May in India isn't pleasant - too hot and humid.  I traveled sick with a chest cold and couldn't speak for a couple days - cause I had lost my voice.

I stayed at this beautiful hotel - the Palladium in Mumbai.  (Photo of lobby seen above.) So pretty, great restaurants and a wonderful roof top bar.  I was traveling with my boss and we had a great time despite melting into puddles in front of each other doing factory tours.  Nothing makes you feel more humble then sitting in your own pool of man sweat.

Stopped in London quickly to do some market shopping and then had to fly back and get back into the swim of things.

Then, we flew a friend of ours into the city for her 50th birthday and spent 3 days shopping, eating and seeing a couple new shows.

So, we have been busy.  Today, we went to the dump, to the post office, grocery shopped, had the truck inspected, shopped for a wood chipper, pulled down all the deer fencing, took out all the pots and garden ornament and then took a break.  It's going to be a long weekend.  I am so tired at the moment.  Tim is making a batch of gazpacho while I just have a couple cocktails and then Mel and Marni are coming over and we are meeting friends in Fleishman's for mexican food.  It has been raining off and on all day.  A couple bottles of wine and some good food after an exhausting day will be nice.  Happy Memorial Day everyone!