Shelley Starts Again in 2024 - chapter three

I'm Shelley, retired primary special education teacher. Mum to 2 rescue boys who are finally settling in and now own the place: (Hurricane) Theo and (my very) Owen. They will grace my threads from time to time because, well, just because!

My reading plans for this year, such as they are, is to read more off my own shelves in order to get them moving, as well as to read more Canadian authors. I seem to say this every year but, I meant it this time (I seem to say THAT every year, too!;-)

It is pouring buckets, as I type, and while I'm sure the garden (and the mushrooms!) love it, I haven't had to water much, myself. We had a few hot days over the last week or so but today is much cooler. I wish I could bottle these cool temps and save them for the heat I know is coming....!

My clematis in the front of my house has come back. I wasn't sure it would as I cut it right down to the ground last fall. It was so straggly and pathetic and I figured it had simply come to the end of its life. I thought if it didn't come back, I'd buy another or try something else in that spot. Not nearly as many flowers as in past years but it's still spring so who knows:



And, in the back of the house, against the fence I share with my neighbour, where it is mostly shady, I bought a little shelving unit that looks like a staircase. I like the look! The other plants are sitting on the lid of the storage bin.

As I mentioned in my last thread, my sweet little Owen had major surgery a week ago. 9 teeth and 2 masses removed. The biopsy results were good: no cancer at all in either mass and no more doggy breath or drooling! This may be the first time in his short life (he is only 6 years old) that he has been pain-free! Cats don't show pain the way dogs (or humans) do so who knows. He has bounced back to his playful self and has forgiven me for forcing him to go to the vet for 3 appointments in a row!

One of the meds I had to give him was codeine, administered as a cream, rubbed into the inner ear flap. That was supposed to happen twice a day for one week. I succeeded for exactly one and a half tries before deciding that maybe it wasn't worth losing my fingers over. And then, I realized this: Theo grooms Owen every day and it is likely that if I hadn't stopped, Theo would be getting the hit of drugs instead of Owen! Besides, being groomed by his brother was probably better medicine for him anyhow:

The other day, I went into a card shop to look for a graduation card for my cousin's son. I did find one but also saw this and cracked right up. In the thank you card section. Very clever!

Wordle 1,084 3/6 ocean, lemon, melon

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reserved

Welcome!

HI! Love clematis. I've never been able to grow it. My soil is so poor around the house. Deer would probably chomp it off anyway.

>8 laytonwoman3rd: - Hi Linda. It's not so much that my soil is bad (it's not great, mostly clay-like though I amend it regularly) but I have filtered sun, at best, in the front. I face west so should, in theory have full sun all afternoon but there is a tree on my front lawn so there is never full sun. What actually ruined the clematis and my grass and some other plants is the over-salting done by our so-called landscape company, every winter. I have complained about this (and not just me, by the way). When they come around, they scatter the salt across the driveway like chicken feed and much of it ends up on the lawn and garden. The salt they use doesn't seem to melt so it remains. Because our townhouse is a condo corporation, we need permission for every bloody thing. I wrote a letter to the board, complete with photos of the damage done, and asked that I be allowed to be exempt from their services. I said I would do my own shovelling in the winter and even my own salting, to prevent potential slip and fall liability because I would salt only where actual feet might walk, which excluded my lawn and garden. The board wanted me to pay for a lawyer to draw up a document to sign saying I'd assume responsibility. I said no, I would not pay a penny to prevent the *landscapers* from ruining my lawn and garden. And so, despite being told not to speak directly to the landscapers, I do just that. I shovel before they arrive and I tell them I will do my own salting. It's an ongoing battle, winter after winter, but the bottom line is, I have reseeded my lawn and my garden, including the clematis, is coming back.

Aren't you glad you commented, lol?

Happy new thread, Shelley.

Lovely flowers in >2 jessibud2:

>2 jessibud2: Beautiful pictures of your flowers. The clematis will have more blooms on it next year once it gets over the shock of it's haircut ;)

>3 jessibud2: Glad Owen is doing well!

Happy new thread

>9 jessibud2: I am glad I commented! My MIL was a great gardener up until she went into an assisted living facility two years ago. At her apartment, she had the loveliest flower beds, and a glorious purple clematis. One year I gave her a small potted hydrangea for Easter, and she planted it outside...it grew to unbelievable proportions and flowered profusely. She even grew roses. She fought the same battle over sidewalk salt with the apartment management, but she had a good relationship with the maintenance man and persuaded him to be respectful of her flowers. She also pointed out to the mgmt. that they had used a photograph showing the outside of her apt. with all the flowers in full bloom on their website, and no other building in the complex had anything to compare because THEY did nothing in the way of landscaping other than cutting the grass. It always amazed me what she could do--into her 90s--to keep up her mini garden.

Happy new thread, Shelley! I love seeing the picture of your boys.

Happy Saturday, Shelley. Happy New Thread. I love the garden & kitty pics.

>12 laytonwoman3rd: - Thanks for that, Linda. And kudos to your MIL!

>13 alcottacre:, >14 msf59: - Hi and thanks, Stasia and Mark.

Wordle 1,085 3/6 ocean, wince, hence

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Happy new one, Shelley!

Happy Saturday! It is sunny. I'm going to paint my deck. It isn't a large space. My outside flower projects are near finished. I have a neighbor who worked for a large floral business. I brought a cone flower from the front of the house (they were taking over,) and I moved it to the back yard space of flowers. Yesterday, I noted that even though I blocked the plant in the hope it would root before the deer got it, and alas, they started chomping on it last night. My neighbor told me that if I place a bar of soap in the plant, the deer will leave it alone...Here's hoping.

I hope your day is a good one Shelley. Thinking of you!

Happy new thread, Shelley. I enjoyed the lovely pictures of your garden but even better where the shots of Owen checking out the carrier in your previous thread. When pigs fly, indeed!

>10 PaulCranswick:, >11 figsfromthistle:- Sorry I missed you up there, Paul and Anita!

>16 drneutron:- Thanks, Jim.

>27 jessibud2:- Hi, Linda. I haven't had deer problems though we do get bunnies. I keep my lettuce in pots, not on the ground. So far, so good... Good luck with your painting project

>18 Familyhistorian:- Hi, Meg. Yeah, that was pretty funny. Hopefully, I won't have to test his curiosity any time soon! Lol

Happy new thread!

Happy New Thread, Shelley! I love the graduation card! It made me chuckle too. Your deck looks great! Dave has said that as our wooden one is not doing well - I think it is rotting, he is going to cover it with some sort of plastic tiles. But so far, that is just talk on his part. I'm glad Owen is recovering well from his surgery and looks like the brothers get along really well.

>21 banjo123: - Hi and thanks for visiting, Rhonda!

>22 vancouverdeb: - Hi Deb. What I have is not a deck at all, just a patio. There was grass on either side but I dug it up and replaced it with soil (it's taken years to get it how I want it) so that I could plant stuff. The ground is uneven and before the massive tree came out a few years back, the roots were causing the patio tiles to shift and move. Once they took out the tree and ground down the stump, and excavated my entire backyard, they also raised the ground level when putting it all back (to prevent further flooding). The roots are still underground, obviously, but no longer alive and other than the gift of mushrooms they send me as they decompose, aren't causing any problems (that I know of!). Being in a townhouse yourself, you know that the space is actually quite small so I try to make my garden bigger by utilizing the fence and the arbour I bought, to hang things on. That way, I can trick myself into believing that I have a bigger garden than I actually do, lol!

(that card I posted was actually a thank you card; I went in looking for a graduation card but when I saw that one, I had to take a photo of it, it was so funny)

Tricky today:

Wordle 1,086 5/6 meaty, pious, clock, croon, crowd

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Hi Shelley my dear, Happy New Thread dear friend.

Aw, poor little Owen having medical issues but so glad that he's feeling better and has a friend to help! My little Boomer kitty was diagnosed with hyperthyroidism a couple months ago and I give her transdermal meds in her ear twice a day. Luckily, she's pretty good about it, especially if I catch her when she's sleeping (which really isn't hard, frankly!).

Your flowers are lovely! My clematis are having their best year ever, probably because we had a very wet early spring and no hail, so far. Knock wood.

>25 johnsimpson: - Thank you, John. Hope you are doing well.

>26 Copperskye: - Thanks, Joanne. In over 40 years of being a cat mom, I have never had problems giving any meds, transdermal, even pills. I did need help when one of my cats developed kidney disease near the end of his life and needed hydration via injection. I tried but couldn't so a friend did it for me, a few times a week. But Owen is in a class by himself. Everything is on his terms and I have come to accept that. I have employed every special ed trick in the book (I used to be a special ed teacher and have learned how to adapt to meet the needs, so to speak) but he is doing well now and that's what matters. I keep reminding him that I have to live to see this through or he will be in even bigger trouble so he needs to try to be a bit more cooperative. Maybe he got the message.

I thought I caught wordle in a big mistake. But no, it was just me who forgot this was actually a real word.

Wordle 1,087 6/6 ocean, plant, mangy, mangi, mango, manga

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Happy new thread, Shelley!

I was as surprised as you were, about Owen in the carrier in the previous thread. Maybe he now associates the carrier with less pain?
Your flowers are beautiful. The clematis will probably grow back, mine usually do, until they don't ;-)

>29 FAMeulstee: - Thanks, Anita.

Phew, indeed:

Wordle 1,089 6/6 ocean, write, utter, meter, peter, deter

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Third guess seems to be my bugaboo. I always mess up there, mostly by inattention. Today was no different. By the 4th guess, though I messed up again, I realized I had all 5 letters. Just to get them in the right order! This game really taxes my brain, but that's a good thing, right?

Wordle 1,090 5/6 quote, thank, train, slang, angst

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I finished Ann Patchett's Tom Lake and quite liked it. I love a story where the layers are peeled back a bit at a time to reveal the underbelly and core of the story. I also like when the author trusts that the reader is intelligent enough to read between the lines, without always having to spell everything out. This novel gave me all of that. Highly recommended. I don't even think you need to have read or know Our Town though it surely helps.

I also read a new one by Roz Chast, called I Must Be Dreaming. I have to say, I generally like Chast's weird humour but this one nearly got DNF'd. I just didn't find any of it funny, not even a little bit. It was just weird. And yes, perhaps that was the point. Dreams ARE weird, under any circumstances. But somehow, it just did nothing for me. Oh well.

Yet again, I seem to be having trouble settling on my next book. I have begun 3 and will see what sticks. A memoir by Julie Andrews, Home Work, a biography of Bessie Smith, Bessie Smith A Poet's Biography of a Blues Legend and a book about the *emotional calendar*, which I think will be interesting, as long as it doesn't get too boring, The Emotional Calendar. We shall see...

Love the photos, and the T.Hanks card Shelley.

A little late, but happy new thread--love the garden pics, they make me do a happy sigh.

>32 jessibud2: Glad to hear Tom Lake is a good one; I picked it up at a library sale.

I enjoyed Julie Andrews' Home: A Memoir of My Early Years , but I haven't read Home Work so will be interested to hear your thoughts.

Glad Owen is feeling better and love how your back patio is coming along -- it looks great! Tom Lake was a good one. Hope you settle in to your next one today. : )

>33 Caroline_McElwee: - T.Hanks, Caroline, ;-). I may go buy that card next time I am downtown. It still makes me chuckle.

>34 kac522: -I own that first memoir, Kathy but haven't read it yet. I borrowed this from a friend so decided to give it a go now. I don't think it matters, in the grand scheme of things, that I haven't read her first one. Today the heat arrived and I put out a trellis as my gaura is growing quickly and will sure need to be trellised very soon. I love sitting out in the back, in my little oasis, reading, as I did yesterday but not today and not for the foreseeable future as the temps are only said to be going up over the next week. No fun if you can't breath out there!

>35 Berly: - Hi Kim. Owen will take the last hit of his antibiotic tonight at dinner. He is a happy (and cuddly) boy these days and I feel a tad guilty that I waited so long (not by choice, I might add; he didn't make it easy) to get his mouth fixed. But I think he is pain-free and maybe for the first time, for him, so it's all good now.

Wordle 1,091 5/6 meaty, karat, jabot, fault, vault

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Wordle 1,092 3/6 meaty, shirt, proud Better today

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Wordle 1,093 4/6 ocean, fling, briny, grind

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I am still trying to wrap my head around the news of Anita's passing. Maybe in some way, it was good that it was sudden and fast. Hopefully, she didn't suffer. But still, she was only 61 and that is just far too young. She still had so many plans (not to mention, books!) ahead of her. I know how much she was looking forward, with Frank, to his retirement and the time that lay ahead of them. It was incredibly thoughtful, given the circumstances, for him to post here, to let us know. I can only hope he has a good support system of friends and family around him. And I hope he comes back to at least read the outpouring of love from her LT family.

Which brings me to some thoughts. I am pretty sure there was a conversation about this some years ago, here or maybe it was just me, on another site or just with friends. I can't remember. But in this day and age, especially as most of us here are *of that age* when we are thinking about or actually doing things to plan for our future, ie, wills, powers of attorney, etc - it seems a no-brainer to also have a digital power of attorney or digital executor. Our lives are online these days, everything is online. I have (and am in the process of updating) a little notebook of websites I belong to, passwords, etc. Also, online subscriptions, whether they be newsletters, news services, anything, really, that might have to be cancelled, or people informed, in the case of my death.

For those of us, like me, who live alone, it's important to designate someone you trust and let them know where to find the notebook. It should also likely include local (not online) people to inform, such as doctors, etc. You know, when you sit down and start, it's a daunting task. I try to remember, though, that it will be far worse without this information.

Has anyone here done this already? Even, thought about it? It's kind of scary but so very necessary. I have online friends - not only here on LT but in other places - who I have never met in person. How would any of us know if something had happened to them or me? Do we just disappear into the ether of cyberspace like a click of the delete button? :-(

In keeping with the spirit of a memorial for Anita that Paul suggested, I have chosen 2 books from Anita's top favourites that I happen to have on my shelves to read in her memory. I will try to get to them sooner rather than later. They are: Americanah and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay

Wordle 1,095 5/6 music, chart, clone, cored, cover

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Morning, Shelley. I think we are all still stunned about Anita's sudden passing. It is like losing a family member. I like the idea of reading one of Anita's favorite books. A perfect tribute.

>32 jessibud2: I am glad to hear that you enjoyed Tom Lake! I went ahead and read Our Town again after having read the Patchett book, but it really was not necessary. Ann Patchett is one of my LT discoveries :)

>41 jessibud2: What a great post, Shelley. Thank you.

Have a terrific Tuesday!

>41 jessibud2: Yes, I have named my nieces and nephew as my executors. Every once in a while I send them an email with information on my financial details. I also told them where to find important papers in my house.( and the too many passwords for organizations that I use!)

>44 alcottacre: - Stasia, if you haven't yet viewed the film of Our Town, starring Paul Newman as the Stage Manager, see if your library has a copy of the dvd. I did that last year and it was great. It was the first time I had revisited the story since we did in when I was in high school, a million years ago!

>43 msf59: - You are right, Mark. Our LT group IS family.

>45 torontoc: - Too many, indeed, Cyrel! I certainly never realized how many I had until I started to do this. In truth, there is not a chance in hell I'd remember any of them if they weren't catalogued somewhere!

>41 jessibud2: Having had to deal, unexpectedly, with the auto-related death and disability of an aunt and uncle who had named me as their Attorney-in-Fact in such an eventuality, I know how hard it can be to cover all the bases. So I have given this a LOT of thought for myself and my husband. Of course, my aunt and uncle had no internet presence whatsoever. I have a list of sites and sign-ins for my daughter, who would probably be stuck with the task. I also have this book designed for recording all essential information, which I haven't finished filling in. It has pages for all sorts of accounts, passwords, medical contacts, funeral wishes, etc. A great organizer, readily available from Amazon and other places.

>41 jessibud2: I created a little notebook called my 'Life after Death book' which is all the information my sibs would need. I try to remember to update it every year Shelley. Its a lovely little notebook with a Cezanne painting on.

What I'm not yet achieving is getting rid of loads of stuff.

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So sad about AnitaF.

>48 laytonwoman3rd: - Interesting book, Linda. I may have to check it out. Sounds like it would work.

>49 Caroline_McElwee: - I love your notebook title, Caroline. And hmmm, I can relate to your *dilemma*. I have been trying for years, myself...

Well, this was a surprise!

Wordle 1,096 2/6 meaty, terse

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Happy new thread, Shelley, Great photos.

Like you and I think everyone in the 75's, I am shocked and saddened by the loss of Anita. She just seemed to young and healthy. It was indeed kind of Frank to think of coming into the group and letting us know. I do have a book of password written down, but it so disorganized I have to search for passwords myself. I joke that if someone broke in the password book would be of no use to them. I'm glad you got wordle in two, Shelley!