Where has Tipsy Tuesday gone?

 

Perhaps you've noticed that no Tipsy Tuesday flag has appeared over the past several weeks.

For more than a dozen years, we've gathered with friends on Tuesday evenings during the warm months to share a glass of wine, good conversation, plenty of laughter and to discuss who has had what joints replaced recently. Over the years, the venue has changed with the seasons—and with life itself. We've gathered on the screened porch,

on the patio,

and, after our neighbors removed their aging hackberry tree (along with our shade!), we migrated to the carport.

Our chairs, fans, extra tables, and all the other Tipsy Tuesday paraphernalia used to be stored on the upper deck and screened porch, accessible only by climbing a few stairs. As we've gotten older, we've found that the summer heat and humidity—and hauling everything up and down those steps each week—has become less appealing.

But don't worry—we have no intention of giving up our Tuesday tradition!

Like so many other aspects of aging, we've simply learned to adapt. Until the weather becomes a little more tolerable, we're hosting smaller groups of six to eight friends inside the house. Sometimes it's a "mini" Tipsy Tuesday with our usual drinks and snacks. Other times it's a "bring your own meal" evening while we provide the beverages—a happy throwback to our pandemic gatherings.

Of course, we could all meet at a restaurant, but we've discovered there are real advantages to gathering at home. Friends with gluten, sodium or other restrictions can bring food that suits their needs, conversations are much easier for those of us with hearing challenges, and, if we're being honest... our wine selection is better!

In an earlier post, we mentioned that making changes to make aging easier has taken more work than we expected. One of those projects has been creating a more user-friendly outdoor space.

Instead of storing everything upstairs, we now keep our outdoor furniture and entertaining supplies in a patio storage unit that's easily accessible. It's one of those small changes that makes a surprisingly big difference.

Before long, the Tipsy Tuesday flag will be flying again. But for now, plants have been pruned, watering system set, clothes are packed and we are headed for Alaska!

Goal Accomplished

well, kind of.

One of the advantages of aging is we wake up early! Some might not think this is an advantage, but for those of us who love being outdoors it is a blessing. As soon as the day breaks, ABN is in the garden. In early June the chores consisted of watering and grooming, which can be completed in an hour or less. We were pleased with our efforts as we had been in a 5-6 month drought. And then it happened! The rains came, bringing us about 9 inches in the last two weeks of June. With that said, how about a tour?

Let's start with an overview from the security camera. Here you can see how we used ground cover.

The Micro Clover and Creeping Thyme ground covers have decreased the weeding.

Decreasing the size of the zinnia bed allows more attention to keeping it in control

Using tomato cages to support the zinnias worked well in keeping them upright.

This is basically an annual bed with an amount of experimentation.

A little reminder.

The rain did not create a total washout as ABN has been cutting blooms and doing a bit of propagating between showers. 

And the garden she-shed is much neater.

We are not finished with the garden project as ABN has a few ideas to be completed in the fall. (Is a garden ever completed? Or for that matter, an old house renovated?)

Meanwhile, Captain has been in a tactical battle against backyard squatters. With the addition of a couple Ring cameras, we have identified at least one of the intruders to be a raccoon.  We successfully caught a raccoon (and a possum) in a trap last summer and relocated them. However, these critters (or their off springs) are relentless and apparently have deemed the space under our screen porch as the perfect space in which to hangout. Now, we are inclusive and hospitable and don’t mind that they use our fountain to shower, but we are not inclined to welcome large families (aka offspring's) into our home. So, Captain has been on a mission to block the entry. When the entry is blocked the squatters create another. The trap set with fresh fruit is totally ignored.  Perhaps it is time to change the bait to peanut butter. In the meantime, the local big-box stores are enjoying a healthy spike in concrete block sales.

Early summer has not been totally about the garden. We had a little get-away in Cincinnati to enjoy a ‘Wailin Jennys' concert. If you are not familiar with this band of three women out of Canada who play folk, bluegrass and Americana music, you can check them out  on YouTube. We think they were worth driving over 300 miles to see in person. 

The concert was held in the beautiful historical Memorial Hall in the ‘Over the Rhine’ art district as was our charming Symphony Hotel. Nearby was the lovely Washington Park.

We ended our little excursion with a stop for a tasting and tour of Michter’s distillery in Louisville

.

July started with another little excursion during the severe heat dome and more rain. Our drought hardy plants are showing a bit of stress, hopefully this will only give them a set-back. We will bring you up to date in a few weeks. In the meantime, ABN is working her way through James Mitchner ‘s Alaska, (there’s a reason for that.)

Before we leave this post of our month of June, we would like to share a little tip that has proven useful as we navigate the aging journey. As we have previously mentioned, we are consistently disposing of things we no longer use. This increases space which ultimately produces reorganization.  To assist our memory of where we place seldom used items, we have created a “Where did I put it” list. The list is in the notes app on both our phones. While it doesn’t help with all our age related forgetfulness , it often saves a bit of frustration.

Now where I leave my cup of coffee?

 

 

How’s it going?

 

If you recall, last spring (May 5, 2025), we talked about making our home and garden more age-appropriate. It has been a lot of work, but we are making progress — and here’s a preview of what we’ve been up to.

Remember the stair-step deck by the craft studio?

It is no more!

                                                                                                   

The new setup makes planting and caring for the lantanas much easier.

Last fall we removed the greenhouse and replaced it with a raised garden bed 

and a patio greenhouse.

We’ve talked about ground covers before, and we love the micro clover so much that we added another bed.

The creeping thyme continues to thrive beautifully.

We are considering adding a few more ground covers in the future.

While concentrating on drought-hardy perennials, we also installed additional soaker hoses in preparation for the expected summer drought. Garden hoses were repositioned as well, making watering much easier and more convenient.

More changes are still in progress. If all goes as planned, we’ll soon be sharing photos of the entire garden.

Even with a very busy spring season, we still found time to take a few breaks. We traveled to College Station to attend Captain’s 55th high school reunion 

and a visit with  our good friends Don and Anne in College Station, Texas. Anne is an accomplished Master Gardener, and ABN always leaves her garden feeling refreshed and inspired.

During a weekend trip to St. Louis, we met up with family and attended a dance performance at the St. Louis Dance Theater featuring our granddaughter, Camille.

Since it was a professional performance, we did not take photos during the show, but we were granted permission to use some from St. Louis Dance Theater. 

Photo Credits go to Carley Vanderheyden.

Now it is time to get back to work. Stay tuned for the reveal of our next major gardening project — coming soon!