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

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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!

What’s next?

In our last post, we hinted at the changes in our travel—and that we did in February. For the first time, we traded in our familiar RV setup for an Airbnb stay.

We found a great little place in the Queen Creek/San Tan Valley area of Arizona. It was about 40 minutes from Gold Canyon, where our friends spend the winter, and about 40 minutes from ABN’s sister’s home. Pretty much everything seemed to be 40 minutes away, which somehow worked just fine for us.

The house itself was a two-bedroom in a gated golf course community. It had everything we needed—fast internet, a well-equipped kitchen, and miles of walking paths right outside the door. The patio, complete with a fire pit, quickly became our favorite spot, especially for hosting “Tipsy Tuesday.”

People we passed on our daily walks were always friendly, though since we’re not golfers, we didn’t really get to know the neighbors. Still, it felt like a bit of luxury living for us—no waste tanks to deal with, laundry just a few steps away, and an upscale grocery store only 10 minutes down the road.

But the real highlight? Having the space to share with friends. And we made the most of it, starting with a visit from Captain’s high school classmate Don and his wife, Anne, who came to stay with us from College Station, Texas.

A lovely walk at Boyce Thompson Arboretum 

Since they had never been to Grand Canyon, an overnight trip was in order, staying in the historic El Tovar hotel. The views were as stunning as we remembered from previous visits.

Returning to San Tan Valley, we chose the gorgeous Oak Creek Canyon Scenic route, stopping for a brief visit in artsy Sedona.

On Tuesday we introduce them to our Colorado friends, Adele and Steve.

It was a wonderful week with wonderful friends.

Rex and Anna (for those who may not know, Captain’s brother and his wife) joined us from College Station for the second week. For the most part, they did their own exploring during the day, and we gathered around the table in the evenings. That’s when the real fun began—games of Texas 42 dominoes and the family's traditional Pinochle card game quickly became our nightly routine.

Hiking together in Catalina State Park near Tucson,  they had a taste of dessert scenery.

They happened to be here on a Tuesday, so———-

O.H.S.O Brewery in Gilbert, Arizona

We didn’t host overnight guests the third week, but did enjoy visiting with ABN’s sister Mary and husband Steve. We were so busy reminiscing and catching up we neglected to take many photos. We did, however, capture one memorable moment on a walk; an eagle nesting on top of an cell tower.

Later we learned three baby eagles had hatched.

At sister Mary’s suggestion, we made the drive to Scottsdale to visit ButterflyWonderland , home to the largest butterfly conservatory in North America with over 60 species of butterflies.

                    

As it turned out, our good friends, Nancy and Bruce from Washington State, who we met during Covid (affectionately known as part of the Covid Cronies), were camping nearby at Lost Dutchman State Park, so they joined us for Tipsy Tuesday.

The last week of our February stay, we welcomed our hometown friend, Roger, for whom “Roger the Pickup” got its name. It was a relaxing week mostly doing our own thing, which included a nice, easy two mile hike in San Tan Mountain Regional Park.

On Tuesday, Adele , along with good friends, Paula and Rick from Oregon, gathered on the patio to bid us adieu__ until next year.

As luck would have it, our good friends, Juanita and Greg from Maryland, along with their friends Anita and Tom, arrived in Phoenix a couple of days before we left. Since they were not there on a Tuesday, we improvised.

What a wonderful February! The weather was great and we gathered with some of our favorite people.

Returning home the first of March took a little getting used to—trading stress free days for a never-ending to-do list, along with cold, dreary weather and all those projects waiting for attention.

Still, there were bright spots. ABN dove right into preparing for the return of the butterflies and hummingbirds, while Captain settled in for March Madness.

Now, with spring just around the corner, we’re looking forward to longer days, blooming color, and gathering again for Tipsy Tuesday with our hometown friends.