Late nights on the deck and the hairy puppet

Taken at Elizabeth's going away party

Note Jacob's Phillies shirt, given him by Elizabeth

and the man she's leaving us to be with



Elizabeth and I have developed the habit of meeting on the deck for a glass of wine to end the day. It’s a time for reflection, deep thoughts, silly comments, and whatever. As the time for her move approaches, we find ourselves more often in deep thoughts—a whole new life for her, a big adjustment for me.

But Saturday night Jacob was with us, and we were all downright silly. In packing, Elizabeth had come across a hairy puppet she’d had for years. She gave it to Jacob. At first I thought it was just plain ugly, but that night when she began to make it talk and dance, I was enchanted. So was Jacob, who named it Harry. Sophie thought it was another dog and was less entranced—she went from curious to jealous (she did that last night too with Jordan’s two dogs here—I guess a second dog at my house is not a good idea). Elizabeth is really good at making Harry look and act like a character from Sesame Street, all in pantomime. Harry doesn’t talk.

We sat and laughed and giggled at Harry’s antics and stayed up far too late. Jacob went to bed at eleven-thirty, much to his parents’ dismay the next day. He said he likes to stay here because he gets to stay up so late. Not sure if that’s a gandmother’s privilege or my weakness. He asked if he could still have five minutes TV after he got in bed, and I said yes but when I went to turn it off he was already half asleep.

Jacob slept with Harry that night, but the next day Sophie still wasn’t reconciled to the puppet. If Jacob left it on the bed, she jumped up on the bed to get it. If he carried it around, she jumped at him. I’m glad to say that Harry has gone home to Jacob’s house. Much as I enjoyed his antics, I’d be glad if he didn’t visit too often.

But Harry will be part of Elizabeth’s legacy after a year of living in my garage apartment. She also leaves me a new fridge and a microwave in the apartment…but I’ll talk about her greatest gift tomorrow.

The rats are back

I thought the rat repeller I bought was a great invention. The rats disappeared from our trees, and I settled back into rat-free contentment….until Elizabeth told me one morning last week that she was sitting at her desk, looked idly out the window to see a rat “frolicking” in the back yard. The next day it was three rats. They came and went from under the new deck. Jordan said all I had done in building the deck was to create a rat haven. In the few days I was away, the rats grew bolder. Elizabeth wrote me that it was time for the exterminator. See the picture above that she sent.

By serendipity, a couple of nights later as we sat on the deck, a black kitten, maybe three months old and way too skinny, came walking up the driveway. We held Sophie back as best we could, but she was ballistic and wanted that cat. The cat decided retreat was the best option, even though there was a fence between it and the dog. I posted about the stray kitty on the neighborhood email, only to be told that others had found kittens and apparently someone had dumped a litter in our neighborhood.

Next morning, lo and behold, the kitten had taken up residence on my neighbors’ front porch. It followed Jay when he went to get the paper and then settled down on the porch again, comfy as could be. Elizabeth bought food, and she and Susan fed it and gave it water, for which it was apparently grateful. We thought we had a rat catcher, and Elizabeth began to think of ways to transition it from Susan’s front porch to our driveway. Today, however, no one has seen it.

Meantime, Elizabeth’s yoga partner told us that mothballs work, so tonight she scattered mothballs under the deck (where my dog can’t get them), and we’re hoping for the best.

But I have to say there’s a weird psychic connection here. Elizabeth sees the rats. I’ve never seen one (okay I did see one in the trees tonight—there was a slight chance of rain and I took the repeller inside). I’ve never seen them “frolicking” in the yard, and I said when Elizabeth leaves for five days over Labor Day and we don’t see rats, I’ll know there’s a connection.

So she did some research on rats and the Chinese Year of the Rat. Rat traits are: cleverness, problem solving, order of things, and desire. They have a gift for getting what they want and can seek out and find what most cannot. They have the intelligence to figure out mazes and the nose so they may lock onto their desire. They can fit in places where others cannot. As long as there is an opening large enough to get their head through, the body will follow. Rat’s teeth are constantly growing, so gnawing through something as trivial as iron pipes makes them an undesirable force. There’s a legend about Rat being honored as the first animal of the Chinese zodiac and forever alienating Cat. But I won’t go into it here.

Suffice it to say, I’m worried about the pipes and the wiring in both houses on my property. Hope those mothballs work.

Goodbye, pests!

For a week or more, Elizabeth and I have been meeting on the deck about nine for "rat watch." She spots them; I don't. Sophie barks at them. As I think I posted the other night, one fell out of the sky right next to Elizabeth, skittered dazedly around the deck, and took off. Fortunately, Sophie did not catch it. Last night Elizabeth activated (that's my right brain again--I don't do well with printed instructions) the sonic rat repeller I ordered. We think it worked! There was much less activity in the trees, and though Sophie sat on alert watch, she didn't find much to bark at.
Neighbor Susan has a theory: hawks are nesting a few blocks away, and they drove the rats out of their area to ours. Her husband keeps offering to go after them with a pellet gun, but I know what goes up must come down, and I'm fearful it will come down on Sophie. So our faith is in the rat repeller. We'll go out tonight to see if it works, and then that's the last joint rat watch for almost two weeks, as Elizabeth leaves for India tomorrow, taking a group of yoga students, including Susan.
Rat watch has a side benefit. Elizabeth and I have always been close, since she was my help-study worker in the office twenty years ago, but now we seem to bare our souls out there while watching rats (maybe it's the wine!). At any rate, I will miss her these next two weeks. And I do feel the bond between us has grown much stronger. Thanks, rats! My mom always told me all things work to some good end.
But there's another pest we worried about--mosquitoes and the ever-present threat of West Nile Virus. We used to slather ourselves with repellent--fortunately Elizabeth put me on to an organic one that doesn't smell so bad and doesn't have Deet. But some guests say, "No, I want the poison, the stuff with Deet." Jordan is obsessive about protecting Jacob, because the mosquitoes love him.
Now we have, thanks to Mary Dulle, a mosquito repellent lantern (boy, those were really complicated instructions and I thank Elizabeth and my good friend Linda for putting it together). We've discovered the last two nights that it's really effective.
So we sit in a rat-free (we think) and mosquito-free environment and listen to the tiny fountain that Katie Sherrod gave me. I mean, is that bliss or not?

Busy days

Do you ever get so busy you feel like you're chasing your tail? That's been me this week, waking early and feeling the pressure of getting this, that, and the other done. So that explains no posts for the last couple of nights--nothing interesting to write about while I chase my tail.
I tell myself that all will get done in good time, to slow down and relax, and I think I'm doing that on some levels--but there's a part of my subconscious that hasn't learned to let go of my lifetime habit of being compulsive about deadlines (many of which I set myself).
Today, I told myself I would have a long spell to work on the novel I'm editing, but you know what? It didn't work. I didn't spend that much time on it. I fixed supper for company in the morning (a cold supper that would keep), I cleared up odds and ends in email, and I read Facebook. And this afternoon, I took a long nap--I mean really long. Think I needed the rest. Woke up when Jordan came to get Jacob, saw them off, and promptly decided to crawl back in bed for another forty-five minutes.
But tonight good friends I haven't seen for a while came, and I served my first "company" supper on the deck--an amazing sandwich made out of one round loaf of parmesan bread, a pasta salad, an appetizer of cheese, curry and chutney, and frozen Black Forest cake for dessert. We sat on the porch, laughed and joked about times past and times present. They are a delightful couple--I've known Linda probably for more than thirty years, and Rodger, her second husband, ever since she married him--can't remember how long ago\. They are comfortable, though always bantering with each other. Sometimes I side with one, sometimes with the other. But it was fun and relaxing to sit outside with them on a pleasant evening.
Watch Potluck with Judy tomorrow for the recipes for my menu.
And will tomorrow be any better? I doubt it. Church in the morning, Jordan and Jacob for a lunch of leftovers, a nap in the afternoon, an early casual supper with Elizabeth. But somehow the work will get done. It always does, and as Linda said tonight, "You put out an amazing amount of work." Somehow I'm not sure how I do that.

A deck is changing my life

I bought my house, circa 1922, almost 20 years ago and have always joked I bought it for the front porch, which is wonderful and spacious, partly roofed. I grow herbs and other plants on its wide concrete railings and have served many a glass of wine and dinners out there. I've long been a proponent of front porches, arguing that you are part of the neighborhood on the porch--people walk by, wave and greet you. You can see a wild variety of dogs--tonight we saw a man walking three dogs and a cat--no, the cat was not on a leash.
But the thought of a deck in the back of the house lingered in my mind. I kept it in the back of my mind because the yard was essentially a dog yard, devoid of deliberate beautification, thanks to dogs and the city who dug it up for a sewer line and replaced old flourishing plants with small news ones which the male dogs I had at the time promptly killed by peeing on them.
But then Elizabeth moved into my guest house and began to put flowers and statues around the corner of her little house, bird feeders in the trees, and then a table and chairs in the back under the trees. The idea of a deck looked better. (Someone said the other night they heard she told me to build a deck; she was appalled and explained she doesn't "tell" me to do anything!) I talked to the contractors who keep my house together, and we sashayed around the idea until I asked, "Which one of us is not talking about the deck," and they said, "Not us!"
The results is I have a beautiful deck, 10 x 12, just the right size for my yard, with one of those toppings that will never weather, and my children bought a table and six matching chairs for my birthday. We had a grand party Saturday night, and Sunday morning I read the paper, with coffee, on the deck and talked to the son and daughter-in-law who spent the night (they sent their children with all the other cousins to my daughter's house--so peaceful). I have been having supper out there, a drink, reading, and just sitting. And I love it. It's quiet and peaceful, and close to the kitchen.
The effect on my dog Sophie is great--she can be out there with us, which she can't on the front porch because she'd go exploring the world at a fast clip. And whereas I've always had trouble getting her in late at night after her final potty outing, I've now learned to go sit on the deck, enjoy the quiet, and wait for her to come to me, which she does fairly quickly. Much less frustration for me.
My oldest son told someone Saturday night that in all the years I've lived here he's never hung out in the back yard (he and his brother lived in the guest house at first) and now he loved it.
I think my way of life will change, all because of a deck.

Going with the flow

 

Here it is--a finished deck. Still needs

furniture and plants but I'm

working on that.

 

I was so looking forward to a busy full weekend, with a luncheon today, a houseguest tonight, and a wedding reception tomorrow night in Dallas, followed by a night at son Jamie's house. By this morning, as I was preparing ingredients for a great supper salad, my houseguest called: she had gotten sick over the night and wasn't coming. That meant no luncheon (it was out of town, and I don't drive on the highway) and no wedding, plus no stay at Jamie's and a chance to hug one branch of the family.

But I've had a good day and have busy plans for the weekend. This morning I ran some errands--to get a much-delayed birthday present for my brother (finally happened on something I thought he'd like), get printer cartridges (all wrong, have to return tomorrow), and buy stamps to send letters to Canada. Seemed like there was a line at every stop. Came home and caught up on things, took a nap, got Jacob, and headed out for his house. Meant to be home early but they delayed grilling because of the heat, so that it was 8:30 before I got home.

But oh the glory of driving home, top on the car down, breeze blowing in my hair, and Scottish music blaring. May have been the high point of my day. Went the scenic route, through residential areas and parks with lots of trees. Glorious.

So here I am settling down at 9:20. How much work do you think I'll get done tonight? You're right, but I'm determined to go through one chapter of the manuscript I got first edits on--second time through.

Deck, garden--and a day of piddling

My new deck is a almost done, and for the first time in a week I can walk out the back door. I love the flooring. When finished, it will have a matching 6" railing top --perfect for plants. Meantime Sophie and I enjoyed it tonight--if you look hard in the shadows you can see her. Jim and Lewis Bundock, who are building it, don't trust me--they nailed a board over the opening where the staircase will be to make sure I didn't try to go down the stairs that aren't there. I did slide off the front of the desk to water some plants. I'm very excited about the whole thing.

Lewis (standing) and Jim Bundock, who keep my house in order

And neighbor Greg, who tends my lawn and garden, spent the whole morning clearing out the "way back" which used to have photinia bushes until the city took them out to do sewer work. In so doing, they left an open six by six foot hole, maybe three or four foot deep. Jordan and I came home one night late to find our lab, Maynard, at the bottom of the hole. We had to call the fire department, and they came with sirens and lights, but they got the dog out and were nice about it.
The city replaced the old bushes with tiny plants, which the two large male dogs I had at the time promptly peed on and killed. It's been a wasteland ever since. Greg is going to put roses back there--mutabilis, an antique shrub rose. He's had them for a month or more and every time I ask about them, he says, "They're real pretty." They'll actually go in soon. I didn't realize how much clearing he had to do in preparation, but he even took out an old tree stump, rotten to the core. He says he practically just kicked it over.
Other than that a lazy day--piddling. I didn't get a lick of honest work done. But it was kind of neat. Jordan asked if I wanted to pick Jacob up at 3:45 and I said no, I'm having a lazy day. Did have dinner with a friend at the Grill--meant to bring half my meatloaf home for a sandwich but ate it all.
Now to some honest to goodness work.

Spring is here

My gardeners at work

It wasn't cold this morning for the first time, and tonight Elizabeth and I had the first dinner of the year on the front porch, so I'm sure spring is here. But the biggest sign: Greg, the neighbor who cares for my lawn and garden, took Jacob and me to the nursery shopping today. We got herbs, a hanging basket, another lantana--that on one side of the front steps is looking sad, fountain grass, sweet potato vines, parsley, a flowering blue plant whose name I can't remember, and a dusty miller. Jacob pointed to the dusty miller, and Greg said, "No, we're not getting that." Jacob asked why not, and Greg said, "Cause it's an ugly plant." But Jacob liked it, so we bought one for him and put it in a pot where it can't do much damage. We forgot sage (mine died) and a cherry tomato plant, which I really want. Jacob piped up and said he loves them, so I'll go back, maybe next weekend.
Then Greg put him to work planting, loosening old soil in pots, etc. Jacob loved it--so much better than an out-of-school morning spent watching TV. And my porch is beginning to look like spring again.
Elizabeth is gradually sprucing up the back yard, which I've pretty much left a dog yard all these years. She's added statues, including a Buddha, and bird feeders (she now fills the one I had too) and plans pots and hanging baskets. Let's hope Sophie behaves. We've also put a table (on extended loan from Jordan) and four chairs (from my storeroom) out there. Greg griped and moaned but admitted he can move them ever week to mow. I'm seriously considering a small deck at the back door.
Earlier in the day, Jacob and I went to get my hair cut. Out of the blue he asked, "Juju, when are you going to get married again?" Me: "I don't think I'm going to." Jacob: "Why not?" My first reply was inappropriate: "Well, I tried it once and it wasn't much fun." When he said "What?" I amended it to, "Don't you think I'm kind of old?" Matter-of-factly he said, "Yeah, you are old." Thanks, Jacob. Then later he picked up the stylus I used with my iPhone if I want to send a wordy text and said, "Can I take this home?" I said no, and he asked, "Can I have it when you die?" Little ghoul!
But it was a good day.