Marsia's Diary

I think I want to see a pic of these wild bell-bottom pants, please. They don't have to be on your body :)
It's ok if that happens on occasion but please don't forget to care for yourself at least half as much as you care for the new house ;)
:iagree:
 
Thanks! I did remember to eat all 3 meals today and stayed hydrated, too. I am running behind on photos. I tried to go to a cafe to sit and go through photos and optimize them for the web before grocery shopping, but the cafe had closed already, so I just shopped.

My soil has been delivered, and it is a pile about the size of a car that is lovely dark loam! I am finally finished mowing the lawn, so tomorrow I can start on filling raised beds. I am really happy to have such a nice yard where everything is landscaped already, and I can just garden. I ordered fruit trees that do well in this area, and went a bit crazy. Since it's already hot here, I may just put them in big pots and plant them in the ground in the fall. After all the mowing (I had to mow the same areas twice the grass was so tall and thick) I had a take it easy day. I sorted all my veggie seeds and ordered a few more heat tolerant varieties, ordered shade cloth so my seedlings have a chance in the hot sun, and leisurely puttered around the yard weeding and plotting and planning where I want to put things. Lumi had a nice time outside with me, too.

I have been noticing how nice it looks after the rain through the trees where you can see a bit of the deeper pond in the marsh. So I tiptoed through the poison oak and poison ivy and made it to the bank of the pond. I realized that I can make a path down to the pond where there is an overhanging tree blocking the view of the big house that overlooks the pond. I also saw some bamboo growing in the woods in the neighborhood and am thinking I can plant a privacy bamboo stand in between the area where I would like a little outdoor seating area by the pond and the neighbor's house. I'd just need one tall bunch, I think. While I was there thinking about this, an egret landed in the pond and was eating things in the mud when a fish jumped. It sounded like a little one, but that's still cool there are fish in our marsh pond!

Tomorrow I go get rotted logs to put in the bottom of my cloth raised beds (for water retention and because they will break down and make nice soil, too). Then I can start filling them with all the nice soil. My new gardening boots were delivered today, so perfect timing!
 
We love to see pictures but don't let it stress you out! Your lovely descriptions do make me sad I don't have a garden though! Around here if you order young trees you have to be careful not to let them get sunburned as well but if the nurseries in your area keep them outside year round that probably isn't an issue. Bamboo is lovely but it has a tendency to overrun everything! My dad imprisoned his by burying a vertical screen around them so the roots can't escape.
 
Hi LaMa and Cate! I am concerned about the trees getting sunburnt, so I am going to put up shade for them and put them in big pots until fall. It's just so hot here, and the soil is so poor, I can really prep the places I am going to plant them so they're perfect for the trees in the fall. I really like your idea about the vertical screen to contain the bamboo. I have heard of using thick plastic, but hate the idea of using plastics, so that's perfect!

Cate, the projects are so fun here because the soil is so sandy that weeds come out easily and the whole property was lovingly maintained, so I get the fun part of just planting without all the headaches. The grass got way way too long, but next time will be a breeze, and it's like a free gym membership! I think I did lose weight mowing!! Plus you should see the soil that was delivered. It's a dark brown and is so beautiful.

Ok, here are the pants I got. They were $9 a piece, so I got a bunch!
 

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Here's my brass deer head. Haven't hung him up yet...
 

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Cedar swamp. You can just make out the boardwalk in the background.
 

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Saw some baby alligators happily swimming toward me, backed up, took their pic, and fled in case mama was nearby!
 

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Lots and lots of birds there, especially in the canals of the old rice fields. I have sooo many gorgeous pics from this place!
 

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I love all of those flares! Your pics are really lovely. I had forgotten how pretty the cardinals are. I really love the deer head. We have a large wooden elephant head hanging high up in our living room.
 
Thanks Cate and LaMa! I really like these pants, too. I actually mainly went to the superstore to see if they were in stock there. They are the same brand as the one from the thrift store. I love the deer head, too - it was love at first sight! An elephant head in the living room sounds so nice. One of my favorite bookstores in my first beach town I lived in in California had brass animal heads on the walls. They were massive, highly polished things, and my favorite was the elephant head. I think there was a fireplace with comfy chairs around it, too.

I had such a good gardening day. I laid the garden out with string and put one 6 foot round raised bed in the middle and made string pathways around it, then placed the other 4 round raised beds around that, and found I have all sorts of space for more beds. There are some really nice ones I put together with S at the old apartment that I'll order for me here.

I emailed friends today and potted up some asparagus and rhubarb bare roots that desperately needed to be in soil. I'll let them grow in pots this year and transfer them to raised beds next year. Lumi and I had fun exploring the woods for rotting branches to put in the bottom of pots to act as sponges for water. There was a lot around the marsh, which is a really interesting area, and Lumi loves it there.

I am so sore. Tomorrow I'd like to do something nice like wake up early and go to the cafe and then for a swim. Hope I am not lazy and make it out before everyone else fills up the cafe. Hope everyone had a really good day!
 
Those pants are sensational. I would go for the second pair in the picture, love the purple pattern.

The croc pics are cool, but make me slightly nervous. :D
 
The second pair were my favourites too, but then I think I would have done what you did & bought all four as I loved them all. I'm not sure I would have the confidence to wear them out though. I really hate drawing attention to myself. I wish I could get over that.
I'm having trouble getting my head around how you are putting your garden beds. I have trouble visualising stuff. I love the idea of circular beds with paths around them & just fell down a rabbit hole looking at ideas & plans for them. What fun, M!
 
I love all the Burmese and Siamese cats I've had because they do take walks with you and will follow you even out of their territory. Lumi does yowl a little if she goes too far though.

Em and Cate, those are my favorite, too (and the ones I'd most likely wear in public). In about 10 pounds I could get away with wearing those in public. I used to wear clothes like that in art school, and miss being able to pull that off without being self conscious. Today I realized that though I don't have a scale or measuring cup, I have a pair of jeans I love that I really want to fit in soon. So I put them where I'll see them and they will be my new objective measure. I want to be able to fit in them in 2 months. So I'll keep trying them on and I think by July 1st I'll look good in them, especially since working outside for even half an hour makes me sweat profusely it's so warm here.

Em, the crocs made me more than slightly nervous. If I had known I was stopping there, I would not have worn open toed sandals. My toes were all relieved to all be intact at the end of the walk!

Today I started weeding poison ivy out of the path I am making to one edge of the marsh. The soil is so sandy that I can just pull out the poison oak and woodbine in the way (with gloves on and a nice cool shower with pine tar soap afterward). I am excited because I found a little clearing in the pine trees back there that overlooks the big march that connects to the river. Our property is pines and younger oaks, but by the big marsh there are lots of old oaks draped in Spanish moss and a very large clearing of marsh grass. I also realized why our marsh fills up with water sometimes even when there hasn't been any rain. The river is so close to the ocean that the ocean tide rises into the river at times and then the big marsh fills up, and I saw today that the big marsh fills our little marsh. So I wonder if we also have brackish water? Probably.

Anyway, a little side project is making a path to the big marsh because that is where the road is that has the boat ramp on it, and I still haven't taken out the stand up paddle board out there because if I bring the car, I need the key to the gate, and I forget where the head of the homeowner's association says he lives, so I can't go ask for the key! So I am making a path I can walk with my paddle board to the boat ramp road instead. It will be way less hassle than the car once the path is nice, which really won't take a lot of work. I probably weeded 1/4 of the path today.
 
With the amount of work you're doing just being somewhat conscious of what you're eating should be enough to get you into those jeans asap!
Could you maybe find a phone number of the home owners' association on the internet and call to ask for the right address?
 
What a project! :iagree: with LaMa. The weight should drop off you with the amount of work you're doing!
 
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