It's Not Like I Haven't Thought About It ...

Blogging, I mean ...

I thought about it when I was in Austin at the end of October, enjoying the spectacular views from Mount Bonnell and the balcony of my friend Marcia's amazing home nearby.





I thought about it in mid-November when the Mexican Plum and 'Rising Sun' redbud put on their fall colors at least 6 weeks ahead of their usual time.  



I thought about it on my birthday on November 23rd ... which was one of those milestone birthdays that you can't imagine yourself actually being when you're in your 20s. 

I thought about it in the unseasonably cold days following my birthday, when temperatures dipped almost to freezing on a couple of nights.  Truth be told, I was glad to walk outside when it warmed up and see that the blooms on the coral vines had been zapped by the cold.  I'd been wanting to whack that vine back for a while but I held off so the bees could enjoy it as long as possible.

I thought about it when I saw the first goldfinch of the year at the feeders during that cold spell.


2009 Confinchion
I thought about it when I did whack the coral vine AND the passion vine back the weekend after Thanksgiving. When I stopped in the middle of the process to check my FitBit tracker for my step count, the FitBit wasn't there, necessitating a careful but worried search which took me almost an hour.  I finally found it in the pile of discarded plant material on the patio, caught on one of the vines.  


There was almost this much vine to go through. Picture from 2008.

I thought about it when I built a fire in the firepit I created from what I think is an old sugar kettle found at an antiques shop on Magazine Street in New Orleans, old grates from a Jenn-Air cooktop and a firepit cover plucked from a neighbor's on trash day.  


I thought about when I made my annual pilgrimage to Glenwood Cemetery on December 5th to work at my friend Mary Beth's gravesite.  She always made much of the fact that I was 12 days older than her and affectionately called me an old hag.  Since it was a milestone birthday, I spent some time enlarging the area to include her parents' gravestones, then took a break to go shopping at Wabash Antiques and Feed Store on Washington Avenue. My sincere thanks to the good folks at Wabash who loaned me a watering can so I could water in the herbs I bought from them to plant in MB's bed. Just after I began to dig, the sprinkler system in that part of the cemetery kicked on.  Oh, how MB would have laughed to watch me attempting to dig and plant in between dodging the sprinklers!



Today, though, I didn't just think about blogging ... I did it!  

Comments

I'm glad you did! Nice to catch up with you and your garden!
Helen said…
Ah, Cindy, I know what you mean. I'm always thinking about blogging, even when I'm not. If *you* know what *I* mean.
Kathy said…
What Leslie said!
Carol Michel said…
You know what they say! It's the thought that counts. Sounds like quite the fall at MCOK!
I had the same birthday number as you but I guess I'm the old hag by 19 days. :-) nice to catch up to you girl. I hope to post something soon as well.
Gail said…
Cindy, and what a lovely post! Glad to see the garden visitors and the garden. I do love your firepit! xogail
LindaCTG said…
It's great to catch up! Thanks for the diary. So many stories--so little time. On the landmark birthday, now really, you can't be 40 already! Oh, and happy belated birthday!
Alison said…
Great post! Now we're all caught up. I know how hard it is to get back into it once you stop. I think about writing a lot more blog posts than I actually post. I have quite a few drafts in Blogger that will never see the light of day.
Pam/Digging said…
Good thing you were taking pictures all along on those days you DIDN'T blog. :-) It's good to see what you've been up to, Cindy.
Commonweeder said…
I'm glad you did. I love catching up and I understand the thinking process completely.
sweetbay said…
I'm glad you did too! I had a whole summer like that this summer.
Rose said…
And we're glad you did! Now I can't remember if I sent birthday greetings on Facebook or not, so if I didn't, a belated Happy Birthday! I suspect which milestone birthday this is, which I reached a couple of years ago. I guess that makes me the "old hag":) In my 20's I definitely thought this age was old!

Love your recycled firepit with the beautiful copper!
Anonymous said…
yea yea, me too... one of these days i'll finally get around to the much overdue update post on all the things i've thought about blogging... no really, i mean it this time ;) thanks for the inspiration and hope to see you sometime
Layanee said…
I know just how you feel. LOL
Anonymous said…
I loved this post Cindy. I really, really did. Thank you for blogging your adventures. I love the sprinklers, and you're a beautiful friend.~~Dee
Diana said…
Great post. I enjoyed looking at your garden through your eyes and sharing you special memories. I just posted today after my usual Thanksgiving to post-daughter birthday blog hiatus, but I’ve missed it. Glad we’re both back at it again!
CommonWeeder said…
Getting to it can really be hard sometimes. So much life! What we are thinking about is visiting Texas again. We'll have lots of time to think about it because we are waiting for the date to be set f or our grandson's Eagle award. September maybe? A good time to visit your part of the world. We'd love to see you again.