well it's not a brisk,Spring-like day today. It's 46°, windy and wind chill is harsh. Back to January! LOL Sunday I lopped the asters that were frozen to the ground (dead upper woody stems) and pulled out the hook support and support wire. I then lopped other dead, woody perennials. Goldenrod, more asters. And found pulling up 2 foot long or a bit shorter PRIVET seedlings the feathered dinosaurs had shat for me underneath Crabby Apple were incredibly easy to pull out with bare fingers.

Today its Tractor Supplied it knock off wellies and lop the two asters in the Borders raised bed since no one wants to perch on the stems and eat aster seeds. Oh well, their choice. But I also went outside to top off the mesh feeders with way heavily seasoned with ground cayenne pepper dust black sunflower seeds. (see jpg as proof that yes indeedy them seeds have a very heavy coat of red ground cayenne pepper! LOL ) The arrogant Cajun tree rat who emptied the mesh feeder had pulled off the loop that allowed me to hang the double suet mesh house. A more permanent solution is needed.

But because my attention span button right now is stuck in "Garden mode", I actually went outside just now and finished lopping the last of the aster "tree trunks", cutting at base of trunk-like ANNUAL stems of the "Swampies" (Missouri swamp tickseed wildflower coreopsis) simply because the assorted population of feathered perchers chose to ignore my really neat food shrubs. Even during the deep snow. So I decided what the hell, and it took loppers to cut through 2 inch or larger annual Swampies. Wowzers as an old gardening sister used to say all the time.

Then I got distracted by the old fella up the street, Joe, who walks his black Lab boy, 'Jack' every day rain or shine, who made a comment about my pruning too much too short. So I ceased my warmth stimulating activity and chin wagged with him for a brief few minutes, until I said I was beginning to feel the whin chills and wasn't exactly dressed warm. At least I had foresight to grab soft fuzzy, but kinda small (even for me) knitted hat to cover my little coconut and to the tops of my ears.

I wasn't exactly clothed with warmth retaining clothing. Or at least not lengthy time outside , cold winds sucking warmth outta my old bones and muscles. Silky CuddlDuds top, no micro-fiber ones that would have kept me warmer, no inner CuddlDuds leggings underneath my stretchy Levi jeans. Kodiak cotton boot socks nice and thick but holes in them Crocs just keeping the toes and socks dry barely with the mushiness of the soil with water that quickly seeps up to attempt getting the feet cold and wet with icy water.

My absolute favorite knitted sweater vest jumper with the knitted design of a garden fence, watering can, cat in the garden with assorted pinkish flowers complete with buttons in silver that have an arched trellis with a picket fence on either side with a lounging cat out front on every button. <3 <3 The vest gives me additional insulation. One of my absolute favorite Good Will clothing finds. (I also found a few of those amazing and not cheap (at full price) well knitted Land's End comfy cotton heavy sweaters I ADORE. To find them at a Good Will for $3 is shocking and I don't care what color it is! LOL It would have been insightful of me to have pulled one on on top of my silky CuddlDuds

But no coat, light jacket. And only loppers to whack thick tree branch thick stems and whole plants to pile up. And I also had my trusty BlueKnouff in my right pocket ready to document things. Keepin warm in my right pants pocket, of course. LOL I quickly decided to throw the whole pile of two dfays loppings over the south fence wityhout untying it. Then I began to document the images as light was drawing thin with early gloaming.

I caught the faint smell of burning menthol Pall Mall's and opened the carport door, and brightly said something to James who admitted he already knew I'd piled up the loppings on the south side of the upper yard next to the shed. He said he'd go fix me a hot cuppa tea and I said I'd be 5 minutes. Exactly. HA HA HA HA HAAAAAAA Foolish Maddie. I quickly became distracted. I dragged the whole pile a bit further from where it initially was. Then I caught sight of an impressive long oak "sliver" from the first tree falliing I'd kept that had a large natural bole on it. I had a sudden epiphany and decided it would make a great natural "totem pole" garden thingy for things to climb UP onto. long sleeve bohemian wedding gown

I positioned it until I found a temporary place for it to rise up like a strange dinosaur head on long neck. Or something else. You can decide when you look at it's "head" and face. I then decided to go drag the HUGE oak limb over to the burn cage. And pick up fallen oak hair shakings. Then I found a good sized pecan limb up top and took it to the wrought iron burn cage and put it inside as well. At this point, Titch was outside running around like a possessed beast with the wonderful crisp temperatures.

I then told her no when I decided to document the little noses I'd seen in the raised carport bed where the Pearl Hellebores are planted. I wanted to capture their little rosy and cream "noses" hidden underneath tattered older leaves. And to go find if the other Hellebores are making "noses". Along the very mucky route through the front yard pathways, I noticed little hints of Spring in the distant future. The feathered dinosaurs were a bit miffed at me for showing back up, but I had fixed the double suet cage and only need to go back outside tomorrow and twist the wire a bit more in case the tree rat decides to hang from it.

I doubled back, and went through the carport door and let Titch back in the den door, but decided to give "Brenda" the Cereus cactus a bit of a shock. The flexible tub full of melted snow water was just enough to pour onto the soil in the huge pot that Brenda resides in. It would be just enough to give her a deep drink, and hopefully not freak out the roots too badly as the icy cold water soaked in. I also topped up the two 2 1/2 gallon watering cans and sat them just inside the back room to warm up for watering the rest of the plants in a couple of days.

With the strangeness of how this has taken me almost forever to not write as much as wait for the letters to appear on my screen my apologies. I have no answer. I'm just grateful I can come here, drag ass Internet, Mozilla Firefox or whatever the reasons. LOL