Pleasant Surprise & Thirty Years Ago

The other day, older daughter received some mail here. Usually it is junk, but this time it was a post card reminding her that her cap and gown photos were available for viewing. Yes, it is getting to be that time and she will be collecting that degree in less than two months. It's been a long time coming, but she has worked hard to get there. Younger daughter and I have managed to talk her into walking on graduation day. We may be sorry about this as it is held indoors and May in Tennessee can be quite hot!

And today is the thirtieth anniversary of my first date with DH. I can't believe it was that long ago. A little while ago, DH and I shared some reminiscences (get your mind out of the gutter) and I recalled how shocked our mutual friends were because of our vastly different personalities. I don't think they thought it would last. Our first date was a wedding of bowling teammates of DH. They divorced within two years of their marriage, we are still together. That first date was the first time we were taken for a married couple. I told DH if it happened 3 times it would have to become fact. Second time was a couple weeks later and third time was when my younger sister was with us! Happy First Date Anniversary, DH!

Dive-Bombers

DH and I completed our landscaping class through the Putnam County Master Gardeners. It was very interesting and yet a struggle for me as I did all the homework. Well, DH did help in mapping out our lot.

One of our goals is to attract birds to our front yard, beyond sparrows and robins. Sure, you can put food out, but in Tennessee, to keep them year-round you also need bushes that grow berries, and if they are evergreen in addition, you have a chance of achieving your goal. Well, most bushes that have berries grow best in the sun here. That is a challenge with our lawn, which is mostly shady. The plan is to put in a bird bath and bird feeder and hostas, which are shade loving. Then on the periphery find some place put in some nandinas that would have a chance to grow and produced some nice red berries for the birds. While we do have a few, some are dwarf and will not produce berries and we don't know if the other ones will or not. Time will tell.

However, this morning, none of that seemed to matter. While DH was outside laying nitrogen down and rimming the house with Bug Out, he was dive-bombed by some birds. Maybe they were expecting him to spread bird feed instead?

When we lived up in Michigan, we generally bought Weed n feed. Rarely we put down a preemergent to kill the crabgrass, which wasn't really much of a problem there. Last year, that is all we had until we killed it all off and reseed. The first thing you do in early March is put down Nitrogen. Then preemergent and fertilizer. You fertilize for the last time near the end of April. No point in fertilizing during the summer here as we rarely get enough rain to help it grow. To buy nitrogen though, you need to show your driver's license - thanks Timothy McVeigh!