Potpourri

I have a few things to share today...

A) It was another good weekend for yard work. It was warm, but there was a lot of passing cloud cover on Saturday morning. So I raked up at least 12 cubic feet of crap out of a small section of the back yard. As I've mentioned previously, I'm trying to get my back yard grass area turned back into a healthy green lawn. So that means getting rid of all the crap matted down between whatever grass and weeds I have and of course removing the weeds.

Sunday dawned bright and sunny and I decided to skip the yard work.

Before...

After...

The first 12 cubic feet came from this section of the yard only--from the two trees in the foreground, to the shed with the stepping stones providing the stopping point on the left...

I've been mowing in sections since I don't have the stamina to mow the whole thing at once. When I mow, I cut the grass low low low. And I've been raking that section. Meanwhile, I've taken to digging up the dandelions when I can and just snapping the plant off at the root if I can't actually dig it out. I put down weed and feed around the first week of May, but they only recommend doing that every eight weeks, so it's manual weed removal in the meantime.

And I'm enjoying the great outdoors as long as I can. Once summer officially hits, my outdoor hours will be limited to early morning and late evening. Good thing I'm an early riser!

B) On Friday evening, Sonshine and I found a baby blue jay on our back porch. It was sheer dumb luck that the dog raced out the door and right over the little thing. Otherwise we could have had a tragedy on our hands.

At first we thought it was wounded, but finally determined that the little thing had either fallen from the nest or was learning to fly. The worried callings of the parent blue jays as well as their constant transfer from branch to branch rather than just flying off led me to figure the latter two situations were most likely. Sonshine picked up and carried the dog inside and we left the birds to their baby.

A short time later, Sonshine looked out the kitchen window to see baby blue jay doing a hopping roll in the direction of his parents' encouraging calls. Eventually he made it through the chain link fence and under the neighbor's privacy fence. I hope he made it made safely back to his nest.

C) And last but not least, I stumbled upon another great resource for free books: Books Should Be Free. E- or audio versions seem to be available for books in the public domain, including many of the classics for many different platforms (Apple vs Google vs others). Believe it or not, I've never read Jane Austen, so I'm going to try listening to one of her books. First on the list: Pride and Prejudice. Though I must confess to seeing the 2005 film version starring Kiera Knightly, and then on Saturday evening, DD and I watched Sense and Sensibility starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslett.

Hope you had a fun and/or productive weekend as well...