Making the most of Monday - Resolve to live.

I can say with assurance that I’ve made the most of this Monday.

It was cool and shady on the deck; the perfect place to start the day with a cup of coffee and that’s was about 8 am and then things went into full swing.

I dug up 5 med/large Abelia. They weren’t doing so well where I had them because it was too shady.

I replaced them with 8 white 'Glacier' Azaleas which I think will do better in the shade but it's hard to say for certian, the soil in this area is very shallow because it's on top a granite ridge. I still need about 3 more to finish the hedge. They're small, only one gallon pots, but they are suppose to get 6ft x 6ft. My hope is they'll make a good screen.

I moved 3 small Camellias because they weren’t doing so well either. I’ve put them in new spots and treated them with Bayer Rose and Flower in hopes of curing their black spot and other health problems.

I also treated all the Rhododendrons in the front yard as well because they were showing signs of aphids and whitefly.

New white Azaleas, they're tiny but with some TLC they'll grow.

About that time the tree trimmers showed up; 3 young guys probably in their late 20’s. They discovered the lake in the back yard and wanted to know if we fished, I said we had and told them the story of the time the lock on the damn opened by accident and drained the lake and how G and a friend stood at the mouth of the drain with a landing net trying to save the bass coming through.

Of course that only whetted their appetite to see what they could catch so I rustled them up a pole and bait from my worm bin and this is what they caught. They did pretty good to just be fooling with an old Zebco that hasn’t seen any action in years and half dozen red wigglers.

John and Scotty with a nice large Crappie.

John with a shellcracker.

John with a Bass.

Then of course they wanted copies of the pictures I took so I ran them off some. I pretty much spent my day running back and forth, getting them water, poles, bait, pictures ect ect.

I admit I’m a soft touch when it comes to boys, I miss my son and his friends (my boys) and so having these overgrown teenagers acting like it was Christmas morning was bittersweet. I know they are all grown men but I’m a mother at an age where anything 20yrs. younger than me is just a kid and with K overseas… well it’s just hard not to give in and let them play a bit.

Finally some tree work getting done.

They did manage to get the trees trimmed and took down a maple that was diseased. I plan to replace it with an evergreen; it will make a nice accent in the front yard strung with lights at Christmas.