Five Spoke Wheel

As it turns out, Lucy and I are spending this week in two different places. She is staying at the Bradenton KOA (Kampground of Armstrong) and I am home, mostly alone, at the Crowes’s Nest (beach house). I am very lonely when we aren’t together so … what’s up?

“Mostly alone” because AVA is with me. 

Daughter Alicia, is attending a week long real estate sales seminar, so “Mimi” Lucy is doing school bus driver, housekeeper, grandmother, duty. She loves being helpful and spending time with the Armstrong’s…

Daughter Alicia and granddaughter Alana always make Lucy feel special…

As it turns out it is a “win-win-win” situation. Lucy gets to spend quality one-on-one time with the Bradenton family, the kids get to spend quality time with their Mimi and Lucy gets a break from hanging out with me 24/7. Our reunion is always spectacular. Lots of hugging, kissing and………..

Six year old granddaughter “Lucy Jo” turned her bedroom over to Mimi. Here is the welcome sign that Lucy made for her grandmother. Wonderful memories for sure…

So………… why am I not with them? Good question. I too am performing “childcare” duties. Difference is, all of my “Children” are GREEN. Lucy and I have planted lots of edible plants and they need daily care. Watering, weeding, tilling, mulching and feeding. I am also in charge of our hardworking earthworms… Even the worms, in their cozy worm towers, need care. Our practice of Vermiculture is dependent on the care and feeding of our two towers of European Nightcrawler’s.

We spent a lot of time and energy turning the ugly ornamental planting bed into a vegetable garden. I installed a nice paver-path and the screened in pool cage helps to guard against unwanted insects. You can watch a time-lapse video of the family effort conversion here. Please; Like, Comment and Share…

We have planted quite a variety of veggies and we hope to have enough to share with family…

Here is what I’m up to.

Our patch of “Golden Bantam” sweet corn is doing great. Already waist high. We have interplanted zucchini squash. It will grow under the corn stalks, protected from the hot sun. The squash will help to eliminate weds by shading them out.

Our watermelon plants are doing fantastic. They are planted under the baby Gumbo Limbo tree that I planted in our front yard. Companion planting is a proven method of increasing vigor in all plants. I started the tree from a branch pruning.

Our watermelon plants are already in bloom. With luck, these five plants will provide lots of, big, fat, juicy, sweet, melons. It takes a few months for them to grow to edible size – we will be anxiously waiting.

Our micro-greens, planted in a repurposed water softener tank, are already providing tender greens for our daily salads. Succession planting will help to insure a ready supply.

Our well tended nursery is full of babies waiting to take their places in our various garden spaces. In these cribs; cucumbers, kale, dill, egg plant, yellow and green peppers.

This area of our garden contains; two kinds of radishes, spaghetti squash, butternut squash, tomatoes and Kentucky wonder beans. It is our “Three Sisters Garden” spot.

In these pots, three different varieties of fig trees. There are also three purple sweet potato slips that will be transplanted into our main garden spot. Lucy loves figs and I love Lucy.

We don’t plant many ornamental varieties, but this young Frangipani tree sure ads a nice visual accent and a marvelous aroma…

In these rows, Lucy’s favorite “Sugar Snap Peas” are joined by purple tomatoes and Easter egg radishes. All are doing well. 

It is a pleasure waking up each morning, pouring myself a cup of fresh coffee and walking out to see ll the growth in our Victory Garden. It is even more fun when sjhared with my sweet spouse. I am missing her mucho, but grateful for the time she gets to spend with our family.

What are you growing this year? I would love to read in the comments and see some of your photos. Until next time remember;

“It ain’t easy being green.” Kermit the Frog

I am not sure when it started, but my verve and zest have left…When Lucy and I moved here to Fort Myers, in 1999, we were always happiest when we were doing something. Staying home was boring…

We sold our farm, bought our fifty-seven foot Chris Craft “Constellation” and moved aboard. From our home port in the Fort Myers Yacht Basin we enjoyed traveling to many new locations and participated in lots of great adventures…. That’s Lucy on the “Tide-Ride” boarding ladder. She had just returned from her gig as a guide at the Edison Ford Estate. Lucy really enjoyed that job and the visitors loved her. She even got to dress up in period costume as “Mrs. Clara Ford”. The marina was close enough to the attraction that she was able to commute by bicycle…

A couple of years living aboard was enough. We sold “Southern Cross” and drove to Fort Valley, Georgia to buy our next unconventional home – a Bluebird “Wanderlodge”. This big, luxurious Motorcoach served as a wonderful rolling home to Lucy and I and our youngest daughter Aimee. We called it home for three years and enjoyed every minute. We had our 1972 vintage Airstream “Overland” stored nearby. We towed the Airstream to many, many campgrounds around the sate of Florida and had a ball…

Our current pool home here on Fort Myers Beach is where I started to “Lose it”. I haven’t been on my bicycles – mountain or road in two years…

Bicycles (and people) start to decay if they aren’t used. For some reason I just can’t get my energy up to swing my leg over the saddle and hit the rail. I don’t know why…

Lucy and I have been avid kayakers since 1976. We have paddled thousands of miles in our pointy boats, but in the last two years they have only been in the water one time…

Yes, this is my last “Lost MoJo expedition”. I just wanted to see if I could still sit in it without capsizing. we can launch right here from our dock, drive two miles to Lover’s Key to launch or trailer to any number of streams, creeks or rivers – but we haven’t. Why why why?

The view from our beach house is incredibly beautiful. The big house is nicely furnished, air-conditioned and has a big two car “Workshop” for all my pending projects… I just never feel like leaving…

Lucy – my much younger spouse – still rides her bike quite frequently and always asks me to accompany her. I don’t. Why? No MOJO. It’s ridiculous….

Lately, I have become expert at: Napping, Cooking, Baking, Floating in our pool, Watching hours of Netflix, amazon and YouTube on our big flat screen TV. I am getting NO EXERCISE, NO ADVENTURE and NO MOJO…

I have stage four CKD and two symptoms are “Muscle Wasting” and “Fatigue”. I am seventy years old and I have lived a very busy life – until now. Lucy loves me – June first was our forty-eighth anniversary – and she wants me to “Live long and prosper”.

If you have any suggestions to help me rekindle or reignite my MOJO, please post up. If you are feeling the same as I am, please share. If you think I am a big, whiney baby, who just needs to suck it up and get a life – tell me that too… Well I have to sign off. It’s time for my nap and I have to go in the kitchen and check my soup…

Serendipity…

Shortly after moving to our modest home in Olga, Florida I accidentally discovered a hidden “secret patio”, buried under six inches of leaf litter and dirt. A bit of hard work with my shovel and a long forgotten treasure was uncovered and developed into a wonderful place to relax.

I was raking the ground underneath our shady Banyan tree, thinking it would be a good lawn chair area. I was in a bored, “ho hum” mode of raking. Suddenly, the tines of my rake scraped concrete. I felt like an Archeologist who had just uncovered the “Missing Link”. The thrill of discovery filled me with a new sense of purpose and high level energy. I raked like a woman possessed until I had reached the outer edge of the hidden twelve by twelve patio. I stopped raking when I located the perimeter and excitedly ran to tell David of my discovery. It took hours to reveal the entire hidden treasure… David shared my joy and interjected “Keep digging. Maybe there is a swimming pool under there too.”

Elephant Ears

The creek that borders our property is filled with varied sizes of healthy, beautiful, naturally occurring Elephant Ears. My love for this plant probably stems from my mothers huge Elephant Ears. Hers occupied a prominent corner of our home.  As a child, I was in awe of their huge, verdant, green leaves. Their broad leaves towered above my head.

I enjoyed playing “make believe” games under their shady interior. I also feel a kindred spirit with their namesake, the Elephant – I have a compassion for the animal that fills my soul. As a focal point, I transplanted some of the wild Elephant Ears into a corner of my secret patio. They have grown magnificently into the same friendly giants I remember from my childhood.

A Blank Canvas

I continue to paint my canvas with varied colors, sizes and textures of plants. Each is given a special place to enhance it’s beauty and add to the masterpiece that is my intimate patio environment. Some were found on our property- carelessly placed by the previous dwellers; others were potted plants I brought with me. Still others come from cuttings I innocently snipped from public places. (I learned the little “freebie” plant trick from my sweet Mother.)

We continually gather cast off wood around our neighborhood and always have a fully stocked wood pile for the fire pit. Our grandchildren have joyously toasted many a marshmallow and roasted fat juicy hot dogs on a slender stick held just above the flames. It’s all for here to be enjoyed by family and friends alike. The patio garden continues to evolve. Relaxing in my “Secret Patio” truly is a ZEN experience… I hope one day you will come and sit by the fire.

The “Secret Patio” has become “ground zero” for many of our outdoor activities. In this photo David is preparing to brew a delicious cup of coffee using his Kelly Kettle and Aero-press coffee maker. It is the perfect location . Warm in winter and cool in summer…

Typical pile of free wood. Reduce-Reuse-Recycle.

“On our frequent walks through our neighborhood Lucy and I often discover scrap wood or yard waste that is perfect for our cozy fire-pit” mentions husband David…

Wildlife Haven
I have enjoyed watching the harmless Black Racers that inhabit our yard. I like the fact that they eat rodents. Three sides of our property are vacant and grow wild. I cannot count the numerous times I have sat in my Secret Patio, just “being in the moment” and seen one of our resident snakes chasing a lizard across the yard. If I ran to tell David, I always scared them away. At other times, I have enjoyed observing them as they hunt.  I have seen several of them extend half of their bodies, a couple of feet in the air. They attempt to stand straight up to reach a low branch on our Macadamia nut tree, They sway gently, looking exactly like a slender weed in a breeze, until they stealthily complete their hunt.

Realizing I had let the patio turn into a bit of a shambles, I began to cleanup the overgrown weeds and organize the wood pile. David had just mowed the lawn; everything else was manicured except my “secret patio”.

As I approached, with tools in hand, to clear the weeds under the Banyan tree, I saw the tell-tale color of iridescent black indigo snake in the grass. Fearing discovery, the beautiful, iridescent snake, slid deeper into the weeds. I decided to abort my “Weed Removal” mission, “Keep the weeds and let nature be.”

A fondness for snakes had never been in my nature. I have killed several in the past. Somehow, I was charmed by the harmless, innocent, reptile. Should I destroy their habitat for my selfish need to preen and manicure? Who am I, but one of Gods creatures just as they are.

Most of my friends think I have gone a bit over the edge. What are your thoughts and experiences with snakes and the environment?

Happy Memorial Day and best wishes from “Spokes-model” Lucy