Ramblings of a rural(ish) geek

probably a result of a couple of days of doing things that make my back unhappy -- blood drive on Tuesday, dental hygienist on Wednesday. Last night it stormed, hard, and the temperature/humidity/pressure change probably didn't help things much. Today I went erranding, the long way 'round, because it's move-in week in AA, and if I can avoid AA for the next couple of weeks it'll be grand. Usually, I go to Brighton, but US23 is in a state of disarray and I am avoiding that area as much as possible. But there's gotta be a back way into Brighton, so I went looking, and did find a no-expressway route. So that's where I went today. oddly tired after that.

have somehow managed to misplace my CostCo card. I had it early last week, but couldn't find it today. It wasn't in the pocket of the rain jacket or the trousers I wore, nor in the wallet where it should be, not in any of the bags that I used. It will turn up. And if it doesn't? I can just get a new one - the old one is a probably a decade old....

Last night's storms were pretty fierce, and took out a number of branches and small tree trunks. One of the less-happy lilacs lost two of its older trunks in the storm -- just as well, as it really needs to be trimmed/thinned, which is something that I can't do and J doesn't do because there's more interesting things to do. We also lost about a third of a fruit tree, and a lower branch off of a 30 year old oak tree. (Mum found it in the raspberry patch at their house shortly after we moved out here, and after letting it grow for a couple of years, she and Dad brought it out here for us to plant.)

While I was wandering the yard this morning, assessing damage, I realised that nobody's weeded around the small white lilac in the front yard this summer. Guess I know what I'm doing tomorrow! (The E garden needs to be done as well, but I have worked on it a couple of times this summer, so it's not quite as desperate.)

Easter service went pretty well. DB was indeed working, and was thus unable to sing with us. SR "couldn't find the keys" to J's car, and so did not come to church. (Mind, the keys have been in the same place for the last 20 years.)

At FCB rehearsal on Monday, I was short a couple of pieces of music -- one of the board members had borrowed them to make copies for another band that needed them, and then they forgot to bring the originals back! Fortunately, we only rehearsed one of them, and I was able to borrow a tuba part for that one.

The daffodils in the NW bed began blooming on Wednesday, so of course it snowed. We got about 3inches yesterday/last night, and while the precipitation from the next clipper is going to miss us, we're still going to get the cold weather, so I don't know how well they're going to do. I have a daffodil (from our church) and DB brought home an Easter lily that I will need to find places for in the garden, but not until after this round of cold weather is done. I don't plan on keeping them in pots in the garage until June, but I also don't want to plant them when they're still predicting 20F(-7C) lows. The mixed small bulbs in the side garden are blooming despite the snow and cold. The peonies are just poking through, while the bleeding hearts are springing up. I really need to move a couple of the volunteers, as they're getting big enough to shift the stones defining the bed.

Some critter, I suspect raccoon or cranky woodchuck, ripped one of the flip-down perches off the suet feeder. That's a minor problem. The bigger problem is that it also broke the closing/hanging chain, so I need to fix that before I can put it back out.

J brought me a double barrelled compost tumbler. I will like that much better than the pile that needs to be turned.