Latest at Plum Cottage

Well, it was a nice cloudy day, cool and breezy with some very light sprinkles.  We could use a good soaking but that doesn’t look to be in the forecast.  I did do some watering this morning as the main garden really needed a drink. Supposedly, we are having a cold front. Ha! Ha! It’s still in the 80’s and is predicted to get down to 72 tonight. Who are the weather people trying to kid? Cold  my patootie.

As to the handyman, he did not want to do the pipe repair, suggested a real plumber and I asked him about a couple of other things, one would cost $2000-3000. So if I have any ‘little’ jobs I can call on him. He was nice, just not the handyman for the job at hand.  It really made me realize just how priceless all of the work was that my dear husband Mark did around here.  It made me miss him all the more too.  We would just go to HD and get supplies and do the jobs ourselves.

I was kind of bummed out, but in a way relieved too.  I didn’t know how things were going to be taken care of but I prayed about it and just left it in God’s hands. I went to bed feeling peaceful.  I did wake up around 2:30 and started thinking about how to do things, just not stressed, thinking of ways of how I could do certain things, and finally after about an hour, I fell back to sleep. I woke up feeling rested and relaxed.  Around 8:15 my brother-in-law called. I had emailed him last evening,  telling him about the handyman and asked if he knew of a plumber in the area.  Well, he and possibly our nephew are going to do the job by going under the house, if they can, to put in new pvc pipe and connections.  Our nephew lives on the west coast of FL and Todd lives an hour north of here, so they’ve got to figure out a Saturday they can both come to tackle the job, in the next 2-3 weeks, as Todd and his wife will be going on vacation for a week, next week.

I hate asking for help, am so used to us doing things ourselves, but there is no ‘us’ anymore, there is just little ol’ me. I am working on something for Todd and his wife that I’ll show after I give it to them. It’s for Todd’s labor and Sue’s not having him on weekends when he comes here to do work.

Anyway, after we talked for awhile this morning, my heart felt even lighter than it had when I woke up so since it was the kind of day it was, I decided to work on a funky garden project using a couple of iron pieces we had found a couple of years ago.  Mark would get a kick out of this, because it is ‘rigged’ that’s for sure, but I think it’s sturdy enough for what I’m using it for. It’s tied and strapped and once plants cover it, it should be ok.  I used some green plastic coated chicken wire that we found for the top and sides and a couple of pieces of pvc pipe.

Ta da, my new arbor.

This was a fun project and took me awhile, but I did it by myself.  I’m not sure what plants I’ll use, I do have a rooted cutting of the purple flowering garlic vine, and I have a couple of rooted red flowering passion vines too. I’ve got the blue pea flowering vine also. I don’t want to go out and buy anything.  I’ll keep you posted.

Here are some flowers blooming here.  For the next 6 months or so is the great time to garden down here in s.e. FL.

This is a bromeliad flower.  As it progresses, more of the little purple flowers come out of each red section of the whole thing.  I’ll try to remember to take more photos.

This little rose is ‘Prosperity’.  A real die-hard here as it suffers/or not, from neglect.  It would do much better with more TLC, but lately I’ve been pretty ‘stretched’ in a lot of areas.  It is always a joy to see this rose bloom.  They are sweet little dears.

Thank you all for your comments in the last two posts about the grouping on the wall.  The paintings and pine needle basketry work were done my ‘Mama & Papa’ who were Mark’s paternal grandparents, not either of our parents. I think I mentioned that in the first post but not the second one.  Sorry for the confusion.

Since I’m only working at my job ‘one’ day this week, I have tomorrow to do some more puttering around here, and I am looking forward to it.

Have a great weekend whatever you do. I’ve been enjoying seeing wonderful fall images on some blogs and I thank you all for sharing those fantastic scenes and colors.

FlowerLady