March 10, 2016 – Choices, choices, choices – but more gardening than anything else.  An update on what I have been up to.

        I am going to a writer’s conference next month and I felt I needed a business card to match my blog site. Another theory: If I pass out a lot of business cards with my blog site on it, I will be spurred to write more often – that will please all of you. So, I jumped on the internet and went with a business card company I have used previously and the choices are almost unlimited.  I did manage to maneuver around and back myself into a hole twice and had to start all over again.  I must admit – third time was the charm. I just got confirmation of the order so in a few days I will be jumping with joy and driving all my acquaintances nutty when I hand them out.

        Lately my choices of what to do each day have turned to gardening.  We have had incredible weather here in North Carolina.  Shirt sleeve weather for two days, then torrential rains and high winds, then cold and bitter, then shirt sleeves again.  I have been busy on the back property line which is a serious undertaking and needs to be done.  All the compost has been screened and the bins have been put back into place.  I ended up with about 9 wheel barrows of compost, or brown gold as I call it.  I will be able to use it lavishly.

        We got one of the park benches back together yesterday after we both had to basically roll around on the ground to get the carriage bolts fastened on the slat ends.  It was a team effort. I wanted that enchanting green that is often seen in pictures of Giverny for the painted slats.  I picked out an Olympic outdoor semi gloss with the color name: Christmas Ivy.   It does the trick for me.

        My husband and I had discussed putting cup holders in the end of the slats so that I could hang them up to paint them with ease.  I spent 2 ½ hours getting the quart of paint.   I was patron number 3 and I wasn’t going to step out of line and then have to go back – I simply stuck it out.  We don’t have many choices when it comes to where to get paint in this little county.  I obviously went to the longest line in town!  When I got back with the paint my husband was off on an errand somewhere and I proceeded to put the cup hooks in the end of the boards and I was going to hang them on a dog chain that was nailed in a horizontal loop on a wooden clothesline “T”, but the hooks didn’t slip into the chain.   I had to re-think that.  I grabbed a piece of rope and tied a bunch of knots every 3 or 4 inches apart and nailed the rope onto two posts at the end of the garden out in the sun.  I hooked all the boards up between the knots so I had perfect spacing and then proceeded to paint them.  It worked out slick.  Add that to your idea department.

        It gave me great pleasure to hear my husband come over after he arrived home to see what I was up to.   “Great knots” was all he said.  The ‘grand achiever’ in me wanted more – but that is all I got.  I did remind him it was ME that went to the required Coast Guard classes when we bought our first sail boat in Delaware.  He laughed at that.  A future blog story or two there – stay tuned.

And as I say:

All experience is good experience. 

I feel you draw on it every day of your life.