The sparrows and the finches are a flitty, chirping bunch this morning. I probably have a dozen and a half out there either at the bird bath or the feeders of zipping back and forth to one or the other. I'm glad they are there though because they are my only guests at the buffet at the moment. . The cardinals will be along momentarily, it isn't quite time for their morning arrival.

It is a beautiful midweek morning with lots of sunshine and slightly cool temperatures. I love mornings like this. It is 74 degrees with a gentle breeze. It will be perfect to go out and do some yardwork this morning or even afternoon. I did go out yesterday and I finished getting the weeds out of the garden and cleaned that up. It looks so much better. I think though today I'm going to take apart a couple of the "raised beds". I made them with treated four by fours a decade ago and by now most of the wood has rotted on some of them. I need to rearrange some of that today or at least this fall. If I get the ground worked up, it might not be too late to plant somee turnip seeds out there. Ms. Kate and I love raw turnips especially when they are about the size of a baseball. My mother used to cook turnips and I wouldn't give you a dime for a boatload of cooked turnips. But pull a fresh turnip out of the ground and wash it off, peel it, and put a little salt on it --- yummy stuff to me.

Ms. Kate started out in the front flowerbed yesterday deadheading the lilies and clapping some of the trees out of there. I have a large azealia bush out there that is dying and I'm not sure why. I think it might be that the four o'clocks are actually crowding it out or robbing it of nutrients. It has died back to the point that I don't think it is salvageable. So, when the four o'clocks are done blooming, I'll clear them out and assess the situation with the azealia. It could be that the bush has simply reached its potential. I have no idea how long it has been there because it was there when we bought the place sixteen years ago, as were so many of the other azelias that are around here. Some of them have died off too. We had about 30 of them around here when we bought the place. When I look at this place I can see that we have certainly changed their house and this yard and landscape dramatically since we moved in. There are large flowerbeds and garden where there were none before, We taken out some trees and planted others. We've changed every room inside the house too. Neighbor Dan said he thinks the only thing we havn't changed is the brick on this house, and I believe he is right. BUt --- I can tell that we have slowed down a lot with what we can do these days. I'm much more quick to "hire" the hard stuff done these days. Ms. Kate and I neither one can do much kneeling out there in the yard, and my asthma runs me in the house more frequently than I like. We've gone from active to quasi-sedentary..

But --- God continues to bless us every day with tolerable good health and for that (and the medicine makers) we are grateful. I hope your Wednednesday is filled with joy and love. Peace.