The week started with a Holly Hills Improvement Association community meeting Monday night at the nearby YMCA Rec Center. We heard from our alderwoman and state senator - both very capable individuals. There was a long discussion on the local park and keeping the roads open or closed. And, the meeting provided lots of interesting information. First of all, someone passed out a sheet listing all the home sales for the last year. As a person who always checks out Zillow when passing by a "house for sale", it was fun to see the high and low ends in our area. Bates Street, the northern boundary of Holly Hills, and Bergen Street just south of Bates, definitely had the lower prices. Continuing south, the prices raised dramatically. While Bates and Bergen might be the red-headed step children of Holly Hills, it is still nice to be attached. And, I just love our little house.
On Tuesday, this happened....
That cedar tree is actually in the next door neighbor's yard but it has been leaning over into ours for who knows now many years. And, it has been dropping leaves and berries like crazy. There is another non-leaning cedar on the other side of the huge oak and it doesn't drop anything. I have been sweeping and raking up cedar debris for a couple of months now. That is Sergio, our neighbor, in the photo. He enlisted some friends and they cut it all down. If you look closely, you will see the leg of his friend at the top of the photo.
They also trimmed some lower branches on the oak tree and now it looks so nice and neat but thankfully, we still have the lovely afternoon shade. (just a reminder that we have no trees at all on our actual property) Hopefully, they can get some cash for the cedar trunks. And, even though the trees were not ours, we feel we should pay them something. I can't say enough how tremendous our next door neighbors are. They even created a cute little wood pile on our soon-to-be-finished fire pit....
Every morning this week, I have been whittling away at digging up the back part of the yard. The goal is to not have grass to mow and to have a corn and pumpkin patch and more flowers. Below is where things are as of Friday
I have felt like an archeologist during all this digging. Below are some of the artifacts I have uncovered. I regret throwing away the rusted length of chain I found early on. I am also creating rock piles at the chain link fence posts. Every morning, I take my shovel, my spade, and my cell phone encased in a zip-lock bag and I listen to podcasts as I methodically dig up dead grass (which Steve killed with Round-up awhile ago) and toss it into a yard tub. I feel confident I will finish by frost.
All this is on the east side of our newly created driveway to the back alley. On the west is much less grass and once I get it all dug up, I think I will just let it all be zinnia and cosmos next year. The zinnias are still going strong and I have fresh flowers around my house all the time.
I also have flowers from my shamrock plant pretty much all the time, too....
Kyle and Micah have officially moved out of their home on McDonald and I was the beneficiary of some of their plants. There's always room for one more plant, right???
While I am out working in the yard every morning, Sally and Linus LOVE to join me. In fact, when it is rainy and I am not doing yard work, they wander around the house acting lost. Most of the time, they just hang out near me but Linus likes to hit the tomato plants and EAT tomatoes! And Sally likes to crawl under the deck and hunt rabbits. When she does, she often comes out with all kinds of debris on her coat.
Here they are "helping" make the bed.
With my St. Louis Civic Orchestra connections, I got two free tickets to a local theater production of Jersey Boys on Friday night. It was held at the gorgeous Kirkwood Performing Arts Center in a very well-to-do part of town and it was certainly NOT an amateur undertaking. It was more like off-Broadway quality! Steve and I visited a gelato establishment before the show and we had a lovely date night. (The theater was extremely Covid conscious - we had to show our vaccination cards and wear masks the whole time)
Beckie's apartment water was shut off for the last half of the week for repairs so she stayed with us for a couple of days - which was nice. And the dogs LOVED it! While Steve was at Wednesday night youth activity, she and I watched "News of the World" and really enjoyed it. It portrayed a post Civil War Texas - a time and place that one doesn't hear much about.
Finally, as you probably know, Steve and I walk every morning for about thirty minutes and we pick up trash. I collect aluminum cans and turn them in periodically for cash which is a nice reward for our efforts. Friday morning, I collected something more valuable than cans. Someone had dumped this perfectly good Cardinals t-shirt on the sidewalk. It was wadded up and we couldn't tell even that it was a Cardinals shirt until we got it home and washed it. And, it is a Wainwright shirt! That thing costs at least $30 to buy. Steve is disappointed that it was not in his size....But it fits me perfectly.
We have finished out the week with General Conference. That is always a nice weekend - to clear our calendars and to just sit and enjoy the inspiring messages.
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