Waiting for the Spring

We'll be going to Ireland in a few weeks, and there's really no time to start a new home project in the meantime. My vacation from do-it-myself continues, and that's OK.

Little by little, the plants in our yard are showing the effects of the recent freeze, some slowly giving in, like this branch of the leather-leaf fern in the upper pond (though the other branches seem OK). The candelabra cactus (I didn't have the heart to take a picture) that Cheryl and I bought in a little pot in Tucson and brought with us to Florida in a U-Haul and then planted in the yard, now over ten feet tall and now clearly suffering from the freeze, with several of its spiky arms shriveling up on the ends, is looking a bit lonely in the side yard. I gave it a pep talk today, straight face, like nothing was wrong.

In a few weeks, once the danger of a second frost is past, I'll trim back the bougainvillea and the Turks cap, both of which look dead, but I have hopes for the Spring.

Willow is decidedly uninterested in the yard and any projects thereof, so she has had a nice long break from the stress of project management, and it seems to agree with her. Here we are, with her being silly, playing Frisbee at the park near our house.