Let the Good Times Roll

Saturday night was the annual Christ School Mane Event and Auction. We had both silent and live auctions, and a great sit down dinner with filet mignon and shrimp. The silent auction went for over 2 hours; of course, the last 20 minutes was frantic with some parents camped in front of the item they wanted. The assistant principal and I offered Bowling with the Big Boys again: time off from school for the winner and 5 buds to bowl 2 lines and eat a hot dog with us. It went for $400, so that was good. I offered 4 hours of woodworking for 2 kids, and that went for double last year's price...$180 this year, and one of my parents bemoaned that she really wanted it but so many people were around the sign up sheet that she couldn't get to it...yadda yadda. I said it she really wanted it I'd offer another for her daughter and a friend at the same price. So I'm doing it twice. The moms of all the classes put together class baskets that sold for large prices. Both of our classes did well; the Born to be Wild (just like Mr. B) 5th grade basket sold for $300. And the parenthetical statement was really on the ticket!

The real deal of the evening was the live auction. There were 26 items and a great auctioneer with a flashy green vest. Your mom's class quilt was fifth on the list; she got up on stage and held it up while the bidding was going on. Top bid was $2,000! Your mom got teary eyed, the auctioneer pulled up the quilt and they talked behind it, and started bidding again for a second quilt. That one went for $1,400 so your mom has her work cut out for her. She's so pumped she's going to the Orange County Quilters' meeting tomorrow evening, and is bringing one of her quilts to talk about.

This had to be the most successful Mane Event ever for The Christ School. Joanne Fleming, our development director, did an outstanding job. (That's Joanne behind the mask with GB in the first picture.) The theme was Mardi Gras, TCS Style and it went over well. You can see from the pictures that some people really got into it. We were invited to sit at a table with four school board members right down in the front, and were honored to be included. Another fun thing about the evening was that our new school head was introduced - Dr. Jason Powell and wife Amy attended and were warmly welcomed. The staff had met Dr. Powell last Friday after school, and we introduce him to the students at our chapel on Monday. It is a relief to be finally done with the Search Committee work and see that it was worth all of the effort. Dr. Powell is a godly, humble, talented man who, for the first time in his life, feels called to his work. And he's just 33 years old. He's a keeper! Monday's chapel will be a bit longer so the kids and parents in attendance can learn a bit more about Dr. Powell. He will begin shadowing the interim principal after spring break and take the helm June 1.

Orchids & Passion Flowers

I was describing to Bob the orchid that I have blooming right now. Pictures are better, so here is a close up of the Dtps. I found a web site that gives great summaries of orchid abbreviations: www.odoms.com/main.cfm Dtps stands for Doritaenopsis; Doritis x Phaelenopsis. This plant is called Dtps. Mount Lip Chou. I think it deserves the grand name! This flower is one of six on an 18" long stem, and there are two stems. The other stem is shorter and has two buds.

Our passion vine is blooming after some winter time off. It's a red flower, so the fritillary butterflies don't bother it. I still like the purple passion flowers, but after last summer's debacle with vacation and then coming back to stripped vines crawling with hungry caterpillars, I think I'll stick with the red variety for now.

I finished my irrigation system/PVC pipe patch job yesterday. No leaks, good coverage from the two new heads, all the tree roots are gone, and my back isn't too sore! I think it looks pretty good, and when the grass grows back it will be even better. The trellis is where my passion vine hangs out. You can also see one of my next projects - the fence and gate to the side need attention badly.

Valentines and Landscaping

My theory is that fifth graders can get a sugar high just smelling the sweets on Valentine's Day morning. The kids were wired from the get-go on Tuesday and took an flying leap into their party in the afternoon. Party for them was trading Valentines, eating lots of frosting-covered confections, candies, and non-diet soda. And then going back for seconds. Twice! I had four moms who did a great job putting out the spread for the kids. One of the moms found some wax lips, which were a great hit! I put up with the goofiness for about 35 minutes and then we went outside for recess. The idea was that they would run off some of the sugar high, but there was just too much to overcome. That's why we do the party at the end of the day -- I sent them home!

We have a fund raiser / auction for the school coming up in two weeks. Each classroom is responsible for a themed basket that is bid on in the silent auction part of the evening. I had mentioned to one of the moms a while ago that I'd like to get a motorcycle again some day, so they came up with the theme of Born to be Wild for our basket. It has a Harley theme, including the Steppenwolf CD with Born to Be Wild on it! Lots of Harley memorabilia, etc. in the basket, which should make it really fun. The prime mover mom saw a unique gift in a store and "just had to get it" for me. The hog riders bob up and down to the tune of - you guessed it - Born to Be Wild, along with assorted motorcycle sounds. My fifth graders ask to turn it on at least twice a day...Sure beat the usual chocolate and coffee Valentine gifts from the kids!

Last Saturday I decided to re-do the path that goes from the driveway around the garage to the gate by the side of the house. There were 12 inch stepping stones that were covered over with grass and some stones had been rocking on tree roots. I pulled up the stones, all 20 of them, and then spent 3 hours cutting through tree roots, re-setting the stones, and adding more dirt to really landscape the whole business. Sunday morning when the sprinkler system came on, it was clear that I had cut more than tree roots. I had whacked the PVC of the sprinkler system badly with my axe. Water poured out, geysered dirt all over the place, and basically ruined my Saturday's work. So I re-set the sprinkler system, pulled up the stones, and started digging. I did the "find the silver lining" thing and put in a new sprinkler head since I had things apart anyway. Finished last evening just about dark and (smart guy that I am) tested the fittings before I filled in the trenches. Sure enough, two more holes blew dirt and water skyward. Sooo, tonight I dug out some more sections and found the offending holes. Tomorrow I'll repair these breaks and put in another new head. And then put the stepping stones back. Fortunately, PVC fittings are inexpensive and I have many feet of plastic pipe left by the former owners. Maybe he was a pipe whacker too!

Visitin'

Saturday evening we had a young couple from our church over for supper. Scott and Andi Mitchell have been married a little more than a year and we wanted to get to know them better. I grilled burgers and we enjoyed the company. Scott brought along a game they had - Settlers of Catan! Gayle and I acquitted ourselves well, but we were whomped by more experienced settlers.

We celebrated the Lord's Supper at church Sunday morning. We have this service on the first Sunday of every month and we often will get in a circle to pass the elements. We had a large circle Sunday - over 70 people! That was fun! After the service the pastor, three others from the congregation, and I went to visit a member of our congregation in the hospital. We served him communion and prayed with him. That brought back many memories of dad having communion on a Sunday afternoon in his room in our house, served by the pastor and a couple of elders. Dad died 31 years ago last Saturday...

Sunday afternoon we had two couples from our church over to watch the Super Bowl. We had a great time, and saw a decent game. The commercials - at least most of them - were great. Gayle made pizza and we enjoyed the company!

Conversation

So, Lucy, have you and Peter decided where you’re gonna go on your honeymoon, hmm?
I went to Cuba. Heh!
Ricky Ricardo was Cuban.
Didn’t Peter look great today?
Aw, that kid! You know, he should’ve been an actor.
He’s tall.
All the great ones were tall.
Lucy, you think you can find me a nice girl for Jack?
Oh, Mom. Come on.
Well, I, I, I really don’t know Jack’s type, so I’m not the one to –
I like blondes…chubby ones.
Alan Ladd wasn’t tall.
Marshall Dillon was six foot five.
Well, we all know who Lucy’s type is.
These mashed potatoes are so creamy.
You like brunettes.
I could never make a good pot roast.
You need good beef. Argentina has great beef. Beef and Nazis.
John Wayne was tall.
Dustin Hoffman was five-six.
Would you wanna see Dustin Hoffman save the Alamo?
These mashed potatoes are so creamy.
Spain has good beef.
Mary mashed ‘em.
Cesar Romero was tall.
Cesar Romero was not Spanish.
I didn’t say Cesar Romero was Spanish.
Well, what did you say?
I said Cesar Romero was tall.
We all know he’s tall.
Well, that’s what I said. Cesar Romero is tall. That’s all I said.

At least 4 left turns in the conversation, Em...gotta love it! Best $6 I spent in a long time...

The Game

Some things are just plain fun - hot chocolate on a cold night, watching the kids dive into their stockings on Christmas morning, Calvin - Hope basketball games. We went to a sports restaurant on the west end of Orlando this afternoon and, thanks to satellite TV, watched Calvin and Hope play "The Game." Actually, Hope played the game and Calvin was a semi-interested participant. There were about 60 people who came out to watch and socialize, both Calvin and Hope alumni and friends. We were a fairly subdued bunch -- not much hootin' & hollerin'. I think the Hope folks watched the game more than the Calvin gang...sad to say, Calvin played poorly. We shared a table with Steve and Cheryl Chong. Steve is a 1979 Calvin grad, an attorney in Orlando, and serves on Calvin's board of trustees. Their oldest is a freshman at Calvin this year.
We hit mega-bingo with others who showed up. My 9th grade teacher, Hank Zuiderveen, was there with his wife. Gayle talked with the Grevengoeds & Holtvluwers from Holland, MI, and I had a great talk with Jerry Cooper, Rev. Dale's brother. Jerry now lives in Clermont, FL. We talked for a while about our polio parents. It's not surprising that we have very similar perspectives and understandings about life.

All in all, a very good afternoon. The buffalo wings were tasty, conversation was great. "The Game" was incidental!

Manatees

We drove up to Orange City Saturday morning to see the manatees at Blue Spring State Park. A fresh water spring (dark line in the pic at right) puts out 100 million gallons of spring water per day at a constant temp of 72 degrees. The spring water runs into the St. Johns River and when the river temp gets low, the manatees migrate into the spring.

There were 109 manatees (the park rangers count 'em) at the spring this AM. We saw over 70 sea cows while we were there. The water is very clear, the sky was overcast so we could see into the water easily, and the early time - got there about 9:15 - meant very little wind to ripple the water. When the manatees aren't there, people can scuba dive down the rift way into the limestone cave...not my idea of fun! Lots of black headed vultures around also.

We spent the rest of the day taking down the Christmas decorations and taking care of Saturday stuff. I cut the grass and got the lights off the house - no slips, ankle twists, or pratfalls! Temps were in the upper 70's this afternoon, which we enjoyed.

May God bless you abundantly in the new year!

We Like Christmas!

I think that there is a direct relationship to the length of time we anticipate an event and the speed at which that event flies by. We have been looking forward to Christmas with all of the kids / grandson for months. Now that it's almost over, it seems that the time has taken wings.

We visited Leu Gardens Friday afternoon - saw many wonderful plants and flowers, especially roses. We had supper on the deck Saturday night and included our Orlando kids, Matt & Jill. Everyone attended Conway Community Pres on Christmas Sunday for worship and a great turkey dinner later in the day. On Monday we showed the gang our downtown stomping grounds - walked through the First Pres / Christ School block and the toured Lake Eola. We went to SeaWorld on Tuesday and enjoyed the dolphins, penguins, sea lions, and of course, Shamu. Spectacular!

Great food, beautiful weather (60's during the days) and blue sky, shared stories, games at night, lots of Luke time, family jokes rehashed, and we even got in The Princess Bride. All good stuff! Thank you, Lord, for family!

Projects

I finished my table this morning -- rock solid! It took about 6 hours and less than $25, so that second table is a real bargain. Bob's enjoying the deck; we had lunch outside. Note the shadows; sun and warm with temps in the upper 60's.

I power washed the chairs today. After a year packed away, they needed to shed the critters and dirt that had claimed them as home.

Tomorrow Bob and I are going to clean the water fountain and stream in the back yard. BJ likes playing in the water, and I bet Alec & Luke will too!

...And It's Vacation

We had a half-day of school yesterday. That meant a special chapel (half hour); the usual library time with a special book presentation by our librarian (half hour); a special math probability exercise with 4 pennies (half hour); cleaning desks (half hour); filling bags with necessities for Compassion Corner, the next-door mercy ministry to the homeless (half hour); a cookie exchange and class party (1 1/4 hours). Interesting note on the desk cleaning - one boy came up to me with a surprised look and the comment that he had found a paper from September! No wonder he couldn't fit his books in the desk. I also spent many minutes untangling kids' puzzles that I had given on Thursday as my present to them. I knew that these brain teasers would come back to bite me, so I gave them the puzzles a day early so I could undo the damage that many of them did trying to figure out how it came apart. It's also sort of payback...

Today I'm going to fix one of the Christmas presents that Gayle and I gave each other. We had ordered a folding teak octagonal table for the deck in early November so we could have it when the kids came at Christmas. It finally came the day after Thanksgiving, left in our entry while we were gone. The box was a mess, many large holes and retaped poorly. When I opened it, one of the legs was broken and the leg part completely missing. It took nearly two weeks to sort it out, but we were told that the shipping company did not want to pick it up, we could dispose of the table, and a new table would be shipped to us. The new table came Thursday. My project today is to dispose of the old table by repairing the leg. One of the definitions of dispose is "to put into correct form." Works for me!

By the way, Bob the Christmas Rabbit is home...

Ready for Christmas

Yes! We're getting ready for Christmas...

The lights are up, the tree is decorated, the house is ready!










The weather is great!

Now we need some kids...

Two New Lifers

It's my turn to update the blog - have a few pictures from our trip to Canaveral Seashore last Friday. I found two new shells that I hadn't had before. However, one I can't positively identify yet and the other one is not complete, but enough to know it was a Scotch Bonnet. I don't think it was common on the Gulf Side, but we found two half shells on the Atlantic side.

We also encountered a slow moving land turtle by the car. He hissed at us when we got too close and then crawled away into the bushes.

Did a fun project with my students today - we made an "I Spy" book. They worked with a partner, found all kinds of "stuff" around the classroom and composed a "collection" . Then they wrote five or six sentences like "Find the red bear," or "I spy a yellow balloon." I printed them up tonight and will get them laminated and bound tomorrow. They all worked hard for over an hour on it - here's one example:

Thanksgiving Bonanza

I have a billbergia saundersii that I bought from Tropifloral over a year ago. I had a beautiful flower shortly after I bought it, and then I had two new pups form. Those two pups flowered this week. The bad news is that billbergias seem to flower for just a short time; good news is that they are spectacular! If you look closely you can see the two pink sheaths on the plant sides of the flowers.





I "hard cultured" the saundersii in my lattice house and it seemed to like it. Only problem was when I wanted to bring the plant inside, I had to flood out the frog living in the bottom of the plant vase! He wasn't too happy, but I think he got over it. I put my billbergia Hallelujah in the lattice house, which gave Mr. Frog a new home. I'm also hoping that the hard culture outside will get my Hallelujah in gear with a flower.


We also have two gift (that means I
don't know their names!)
orchids from students blooming in the house right now. Not bad, huh? Happy Thanksgiving!

Just Breathe

Well, we made it to the Thanksgiving break and though we have two days of inservice ahead of us it sure feels like a week of vacation. My class was responsible for chapel this week, so I prepared three days worth of mini-challenges regarding Thanksgiving and intertwined it with some ECHO hunger issues and West Virginia Food for Children pictures and stories. It was well received - even have a few adults who might be interested in going to WV with us this summer. We're taking a collection from the school kids for the Food for Children project.
Friday my little ones had the program and they did very well. They said Psalm 100 in unison without a hitch and then sang three songs , one of which was illustrated by a powerpoint of their drawings. They were so cute in their little hats. Thursday was our Native American Pow-wow where we go to a park and dance around a paper fire and pretend we're Indians. This is not my idea since it gets a bit stereotypical but "we've been doing it since the Kdgn. started" so who am I to change an institution? When we got back we wrote down what we liked about the day and not one kid mentioned the "pow-wow". They all talked about the nature hike and the alligators they saw and the inchworms and butterflies. Hmmmm.....
After our two days at school Dad and I are looking forward to puttering around the house. I have some chairs to strip and refinish and we've planned out our Christmas decorations and are looking forward to putting that stuff up.
On Thursday we're going to be serving dinner at the Salvation Army for 3 1/2 hours and then if the weather is nice we're going to pack a

picnic and go to the seashore. Turkey sandwiches count for Thanksgiving dinner, right?
Thanks to all of you for the Birthday cards and phone calls. It was the kind of day I like - low key with a few thoughtful expressions from family and friends. My little ones were more excited that I about the birthday and one of them spilled the beans about a week ago when she said "What day are we supposed to bring you a flower?" Anyway, 55 feels very much like 54 though I'm counting more silver among the gold and noticing that I'm not winning the battle of the bulge.
And welcome aboard to son Bob - the latest member of the Bosscher bloggers! Don't be too hard on him to update frequently - remember what it was like when you were in college??

Travel Weekend

I had a good, quick trip to Grand Rapids this past weekend. The primary purpose was for Christian Schools International board meetings. The bonus was having supper with Bob, Kim, and Mike, and spending time with Mom and Art.


I took the Calvin kids out to Friday's for supper. We had a great time, got caught up on news, and finished off several pigs' worth of ribs.






We had good board meetings all day Friday and again on Saturday morning. I think our new CEO/executive director Dave Koetje is already doing exactly what the board hoped -- vision casting and creatively leading CSI into the 21st Century. Dave and wife Marla hosted a get-together for the board Friday night at their house. Marla and I were in band together at Calvin Christian HS many moons ago.


I spent Saturday afternoon with Mom & Art. We visited Aunt Marilyn at the nursing home and also went to see Uncle Howard and Aunt Doris. It was good to see them; health is a fragile thing. Uncle Howard is still recovering from his car accident in late January. Aunt Marilyn was pretty coherent. Art is still limping badly from his fall two Sundays ago. He was pretty game about getting out, though!

The best thing about the weekend? Seeing my Gayle drive up at the airport and getting home safely!

Nothing New

Lest we get comments about keeping our blog current- here's a new post. No pictures, not much happening, looking forward to Thanksgiving break, but no plans as yet. We've asked a few folks if they would like to join us, but it seems everyone has somewhere to go. Maybe we'll just go to the beach and have turkey sandwiches, who knows? Dad just got home from Michigan and we're getting ready for another school week. Maybe next week, after my class does chapel in their cute little Pilgrim and Indian costumes, I'll have something to post.

Florida Fall, Wild Wilma, Cute Cids!

So, a little poetic license on the "kids", but since I already have to explain why Toys R Us can make their r's backwards, why not? Hurricane Wilma left us with wonderful temperatures, low humidity and our first opportunity to turn off the air since last May. Of course one of my students came to school with MITTENS! on Tuesday, but we'll forgive her for that. At least we finally got to color in a square on the weather graph that says "cold". I tell the kids they can't color in one of those until they actually wear a jacket to school - so this week we had four squares in the cold column and 16 matching TCS fleece jackets half of which had no names on the tags because the mothers don't remember that everyone has the same jacket and by10am all the jackets are on the floor or trying to hang on the backs of the chairs and we have a mess to see whose is whose when we hang them in the hall at recess!! (Diagram that one, Emily!) Since Monday was a hurricane day and Tuesday was the Pumpkin Patch trip and Friday was dress-up day and parade around the school and the teacher had a cold and couldn't talk on Wednesday and Thursday it seemed like nothing got accomplished! Add to that a birthday treat with that fluffly mile-high frosting that gets on your nose because you have to take a bite in the middle, and a "decorate your pumpkin cookie with icing and sprinkles" activity at the Fall party and there's no way the wee ones are going to settle down! We had a fun week in spite of all that. The kids did some great creative writing with rhyming patterns, counted 530 seeds in our pumpkin and did all sorts of "pumpkin math", but I'm hoping for a more stable week ahead.

One Great Day

One Great Day for Downtown Orlando was one great day for The Christ School. We belong to a consortium of downtown schools and yesterday was the day when all the students go out into the community and perform public service tasks. It's a big undertaking to find places and suitable jobs for several thousand students, but it gives them all a taste of helping others. The fifth graders spent the morning at the Salvation Army doing a variety of things. The kindergartners made cards, paper flowers and a big mural and then walked to the fire station, the library, and the Lutheran Towers retirement home to give out their cards and flowers. The big mural with all little people marching across was presented to Compassion Corner which is a homeless help center right here in our building. It was quite humid for these activities, but the kids were good little troopers and a quick ride back to school on the downtown Lymo (free bus) was a good end to the morning.

Now that all you Bosschers have your Christmas name, please remember to post some gift suggestions. If we go ahead and put them on the blog comment place we can all read them and no one will be the wiser about who's got whom. Is that the correct grammar Miss Emily? By the way are cold germs able to be transmitted via the web? I came down with a nice head cold this weekend - however I think it's from a couple of snotty nosed kids that I chased with the tissue box and hand sanitizer this week. I'm trying to get caught up this weekend with school and house work, but keep falling asleep from the medicine I took to get rid of the sinus headache. Can't win.

Wonderful Weekend

We're back home safely after a quick trip to Washington, D.C. The weather was a bit rainy the first couple of days, but Saturday was a fall day in the best sense of the word. We went out to a park that featured some farm animals and enjoyed the sunshine and the playground. The pictures should give you a good idea of where our focus was most of the time. The little grand is a real sweetheart and we enjoyed every minute of our time with the whole Waterhouse family. We even had a ride around the block in the Model A!

Tough Day

Today was difficult. I had two students who have honesty issues. That’s a nice way of saying they lie to their parents – and me – about homework. Fifth graders! And it’s the end of the quarter, so it’s crunch time. Parent / teacher conferences should be really interesting, especially if we have the little darlin’s present!

The worst of the day was this morning before school. We had a tragedy in Orange County last night – a sheriff’s deputy with marital problems shot and killed his two children, ages 10 and 8, and killed himself. The 10 year old girl was a friend and fellow gymnast of one of my fifth grade girls. I had a heads-up from her mom via e-mail, but it was hard when Sarah walked into the room before school, weeping. I wrapped my arms around her, several other girls came over, and we had a group hug around Sarah.

It was so good to see the compassion and concern that the class showed to Sarah throughout the day. They made a card and gave it to her at the end of the day. The whole class faced Sarah and said in unison, “We’re sorry, Sarah.” Children who had minimal experience with grief, and yet they reached out in their simple way to their friend. The Body of Christ at work in fifth graders…

This golden thread of encouragement continued after school. I had a call from a former fifth grade student in Ft. Myers who is now a freshman at the illustrious University of Florida. Trevor had tracked me down after reminiscing over his fifth grade Summit yearbook. We caught up on family news and he thanked me for a good fifth grade experience. What a great, timely call! Thank you, Lord!

Walkathon Blessings

In a week of over 6 inches of rain, Friday morning's hour and a half window of no rain was such a blessing as The Christ School celebrated it's most successful fundraiser. "Roary" the Christ School mascot got everyone pumped up and ready to walk.



The children participate by bringing in the pledges and donations and then we all celebrate by walking around Lake Eola in the heart of Orlando. We raised over $42,500.00 dollars and had such fun in the doing. The Orlando police stopped the traffic downtown and were positioned along the route and in the park. The kids loved the motorcycles and talked to the policemen along the way. It was good community PR for our school, but also for the police department.

Then after a nice lunch the kids go home...and the teachers have a reward! Dad and I stayed at school and worked on report cards for awhile so we can be mostly done by Wednesday afternoon.

My students bring their dads to school for Dandylion breakfast - it's a way to make sure that we have lots and lots of adult chaperones for the students on the walk. They are all so cute - wish I could post all their pictures, but you get the idea. There's a lot of hype and preparation for this event, but it was so well organized this year. We all had a great time!

A Green Week

At the beginning of last week we had talked about driving to Sarasota on Saturday. My favorite plant nursery – Tropiflora – was having its annual fall sale. Tropiflora has about 100,000 square feet of nursery plants under net and six true Northern greenhouses for special plants like orchids. Tropiflora is the largest / best place I have found in Florida for bromeliads. Most of the “under net” is for hundreds of varieties of bromeliads. We have visited there three times; I bring my camera because of the spectacular plants and inflorenscences (that’s what bromeliad people call the flowers…great word, huh?). I also get a new sense of awe about the amazing conglomeration of plants God has created.

A trip to Sarasota takes about 2.25 hours and we spend 2 to 3 hours with the plants ooing and ahhing as well as buying. It’s a whole day commitment, and with the price of gas and the Pres asking us to conserve a bit, and the typical busyness of our weekend, we decided to use the Internet and forego our little excursion. I ordered seven plants from the Tropiflora catalog Monday night and they were delivered to school on Wednesday. A couple of the larger bromeliads were shipped unpotted so I had to get them in dirt. One already had a large pup. A pup is how bromeliads normally propagate. A new plant buds out from the base of the parent and eventually gets clipped off and repotted. By supper time I had them situated in their new home.

We have three unusual new plants – one for its flowering (Vriesea scalaris), one for the pattern on its leaves (Vriesea hieroglyphica), and one for both leaves and flowers (Billbergia vittata ‘Domingos Martins’). I love the names! I think that I’m continuing God’s mandate to Adam when I learn plant names and care for them.

On Saturday I spent about six hours on the yard. Mowing and edging go quickly right now; the grass doesn’t grow as fast as it does in June and July. I still have to spend time pruning and weeding each week – stuff grows quickly and it’s not all where I want it to grow. The majority of my time was spent in the back yard. We have one laurel oak left and it’s doing well. The grass was growing right up to the trunk and I wanted to get that back a bit. I also had a Billbergia pyramidalis that needed to get out of its pot. This bromeliad does well around trees – tends to have many pups and will “climb” a bit.

I dug out about 2 feet of sod all the way around the tree. I had a problem with sod webworms in the back yard and before I treated them, I had about a third of the sod dead. Hateful things! I took the sod from around the tree and put in shovel sized plugs in the dead turf. And I dug into the electric cord that I had buried a year ago to run the pump that recycles the water in the fountain. I didn’t cut through the wires but I did cut the insulation, so I spent 20 minutes berating myself for carelessness while I taped up the nicks in the wires.

It’s still hot in Orlando. It was about 90 degrees again yesterday, but we had a nice breeze. For Florida it was a windy day, but in the Midwest or New Mexico it would be just breezy. A front came down to northern Florida so we got a breeze and last evening, about a tenth of an inch of rain. Good for the sod project!