Thanks for all your kind words on yesterday’s post.

But that last note, about Dory and noises… wasn’t completely in jest. I had been hearing noises. At least I thought I was – sometimes I wouldn’t, so I thought maybe it was just the road surface. And Dave wasn’t saying anything (he’s usually in tune to anything abnormal). I was supposed to be headed Mom and Dad’s place on the weekend to do some quilting, so I figured I’d get Dad to take a looks while I was there.

But Thursday night, Dave and I went out to get a burger, and on the way back, the noise got a whole lot louder.

We both looked at each other, and said “Wheel bearing.”

While I could get her home no problem, going to Mom’s was out of the question. I got up early Friday morning, and started calling around to see if I could get her fixed that day, and still salvage my weekend.

I don’t know what it is about this area – there are dozens of mechanics, but no one seems to be able to take anything in right away. If you’re lucky, it’s a day or two later. Usually, they are booking a week or two out.

And that was the case… almost everywhere I called, “I can look at it at the beginning of July…”

Finally, I found a shop that would take it in and diagnose it that day. But he probably wouldn’t be able to fix it until Monday. It was the best I was going to get, so we went and dropped it off (hopefully, as you are reading it, I’m picking it back up – it was a wheel bearing).

So I found myself with an unexpected weekend at home. Of course, at home, there’s ALWAYS something to do.

Saturday, I busied myself in the front gardens. While you may not think it, I’m actually a pretty lazy gardener. I weed only when absolutely necessary. And I don’t worry about getting every last little sprout out. I do enough so it doesn’t look over run and that’s that.

After weeding, I decided it was time to get the annuals I started from seed in the garden. In the end, only the cosmos, zinnias, and some snap dragons were decent enough to plant out.

They are still pretty tiny, but I expect they will grow pretty quick now they are out of the seed trays. After planting, I decided to tackle the overgrown holly bush. Early this year, we had a brief warm up, followed by a long cold snap, and as a result, several of the holly branches had gone brown and died (apparently, this is not uncommon.)

My plan was to just cut them, and any other dead stuff off, and maybe shape it a bit so it looked tidy, as it was way overgrown. If I was thinking, I would have taken a before picture, but I wasn’t planning on there being that much difference. The best I have is this picture I took not long after we moved in.

Pretty wild and overgrown… and once I got cutting. Well I just kept finding more that needed to be cut. And the next thing I knew…

I was going to cut more on that taller one, but Dave said let it be for now. The good thing about pruning holly in summer is that it stimulates growth. Hopefully we’ll get some nice healthy new branches to fill everything in, and come winter I can prune it for shape.

And if you’re wondering exactly how much I pruned…

That big pile in the back… basically a holly hedge and a half.

And while I was working away out front, Dave was diligently working out back. He was painting the sun porch to get rid of the yucky oxide red, and make it match the shed.

It’s only the first coat, and the catio side has to wait until we fix the stairs, but it’s already looking a million times better. It’s amazing what a little paint can do.