Rains and snarky skies

Out back skies from the west

The skies are ominous, that is the way we describe the darkness in the dayllight.  Storms approach from the west and all day we will and have had thunder storms, which are better than the tornado warnings to the north and east.  It is a day to hang around close to home with flash flood warnings.  

Daily I do a yard patrol and pick up debris  tree twigs, branches, leaves, etc. mostly from our very might Maple in the back. Being a conscientious good person,  I even pick up what it drops  onto the neighbor's yard. I doubt she even knows I do this because she has never said a  thank you nor mentioned it.  I wish the ones who live the other side of us would retrieve the debris from their multitude of trees that always blows over here, but there is no possibility of that because they do not even collect their leaves in the fall.  So when I can I toss their branches across onto their lawns.  They are oblivious and just mow over them.  In some ways it must be nice to be so carefree, but I was raised to be tidy and to keep things up, maybe too much, but at this age I will not be able to change my ways and preference for neatness.  Perhaps it is a compulsion but I despise clutter and disarray.  

Looking up through the red maple tree

So as Mother Nature sends storms and prunes I pick up .  Whenever I lament the ash trees that gave us so much shade out back until we had to have them removed two years ago, I remember how much more debris they scattered in the storms and so today maybe it is a good thing they are gone, ravaged by the emerald ash borer and so cut down and taken out .   Just yesterday Facebook showed a picture of Jerry at the back garage door and there was one of the big ash trees.  That is another thing I enjoy  about FB, the memories it provides. But I started to write about our thunderstormy day. 

Last ash soon to go 2017

Preparing to take them down. 2017

 

Front of our home on this dreary day

Japanese Beetle in Apple Jack Rose

But we can weather these storms, water for the grounds although we have more rainfall than adequate already.  And perhaps this weather will discourage those nasty Japanese beetles that have returned, the scourge of the East and Midwest gardens. I spray with copious does of Sevin and that helps.  The stragglers are hand scooted into  what I call my Death Jar, a jar I keep in the garden, covered and  half filled with water with Dawn soap.  They go in there for a swim and that is the last of them.  So far keeping ahead of them, but this is supposed to be a bumper crop year.  I heard on a radio  gardening show  that the larvae thrived over the severe winter, one would think just the opposite but apparently they did not get enough deep freeze to do them in.    

We celebrated good medical news yesterday, well all week was hell week with all mine and Jerry's medical appointments.  My follow up cardiologist appointment went well, all good to go for another year although Dr Myers agreed with me, this extra 6 pounds I accumulated over  late winter has got to go, as he said, "you are a small person and cannot carry extra weight."  Don't I know it.  Besides, I  do not want to expand and outgrow my clothes.  So watching my fat grams again, which curtails my nightly enjoyment of ice cream.  But all for the good.   Jerry's oncologist appointment to discuss his 3 month follow up blood tests and CT scan went well, although we knew the good news ahead as Mayo gives us access to all our tests, medical notes, etc online.  I look at all this online so we knew his tests were good, no cancer signs.  Hooray!  Also his heart tests show improvement in the pumping function which had some concern earlier in the month.  His pulmonary rehab appointments  are over but he is back to exercising at home, working out in his own private  gym with treadmill, weights, slant board for crunches, he monitors his oxygen level and watches that carefully.  But his  muscular strength is returning and now if he can wean off  or decrease the supplemental oxygen will be good.  Would have gone out for dinner last night to celebrate but the weather was too hot, heat index almost 100, so I opted for a  boiled but then cold shrimp dinner at home,  mac salad, tomatoes, fruit, melons and fresh bread.  

Good news to end the week.  Tonite will be a tenderloin filet at home, using the convection oven and probe.  And fresh asparagus, locally grown.  We eat well, no cheap cuts in this kitchen!

St Anthony comes through again, how could I doubt.

Returned, unscathed, thank you again Dear St Anthony, I will donate extra at mass this evening. 

I posted this on my Facebook page hours ago and had acknowledges from over 40 folks within minutes,.  I thought I would update here too since I blogged it yesterday,  the difference, no one sees this.  :  "   Thank you, St Anthony, you never let me down.   An hour ago  I felt an urge to patrol garden perimeter again, carefully. After all, neither the birds nor bunnies would carry the sunglasses off,  they must be somewhere,  could not have vanished, as I told friend Jan earlier.. Sure enough, middle perimeter as I stopped to pull out the pesty creeping Charlie, I spotted a glimpse of blue, victory amid the Charlie, reward amidst the weeds.."----

And at mass we had a visiting priest from southeast India who is working in our Win one, MN Diocese.  He told about the seminaries and the schools for orphans in his native Southeast  India and the extreme poverty, the starvation, the destitute.  We had a second collection which would be for his mission work back in India.  How could I not honor my commitment to St Anthony.?  If course I gave extra money to this mission.

Posting this from my tablet,  different than working on the computer.

Adding this additional information, I grew up Catholic and learned about St Anthony very early in life, I remember seeing this very portrayal of him probably at church and at my grandma's home.  I learned the chant early, "St Anthony, St Anthony, please come 'round, something is lost and must be found."  

Sometime along the way, I started to call on him as Tony.  It amused me to find  online about the prayer to St Anthony, that I am not the only one to call on "Tony" . Praying to St Anthony when something is lost is a Catholic tradition.  Many years ago my late friend Sandy became curious about this habit of mine after her sister returned from missionary work in Mississippi where she learned about the faith people placed in St Anthony. So I shared my prayer with Sandy, but told her the tradition  requires that when your lost item is found one is supposed to donate extra to  the church poor box. Sandy was not Catholic but wondered if it might be all right with Tony is she just gave a donation to a local charity. 

Nevertheless there is a more formal prayer, above,  but for me the chant learned in childhood sticks.   Saint Anthony of Padua,was  born Fernando Martins de Bulhões, August 15, 1195 to a wealthy family in Lisbon, Portugal  and died June 13, 1231, in Padua Italy.     He was Catholic priest and friar of the Franciscan Order.