I had such plans for today.  Plans that are now busted by incessant, misty rain.

Yesterday afternoon, it was chilly, but the sun was shining, so I got outside to work on cutting back the porch side garden.

I massacred my Forsythia.  Supposed to be trimmed back right after it finishes flowering in the spring, it had gotten long and leggy and I lopped off every single branch!  Took it down to about 3 feet high.  I know, it will come back, but I doubt it will flower next spring.

I made a pile of the lopped off branches, then got my camp chair out of the trunk of my car.  That way, I can sit down to rest my aching back, and pull the branches up to me, cut them into smaller lengths and put in a yard waste bag I have sitting beside me.

I have a lot of Rose of Sharon volunteers coming up all over that garden--most about 8" high.  The only way to get rid of them is to dig them up, but their root usually goes all the way back to the mother bush.  So--I just cut them off, below ground level with my loppers.  They will still come up next year, so...I will cut them down again in the spring.  The Good Lord willing and I'm still alive.
======================
I had an encounter with another Tree Toad.  Did I ever post about the ones I found in the upper channel of my trunk lid?  As I went to open my trunk to get my chair, there was a Tree Toad sitting on the top of the rear fender.  I placed him ever so gently on the big Maple tree behind us.  He is probably the same one I found in the trunk channel last month and put in the porch side garden.

After about an hour, when I had all the branches cut and bagged, I went to lug the yard waste bag up on the porch and Mr. Tree Toad was once again sitting on the fender of the car.

I again placed him on the trunk of the Maple tree.  I got my tools picked up and figured I'd just put them in the car trunk instead of walking them all the way back to my shed.  I got my chair folded up and went to put everything in the trunk..................Tree Toad, once again on the fender of the car.

I think he was remembering how much he liked living in the damp, dark trunk channel and riding around with me.  This time, I tossed him none to gently into the garden and shut the trunk lid.  

It all has just become such a hysterical thing that, before I go into town, I have to open and check my trunk for toads.  I hate to be in the super market parking lot and then discover them because there are no grassy areas for me to toss them into.  Besides, a Tree Toad living in the Walmart parking lot wouldn't last very long before he was squished!!!
====================
  Wasn't it just the other day I was telling you how sweet Maggie The Cat has become?  Getting up on the bed every night, coming up toward my shoulders to be petted and talked too.

Last night the ritual continued.  She came up, I petted her body, scratched under her chin, gently stroked her ears and petted her head and.............she turned and bit me!  I yelled, "NO BITE" which she understands and swatted her off the bed.

Then, because I was in pain and bleeding like a fountain, I had to get back up and put Neosporin on it and a large Band-Aid to staunch the flow of blood.  

Later, when I was almost asleep, I felt her jump up onto the bed and settle down by my ankles where she normally sleeps.  I had such an intense urge to kick her flying off the bed, but I didn't.  You can clearly see the marks from her two upper teeth.

====================
I am ticked off today, not just because it is raining and I can't get outside and finish that side garden.  I decided to get the genealogy printed out.  Right around the 80 page mark, I ran out of the special, acid-free, heavier paper I use.  The paper that costs $40.00 a box of 150 sheets.  I've had to order and it won't be in until Tuesday.  

I'm thinking this day is lost and I might as well vacuum the carpeting and sit down, watch TV and crochet!

It's a baby boy afghan that I designed myself and it is causing me all sorts of problems!