What’s up with the neighbors?

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So, my neighbors – not the ones we are close friends with, the ones on the other side that we are cordial to in passing – are home safe and sound from some sort of mini-vacation that begun last Wednesday or Thursday and lasted until Monday.

I had worried about their welfare since the morning I heard them (or someone else sinister-like) packing up their family vehicle with stuff at an incredibly odd hour of the morning).

It was dark and I couldn’t see through the bushes well enough, but the dark shadows just didn’t look like Rupert and Jan. No one spoke as several trips back and forth from the house and to the car were made.

Then, the vehicle roared to life and it was gone. After daybreak, I noticed that the neighbor’s house looked forlorn. Quiet.  Jan’s car stayed parked  – not even in her usual spot – even after she normally left for work.

My mind struggled to recall details of what I had seen in the morning, something that might hint if they were making a trip together or if something more sinister had happened to them.

Brian said he was sure they had just gone away for a few days. I asked, “How do you know? Maybe someone invaded their home last night while they innocently slept and once startled, the culprits killed them and loaded up Rupert’s car with body parts and such.“

Brian accused me of a vivid imagination. I guess I’m watching too many ID (Identification Television) programs – ‘On the Case with Paula Zahn,’ ‘Dateline on ID’, and ‘Who the Bleep Did I Marry?’

So, I knew I was being silly, but just the same I kept my eyes and ears open for anything strange going on over there, half wondering if I’m not being too silly after all.

And, later, I purposely drove past their store in town, slowing down to read the sign – Be Back Tuesday.

Ok, so there it was. Rupert and Jan must just be on vacation!

Unless.

Unless, the perpetrators stole the key to their business, robbed the place blind, and put a note on the door to throw authorities off.

So, I kept my eyes and ears open for a couple of days and this morning, very uneventfully, they came home from wherever it was they were.

This ever happen to you?

 

 

 

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The Scarecrow and me

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Several months ago, I created four new headers for this blog. I thought them pretty clever in depicting my life out here in the woods of South Carolina. I have them randomly display at the top of my blog.

This one cracks me up.

From left to right: Sam Dog on his first boat trip on Lake Marion, our first scarecrow, my first try at oystering, and a plate-sized hibiscus. It was a complete accident that I placed a picture of our scarecrow next to the one of me collecting oysters near Folly Beach.

Coinky-dinky, isn’t it? We could be twins.

(And, on a side note, just in case you hadn’t noticed, sometime during the day on April 10, 2012, my blog topped 30k visitors. Woohoo!)

 

 

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A fancy new trellis

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Spring is a busy season. And, we are certainly in it full swing in my part of the world. Our indoor and outdoor to do lists are long and it seems like as soon as we cross one thing off the list we add another.

And, we spend more money at the garden centers and hardware stores this time of year, money that is in considerable shorter supply this year than in years past.

So, anytime we can come up with ideas that will save our dollars, we are thrilled. One current project is our home-made window boxes for the front of our house.  We need four boxes and the prices at the garden center made buying them out of the question. So, we drew up our own plans and Brian began building them at a fraction of the cost. He is almost done, getting a second coat of paint on them today and hanging them later this week.  I’m sure I’ll take pictures and show them to you soon.

In the meantime, I want to share with you a little thing I made the other day to save us the expense of buying at the store. It’s a twig trellis! And, I think it’s kind of cute, if I do say so myself!

I took a pair of loppers into the woods and cut me a few long straight branches.

I stripped them of their leaves, cut to size and laid out a pattern. I attached the cross pieces with some wire.

I dug a couple of holes behind the rose bush so I could insert the trellis a good 8 to 10 inches below ground level. And, I also attached a couple of string anchors to the building behind it to give it a bit more support. The whole project took about an hour and a half.

 Ta da!

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