View From My Window

Tuesday, March 30, 2021 — Thankfully, every day is different, because the past couple of days have had some really difficult moments in them. From Robert having nightmares and incidents of confusion, anxiety and depression, to my own fight with muscle cramping. It’s been a real roller-coaster ride.

But, we’ve worked together on the layout for the past couple of days, planting new plants and pulling weeds. Oh my word, the weeds!! Hundreds of them and some no bigger than 1/4″ in size. Like Ellen says in her blog, “Stuff From Ellen’s Head” it’s time to get after the weeds and to see what lived (or didn’t) through the winter.

Most of the things on the Sunset Pacific Ry. survived quite nicely. Some didn’t. The weeds? Yeah, they made it and then some.

Herewith some photos taken this afternoon:

The Pomegranate tree in the foreground hasn’t come out of hibernation yet. There’s a second one off to the left that is also waiting for warmer weather.

While I pulled weeds, Robert did a bit of track maintenance. The weeds don’t care where they grow, but preferably, it seems, it’s between the rails and under the ties where we can’t get to them quite so easily.

This is Vinca Minor, a trailing vine that not only survived the winter, but is full of blooms and new shoots.

Two new houses for the layout — nothing special, just a couple of wood bird houses that we picked up at Michael’s craft store and Robert gave an overall coat of paint. They work… and will look better when we get some people on the scene along with some plants closer to the buildings. speaking of which, the red pot with what appears to be a mere stick is actually a Crepe Myrtle and we’re waiting patiently for it to come out of hybernation. We planted three of them in the Fall and felt it was the wrong time to plant, but in checking one of the trees that looked like it hadn’t made it through the winter, I saw green under the outer skin of brown, so keep a positive outlook — we might see pink flowers yet!

The Japanese Maple has started to leaf out and it’s going to be a very full tree when it’s finished.

A very hearty Perennial, the Dianthus all came through with shining colors, as did a lot of the Allysum, planted further down the way. The gray paving stones are the base for the new highway that’s going in across the center of the layout. We have numerous vehicles to display so that’ll be fun to add to some of the areas.

Ruby is always on hand to watch the work and to check for stray lizards.

The miniature rose bushes are beginning to leaf out and will be sporting buds before long. The ground covers all appear to be doing well except for one plant that doesn’t care for the cold and part of it died off.

Itty bitty weeds … all over the place!

Not much else to report so will close with blessings to all. Be safe, take care of yourself and those you love. Be sure to tell those you love that you love them. One other thing that I’d like to share came from DKZody’s blog, https://dkzody.wordpress.com/2021/03/29/weve-been-doing-this-for-over-a-year/ that I have followed for a while now. She wrote about a literary journal called “Tales from Six Feet Apart…” It contains essays and stories from blogs and writers who shared their viewpoints on living through the pandemic. Phenomenal works and it shares views that made me feel doubly blessed in this life. Check it out… it’s more than worth the time and effort.