Climbing Vine “invading” the Tree

As I have mentioned on other posts, recovering and tweaking the backyard was the first step we took when beginning the house remodeling project. All of you who actually know plant names, please bear with me because that’s another of those things that I haven’t managed to become as knowledgeable about as I would like to be. We had previously planted the pink Clematis (I think it is) and two other lovely flowering climbing vines in these wonderful planters that hubby built. Interestingly, of the three vines, only the pink one has year-round blooms. The other two cycle in and out, although the leaves are usually nice.

The tall slender trees were part of the new landscaping and what we we’re expecting was that the pink would shoot over and start climbing up the tree next to it. I was a bit concerned at first, but both plants appear to be doing okay and so I guess it isn’t anything to worry about. The pink also seems as if it might be trying to spread out to the next planter box where the climbing vine of chocolate raspberry (whatever the real name is) resides. I have a feeling that it won’t take as kindly to incursion as the tree has. I will keep an eye on it though because I don’t want to risk the other vine having problems.

Characters are central to fiction, although you have main, supporting, and incidental characters. Some that are seemingly minor in the few number of appearances they make can turn out to be pivotal, and the “prize” for most authors is to have the character, if not the entire story, to endure through the ages. You say, “Holden Caulfield”, and head nods begin – “Scrooge” became a descriptor that has lasted for centuries, and who doesn’t occasionally use the phrase, “Achilles” heel”? All authors though seek to create characters that the reader identifies with and can care about for the story, or perhaps are engaging to the point of wanting a series.

Authors have different approaches and styles of course, and for me, I sometimes start a character as minor and in the process add an extra layer to her or him and then expand the importance or shift a scene to make that character more prominent. The reason for that is while I have all the main elements of a book mapped out before I begin, as the sequence of events build, new directions may be required to carry the plot and subplot/subplots where I want them to go. Or, at other times, as I create a character, I just decide that I like this one more than I expected to and therefore, I think that the reader might respond in the same way. It is an intriguing process when that occurs, and no, the characters don’t exactly “take control” of the story. There are also times when a reader will perceive a character in a manner that I had not intended, and that, too always intrigues me.

Duck and ducklings crossing four lanes of road.

One of the things about walking around here that I have commented on before is the wonderful bird life that we have. I routinely see green parrots, egrets, herons, often see ibis, sometimes hawks and ospreys and then sometimes birds that I can’t identify. We also have a lot of ducks. While there might be some unusual ones, they all seem rather ordinary to me. Day before yesterday though as I was coming back toward the house, a duck came through a slight hole in the fence and was turned toward the road which is two lanes one way, a tree-lined median with two lanes the opposite direction and the golf course on the other side. There wasn’t a lot of traffic, but still, it seemed to me that the duck might have problems and so I thought I would just intercept it in a few steps and encourage it to go back into the little pond on our side of the road.

As I approached, I realized it had several ducklings and was for whatever reason, planning to cross the four lanes of traffic. What does one do? If I tried to get it turned around would it confuse the ducklings? That was my concern and thus I found myself being traffic guard. I know, I know. The duck and ducklings were able to make it across the first lane and cars coming were far enough away that I stood on the sidewalk, waving the two on-coming to move into the clear lane. In actuality, both cars stopped to let the parade cross and then it was two cyclists whipping up the other lanes. I went into the medium to repeat my actions. The two cyclists were talking, “What do you think she wants?”, until they were close enough to see the situation. They also slowed until the duck family was safe. I’m not sure this process would have worked had there been more traffic, and I do hope that Mother Duck found happiness on the other side of the road.

A string of decorative lights for the back.

Despite the fact that we actually re-did the back yard as one of the first steps in the re-model, there are a few things remaining that we plan to add and then a few things that just sort of “crop up”. When we initially moved into this house, the covered terrace only extended two-thirds across. We wanted the rest covered as well, but since that was also where the bay window was, that section had to be tied in at a slightly lower level than the other. The thing though was that as nicely as it turned out, the pitch of the new section wouldn’t allow for a ceiling fan as we had in the original part. Hubby’s grill fit perfectly as did the bar that he designed and built.

For reasons that I do not recall, I ran across this great looking black wrought iron kind of a “wagon wheel” that would work on the ceiling and we had these nice miniature battery powered lanterns that hung from it to give not much light, but a nice ambience. In the, “Oh, forgot about that” mode, the cute little lanterns were graded for exterior use, although not for the harsh environment we have here and they fell victim to rust. In looking around for a replacement, I saw this string of lights that I thought could work and ordered them. They are white when not turned on and they not only show color when lighted – they also cycle though different colors. The photo doesn’t really do them justice, and I was also surprised to see that I had overlooked the fact that they were solar-powered. Hubby was able to position the little solar panel with no big problem and so far, we’re enjoying them. We’ll see how they stand up.