What a way to spend a birthday

Monday night there were some drinks and music. txrad whipped out the squeeze box.

On Tuesday, my actual birthday I did some weeding and gardening in this area beside the garage entrance. I also had two baby snakes in close proximity while pulling weeds. I know one was a beautiful garter snake; the other was a rather shiny plain brown snake -- very light brown. Not sure what it was.

I got the rest of my zinnias planted and a few more marigolds. The other plants you see were already there from a few years back. Maybe they'll actually grow and put out flowers now that I cleared out the grass and weeds.

Monday afternoon I got a call from the building supply store that our skylights were in so Tuesday afternoon we took the German utility vehicle (remind me to tell you the story about hauling several hundred pounds of manure compost) to pick those up. I really expected them to fit across the back seat but they were a couple of inches too long. We had to put them in the trunk and drive home rather carefully.

Nothing is broken so I have alerted the contractor to move forward on the roofing and window replacement project.

Last night txrad made my birthday dinner: a brown rice and broccoli casserole.

And a rhubarb cake. YUM!

Today I was eager to get out in the yard and do some more work. I got the remaining marigolds into a pot.

And despite the warm temperature and humidity, I got the push mower out and did some trimming around the trees and various other areas that are difficult to mow with the big riding mower.

I even mowed in the ditch along the street which is extremely difficult because it's uneven and sloping which means extra pushing and pulling of the mower. I tried to preserve as many of the wildflowers as I could. It looks better but my body was seriously overheating when I was done. I was sweating for 2 hours -- even after showering.

I also pulled a lot of weeds and grass out of the front patio where I moved the strawberry plants. Grass was starting to pop up again after the rain last week so I needed to get that out. I also swept the walk and hosed it down with water to get it nice and clean.

Just in case you were wondering what I do on and around my birthday...

...nothing out of the ordinary.