I’ve been under the weather again, just in case anyone missed me.  Conveniently, it was raining while I was under it, so the garden got much-needed water without me.

Today it’s hot and sunny, and flowers are booming.  As for myself, not so much.  Still, I’m happy when they’re happy.

I’m a bit pissed about the cicadas killing off so many of my young tree branches, though.  Damn buggers.  I’ll be glad when they bug off.

After conferring with our RE agent, and considering the possibly narrow window of this unique seller’s market, we’ve decided to try to move up our time frame for getting the house and property ready for sale.

Accordingly, we’ll be getting more serious about expediting our house repairs and packing process.  To that end, we have a new mountain of boxes awaiting contents, and our work cut out for us.

These photos are a just a few of the many I’m sending our agent for our file.  Anybody want a house and garden in TN?

I’m happy to announce my first native passionflower (Passiflora) ever!  This is a big deal for me, having despaired of my one plant coming back, but did it ever!  Vines took over half the sun perennial garden, and buds are forming all over.  I just can’t get over how such a hardy native can look so exotic and striking.  Or how I was able to grow it.  I mean, look at it.  I even posted two shots, just because.  Nature is such an artist.

The native orange butterfly weed (a milkweed) is starting to bloom, another plant I thought hadn’t made it back.  Other natives and perennials are starting to do their stuff, too.  It’s bittersweet, because I had hoped to stick around and get to see them all come up and spread, but I’m happy to know they’re getting established.  Maybe the next buyer will appreciate them as well.

Speaking of which, our real estate agent just did her first preliminary visit to get an idea what we’ve got and advise us on how to proceed.  She’s not sure how long this seller’s boom will last, but she’s confident we’ll make a little money off it.  It was nice to see a familiar face after all this time, though the circumstances aren’t the happiest.

Today was mowing and wacking day.  Weed wacking, that is.  Also pruning tree branches damaged by cicadas.  And lots of related yard maintenance jobs.  E has almost finished painting the back hallway, and will soon complete the “undeck”.

Our real estate agent is going to visit and give us an idea of how our house stacks up for selling.  I think she’ll be pleasantly surprised by its “after” condition.

Here are some random shots, including my first baby pepper, a bee on comfrey, and a cat in a bag.

Remember how it was a heat wave in the 90s?  Now it’s actually cold out, in the 50s with lows in the 40s, like a chilly fall day.  Also, the cicadas were silent this morning, apparently chilled into shutting up for a moment.  So strange to hear yourself think.

Here are the latest bloomers, including this delicate poppy and the first squash blossom.

I’ve been cleaning up and planting perennial flowers and ferns around the front of the house, to bring it up to speed for showing eventually.  Here’s some of it so far.

E has been painting the back hallway from ugly gun metal gray to light blue with white trim.  Here’s the “before”.

After t-storms, strong wind, and rain, everything looks refreshed outside, other than some broken limbs.  Plants have doubled in size overnight, and new flowers have bloomed.  Trees are breathing a sigh of relief.  I can feel it myself.

E continues to make house repairs and paint, while I’ve been chipping away at the paper mountain like a chipper-shredder.  I wish I had one!  But I think I’ve finally learned my lesson about saving crap and baggage.  I heartily recommend downsizing while you still can, so others won’t have to do it after you.

Here are some wet, happy flowers and tomatoes.

My plants and I are anxiously anticipating rain this afternoon and evening.  It’s been too long.  Still, various colorful natives, which tend to be drought-tolerant, are showing their rugged resilience in the face of adversity.  Something we all can learn from the plant and animal world.

And here’s Misu to show you how it’s done.  Such a hard life.

Today I gave the rest of my tomato plants and tropical houseplants to our nice neighbors, who are really sorry we’re moving.  They’re afraid, as I am, that some big developer will swoop in and grab up this property, and that of the other neighbors next to us who will be selling as well, and turn it into a horrible development.  Or some disreputable rednecks will move back in and turn it into a dump.  We’re hoping some trustworthy neighbor family or friends will buy it all instead.

I know how they feel, since we were so relieved when they replaced the drug dealers, and they appreciated having us as neighbors, and what we were trying to accomplish to beautify the surroundings.  All that was missing was the white picket fence, and they talk of putting one up!  They share similar unexpected misfortunes and losses in their lives.

Life can be a crapshoot.  You can never take anything for granted or get too comfortable.  Resilience is an acquired skill.

It continues to be unbearably hot and dry, but the flowers continue to bloom, and there may be some rain in the forecast.  All I can do is admire what I and others before me planted, and hope to pass it on.

It’s apparent we’re in a drought as well as heat wave.  It doesn’t discourage the cicadas, though.  They fling themselves at me the whole time I’m watering.  Then I go back inside and resume shredding millions of papers by hand.  Ugh.

These flowers don’t seem fazed.

It’s like 90º every day, hasn’t rained in weeks, air quality sucks, cicadas are shrieking and piling up…not very conducive to working outside, but we plow on.

E continues to work on the “undeck” project, which is a big improvement on the house.  It even has an adorable little door down below!  The wagon lives under there.

Mostly I just keep things watered, and listlessly putter around improving flower beds, dodging cicadas as best I can.  I know they’re harmless and good for the soil, but ewww.  By the way, that stuff that looks like mulch–cicadas!!  One more month or so of this, then their spawn go underground and start over for 17 years.

Meanwhile, out in the “prairie”, the trees and grasses are over my head, and a few flowers are starting to bloom.  It looks a lot more like a wildlife preserve.  Only, I’m not seeing as much wildlife since the cicadas took over the world.  I think they scared off the natives!