The deck builders tore down the old deck yesterday.

This little video was taken July 1, 2020. It’s the only “picture” I could find of the whole deck. You can see some of the problem, especially as I pan to the right, but the whole floor was weak and wobbly. It was 65 or 70 years old! Even redwood doesn’t last forever. Especially if one is not good at cleaning and sealing every year. (We weren’t.)

As of noon May 3, 2022 the same place looked like this. (Then he went to buy the supplies.)

This is a view from the other direction.

This is what it looks like on 5/4/22 at 4:30 pm.

In other news . . . Last fall, when I cut back roses, I had a long branch that had been growing horizontally, with four or five more branches growing up from it. I put that long branch in my sofa planter [the rectangular box (once a sofa) of weeds with the white lattice around it) and didn’t really do much else except water it until the rains came. I now have three six inch rose bushes. Maybe more, but until I pull the weeds, I can’t tell. The AMAZING thing is that one of the little bushes has a bud!!

Similarly, I took some of the sad budded branches the deck builder had to cut away and put them into a small vase. I knew they’d need help so I put in some SuperThrive, but it glupped in, so was way too much. I poured about ⅘ into the watering can and added more plain water. They still got a lot more than recommended, but they perked right up. I hope it’s enough for them to bloom. That’s my most fragrant rosebush. There are still a lot of buds on the bush, thankfully.

They originally looked like this poor bud, but not pinched.

Now they are like this.

Only the pinched one remains sad.