Monday was a reasonable day. The weather her has been slightly cooler than usual, so working outside was pleasant. I watered the pots, dug out two runner plant roses and potted the to put at the rose trellis in front, scraped some of the moss off the driveway, and blew away the leaves that had gathered under the balcony. I also managed to fill and shock the spa. At some point we had a telephone conversation with a dietician. She’s the one who told me Iqbal needs to eat 6, rather than just 3, meals a day, or 3 meals and 3 good snacks. That night I did my routine website visits (mostly for freebies) and I think I did jigsaw puzzles after that–for too long.

Tuesday was harder because we could get only an 11 o’clock visit to the ENT. That’s equivalent to a day person’s 8 o’clock (am) for me. And Iqbal has become pretty much a strictly afternoon person. Before he got sick he was up at 10 am and to bed at 11 pm. Now it’s up at 10 am and to bed by 8:30 or 9 pm. The ENT is farther away than any of our other doctors. And I hadn’t been there in years. The last time I was there it was the only building there. Now there are several blocks of buildings. Needles to say, I got lost. I finally asked someone and was only two buildings away. LOL When we got there we were told there would be a 45 minute delay and to go wait in the section marked for that doctor. By the time we crossed the 20 to 30 steps to that area, they were ready for us. No, it didn’t take us 45 minutes to get there. They had a cancellation that hadn’t been relayed to the front desk yet.

The reason we were there is that Iqbal has a tickle in his throat that makes him cough like he’s dying of consumption–except it’s totally dry and unproductive. This has been going on for almost a year and none of the sprays or pills has helped. Doctor J. didn’t fiend anything yesterday, either. Everything is good. He thinks it may be a cough that started due to allergies and continues, partly to allergies, partly to a tender connection between his ears and throat irritated by his rather massive ear wax production (’cause cleaning his ear set off a wave of coughing), and possibly also due to muscle habit. We’ll see how the cleaning, a week of steroids, and something else (can’t think of it right now) works on it. I hope all that does the trick. He gets terribly worn out from a fit of those coughs.

In the afternoon, I had my chiropractic treatment. After that I went to Costco to get the meds Dr. J. ordered, but they weren’t ready until today. I watered plants that didn’t get water on Monday and then hosed down my car. The car actually needs a good washing and waxing, but that was more time and energy than I had yesterday at 5 pm.

Iqbal had one snack in addition to he 3 “meals” (Ensure Plus counts as a meal, but doesn’t seem like enough to me). He may also have has cereal with his breakfast Ensure. He ate 2 or 3 crackers while I was in the garden. But his dinner was a real, if tiny, meal. He has a full serving of fish and the larger half of his half sweet potato. He had pudding for desert.

I worked on digital filing after he went to bed. (I will always have digital filing to do!) Then I did a couple of jigsaws and went to bed myself.

Today I was up at about 10:30. I had a hairdresser appointment at 2 pm. In between I read and sorted email, looked up some information for my son, and ??? — probably digital filing again, related to something that came in the mail. When I returned from the hairdresser, we headed immediately to Iqbal’s PCP. I like him. Basically the visit was just to summarize all that has happened to Iqbal since he last saw him (and was A-OK) and then to turn the reins over to the oncologist until the oncology treatment is complete. He let us know he’ll still be there for Iqbal, but we should call before making any appointments so that we weren’t making unnecessary trips. (I definitely appreciate that!) We’ll be seeing Dr. Pierce every 1-2 weeks and each visit will have a lab test, so really his medical needs are covered.

They were running late (about 30 minutes behind schedule–which isn’t bad for a doctor who seems like he wants to be very thorough) and it was after five when we got out. Since Iqbal’s cough isn’t life or death and he agreed, I didn’t go to Costco. It’s always a zoo there at that time of day and I was tired, (though I have no idea from what other than that I’m a hermit who’s been out and about a lot lately).

I moved here in 2004. It has never rained before September. But today was weird. My hairdresser had to drive through a downpour getting back to work after lunch. It was only somewhere between her house and shop. I’m just two blocks east of the shop and we didn’t get any rain. Then, driving to the doctor’s office, we went through two areas of significant sprinkles. And the breeze has been really cool. And I’ve been smelling rain all day. It’s been cloudy all day. As much as I love endless, sunny, summer days, it has really been nice. (Mom would have been in heaven if she weren’t already there. She did not love endless, sunny, summer days.)

I will try to have some garden photos tomorrow. My rose garden is actually beginning to look like a garden rather than just pots in the driveway.

The slightly cooler weather we’ve had this year had also made the roses happier and they’ve had more blooms than the last several years. The fire lilies have gone a bit wild and the other lilies haven’t done as well as usual. The daffodils were gorgeous, but the Italian arum is also taking over that garden bed. I had wanted to dig out my flowers and wash them root tip to leaf tip, then dig out all the dirt throw it away (the only way to get rid of the arum) this year, but now I don’t know when that will happen. Maybe, after I’ve dug out my flowers, I can hire someone to dig out the dirt [and two tree stumps, though, if they get all the arum, the stumps are okay–I have a chaste tree (blue flowers early summer) in a pot on one and a crepe myrtle (pink flowers late summer) in a pot on the other]. At this point, the earliest that will most likely happen now, will probably be next September.

Something that’s happened almost, but not really, by accident is that I now have six more spirea bushes from cuttings to replace the hydrangea on the sunny front side of the house. Because they grow bigger and wilder than the hydrangea, I’ll probably end up keeping them almost hedge trimmed (but not geometric shapes! I do not like plants as cubes or spheres!). The one currently there is fairly flat in the front, but the top and sides are pretty wild. If I cut back the tops as soon as the flowers go mostly brown, they should bloom again. So … I may do the 3 year 6 inch cutback, with a moderate cut for the other two years, and a hedge cutback when the blooms are done. Hopefully, if that’s all the cutting, it won’t be totally wild, but also will look like a bush (times 6) and not a box — and will rebloom. I’ll then put the hydrangea on the shady/partly shady side, where their leaves won’t keep burning. They did well before we needed to cut the two front trees, so I think they’ll be happier on the other side.

I also have six new rose bushes that aren’t just rootstock plants. The first two and last two were intentional, but the two middle ones were surprises. At least one is from my large, old fashioned floribunda next to the deck. I wonder if keeping it in a pot will keep it from being as big as the one by the deck. Which also needs to be cut back in very early spring.

My wisteria is still waiting for it’s trellis, but it nonetheless had it’s first bloom this year. It was just a single flower cluster, but it was pretty. I have the boards for the trellis ready, on the ground, in front of the wisteria. I haven’t decided exactly how I’ll secure the posts to the ground (cement footing? rustproof metal footer/stake?), but I hope to have it figured out and done by the end of the month. I also need to get the broken step mortared back into place and the rocks replaced into the rock wall with all gaps mortared. Before I can finish that, I need to scrape the moss off the rest of the front wall.

And both clematis need to be cut back so that they grow onto their trellises instead of dropping off to the side.

Oh! there’s so much more on the need-to-do garden list. The whole back hedgerow is going to be cut and hopefully kept near fence height. I was going to do the 3-year,1/3 cut for the lilacs, but decided not to. If it takes a while for them to bloom again, so be it. (When my sister cut hers, it bloomed the next year!) I have plans for the veggie garden when I figure out a decent, budget-friendly way to keep it watered. I know myself well enough to know I won’t be out there watering every single day, sometimes twice a day. I need to repot all the blueberries and probably add new pots to separate those that have multiplied. I need to make bird/squirrel proof covers for all fruit. (They ate all my pears!!) I want to plant the iris in front of the hedgerow, and try to get the lambs’ ears to grow under the cherry tree and the peonies in the front corner garden—which I also want to level. I want to build up the wall around the deck garden and make that level. I need to build a 3 block high wall on the house side of the Japanese maple mound to keep the dirt off the sidewalk and around the fern roots and eventually to extend it all the way around the mound 1 block high and have another in front of the hedgerow and cherry tree at 1 block high. I’d also like to plant clover grass everywhere we have grass and cover the troughs the mow’n’blow guys made. Actually, if we still have my powerless rotary mower I’d like it sharpened and simply dismiss the mow’n’blow guys. (They do what they do well enough, but they are not in any way gardeners.) If we don’t have it, I want to get one!

Most important thing on my list is to be ready to garden in January, ’cause that’s when some of them need to be cut way back. I probably have to push myself a bit to learn that. Winters here are mild, but still cold and wet enough not to want to be out working.