Garden Work, Dermatologist Visit, and Picking Out Frame Materials for “Lion Cubs”

August 13, 2025

Tuesday (August 12), Nox got me up at a very early hour to go outside. I tried to get back to sleep and finally gave up on getting back to sleep.

I headed outside to remove grass from between the blueberry bushes. As I stepped onto the patio, I realized the potted plants needed water. I watered the plants while Bruce weed-whacked. These are all different insects I saw throughout the day.

Once I finished watering, I headed to the blueberries and started digging up more broom straw grass. At one point, I took a break and checked the apple trees. I found some leaves covered with aphids, and I also found two more Viceroy butterfly caterpillars on one of the apple trees. I moved the caterpillars to a wild black cherry tree.

By 11:30 AM, I was hot, sweaty, dirty, and tired. It was time to call it done.

I put the shovel away in the barn and went inside. I took a nice cool shower and dressed to go to my doctor’s appointment.

During lunch, Bruce and I talked about our progress. He had weed-wacked until the trimmer ran out of string. He was able to finish weed-wacking around the garden beds. I told him I had cleared enough grass that we could start moving pine chips from the piles to mulch between the blueberry bushes. I mentioned I wanted to get the “Lion Cubs” framed and that I had found a frame shop with good reviews.

After lunch, we went out to see each other’s work. Bruce noticed a lot of animals in the half barrel with rainwater. Mosquito larvae!

He dumped out the water. Good riddance!!!!

The garden beds look so much better without the tall grass growing next to the beds. Bruce looked at my progress and complimented me on my work. I mentioned I would like to put the broom straw grass in the compost bin. Bruce decided he could mow between the single row of blueberry bushes. He walked to the barn and rode the mower back to the blueberries. He made two passes between the blueberry bushes. Bruce set the mower deck to its highest level on the first pass and to the lowest setting on the second pass. We admired the results and Bruce put the mower away while I walked back to the house.

I put the females “Lioness and Cub” in the backseat of the truck for reference. Not wanting to risk damage to “Lion Cubs,” I put the closed artist pad into the truck with the picture still inside. I put an unframed painting by our daughter into the truck for framing, as well.

We left for my dermatologist’s appointment at 1:30 PM. I had another lump on my left leg that needed to be looked at. I was afraid it was more lipodermatosclerosis. It was. The compression sock helped deal with the lump, so it didn’t grow and it had even shrunk it. I had to get an anti-inflammatory shot in the lump.

After my doctor’s appointment, we drove to the frame shop. I picked out matting and a frame for the “Lion Cubs.” Bruce picked out a frame for the painting my daughter did for him. He checked with me to see if I liked the frame. I did like his selection.

We decided to get dinner out. I’ll do a separate post on the restaurant.

Once we got home, I changed into my gardening clothes. Bruce changed into his grub clothes. We let Nox outside. Bruce went to get the mower and cart, while I went to the blueberry bushes. I cut up the cardboard boxes I had carried over and placed the cardboard around the boxes.

Bruce had started shoveling the pine chips into the cart. I walked over and started shoveling pine chips too. Once the cart was full, Bruce drove the cart to one section of the cardboard and dumped the pine chips out. I spread out the pine chips while Bruce drove the cart back to the pile and started shoveling pine chips into the cart. We repeated filling the cart and dumping it two more times. We dumped three carts of pine chips around the blueberries. This covered all the cardboard.

As Bruce started back to the barn, he realized Nox had made it to the gate to the back pasture. She was excited to have reached us. Poor little Nox was tired and wanted a pick up. I dropped the tools off at the barn and went back to pick up Nox. She had been slowly following me. Nox did her little leap to be picked up when I reached down. I carried her inside.

We had a beautiful sunset. While watching the sunset, I admired the fireflies. We are getting a second wave of fireflies. I am not sure if they are a different species or children of the first wave of fireflies.