Floral Retreat

One of the sure signs that autumn is upon us occurred yesterday.  My wife’s bougainvilleas made their annual trek indoors for the winter.  My wife grew up surrounded by these tropical plants but they’re not well prepared for less than tropical weather, never mind a New England winter.  She has stubbornly nursed these three current plants through eight winters now.  As with all things plant related she’s kind of a savant.

Safely Blocking the Door for Another Winter

She was worried a few years ago when they weren’t thriving in the winter which is the time of year they’re supposed to flower more.  Her research revealed that they do best with southern exposed sunlight.  There’s only one problem, while our house has a multitude of windows and dramatic amounts of sunlight, we only have one southern exposed window, the side door.  Once she’s glommed onto an idea there’s no turning back and the bougainvilleas have spent the last few years there.

That’s fine except that’s Buddy’s main entrance and egress door.  A black lab’s tail and a tropical plant are never a good combination (trust me I’ve done a lot of research into this).  She’s now taken to draping the wide ranging branches up on the wall away from the buzz saw tail, something she learned in San Francisco.  Plant and dog can now peacefully coexist. 

My wife turns deaf ear to my complaints about the restricted access to the side door.  Not all of us are lithe canines, able to contort ourselves around a restricted avenue easily.  Getting old sucks.

A really quiet day yesterday except for another day long cleaning frenzy.  We’ve got a showing for the house today and tomorrow which sent my better half into one of her patented, full blown cleaning episodes.  She did not ascribe to my belief that the house was already pristine.  There’s apparently always something more to clean (an interesting theory).  She also removed the dozens of family photos we have strewn about the house, a tip she picked up on the H&G channel.  I don’t like this.  I loved glancing at the photos and reliving for a microsecond the times I’d spent with the person depicted.  I don’t think the people looking at the house today are Patriot’s fans since they scheduled right at the start of today’s game.  Thank God for the DVR!