Hi, everyone!
First, I should tell you that Grandpa is doing very well with his new hip. He and Grandma are taking longer walks around our street every day, and he only needs a cane!
One week after Grandpa’s surgery, Grandma took me and my pride out to the bay. She didn’t want to miss seeing the azaleas in bloom and Grandpa could manage without her for the afternoon. The deciduous azaleas were in full bloom, and the Stewartstonian azaleas were still blooming, too!
The white azaleas are always a little later than the Stewartstonian azaleas to bloom. Some years, the Mothers Day azaleas bloom first, but this year they bloomed with all the rest! The rhododendron didn’t have many flower buds on it this year, but the buds that did blossom were very pretty!
I always like to eat a meal on the porch when the azalea is blooming right next to it. Grandma made us a snack so I could do that with my pride! Then we went down to the waterfront. The water is about as high as it is likely to get this year. Uncle Steven’s family put out the dock! On our way home, Grandma bought impatiens to plant in the Fairport window box and to hang in a basket on the deck. She picked up dinner from our favorite Sodus chef to take home to Grandpa.
Since the beginning of June, it’s been very busy at our house in town! Grandpa hired a handyman service to do some repairs! The first project was the supports under the back deck. The decking was sagging in places because the structure underneath was failing. When the decking was removed, we could see that the entire support structure needed to be replaced! The handyman rebuilt the structure and put the decking back in place. Uncle Steven’s birthday was that weekend. I helped Grandma make party mix to give him while the handyman worked right outside!
Grandpa was doing well enough to spend an overnight at Sodus that Friday. That gave me a chance to see the white azaleas in full bloom. Meanwhile, back in Fairport, the apple tree blossoms were turning into little apples!
Last Monday, we started another project in Fairport! The windows in the garage have needed replacement for a long time! The sill beneath them was rotting. Grandpa told Grandma how to remove the window panes from their frames. Then Uncle Steven came over to remove the old frame, build a new one, and install the new windows. Grandma helped and Grandpa supervised!
The window replacement was step one in a plan to repair the damage woodpeckers have done to our cedar siding. At the same time Uncle Steven was working on the garage end of our house, the handyman was carefully removing the siding from the other end of the house! Grandpa’s plan was to replace that entire wall with new cedar siding. The old siding that wasn’t already damaged could be used to repair the places around the house where the woodpeckers had made holes.
The handyman had to stop putting up the new siding when he got to the middle, because the replacement attic vent hadn’t arrived yet. He did all the repairs, instead. Then he made a new frame for the garage windows. That took most of the good pieces of siding from the end of the house. Grandpa decided which pieces were still worth keeping and the rest went into the trailer to be hauled away. I helped with that!
The mock orange is always the last shrub to bloom at Fairport, and it’s in bloom right now. Yesterday, Grandma notice some small birds landing on the impatiens basket. When I looked today, I could see they were starting to build a nest in it! There was a lot of sawing and hammering going on today, so I don’t know whether they decided to move elsewhere or not. I’ll keep watching to find out!
Love,
Lion-san
Glad Bob is doing well.