The first couple weeks of May have been beset with wind and rain, and generally mild temperatures, making gardening and photography difficult. 

On April Fools’ Day, Thursday, our Green Heron hung out by the dock for a while, and allowed a few portraits to be made. The bird looks so funny with its crest sticking up. It was intent on catching small fish for breakfast.

Kay spent most of the day assisting with preparations for the United Women of Faith (UWF, formerly United Methodist Women) from our church prepare for the annual garage sale. It’s a BIG deal, and over $20,000 is raised each year for deserving charities. I played a pretty decent game of golf at Magellan golf course. Also on Thursday, a gardener removed leaves from the from beds, trimmed all the shrubs in the yard, and planted four azaleas. 

Kay worked as one of the cashiers for the UWF garage sale on Friday, and I played pickleball at Diamante. Pickleball was a blast with a number of really good games.

The gardener returned on Saturday and placed mulch on the front beds, and removed gravel to expand the butterfly garden. Removing the gravel really saved my back! Six bags of top soil were dumped in the newly cleared garden. Last year’s garden, though smaller, attracted 41 species.

After a trip to Home Depot Sunday morning, more top soil was added to the butterfly garden, and  butterfly and hummingbird friendly flowers were planted. While it looks good, it is till relatively bare until even more flowers are planted and all the flowers mature. That will also help control weeds.

Kay and I both played pickleball on Monday morning; she played at Diamante and I played at the POA courts on the west side.

A few bird photos were made on Tuesday morning, and our Tuesday golf game was held to nine holes because of rain; and, it did rain the entire nine holes.

Kay played golf on Wednesday morning, and had a good round. Meanwhile, I observed a lone Great Blue Heron pausing on a neighbor’s dock, offering a “Sittin’ on the Dock of the Bay” photograph.

Without any planned golf or pickleball I began a new project, a dust collection cart for the workshop. Anytime woodworking power tools are used, sawdust envelopes just about every surface in the garage. I acquired the components to build a dust collection system, and it worked well. However, it was not very mobile. Consequently a dust collection cart was designed and built using limited lumber and various available items. The cart was designed to be mobile and hold the vacuum cleaner and the dust collector and bucket. Parts of the next few days (when temperatures were cool in the garage) were devoted to building the cart. Rather than go into a lengthy and verbose description of the process, here’s a photo of the end result. There are still a couple of items to be added such as a “box” on the bottom shelf to hold vacuum cleaner parts. 

The Book Club May meeting rolled around on Thursday, May 8, and I played a poor game of golf.

A competitive round of pickleball was played on Friday morning. I’m almost too old to be competing with the “youngsters” playing in the group. Kay celebrated Mother’s Day having dinner with her kids and their families Friday evening (I had a queazy tummy and remained home).

Kay and I both played pickleball Saturday morning, and enjoyed a quiet Mother’s Day Sunday.

Pickleball was again the activity of the day on Monday with Kay and I both playing in the morning with our respective groups. And then our resident Green Heron posed for photographs on the shoreline while “fishing”.

A successful visit to the cardiologist on Tuesday morning was followed by yet another poor game of golf in the afternoon. For some reason, I seem to be topping the ball with all the clubs—it’s got to be caused by lifting the body up on the front swing! Kay is correct when calling golf the devil’s game.

Kay played golf on Wednesday morning and took the opportunity to capture a few birds in the back yard. I played the pickleball ladder at Diamante in the afternoon. Kay played bridge Wednesday evening.

Even a damselfly was photographed.

On Thursday, I finally broke out of the weeklong golf slump, and shot bogey golf on the back nine of Desoto golf course. Of course, luck had a lot to do with it!

And that wraps up our mundane first couple weeks of May 2025.