Jungle fever continues.

Strange dreams during the night, and incredible soreness all over my body when I woke about two hours before the alarm went off. I found myself almost incapable of movement during the short waking period. Groaning, I rolled over and fell back to sleep for blissful sleep some more.

When the alarm goes of, I’m feeling decidedly better and just slightly stiff when I roll from the bed and head out of the bedroom in order to let the dogs out. They’re ecstatic, of course and dash away to leave me to the morning rituals.

Rather than go down to the house immediately, I set out up the mountain instead so I can have a short visit with grandpa’s guest. There’s about half an hour of chatting before it’s time for me to head back down where the dogs are impatiently waiting for my arrival.

No laundry today, apparently middle sister is forgetting to throw anything in during the night, so that saves me a chore today. Still, throughout the day I throw in several batches, lest the dirty laundry pile will grow out of control.

After feeding Yadzia, big brother and I set to editing to get through the hours with effective edits until the younger sibs arrive. We’re running a little behind, what with my visit up at grandpa’s, but still we manage a few pages before it’s time to start on the garden again.

Though the sun is shining, it is decidedly cooler today as we once again start hacking our way through the bushes, clearing more away until at last we round the terrace and can move from one side to the next without obstruction. Quite a few of the planted bushes survived underneath the thick carpet of vines, and as they are removed more and more of them are revealed.

It is quite a relief to see that the Oleanders, eucalypts and even the Jasmine has survived a full year of neglect. Several trees have died however, one of which is completely covered by vines. I jerk on it throwing my weight into the task and literally fall on my butt, laughing when I’m immediately overrun by the jubilant dogs who love nothing more than have a human on the ground.
No harm done in the end, my knee protests a little, but it doesn’t prevent me from continuing with the task.

At long last we reach the last section of the large U we’ve created around the old pool, coming up against where the old pear tree crashed during the last storm and landed in a tangle of thorn branches that belonged to one of our largest bougainvillea. Though the tree is dead, some of the bush’s roots are obviously still alive with young sprouts proudly appearing from the mess we remove.

With a small handsaw, I remove most of the of the thorny bougainvillea so big brother can come in with the chainsaw and cut through most of the pear tree’s large trunk until we’re be able to remove it…not now, of course, but the next time we head down to the garden.

While we’re working on the tree my phone rings, identifying our teacher, who informs me that if we want to we can change our Monday appointment to tomorrow.
Rather than say yes immediately, I call out to big brother, asking him what he thinks about it, agree, and tell the teach that we’ll be there tomorrow on the time she indicates.

We wrap up today’s gardening around dusk and head up to the house where little sister has dinner waiting for those of us who are work weary and more than eager to fill our stomachs with the pasta and sauce standing on the counter with our arrival.

It’s “House” and “The Mentalist” evening, and it keeps us nicely entertained throughout dinner and the resulting relaxing time. We’re all pretty much beat and we’re definitely planning on an early night, which means that today my blog will be posted a little earlier than usual.