New Year, new you, right? Have you filled out your New Year’s resolution yet? Resolved to lose weight, travel more, or manage your money better have you? The problem with such vague resolutions is how do you know if and when you’ve achieved them? There’s no finish line. Instead of a journey of self-improvement, a vague resolution is more like an endless death march. No wonder they fall by the wayside by Groundhog Day.
With three-score years under my belt, I’m not into self-improvement at this point in my life. I am what I am. My SMART goals are about making my life more enjoyable. For example, I am not trying to lose weight for aesthetic reasons. Losing weight will reduce the pain in my knee and back, and improve my mobility.
So, without further ado, here are my SMART goals of 2023
Visit a Colorado hot springs with the inestimable MrsVintage
Read one book every two weeks
Install a waterwise front yard
Write a blog post every two weeks
Keeping with another acronym, Keep It Simple Stupid (KISS), that’s all there is. Too many goals, and there is not enough MrVintage available to accomplish them. Besides, a list like this is quite achievable. Wish me luck!
What resolutions or goals have you set for the upcoming year?
Posted inLife|TaggedNew Years resolutions|Comments Off on Instead of a New Year’s resolution, be SMART
Howdy All. I know it has been a while since my last post but, as you are aware, life can get hectic sometimes.
I’ll be honest, during my recent sabbatical I seriously pondered closing down the MrVintageMan blog. My primary goal, when I first started this blog, was to improve my writing skills with an eye toward becoming a novelist or a freelance journalist. I’ve always had a dream of becoming a published writer.
But as time has gone by, I’ve come to realize that while I love the idea of being a writer, I do not have enough desire to put in the time or effort of actually becoming a writer.
Nevertheless, I have decided to continue with this blog because I feel that I still have pearls of wisdom to impart and, more importantly, pearls of wisdom to be gained from others.
Growing old with dignity
Getting older isn’t easy; in fact, as has been said by others wiser than me, “growing old ain’t for wimps”. The About this site statement at the top right corner of this blog says, “Finding purpose and happiness on the downhill side of life”. While I have written about traveling, gardening, fitness, books and more, I do not feel like I have addressed why and how these things can add purpose and happiness to the autumn years of life.
So, I aim to correct this. I won’t be making drastic changes to the way I write, but I am going to try and wrap my writing in and around the theme of “finding purpose and happiness on the downhill side of life”. Wish me luck
Simplifying
That being said, you may notice that this blog is not quite as cluttered as it was. I’ve removed most of the pages from the top of the blog, and I have removed a few widgets from the side. Hopefully, this cleaner layout will make reading this blog easier and more enjoyable.
Look forward to hearing feedback.
In the meantime, you can expect to have more consistent posts from here on out.
In the meantime, I wish you all a Happy New Year!
Posted inBlogging|Taggedblogging|Comments Off on I have returned!
A gardener is one who attempts to achieve a vision in defiance of nature. And nature likes to throw out roadblocks and obstacles to remind the gardener just who is in charge. Every year there are challenges that the gardener must overcome. And every year it is something different.
Last year the Vintage Garden was attacked by caterpillars. The year before that it was hordes of ravenously hungry bunnies. This year has seen a series of whammies making life in the Vintage Garden a cycle of hair-pulling frustration.
A wet and cold winter gave way to a very hot and very dry summer. We went seven weeks without measurable moisture here at the Vintage homestead. I had to apply supplemental water twice to the borders over the course of June and July, or else even the drought tolerant plants would have suffered.
Then the heatwave that hammered large parts of the country made its presence known here. Temperatures in the high 90s and low 100s for several weeks throughout most of July made for a miserable garden and an even more miserable gardener.
Oh, and MrsVintage and I both came down with Covid at the same time.
Fortunately, things are starting to look up. The temperatures have dropped down closer to the seasonal average. In fact, we had several days below the average, as much as 10 degrees below the average!
We have also received 21/2 inches of rain in the past week or so. True, 1 1/2 inches of that rain came during a 30-minute deluge, with winds that ripped branches from trees and rainfall so heavy that it overwhelmed the storm drains causing flash floods nearby. But rain is rain, and I’ll happily take it however it comes.
Additionally, Mrs. Vintage and I have recovered from Covid.
A plague of locusts
The latest insult to injury, though, is that we have been swarmed by locusts. Ok, they’re not really locust, just grasshoppers. But I have never seen so many grasshoppers here at the Vintage Garden. There are thousands of them! And they are devastating everything in their path.
I don’t know if there are so many because of the heat and drought, or if they just happened to discover the Vintage casa and decided to partake of the vegetable smorgasbord set before them.
Below is a closeup of one the little bastards.
To give you an idea of the devastation, most years the trellis in the picture below is covered by hops and clematis vines. When covered, it looks beautiful, and the lush vines help keep the front room cool by blocking the sun’s rays.
The grasshoppers devoured the upper portions of the vines, and it looked so awful, that MrsVintage went out and cut the vines down by 2/3rds.
Sad, isn’t it?
We could spray bug killer to get rid of the grasshoppers, but such sprays are indiscriminate. Sure, they’ll kill the grasshoppers, but they’ll also kill bees, ladybugs, praying mantises, worms and microscopic organisms leaving the garden more like a bug version of a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Those sprays aren’t too healthy for humans either.
So, we’ve resorted to using a homemade spray of water, apple cider vinegar and dish soap in hopes it will repel the greedy little buggers (pun intended). Time will tell.
If anybody has any suggestions for getting rid of grasshoppers that doesn’t involve the bug version of VX gas, I am all ears.
On the plus side, I haven’t seen any of the furry, four-legged locusts (bunnies) around much this year. I’ll take that as a win.
