Coen and Macy

We're back at Pomme de Terre Lake.

Coen comes to visit us with his mom and dad.

And while he's here he also visits Macy, the cutie who has a trailer 3 lots up.

Macy has her own jeep, a fact that can only add to her appeal.

Getting nearer.

Is that a good lookin' couple or what?

Sago Palm's Surprise

Our neighbors Mike and Marcia have a beautiful sago palm.

At about 4 1/2 feet tall it's a fabulous speciman.

Sagos are a pricey plant at this size, probably valued at $800 to $1000

You can see the new growth surrounding the trunk at ground level,

but the plant has a surprise for you.

If you stand on Marcia's porch and look down

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And if you lean in a little closer

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And finally pull the fronds back

That cone is about 18 inches tall!

I did some research and yes - that's a male plant!

And a proud one too!

Killdeer Chicks

We have new neighbors down the street.

A pair of  killdeer and their four new chicks have taken residence.

They are so much fun to watch. The babies hatch running and looking for food.

They are a couple of weeks old in these photos, and can they ever scramble.

The mother and father are always close and watching. If you get too near they will suddenly develop a broken wing and thrash around on the ground, leading you away from the nest.

Another Knee Entry

I can't believe I forgot something so important in the last post.

This is a C P M device, or Continuous Passive Motion machine.

It is used to flex and extend the knee after surgery.

I was introduced to the C P M in my room the day of surgery.

I'd heard stories about this implement in the past; about patients waking up to incredible pain strapped to this remnant of the Spanish Inquisition.

I was already awake when they bound me to it.

Here you can see my foot velcroed to the foot brace. There's also a strap that holds the thigh to the top end of the machine. There's a hand control that allows the patient to adjust the angle of flex in the knee with a maximum bend of 120 degrees. It will also straighten the knee to an angle of negative 12 degrees. I had a better flex than most patients, but couldn't straighten my leg at first.

After 3 days in the hospital I went home to my very own C P M.

My P T tells me people tend to be evenly divided about the device. 

Some patients consider it torture and adamantly refuse to use it.

Others seem to endure it better.

Put me firmly in the LOVE IT!! column.

I fall asleep on the machine.

My daughter says nobody sleeps like that.

Her friends who are P Ts are stunned.

I should only use it twice a day, but would live on it if possible.

They are taking the C P M back next week.

I'm thinking of having a picture of it tattooed on my thigh.

About 22 years ago, I went to a Doctor Rice in Kansas City, Kansas for diagnosis of a knee problem.

I'd injured my left knee in my early teens and as predicted then the knee was giving up.

The orthopedic surgeon told me then my only solution was a new knee; that I should baby the knee as much as possible and when the pain became intolerable he'd replace it.

I later went to Dr. Roger Hood in Overland Park, Kansas and got the same diagnosis; the joint was worn out and had to be replaced.

I really didn't have that much pain with my knee. I stood for long hours cutting hair and the swelling was a problem, but not painful. I went to the gym 5 mornings a week with few issues.

As long as I was walking on level surfaces I had few problems. I decided to wait for the surgery. Every day the surgeon learned another trick and the prostheses improved. 

Last fall sometime in September something changed. As I was walking the dog down a slope I felt a new sensation; kind of a wobble side to side. Using the same action as I had in the past I ignored it. It soon progressed to a situation I had to address.

I decided to have the surgery here in the Rio Grande Valley. A lot of us geezers reside here in the Valley and we attract physicians who specialize in orthopedics. Hospitals also specialize, one a 20 minute drive from our home. The streets in our park are nice and flat with cautious drivers, and we have a lovely pool and hot tub. There is also a fitness center here that I could use before and after surgery.

I called Dr. Bassett in October. I saw him in February for the first time. I had surgery on April 11th.

Taken Monday April 28th.

It was 103 degrees when I took my walk.

You can easily see the left knee is still swollen.

I'm walking down the street in my jammies because............

I can.

This is Karen, my Physical Therapist. She's been in the business 37 years.

Sure, she looks like Mary Poppins here but when she says she's going to straighten my knee red lightening bolts shoot out her eyes. I see her three days a week and she's really done a marvelous job. Earl the cat adores her and has taught her how to turn the kitchen faucet on.

This is Belinda (pronounced Bell EEN da, not Bee linda).

She is my home care nurse who comes twice a week to take vitals and check my blood levels. 

I'm on Coumadin to prevent blood clots and it needs monitoring.

I have to say it's been a better experience than I was braced for. Three weeks out from surgery I'm seeing improvement almost every day. It's been harder on my poor husband. He's responsible for everything from cooking to pet care and he's holding up great. 

I see the surgeon's assistant on Monday. He'll evaluate my progress and I'll plan my next knee surgery for this fall.

Hey, I've already got the walker!

Flowers

The bougainvilleas on the west side of our property are in bloom. They have become one of my favorite flowers here in the Valley. There are three different shades of rose/fushia/pink here. The queen palms in the back ground are the north boundary and the fence in the mid-distance surrounds the tennis courts just behind us.

A close up of the bougainvilleas

This is a climbing rose named pinata, given to me by my friend Theresa.

I hope it will grow over the metal archway between the driveway and the back patio area. I had an enormous yellow mandevilla vine that died in the cold weather we had this winter. The rose has yellow buds, opening to an orange flower that turns to a deep coral red. When the plant has all three colors going at one time it's very striking. Theresa insists it will survive here with limited sun light and a clay bed that seems mighty muddy to me. I hope she's right.

This is my one remaining hibiscus.

 The other two died when I dug them up in order to save them.

It is an ugly story and one I choose not to share.

The area around my front porch has an asparagus fern I moved from the back of the lot, the Crown of Thorns once planted in a bed in front and a variety of aloe vera in the tall plant in back. The aloe had a tall stem growing from the middle of the plant with a cluster of orange blooms at the top, but did I get a photo? Nooooooo.

Another asparagus fern recently relocated from the back next to a yucca that also made the move.

Vikki left the geranium when she headed to places north.

The succulent to the right with the flat paddle shaped leaves is a type of kalanchoe.

The baby Crown of Thorns has since moved in to the cat planter because the Mexican heather shown there in this photo became too moody for its own good,

This used to be filled with rock and was home to the Crown of Thorns. 

I simply cannot tell you the amount of work it took to get the rocks out of the two beds in the front of the house. Of course I did it last fall when temperatures were in the high 90s, and I was too stubborn to admit I'd made a mistake in starting the job. I could have paid a couple of workers to do it in a day but instead worked on the job for 2 weeks. 

But the croton  looks great there, right?!!!!

This simple little white flower doesn't look impressive but,

covering a citrus tree it has a huge impact in fragrance.

The smell is indescribable.

It is so heady,

euphoric,

intoxicating.....

It is sublime!

The perfume only lasts a few weeks but ohhhhhhhh..

If the honeysuckle and lilac knew they would hang their heads in shame.

What's THAT!!!

At a flea market last month Vikki and I came upon a fruit we'd never seen before.

The thing was HUGE.........

and warty...........

Here it sits in front of pineapples and snuggled between mangoes and papayas.

We figured it must have come from farther south in Mexico

or maybe Central America

or even South America

The vendor had a limited use of English but eventually understood that we wanted to know what the name of the fruit was. 

It's jack fruit, and sliced in rounds you can see the edible yellow-orange pulp.

The taste was not particularly pleasant; very sweet and pithy.

Still intrigued with the exotic fruit we struggled through the language barrier to learn where it came from.

From farther south, just as we thought.

Australia!

Yes, Australia!

Just about that time the woman's husband asked for $2 for the photo and our geography lesson ended.

I have since investigated jack fruit and found they are related to the osage orange, or what we in Missouri call hedge apples.

We bought the mangoes and had fresh mango daiquiris.

The daiquiris were also too sweet but we powered through them.