Keeping It Real

I have written quite a few posts about our pool and the surrounding area and most of them have been shots of everything nice and clean.  Today I want to keep it real.  This is what it looked like yesterday when I got home from work.  It was very cloudy and overcast so the photos from my iPhone are a little dark.

It's hard to tell but this pile of leaves was pretty thick.  Those of you that are familiar with pools are probably wondering why the Polaris didn't pick it up.  We don't run the Polaris everyday so the leaves gathered on the bottom of the pool.

Here are a few more areas of leaves in the deep end.  I know it doesn't look like much but as you scoop up the leaves they tend to scatter.

  

There are two skimmer baskets, one on each end of the pool, that should be checked and emptied every day.  Especially this time of the year.

As you can see, the leaves were over flowing in the basket closest to the trees that dropped their leaves.

I couldn't just stop there so I swept up all of the leaves that were scattered all over the patio.  I like to keep it clean as it is an area we spend a lot of time in.  It's part of our living space and you wouldn't leave leaves all over the floor now would you?  Ha ha!

This is our neighbor's crepe myrtle tree.  It is the culprit of all of the yellow and dead leaves in our pool.  I kid you not.  It won't be long before all the pretty little purple flowers will be snowing in the pool.  :)  I am not complaining....just stating facts.  I am a huge fan of crepe myrtles.  We have three of them along the back of the fence.

And this my friend, is the other culprit.  The same neighbor's pecan tree.  :)  Again, I am not complaining because it provides a lot of shade in the morning.

Here are some photos I took with my camera.  The haze you see is the lens fogging up from the high humidity.  :)

 An hour or so later everything looks nice and clean.  I imagine when I am without a job I will be working hard to keep this clean.  :)  I find it really hard to hang out in the pool with leaves all over the place.  Know what I mean?

 

I checked in on my bell peppers and this little guy finally turned yellow.

This will give you a better perspective as to just how small it really is.

I was so hot and sweaty after cleaning everything up I wanted to swim but Mother Nature had other plans in mind.  It would start raining, then it would stop.  I'd get in the pool and it would start raining again.  It stopped and I was able to get in three laps and it started pouring.  I got out of the pool and it stopped.  You would think there was a cloud over me saying when she gets back in I'll let it rain again.  Sure enough, I waited for it to stop and got back into the pool....it started raining AGAIN!

     

So I gave up on trying to swim and grilled the pork chops we were having for dinner.

These are the hubs favorite.

I seasoned them with salt and pepper and grilled them for 10 minutes on one side and 6 minutes on the other side.

I ran me a hot bath.....  

with a few drops of Wyndmere's Balancing essential oil.  It is so relaxing and smells good, too!

We had Ranch Style blackeye peas and brown rice with our pork chops.

It was delicious and so easy.  That's a winner in my book!

And guess what?  It totally stopped raining after I came in.  No kidding!  I was so frustrated I gave up and stayed inside...had a relaxing bath and a delicious dinner.  So there Mother Nature!

Hope you are having a great week!

Take care,

Debbie