Sunday, April 11, 2010

in the neighborhood

Sure, I probably could have gotten a lot more done this weekend. Turns out that getting older actually does slow you down. Or, getting lazier makes it harder to do things.

Stayed up late last night, poring over the Friend's School Plant Sale catalog with my younger sister, each of us making wish-lists too long to remember, much less afford... How can you not get excited about something called Amorphophallus, or the Sapphire Tower? Monkshood, Masterwort, Toad lily, Batface... try one of those, or opt for something a little more straightforward, like Cook With Chicken, Makes Body Strong. So many things to grow, and to know... I fall in love with one little plant, so easily-- give me a couple hundred and I'm bound to get carried away...

Spent much of today getting to know my yard a little better, clearing out the dead stuff and taking stock. I've got a nice assortment of perennials here: peonies, daylilies, hyacinths, yarrow, lungwort, coreopsis, asters, irises, violets, others. There are a few little roses in the back, languishing near the fence behind the lilac (they will be moved). Out in front there's a sprawly juniper, a dogwood of some sort, a good-sized flowering crab and couple other little trees and shrubs which I have yet to identify.

Turned up a few auspicious finds today, including a couple nice polished agates and other stones, a no. 2 pencil, a handful of heavy-duty zip ties dropped by the wifi guy, a ginormous blue tarp and two perfectly serviceable canoe paddles. I've now acquired a rake, a fork and a little weeder thingy, none of which (sadly) meet my tool standards but one cannot travel back in time, alas. It's a start. Got to put my Felco pruners to work today, and so thankful to have them (gratitude, CM). Also realized with some excitement that I might now be able to justify getting that super nifty pack-down saw I've wanted...

Oh, yeah, and got a good deal via craigslist on a crapload--well, actually a box and four bags full--of Lilies of the Valley, which I shared with my sis. I still had enough to circle the lilac and border a wide corner near the front fence, and I hope to be taking in their sweetly intoxicating fragrance by my birthday, if all goes well.

Nice to be out working today, listening to the birdsong and the neighbor kids across the alley... glad for them, since it turns out I'm situated between Mr. Oddball (Silence of the Lambs? or Forrest Gump?) to the south, and Crazy Cat Lady to the north (hello, you're looking at me and I just waved at you! and what's with those shorts??) and even though both of them seem to be quite a bit more anti-social and nuts than I am, I might find myself sucked into some kind of vortex of lonely mediocrity if it weren't for the Ideal Young Minneapolitan Family across the alley. (Oh, wait.)

Well, anyway, the one thing I did not manage to do--well, okay, not counting the rest of that list I made this morning--was get the asparagus planted. I'm really at a loss about where it should go. Seems like it should just have a place, and I should be able to find it, but so far I'm stumped. Perhaps tomorrow.

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