(no subject)

[which_chick]

Today at work we cut some grass. I am not a huge fan of cutting grass but we did have a very nice day for it. We also cleaned up the last of the big ash tree at 216, which had lain in the driveway all winter. It was sort of out of the way, but we needed to get rid of it prior to embarking on the Great Wall of Retaining, which is on the agenda for this summer. Also Dad chainsawed off the two bigger square shrubberies in front of 18-22 at the Terrace (where the water issues were, for those who are trying to get the gold star for paying really close attention to my narrative, such as it is).



Grandma has now decided that the recline-o-couch she had at the Courtyard is not good for her back and needs to be moved out of Dora's house and put in the lodge. I would like everyone to please take a moment and imagine what my reaction to this state of affairs might be. Done? Good. Let's move on.

At home, I scoped out a location for the new raspberries. They are not here yet, but I need to find somewhere to put them anyway. I think they're going to go along the west side of the house. I don't know if this is a good idea or not, but that's where I am going to put them. They're not what you might call tidy, so wherever I put them, they're going to be a mess. If they're up against the side of the house, I do not have to mow four sides of mess. I only have to mow three sides of mess. That's better than four sides. Mess is apparently unavoidable if you would like to have red raspberries. The canes are sturdy and large and they sprawl. They can sprawl on the west side of the house, behind the happy spirea (which is in bloom). The not-so-happy spirea is going to take a dive in the third round so that the raspberries have somewhere to be. Brother-the-younger and Philly people, does anyone have any interest in a spirea bush? I'm heading out that way on Sunday, is why I'm asking. I could *deliver* it. It's free... Interested parties, please speak up. I really don't want to kill it and I'm sure it would do a lot better in more acceptable dirt.

Since I'm sure you are all interested in how the infant strawberries are doing, I feel very good about twenty-three of the twenty-five plants. Two of them look kind of dead but all the rest have nice, bright-green leaves that are from after they were stuffed somewhat unceremoniously in the ground.

I also decided to start sunflowers (they were free) inside to see if I can get them large enough to be not-eaten before I have to set them outside.

I raked up the leaves that the wintertime left around my raspberries (the ones I already have are black) and my rose bushes and I set them on fire. There was no wind and I have a nice hardware cloth bin type thing that I carefully burn small amounts of leaves in so's to contain the fire. The woods did not get set on fire... but it's dry enough that large-scale burning projects should probably be put on hold. The weather says we should get some rain tomorrow, so I remain hopeful. I also cleaned the leaves out of the black-eyed susans and echinacea. (These have to be grown in a wire cage because the deer eat them. Leaves collect in the cage during the wintertime.)

I have got to do something about the woodpile situation. It's getting kind of annoying to look at. Possibly also that side of the yard could benefit from (whispering) Weed and Feed once I get the huge piles of wood off of it and stacked in tidy racks. Dressing the woodpile will be added to next week's after-work agenda. Also on the agenda for next week is finding some damn tomato plants and getting them in the ground.

I also picked some of the mint and generated the year's first pitcher of mint tea.

Comments

[cousin-sue.livejournal.com]

The mint tea sounds good. I miss my mint plants from the old house.

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Would you *like* some mint plants? Mint is not difficult to grow <-- understatement of the year. I suggest growing it in a pot or something to keep it from taking over. If you're sure you want some, let me know and I'll uproot a couple of likely suspects and drag 'em out to Chez Matt this weekend.

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

I tempted fate & walked up to work this morning. By sod's law we're pretty much guaranteed rain, just about quitting time. Sorry if that steers the thunderstorm northward out of your way. But we actually *had* wildfires up here yesterday, so I figured it was my civic duty as resident weather-jinx...

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

Hey! We need rain too, darn it. I did break down and water the strawberries last night though, just in case it didn't rain. (Everything else is years old and can fend for itself. I do not coddle plants after the first year.) It looks pretty grey out there, though, so I remain hopeful.

[fooliv.livejournal.com]

Looking at the radar, the only way we're getting rain up here is if it comes your way first, since it looks like the only rain going on is due south, or south-west of the both of us. So that may work out regardless. Wunderground seems pretty positive of the whole rain thing - thunderstorm this afternoon, some sort of soaking rain this evening.

[not-your-real.livejournal.com]

and my rose bushes and I set them on fire.

Whoa... those are some hard-core rosebushes!

[which-chick.livejournal.com]

"Parsing failure in sector 3, Captain!"

"There's got to be some mistake, Mr. Sulu. Spock, bring up the sentence on the main viewscreen."

I raked up the leaves that the wintertime left around my raspberries (the ones I already have are black) and my rose bushes and I set them on fire.

"Captain, the sentence appears to be carefully packed with parallel structure for "my raspberries" and "my rose bushes" to pinpoint them both as objects of the adverbial prepositional phrase. However, a casual reading supports the argument that there is a lack of clarity surrounding the pronoun them. Interesting. Perhaps some settling has occured during shipping?"

"Don't be silly, Spock. Any fool would be able to tell from context that them refers to the direct object leaves instead of to either of the two more proximal thingies that are jointly the object of the adverbial prepositional phrase around my raspberries and my rose bushes."

"So it would seem, Captain, but Mr. Sulu's point still stands. Parsing error in Sector 3."

"Bugger off, you pointy-eared freak. Mr. Sulu, find me some Klingons to engage."