Archive for April, 2008

Ominous silence

Tuesday, April 29th, 2008 | Uncategorized | No Comments

I’ve been knitting and listening to podcasts in the living room. My heroic spouse is outside putting new parts on my car.
I realized that for the past 20 to 30 minutes it’s been almost completely silent in the playroom. Where the girls are.
Those of you who are parents of small people will understand that if my life had a soundtrack, scary music would be playing in the background as I carefully peeked around the playroom doorway. . . and saw . . .

. . . both girls in the corner, quietly reading books.

I’m not pushing my luck. Time to get them ready for bed. (and check under the bed for pods from outer-space)

Lookout! She’s got the pruners!!!

Monday, April 28th, 2008 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

Why is it that every time I get out the pruning shears the neighbors get nervous?
Look, people, I’m not going to defoliate my entire yard with the lopers. I promise I will still leave some vegetation standing when I give my greenery a good haircut.
Yesterday I went after the deadwood on the grapevines. We’ve got a little three section split-rail fence that was groaning under the weight of the vines last year. I could feel eyes on me while I chopped away the dead wood. The neighbor poked her head out the door to say hello and assure me that her boyfriend told her that yes, it is good for grapeviles to be pruned back. Um, thanks? Not twenty minutes later another neighbor asked if I was hacking them all down or leaving some of the grapes. Because they’re good, you know.
Trimming is good for plants. It makes plants happy. Especially long neglected plants.

In other yard news, we planted one of the two raised beds in the back yard with carrots, lettuce, peas, beans, and sunflowers. The other bed has yet to be turned over. It can wait a couple of weeks because it’s destined for zucchini and tomatoes, which can be planted in mid May. I’ve got to fix the 6′ high deer fence before our little seedlings come up. Otherwise I’ve just spent the weekend getting blisters preparing really tasty deer food. Even with the fence, I think we’ve just made a groundhog very happy. All we can do is cross our fingers and see what happens. I promised Anna a garden this year. I’ve got fond memories of working in the yard with my dad, marveling at the tiny carrot seeds and munching vegetables straight out of the garden.

I’m glad I got the garden in last weekend, because this weekend I’m off on a girls’ weekend to Maryland Sheep and Wool. Fun grownup time ahoy!

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