In Sickness and in Health

Behold our mystery dogwood... which turns out to be a native viburnum! (Viburnum Dentatum) It's blooming like mad and the honey bees are swarming it so we're all happy. It seems to have taken off behind the rhododendrons, now that that row of spruce and pine trees is gone. (Ah yes, "thanks" to last year's tornado...) In any event, it's a welcome addition to the garden.
I am behind: in blogging, in gardening. Alas! I have been sickened by a tick borne illness yet again, and while on the mend (I feel fine!) I cannot be in the sun so the garden suffers a surfeit of weeds and neglect. (Except for that shade garden which looks pretty darned good, being shady and therefore okay for me to toil away in.)

And rather than dwell on all the things I haven't done, I thought to "be positive" and offer pictures of the handsome accomplishments that I have managed. Like the above collection of partially assembled container offerings. (Love those geraniums with the embellished leaves!) I had been enjoying creating lavish arrangements of tender annuals for our terrace area and was having such a good afternoon, thinking that I had stayed well into the shade and avoided the sun... until I went inside and looked in the mirror. Then it became clear that I had burned in indirect sunlight! My cheeks resembled some of those brilliant red and orange flowers I was planting. (Does anyone know why antibiotics cause one to become so sensitive to sunlight?!?) In any event, I'll be even more of a mole rat going forward and not emerge from my studio until much later in the day!'

And here's an update on that Rock Border: We have mulch fabric rolled out and rocks re-applied to maybe a third of the overall length. It's going to take a while before I secure enough rocks to cover the length! I'll have to take even more walks... HELP!! (That's lil' Robin the Good, searching in the lawn for more rocks (or more realistically she's probably looking to eat something inedible.))
At least I'm on the mend. My initial week of antibiotics had me feeling alternately pretty good and pretty atrocious. By now, my joints have stopped screaming and I seem to have regained my typical energy level. I want to garden and do stuff; now I'm awaiting an overcast day to do it all in!

*I'm also gestating a new artist's book project. Honestly? This one has been kicking around for a couple of years. It's exploring issues of income disparity and my own travails with impecunity. Stay tuned... this will be a good one! (Working title: "A Pot to Piss In, or "What's an Artist Urn (Earn)?")

The Rockin' Life Style Part I

This is what Bob and I do for fun: we dig.
Specifically, we decided to redo the white quartz border alongside the house- permanently. Once or twice a year, I'd spend a day to two weeding the stones. Bob would point out the futility of this enterprise, as the weeds inevitably grow back and the whole thing looks like hell again. His solution made sense (remove all the stones, weed and level the dirt, layer on mulch fabric and replace the stones. Permanent fix!

But did it happen? Who had the time and energy and dedication?
Well... we do! We started yesterday (just another fun activity on Bob's birthday) and got about half way done before we had to leave for the Matthew Barney film "Redoubt" screening at Yale (it was great but very draining!) Today it's raining so we're sort of on intermission but at least it's underway...

We waited to start this process because there were dandelions blooming in the stones and we left them for the pollinators. Now that there are many other flower choices (crab apples, daffodils, tulips, magnolias etc) removing the dandelions and assorted other weeds seems not so onerous.

There are a lot of rocks! If you remember, when we moved to this house, we moved several tons of stones and rocks (Other people may move furniture...) Some were larger, but much of it was buckets and buckets of white quartz rocks that Bob uses in his sculpture. I also continue to pick up pocketfuls of small stones on my morning walks so the border by the house is pretty full, even when Bob harvests rocks for extracurricular projects. Clearing the dirt was a major undertaking.
But that stage is complete and if it ever stops raining, we'll lay the mulch fabric and reinstall all the white quartz. Maybe next week?

A Bruise is a Bruise is a Bruise

Isn't she lovely? Don't ask me where I got a thigh shiner from!
Yesterday, I spent the morning planting and then shopping and then planting again. This entailed at least four wardrobe switches. I change my clothes a lot; I will not go to the store in gardening clothes (as discussed previously, I am a slob and attract mud and filth. Alas.)
So you would have thought I would have seen the above blight on the milk white loveliness of my upper leg... but no! I was changing (for the fourth or fifth time) when I spied what I thought was mud. But it didn't wipe off and in the harsher light of the bathroom, I thought it saw it was discolored and pretty damned gross. I immediately thought of my friend Laurie who had a gigantic bruise appear on the back of her knee and it got all infected and awful and her doctor put her on antibiotics and said it was probably a Brown Recluse Spider bite! I immediately thought, "WTF!!! We're going away to new Bedford for three days and I'll probably wake up in the middle of the night sweating and feverish and hallucinating because I've been poisoned by some infernal arachnid!!!"
So I asked Bob to look at it and he agreed that it was pretty horrific and didn't scoff when I asked him to accompany me to the new medical walk in clinic that opened up the road. I was relieved that he didn't say, "For what? Your leg doesn't look that bad" (which would have made me feel like an alarmist or hypochondriac) but alarmed that he shared my concern. (Which made me more alarmed!)
To end this tale quickly, I'll say the doctor on call at the clinic took one look at my thigh and said, "Looks like a big bruise to me". She then asked my if I'd blacked out recently, to which I demurred- I think I'd remember that! But I also admitted that whether at work or home, I tend to run around and move heavy things (like tables, picture frames, hay bales, wheel barrows and the like) and even run into them. So we agreed that's probably what occurred to cause the above contusion.
But it was still a mystery! I guess I could have done it earlier in the week at work, where "the management" seems to delight in leaving large, heavy items of furniture in doorways, often with pointy ends and edges sticking out at just about thigh level. In any event, it looks better and it is fading to an attractive yellowish purple (with a hint of blue) and it doesn't feel raised up or hot so I think I'll live. And we had a lovely time in Massachusetts where I managed to get to the Cape for the first time in my life!

Good Fences and Neighbors- Again!

I was so excited to get this project underway that I plum forgot to take pictures or document it until too late! But see all that nice new fencing? Five whole panels (at 8 feet a panel that's an additional 40 feet of coverage!) that weren't there yesterday morning...
Last week, I announced to Bob that I was considering hiring our good friend Joe to assist me in erecting more fencing. Bob eagerly seconded my idea as he has been super busy with metalwork orders and he knew how anxious I was to get this fence section completed. It is right next to my famous Lilac and Shrub Departments... new additions as of the last couple of years, and in need of a bit of privacy. I felt exposed and self-conscious while gardening down there; sometimes I'm covered from head to toe in mud (or worse!) and wearing my gardening clothes- short hand for my weirdest and most expendable outfits... ripped, torn, and filthy. So I was sparing our neighbors (very nice people) from the cringe worthy spectacle of the soiled, cursing crazy lady lurching around and stumbling over half unearthed tree stumps and poison ivy brambles.*

Even my daffodils look happier now that they are a bit more protected!
So Joe cheerfully agreed to meet me for for a day of digging, nailing, hauling and hoisting fun. He arrived at 9:00 and we lugged drill, extension cords, shovels, crow bars, electric chain saw, fence sections and saw horses into place only to realize there was a bit more "clearing" that needed doing before we set up any fence. It took us a good hour to chop, saw and haul trees, wild rose bushes, barberry and scrubby choke cherry growth away. And then we were ready to start the actual joy of post hole digging. Our soil is reliably rocky...
At some point early in our efforts, we required a ladder so that Joe- despite being heroically taller than myself- could pound the posts in. (In a moment of engineering brilliance, he thought to sharpen the ends of the posts so that they would drive in more easily) I went to Bob's studio and requested a ladder and Bob helpfully asked "how many sections we had gotten up". Hahaha! He was surprised- and concerned- when I said, "None!" I think he thought we'd never get on with the job.
But we did! By coffee time (typically about 3:00 or 3:30) we were well on our way and had completed the job by 5:00. It looks great! Even our neighbor next door suggested that we needn't have put the "good side" of the fence towards them; I'm sure they're glad to be spared my weird hijinks and wardrobe crimes AND they get the "good side" of the fence! Deal! Good neighbors!

*Additionally, we no longer have to stare at their dozen or so parked cars and snow mobiles.