Moving the Goal Posts

Can you see it? Can you see what's different? To the occasional visitor it might not be super evident but to us it's major: the gate is GONE!! There was a scabby wire fence separating this section of the yard from the "outside world". In order for us to access the vegetable garden or compost pile, you had to exit through a gate; not always easy when carrying a pile of kitchen scraps or wheeling a wheel barrow. Psychologically, it was a big barrier. Besides, Lil' Robin the Good was doomed to remain on the other side of the fence.
Yesterday, we finally moved the fence. Bob had done preparations in the form of selecting and resurfacing the posts- stout cedar posts that he employed an ancient Japanese wood burning technique to preserve. The gate got moved first:

(Yes, the gate will be repainted soon.) Then we moved the wire fence and let Robin out of the house. First she approached what used to be a fence, apparently uncertain that it was gone. Then she stepped forward hesitantly, like a force field was going to rebuff her. Then she exploded out into the new area- lots more space and smells to explore!

And I discovered lots of weeds! Holy cow! That fence prevented me from accessing the side of the Blue Garden and weeds and invasive ornamental grasses had run amuck. (I guess I know what I'll be doing for the next week or so.) But I did get a good idea of how to reshape the edge of that garden...

In all fairness, this side looks pretty good. And here's a close up of my favorite pale blue "Belladonna"Delphinium:

That color is pretty accurate; like a summer sky. I'll have to take a few pictures of the area behind the Blue Garden- sort of our utility room for the vegetable garden. Bob constructed a lovely fence out of old slats from recycled stockade fence affixed to a simple wire grid fence. It looks great and functions to afford more privacy while composting or working in the vegetable garden. It's beautiful! (And worthy of it's own blog post... coming soon.)
Here's the view from the driveway side looking back to our yard.

Kinda makes the propane tank surround look wonky... hahahaha! If it's not one thing it's another. But the overall affect is one of splendor and open vistas. Come by and see it!

Accidents Will Happen

I loved the wisp of early morning spider's web clinging to Maggie's fence. It was a kinder, gentler image to begin the day than my present litany of accidents, physical mishaps and injuries. My sister Beatrice (hi Beatrice!) is released from having to read this blog post. We talked on the phone earlier and she already knows my laundry list of afflictions!
So we all remember that I am recovering from my most recent bout of Lyme Disease. That's a good thing; I feel fit and energetic and the antibiotics haven't adversely affected my stomach so that's a plus. I am frustrated, as stated in my previous accounting, because I am supposed to stay out of the sun and most of our garden is very sunny. I contented myself with gardening on the several overcast days we had last week. But my hand is still really burned from being exposed to the sun on a drive home last week! Check it out:

I was initially using my hand as a scale model for the size of that magnificent Clematis (not really as blue as the photo; more purple-y!) but I realized how awful that rash looks. Yeech. And that's just the beginning...
So I have Lyme Disease and a badly burnt hand. I'm on my way out the door to go to work and I somehow manage to squeeze all the skin on the back of my right hand in the doorway between the knob and the door frame and an inconvenient screw eye. Now my right hand matches the left, with a handsome bruise and a red knuckle. That really hurt!
I get to work and happily avoid breaking anything but I'm wondering if the moon is in klutz. Navigating the mine field/ obstacle course of the auction house takes nerves of steel and something akin to sonar. I succeeded in running smack into the finials of a pair of ugly lamps that a co-worker had thoughtfully laid sideways on a trolley. Ouch! (I am reminding you of the heroic bruise I sported on my left thigh? I've got one on my right leg now... symmetry!) And if that wasn't enough, I knew immediately that I would be punished for trying to pick up a box full of (very heavy!) glass paperweights. I think I bent at the wrong angle.
And just how wrong that angle was was made apparent at 2:00 last night when I woke up unable to find a comfortable position and seriously debating whether I was having a heart attack. My upper chest was SCREAMING and I couldn't even breath deeply. Googling symptoms suggested that I had probably seriously pulled a muscle, not that that reassured me and I finally fell asleep at like 4:00 am. This morning found me a poster child for the lame and halt as I struggled to lift anything that weighed more than my coffee cup in my mutilated and discolored hands. Thank the gods for ibuprofen!

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.

But Ossifer!

The other night, on our way back home from visiting with friends and enjoying pizza, we couldn't help but notice that the car behind us was swerving all over the road, as well as tail-gaiting us in an unnerving and annoying manner. Bob was going the speed limit (he's a much more law abiding driver than myself hahahahahahaha!) and being cautious. We passed a police car parked to the left side of the road and both of us exclaimed something like, "Good! Hope he pulls that guy behind us over!" Yes, lights and whistles blaring, the police car pulls out and gives chase.
And then we see that the police officer has passed the car behind us and we say to one another, "He must be on his way to an emergency"... until it dawns on us, with all lights flashing and sirens whooping and bleeping that he's pulling up behind US.
Bob steers to the edge of the road and the car that's been weaving and swerving zooms off ahead. We exchange "WTF" looks and Bob maneuvers his wallet out of his pocket to access his license. I attempt to wrestle the large plastic pot full of plants that our good friend Bob gave us up off the floor of the truck and onto the seat so as to allow me to open the glove compartment and get the registration out. (No easy feat!)
The officer approaches the truck and says something about how we were swerving on the road and Bob answers, "That wasn't us: that was the car behind us." The police person then says, "Yeah, I noticed that. I thought he was trying to signal that YOU were driving oddly". !?!?!?!??!!?!?
So the police man says, "Oh, and you've got plants!" !?!?!?!?!?!?
He then states, "I guess I pulled the wrong car over", gets back in his police car and pulls out and speeds off, not even having checked Bob's license or insurance or registration. Needless to say, we were perplexed.

(And I will add that both Bob and I simultaneously remarked to each other, "It's a good thing we aren't black!" How sad is that? We'd probably be arrested or dead!)