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May 15, 2008
And Suddenly It's Summer
I swear to you, cross my heart and hope to die, that three weeks ago we were still waking up to snow on the ground. Granted, it would melt off by noon, but the fact remained that it was snowing every night.
And then BAM! it's summer. The weather that makes living here bearable has arrived.
I have spent the last two days removing things I don't want in my yard and putting in things I do want in my yard. This morning, one of my favorite fellas came over and helped me train the mother of all rosebushes. It took the two of us at least 90 minutes of loud swearing, weaving ourselves in and out of the various canes and a number of scratches and pricks to get the damn thing under control. Though now it looks much better. And we removed at least 1000 baby maple trees from between the bricks of the patio and replaced them with sand.
After that, I weeded along the back fence and seeded that bed with beneficial bug and hummingbird attractors. I hadn't meant to. I was just clearing an area so I could plant the volunteer feverfew that had decided to sprout in a pot I wanted for lettuce. And the next thing I knew, I had cleared most of the bed. So I weeded some more and planted the feverfew and also a whole bunch of other things I hope will grow so that the neighbor's cats stay out of my flowerbed.
The same sort of thing happened yesterday. As I chatted on the phone with a friend, I wandered outside to look at the place I wanted to train the rosebush. And then I meandered to the weed-filled beds that border the street. "I'll just pick these few here," I thought to myself. And by the time I hung up the cell phone, I'd weeded 3/4 of the smaller, less weedy bed. "Well, now I'm this far, I might as well finish the bed," I thought. So I did.
Then I figured I was done, because the bigger, scarier bed was what I faced next. "I'll just pull these few here along the edge," I decided. And the next thing I knew. I was halfway across that bed. So I just kept going until I was done. I filled two standard sized trash cans with those weeds yesterday. But the beds look great. And those were the bits I thought would take me all summer to get to. It took me three and a half hours, but those two beds are more or less weed-free now, and just need to be maintained over the summer. Which I should have time for, given the start I've made on the yard.
So anyway, that's what I've been doing instead of posting here. Well, that and art.
I promised myself I'd do one creative project per day this summer. Not just the writing, because I do that daily, but also something creative, so I can feed my artist and explore what I can do. So I've been drawing and painting. Today I planned to work on my latest mask after lunch. But then I decided to do that little bit of transplanting and now I have a new flowerbed in the works, and another half trashcan of weeds, and still no mask. I do think of that flowerbed as a creative endeavor, though, along with the potential pots of lettuce mix and nasturtiums. (Potential because nothing's sprouted yet. I just planted them.) They're just not drawing or painting. They are kind of like sculpting, though, in a different medium than clay or papier mache.
I just can't believe that one week of my summer vacation is gone and all I have to show for it is a trained rosebush, three large weeded (and one planted) flowerbeds, a small weeded flowerbed, a cleaned up patio, two new pots of food plants, a weekend at the beach, and half a dozen pages of art to show for it. Oh. Maybe I've put that week to good use after all.
Plus, I've done a lot of walking, and have discovered the ways in which weeding is like yoga. (My hamstrings and glutes will certainly attest to that.) And tonight I made a chopped salad so that I have fresh salad in the fridge for lunches. It's full of spinach, romaine, red and yellow bell peppers, carrots, scallions, radishes and alfalfa sprouts. And I chopped up but packed separately a tomato and three small avocados to mix in as I go. I also have a loaf of fresh bread to eat with it.
So maybe this week hasn't been a total wash. Maybe I'll actually be able to get things done this summer, instead of sitting like a lump per usual for my summer activities. Tomorrow I'm helping a friend out by reading some stuff from her latest play, but before that I'm going to weed my raised garden beds, add an organic soil mix and plant radishes, carrots, peas and pumpkins. I thought pumpkins might be fun to grow. I've never done that before. I'd love to have pumpkins to play with for Halloween.
At this rate (knock wood), I'll have the yard pretty much in shape by the end of next week. And then it will just be maintenance.
Posted by sally at May 15, 2008 09:02 PM
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