Yardward!

FINALLY got around to raking leaves. This whole search for employment with monetary compensation is driving me insane. It's amazing what people call "jobs" these days. Ugh. So, of course, when raking leaves, neighbor is happy. We had quite the nasty leaf collection going on in the front yard. I kept hoping the wind would blow them all into other's yards, but as luck would have it, the wind turned against us and we were the recipient of all of the neighborhood's leaves. I feel like a shelter for the adrift.

So we raked them all up and in a fit of "what am I going to do with all of these" created a leaf wall, a la the HGTV Living Wall. It's not as nice, and I'm still deciding what to plant on it. Phlox? Echevaria? Passionflower? Moonflower? Sweet Pea? Nasturtium? All of it? It's over in the side yard. I just know I do not want to plant ivy. Unless it's not english. An ecological threat, according to our government. And yet it is still sold in nurseries. Crazy.

Alternative plant suggestions include Allegheny pachysandra (Pachysandra procumbens), American or common bittersweet (Celastrus scandens), trumpet creeper (Campsis radicans), Virginia creeper (Parthenocissus quinquefolia), passionflower vine (Passiflora lutea), Dutchman's pipe (Aristolochia macrophylla), and native wisteria* (Wisteria frutescens) -- * but not invasive non-native like w. sinensis or w. floribunda.

Ah, The Weather From freezing one day to really-really warm the next. No wonder I live here. The plants all survived, although I'm sure they looked funny covered in tarp and plastic. I'm glad noone stole the blankets. The radishes are up, the lettuce is up, and the spinach ... Sad. There just aren't any nutrients in the soil, even with the three bags of compost and humus and topsoil. So that area of the yard is going to be a "not right now" project. The dogs have managed to kill most of the grass in the side yard. I suppose I need to research when I can till. Garden care for public spaces. I'm sure there's a book. Too bad the "public" means dogs in my case. And all they ever do is bark bark.

Hmm. I thought I've updated since the third. It's ver'very cold and I covered the plants last night. Half an inch of ice on the dog water (the dogs were safely in their heated dog-room with a smaller dog water to slake their thirst. What else. Mmm. Tired of s'mores. Made cookies instead. I feel like such a traitor to the holiday. And now I'm cookied out, too. The boy wants to order a pizza. It must have something to do with the day of movies yesterday. Too many. And last night, Michael Jordan, of all people, was in my dreams. Weird.

Having fun with header tags

Got the ingredients for ginger-s'mores houses but wasn't able to make them as a friend came over for dog sweater measurements. Yes, I've committed to knitting a little sweater for her puppy boy. All of my needles are still in storage since the move. But they've got to come out sometime. Why not now?

I have made the resolution that this will not be the month where I have a libation every evening. Especially since it was reported that New Zealand researchers found the benefits of alcohol were outweighted by the alcoholism itself.

Was inspired by a gingerbread house at the local food mark-up. Almost took down a kid with my basket as she ran across the aisle to look at it. Sometimes I wonder about parents, but then I'm not one.

On the first day of s'more-mas ...

In a flurry of email exchange, we decided to have s'more every day of the month. S'more-mas. We're using the more traditional campfire method for making our s'mores, as opposed to the Casa Moda S'mores maker. I like the idea, if just so it makes making breakfast s'mores even easier (who has to get out of bed?), but it's just not the same. Tonight - gingers'more houses.

Destination Unknown ...

Just finished Path Without Desination: An Autobiography of Satish Kumar. Inspiring. I stopped practicing the violin - picked it up and it sounded horrid (it sounded fine actually, it was my playing it that was disharmonious). After reading this book (rather quickly -- I don't know why I get so bored at the end and start skimming. must work on that) I realized I stopped practicing living. It's one thing to try to treat the world with no expectations, to view everything as impermanent. But that's not living. Respect toward earth, community, self. Nice.

A year to live

Heard an interview on Ira Glass's show yesterday that reminded me of the Stephen Levine book A year to live. I just quit another job and find myself again just drifting. It's nice to not have attachments, I suppose, but rather than feeling liberated, I just feel lost. Clouds don't feel lost. They've got momentum.

Maybe it's time to go through the steps again.

Art and Pineapple!

Went on an artist tour of the neighborhood and was inspired. I miss having time to make things because they need to be made, not because they have to get done. That's an odd distinction. I guess sanding / staining / polycoating the floor in the living room was fun, but not creative. Although there are now Taki paws in the stain, despite my efforts to keep the cats out. They're sneaky little bits. Also bought a pineapple at the store and the boy and I ate it with breakfast (and lunch and snack and dinner). Found this fantastic website to grow your own pineapple top. Mine's a-drying right now. It gives me something to do other than worry about the drought we're having.

There's a freeze warning for tomorrow night. I'm tired of living in the mess of our house, and now fall is officially hitting the area. Our living room is in the process of being refinished (by me and the spouse) and the cats are stuck in the bedroom. They're not happy. All of the living room furniture is scattered about in the rest of the house (and I'm not happy). To top it off, two days in a row I see dead dogs on my walks with the living ones. So I made an appointment with an animal communicator for Monday. Maybe it will help resolve things.

Too much to do in the house; too much to do in the yard. The office is now purple, and the bathroom has an amazing supernoval paint effect going on. The cats are still annoyingly cute and the dogs are cleaner. The boy's grandmother had a heart attack but she's fine. The grandfather had some of his nitroglycerine and told her to pop a few to calm the attack down. She did; felt better; decided to wait to call the doctor (!). A short stay in the hospital and she's sounding better than when she went in (probably that yankee fortitude). The weather is unusually warm. The hydrangeas I planted (were they hydrangeas? I have to check the bag) came up. They were supposed to snuggle in the ground until spring. I'm worried about them. I also planted some free cannas (yay free!). They're really supposed to be divided in the spring, but whatever. The budleja I bought from Oregon now has sprouts. I divided it, and the other two have sprouts as well. Again, worried. Poor little confused plants. It's not spring yet. I also pulled the dog guard off of the spinach. They're on their own now. Sprigly sprouts sticking their cute little heads out. I can't wait to eat them. I'm thinking about planting some horsetail along the side of the garage to give it a zen feel. Not sure yet. Still thinking.

It's planting day! I always love Halloween. It's pensive and today isn't any different. It sprinkled a little this morning, a little overcast, a little heavy. A quiet day for the dead to be walking around. In celebration, I spent some time in my butterfly garden. I planted some anemones and the buddleja that I ordered from forest farm. The pot had three, so I pulled two out and am transplanting them to new pots.Hopefully they'll survive. I took them inside and Taki started to eat them. Lovely little cat. The other is in the ground, surrounded by mulch and doused with a heavy feeding of seaweed. I hope it gets established before winter officially sets in. I don't know if I'll get my rose in the ground before then at the pace I'm moving. The Texas sage I transplanted was looking a little sad, but it's flowering now. The city's heavy brush pickup took our bonfire that we spent the last few days getting together. Probably a good thing. You can see into the back back yard from the street now. There's still too much poison ivy, though. I like it as a concept, but after having infected myself multiple times now, I wonder if it truly is beneficial to our yard. And I planted an entire package of spinach. I don't know why. It was there? The bed had no earthworms at all, high acid content and absolutely no nutrients, so hopefully the compost, manure, feed and topsoil I piled on top will give the spinach something to eat. We'll see in eight-to-ten days. If not, then it will give the stink bugs a happy snack.

The bare side yard patch has been transformed. So far we've put in a meandering little path, planted a few this and that and already the neighbors are commenting. "Looks nice!" I pulled out more broken glass, got coated in poison ivy (again!) and found a penny (o joy!) Today I planted my first seeds scavenged from the pile of weirdness in the garage. Mostly out of season, but whatever. 1 Poppies Shirley, (thin to 10".) Planted with the ones from the 'green on 5/30 2 Chives (allium schoenoprasum) (thin to 6") 3 Blue Fescue (thin to 12" - cut back to 3-4" annually. Divide every 3 years) 4 Clasping Coneflower (oracopsis amplexicaulis) - (free from bank) 5 White Coneflower, purple coneflower (thin to 18") 6 Shasta Daisy (leftover from wedding packets) 7 Amaranth (Gimmee from TNG) Cat grass (avena sativa) 8 Cilantro & Thyme (thin to 1' apart) 9 Dwarf mixed lupins. Why do I have these? We'll see what comes up.