Beautiful Day Report

I could not love this weather more. Highs in the low seventies, lows in the high thirties. Well, until tomorrow when it's going to be a low of fifty-two and a high of sixty-four and it's going to rain all day. Oh well, it'll be a cozy day to stay inside. 

I seem to have developed a new style of doing yard work. I mentioned this the other day. Instead of picking out one area and sternly telling myself that I am going to tackle it and get it done, I am sort of gently meandering about with my garden cart and pruners and trowel and letting myself flow organically from one spot to another. I started out today in the bed pictured above which is right outside the kitchen. There are a few rose bushes in there that needed pruning so I started with those and then I got my loppers out and pruned that sago palm. I picked up a lot of the litter from last year's crop of pine cone lilies and turmeric as well as bananas. It wasn't a lot. I did NOT start pulling border grass or that horrible, awful, chenille plant that is taking over that area. There are dead chenille plants covering the coming-up chenille plants and I just can't deal with that right now. I'm being all Scarlett O'Hara about it. 

But since I had my loppers out I decided to trim back some azaleas that have died and left ugly branches looping about so I did that and found myself right next to the fence in front of the house. 

That area's been griping me because the freeze bit and blackened the firespike that I rooted and planted there and they looked like hell. So I started in on them as well as the dead stems of the phlox. It was nice to see the firespike and the phlox are both starting to put out this year's new growth. I hope we don't get another freeze but that is a possibility as it's only February. Some of the coldest weather I can remember around here happened in March. But still- it's always heartening to see new growth. Those two dead-looking plants are bridal wreath spirea that I planted there and should not have because they do not get enough sun and hardly bloom. Eventually I think I'm going to have to take them out. I have another one that I planted in a sunnier spot and it does well. It's forming the tiniest little buds you ever saw in your entire life. 

While I was working by the fence I also pulled the little oak and cherry laurel sprouts as well as the incredibly invasive Florida holly (which is neither native to Florida OR a holly) trying to take hold. BEGONE! I told them. 
It felt so good to be outside on my knees, cutting and pulling and being able to observe the new green coming up. I had a moment of very peaceful and calm almost-ecstasy, in fact. One of those rare moments in time when you feel like you are doing exactly what you want to be doing, what you need to be doing. I was listening to another one of my beloved ex-Mormon podcasts to which I am still absolutely unexplainably addicted. Does that ruin the image of the moment for you? 
Oh well. It's the truth. My ecstasy is my ecstasy. And yours is yours.

And after I got to the part of the fence where there were no more dead plants to trim back, I pulled a few more weeds and rootlings and hauled everything to the burn pile and came inside, folded some laundry, started the dishwasher and sat down to write this. I feel content. It's good to have my husband home. He spent most of the day trying to replace the struts on a car of his with little success. He is somewhat frustrated but he'll figure it out. He always does. 

Maurice came and hung out with me while I was outside as she so often does. 

Here's the next bed I might start working on.

It's a mess with its own last year's phlox, border grass, and another horrible, terrible, awful, and invasive plant which is the Mexican petunia. I have no idea how it got there. I certainly did not plant it. In fact, I once approached a couple in the parking lot of Lowe's who were carrying a bunch of those demon plants to their car and told them that if they planted them in their yard they would end up being the bane of their existence. 
They took them back. I am still proud of that moment. 
A friend of mine broke her arm by falling while trying to pull those motherfuckers. It should be illegal to sell them here. 

So much with the ecstasy, right? It is a fleeting and precious thing. Unless you're talking about MDA or MMDA which is not as fleeting but which I am NOT talking about. Although maybe someday. 

That's the wisteria. It just occurred to me to check it and it, too, is responding to the cosmic messages it receives which tell it to begin its yearly glory, becoming knobby as arthritic knuckles. 

Time to make supper. 

Love...Ms. Moon