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Mysteries of the Mulch

April 6, 2012 at 5:42 am by Claudia

Mud. Muck. Mulch. Mow.

That’s been the theme of the last few days. More skidding in the mud (will I ever learn?) and trying to mow over ruts in the lawn that haven’t been filled in. The more I look at the whole lawn expanse, the more exasperated I get. It feels like a losing battle. Heaven knows if the seed will germinate. But you know what? I’m going to leave it all for the time being. Can Don be trusted to water? I’m not entirely convinced he can. Rain is forecast for at least 3 days next week, so that helps!

Mulching is done with, for the time being. I don’t remember finding anything but mulch in the mulch before, but this year I’ve found some interesting things. I’ve found a piece of red plastic, a little nozzle, and this:

It’s made of some sort of clay/ceramic. Initially, it was completely covered with dirt. Whatever it is, it’s broken off at the neck.

This is a bit blurry, but here it is cleaned up a little. Is this a swami/genie kind of thing? Or is that a bun in the back? I don’t think it is old, but who knows? If you look at the first photo, there is a smaller piece under the neck – was it a bottle stopper or was there a cloth body attached?

Any ideas? It’s intriguing.

I have to get going as I’m off to Manhattan this early morning.

Scenes from the Great Outdoors

April 5, 2012 at 8:00 am by Claudia

ell, I changed my mind. I did mulch yesterday, though I have more to do today. The largest garden bed and two others are done – just 4 more to go. It was a beautiful day here in the Northeast, breezy, sunny and warm. Besides mulching, I’ll do some mowing today and then I have to go into Manhattan on Friday. It turns out I am leaving for Hartford on Sunday morning. As always, my friends, I will share my time on the road with you via daily posts.

In the midst of mulching the bed, I took a shot with the iPhone. Lots of sedum and catmint, day lilies, black-eyed susan and phlox are emerging from the ground. I really love having a perennial garden and most of these plants are well established by now. Sometimes, I’ll add an annual or two, but for the most part, these are all perennials.

The wiegela bush is in full bloom. I love seeing these orange-red blossoms on the far side of the front yard. The wiegela and the hyacinth are the first things to bloom. The daffodils will be right behind them.

Speaking of beauties…

That’s my girl.

I now have photos from three lovely ladies: Jennifer, Debby and Patti. Thank you! Keep them coming, please! Remember:

Happy Thursday.

Like Water for Rocks

April 4, 2012 at 8:34 am by Claudia

Thank goodness for this lovely. Because all I’ve seen for days, weeks and months is this:

This is only a small section, folks. Not all of those clumps are rocks, by the way. But many, many of them are. Let me tell you, if I spent all day, every day, all summer long, trying to pick up every rock in this expanse of dirt, I still wouldn’t succeed. I’m going to rename this property. No longer Mockingbird Hill Cottage, the new name is Don and Claudia’s Rock Quarry.

Endless. Mind numbing. Back breaking. Fruitless. Depressing. I think that about covers it.

So yesterday we reseeded. This took quite a while as, and I know I’ve said this before, most recently in the first full paragraph of this post, this is a huge expanse of dirt. Then I hooked up the hose and watered it. This took a long while. No sooner had I done it, than the ground looked dry again. Hmmm. So I searched for our sprinkler and hooked that up. By this time, Don had left for work. I knew I would have to do all this watering in sections. When I went out to move the sprinkler, I skidded in wet mud. There was mud all over my jeans, my muck shoes, the hose – you name it. After doing this a few times, I wised up and gingerly tried to move the sprinkler to a new section of dirt by pulling on the hose. I didn’t want to have to shut off the water every time I moved it because our hook-up is way around the other side of the house, so of course, I got drenched with water each time.

Fun times.

According to my entirely self-imposed schedule, I’m supposed to mulch today. I’m sore, tired and have to do some more work on The Tempest. So you know what? I just might wait to mulch until I come back home for a few days next week. At the moment it just seems too overwhelming.

On to other things. Having my own post office box, a new thing for me, is fun. I don’t get to the post office often – maybe once a week. On Monday I dropped in to mail a package and I had two notices of packages waiting!

Regula, who lives in Switzerland, sent me CHOCOLATE. After my post about the Spicy Hot Chocolate (which Don, it turns out, likes) she took pity on me and sent me some real Swiss Chocolate. That will be going with me to Hartford. She also sent individually wrapped pieces of milk chocolate and, I think, an herbal tea, plus a crystal heart and a doily. Yesterday, with its endless wrestling with dirt and mud, turned out to be the perfect day to sample some of those little pieces of chocolate. Okay, many. Delicious! Thank you, Regula!

And Carol (who hails from Tennessee) sent me this:

A Bride and Groom she found while thrifting. They are lovely. You are so sweet, Carol, and I thank you so much for thinking of me!

Blogging Friends are Real Friends. Virtual-Smirtual. They are real as real can be.

Have a wacky Wednesday.

Mysteries of the Mulch

Scenes from the Great Outdoors

Like Water for Rocks

Lambs Like to Party

A Note

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