The Final Plantings...

...cross my heart.  Yesterday I was poking around in the garage looking to see if I had any grass seed and found Dad's old work boots that I appropriated years (and years and years) ago to use as planters on the front porch.  At the Liberty St. house they sat in front of a thrift store chair I painted bright red but there's no room for the chair on this porch so just the boots remain.  

Before going back to the garden store for the hen & chicks plants to put in the boots I cleared out a baby sinkhole in the backyard, filled it with 2 cu. ft. of topsoil stomped down, and spread grass seed on it.  I didn't take a picture, it's an oval of black dirt with a few pale green seeds visible. (big whoop)  I did manage to get appropriately dirty in the process though AND it started raining, well, sprinkling a bit.  Not enough to water in the seed but enough to get me a little wet.  After that I tried to redo the top saucer and the spouting fish part of the fountain to see if I couldn't make it stop dripping from underneath and onto the patio (thereby lowering the water level and maybe burning out the pump).  My fix worked for a while, got me dirtier and wetter yet, but by the time I got back from the garden store (I did change into a clean shirt before going) it was leaking again.  Teflon pipe tape and an o-ring didn't do the trick, I guess it's time to pull out the caulk.  And I was so sure I had it this time.  Our bands of rain are the remnants of Tropical Storm Alberto and one waited until I was out among the plants at the store to up the ante and rain like crazy instead of the intermittent drops we'd been having.  Good thing I don't mind getting wet.  Other people were smart enough to have umbrellas, all I had was my equanimity.

The honeysuckle that I hacked back last fall so that the privacy fence could be replaced has its first buds (see?) right above the bleeding hearts and the peony has a bud too.





 


I saw a couple asparagus spears in the garden this morning so I picked them for our supper and found another misshapen one too.  I gave that one to Durwood.



 
Here's more Montparnasse cardigan sleeve.  It's the only thing I have OTN (on the needles) at the moment so it's growing rather quickly.  I like that; it makes a great case for project monogamy.


May 30--Utagawa Kunisada, City Scene.  She looks at him over her shoulder, a half-smile on her lips as if she made a teasing remark.  He is caught in that moment of deciding whether to be offended or to smile.  Are they married?  Are they lovers?  Or have they been captured in a flirtation?

Once again I awoke 30 minutes after writing the last word.  Maybe I'll have better luck or more inspiration tonight.  Sayonara.
--Barbara