June 07, 2006 - 12:41 PM.

Plantings in at last - fwing . . .

Yesterday at my mother's house the little one picked up an as-yet-unhung statuette of a gnome on a swing. He held the loop of cord in his hand and moved it back and forth for several minutes, occasionally stroking the gnome's resin beard and all the while chanting softly, "Fwing . . . fwing . . . fwing . . ."

I have actually put up a website in the last week, getting the business more in the face of the public; I'm working on making it more visible to search engines too.

AND I finally got some planting done! Last week I unrolled a couple of those pre-seeded garden mats onto a little edge of dirt that's left between the giant fence and our north-side sidewalk; there are sprouts in the first one already. They are shade plants (impatiens, coleus, a columbine, etc) and I hope they do well in that dark spot. Then last night, when Mr. Tuckered Out went down at 6:30 (skipping dinner, to our unfounded dread), I went into the yard and finally sank our 2-year-old butterfly bushes into the earth. They had been in pots, defining, along with some scabby cedars and a line of piled rocks, the front edge of our yard. With the giant fence there, that definition isn't necessary, so I put them into the ground hoping they still have time to grow luxuriant this year. They are all sticks and bones at the moment, but their already-in cousin is as tall as me and full of soft breezy movement, so I know there's hope at least for next year. Oh, and the Leyland cypress that J's mother gave me for my birthday also finally got its own spot. It's not the right tree for this garden, and I'm not a fan of bluish foliage in our lush green seasons, but she did choose it just for me and we will not live here over 3 more years so where's the harm in planting it? Maybe it can be somewhat subdued by the addition of some moundy heathers at its feet - our neighbor who just sold her house (traitor!) has a particularly unusual red/yellow type that I think will look pretty depending on the bloom color of the nearest buddleia. (I *think* I put the white one closest to the tree . . . )

Oh! And the little piglet can climb onto the furniture now! He proudly and insistently intones "Towch! Towch!" and we must vacate the entire sofa - he is so tall and his movements so large that it actually takes him 2/3 its length to get up there, if you include the half-somersault he has to perform as a triumphant finish. He was making it up onto the bed just fine, too, but we had a new mattress delivered last night, and its giant pillowtop is wreaking havoc with both his approach and his dismount. (Oh, the lovely new mattress, with its 15-year bumper-to-bumper warranty and its warranty-protecting $40 mattress pad!)

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