Friday, August 31, 2007

Wish I was There


Thinking about my trip to China last summer - especially now that the squeeze is on and school has started. This particular picture is of a Dragon Tree - I captured this image in the Imperial Garden on the grounds of the Forbidden City. It was a hot, rainy, especially crowded day. A day in which I slipped on the marble staircases (don't let anyone tell you that Crocs aren't slippery), dripped chocolate ice cream on my white Tshirt, and held my nephew's hand as we commiserated about the eventuality of school starting. Now school has started and I'm thinking about my nephew and the Forbidden City. Sigh. Why is it that vacations are so fleeting and working is so consuming?

Saturday, August 25, 2007

avoiding homework, again


Today, I had a moment of bliss. Several moments, actually. Alright, it was pretty much the entire afternoon. I was sitting on the porch with the cat in my lap and the dog at my feet - alternating between knitting the "endless scarf", avoiding homework, and napping. All of a sudden, the lawn service guys drove up and started mowing the lawn. Typically, they come on Fridays when I'm at school. I felt kinda odd just sitting there on my porch letting someone else do the work. I felt as if I should get the trimmer and help out. So, I sat there. Cat in lap. Dog at feet. Avoiding homework and knitting the "endless scarf". God! I felt like a queen.

Later, I saw this incredible monarch butterfly on the zinnias!

Friday, August 24, 2007

turn it over!


If left untended, the garden would be awash in grasses (the crab-kind) and snow-on-the-mountain. There's only one thing that frustrates me more than this - those damned Japanese Beatles. Their infestation on the rose bushes is gross - GROSS! I'm tempted to turn the whole garden over. Mulch it over and plant boring, suburban shrubs. Like Bridal Veil or Verbenum.

School is soon to start and time is limited (and attention waning) for tending the garden. Tomorrow, I'll start the first of several "major chops". Though the rains have made for an over abundance of flowers, it will look more well tended and I won't have to suffer the scorn of neighbors.

Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Unfurl the Elephant Ear


Right around this time of year, the elephant ears in the garden assume larger than life dimensions. Thanks to their weekly dose of steroids (aka Miracle Grow), the ears grow to over 6 feet. Their leaves are a river of veins ... another universe, really. It's sad, though. Just at their peak, the days get shorter the nights gets colder. Soon a frost will annihilate (there is no better word) those glorious leaves and it will just be a mass of massive stalks with a rotting wet heap of pulp attached to them. I heave them out of the ground with a pitchfork, let them dry out - forlorn - in the garage, then bury them in peat. Unglorious and downtrodden in a teal-colored tupperware bin. Teal colored, for chrissakes! They will live again next summer. When the hassles of the school year are behind me and us.