the Entish wail...

There are times in a man (or womans) life when he can only be driven so far. When ruthless fate has placed before him or her such circumstances which require dire action. A time when the only thing to do is to get to getting and let the pieces fall where the may.

This was one of those days. I felt like Treebeard when we walked through his forest and realized that in search of more power, evil Saruman had torn down many of his - treebeards, not Sarumans - trees. "I have known many of them from nut and acorn. I have had many long and loving talks with each of them" he said. Then he let loose a prolonged entish wail, "oaahhahhoooaah!" I too let go a long entish wail, though more like AAAAHHHOOOOAAAHOOOOHHHHH! (The neighbors all gave odd looks and told their children to go inside) The grasses of evil have long infested this garden of the kitchen, but this was too much. No longer will we let them creep into homeland in search of more power, we will repel them, we will build a wall, we will stand and fight the darkness of Morder.

Welcome to the Kitchen Garden. It is called this not because we grow kitch stuff, but rather because it is viewed out of the kitchen window. As you can tell, it's borders are in a constant state of flux due to the encroachment of the grass and lack of someone to weed... hmmm... someone ought to weed it, but...

We made a border around the rest of the beds in the front yard out of these rocks which are left over from the front rock wall that was removed last winter when we had that area improved by "real" people (those who are paid to do such things and are much better at it).

When we started digging, I ran across this ancient brick border, much like an ancient ruin from dead and gone ancestors. I could dip myself into the memories of the past seeing the young children gathering straw and mud and the father showing them how to mix it not too dry and not too wet but just right. There was a small fireplace where they lovingly place each square to dry and burn it into a hard stone that will withstand the test of time. Then they placed each in a long line to keep the garden separated from the wilds of the yard.

Here we see that walls are up and ready to defend against the tide of grass. Now we'll just have to keep it that way!

Happy Easter & a truly spring weekend...

As it is Easter weekend, Lucy and Helen wanted to show their easter sunday dresses. As usual, they match (I'm not sure how, but this happens quite a bit)

All of the usual spring flowers are coming out to show off. 

To add some life to our window boxes, I decided on some violas. We had some in a large pot and they did really well all year long, so I'm hoping we can have an extended bloom here as well. As long as I don't forget to water them, they should do well.

  
This was also a good weekend for wrapping up projects. I had prepared this area (the paver patio on the right) over the last few weeks, so this weekend we actually laid the gravel, sand and pavers. This is the third one I've done, so it definitely gets easier each time. I actually measured and cut everything right the first time and there were no surprise endings!

I also bought and put up our cedar arbors. Then we planted the roses (they are the small plants on either side of the arbors) that will eventually climb the arbors and add some color. I will plant some purple clematis, but they aren't in the nurseries yet. Then we spread new bark around to add that little somethin' somethin' - that last little touch.

Last, but not least, this is our first bouquet of the year. It is an assortment of daffodils, and not too lively, but it is enough to qualify as the first of many!