Elizabeth’s Journal

Gardening; Jennifer; Andy; Grama Sprong

The gardening work continues. Brian has now pulled out all four red-tip photinia stumps. Now he says there are just more rocks to pull out (seems that area was a dumping ground for the builder), then we can work in some good soil and get the vegetable garden going. Anyone know where I can buy earthworms to add to it?

I’ve been working on the bed in the corner of the back garden, the one visible from the windows. This morning I finished weeding the whole thing as well as pulling back the grass runners that were invading. I also pulled up two horrible spiky bushes that I’ve always hated and also pulled out last year’s parsley plant, which had grown to a diameter of about 3 feet; I need that space for the bridal-wreath spirea plant. Earlier this week I used a coupon from Wild Birds Unlimited to procure a finch feeder that holds thistle seeds and a shepherd’s crook, and that is now back in that bed, towards the fence; it’s supposed to attract two kinds of finches, one that is here until mid-May and the lesser goldfinch that is here year-round . I’m not sure the shepherd’s crook I got will be tall enough when the daylilies reach their full height; we’ll have to see.

The peppermint peach tree will be in full bloom in another few days, and it’s absolutely beautiful. I’m surprised more people don’t have them in their gardens, but it seems to be relatively uncommon. I couldn’t find a picture of it to link to, so I’ll try to include one in my next blog entry, whenever that may be.

This afternoon I bought deck furniture, although not the same stuff mentioned earlier in my blog. It turned out with that stuff that you had to buy the cushions to be able to use the armchairs with the table, and there’s no way cushions would survive in our household. So I found something else at The Chair King—a 48” glass-topped table with two swivel rockers & two dining chairs, sling-type (the Solaris Designs Monterrey stuff). I don’t really care for the glass-topped tables, but they were the only ones in my price range, so I accepted the reality. The furniture will be delivered and set up on Tuesday, so Jfer & Stepan, get ready for an invitation! Maybe I’ll even fire up my grill . . .

Speaking of the lovely Jennifer, Jonathan misses you and has apparently gone too long w/o seeing you. Twice today (or maybe once today and once yesterday), he pretended you were calling him on the phone or ringing the doorbell, and he said, “Is that my Jenny? Is she coming over? Is she here?” Then he said he missed you. We’ll have to get together again soon.

Don’t know why, but for some reason this afternoon while driving around in the Pathfinder, Jonathan had Andy, our recent houseguest, on his mind. He wanted to know if Joy liked him, if Mummy liked him, and if Grandad liked him (Dale wasn’t present). We assured him that yes, we all liked Andy. Then he wanted to know something else, I think something about when we were all going out to dinner together. The difficulties of that were explained, which put an end to the subject. I personally think of Andy every time I look at the jar of Marmite still by the kettle. I keep on being tempted to try it, then I see the words “Yeast Extract” and decide to leave the lid on for another day.

For the first time recently my grandma Sprong sounded pretty good on the telephone tonight, although her speech was difficult to understand. Her doctor increased her dosage of the antidepressant drug Zoloft earlier this week, and it has sure made a huge difference. I had not realized how much her unhappiness weighed on me until I hung up the phone and walked in the house with a smile on my face.