I Grow Rocks

I’m sorry I haven’t been very good about writing. (Is it just me, or do I seem to say that a lot?) I’ll be better about it once I get my act together. (Again, I say this all the time, don’t I?) Actually, my act is fairly together right now as I’ve been spending a lot of time on my website and I’m having so much fun! It’s a lot of work, though! How come nobody told me!? Well anyway, if you haven’t been over to Grace & Such since my last post, you need to take a gander. It’s starting to really come together.

But I’m here to tell you about the home front. I mean that literally. I’m going to tell you about the front of the home. And a little about the back, but mostly the front.

My story begins a long time ago. Back when I tried to grow something. And then it died. I didn’t give up. I tried to grow something again. And then it died. And then I planted petunias around a mailbox in a whiskey barrel and I watered them every day and they were glorious and beautiful and I thought I’d finally figured it out. But then they died.

After a while I would bring plants home from the nursery and Mr. Jenster would apologize to them. “I’m so sorry it’s come to this,” or “You’re not long for this world,” or “dead plant walking.” Eventually he would say cruel things to me like, “What dead plants did you throw our money away on this time?”

I finally had to accept the fact that I have a black thumb. All my plants wither and die slow, painful-looking deaths and I’m helpless to stop it. Except for weeds and unwanted grass. Those I’m really good at.

About a month ago or so Todd cleared out the flower bed in the front of the house. And when I say he cleared it out, what I mean is he took out everything, including the nasty junipers and overgrown “little” evergreen tree. He dug down about 6 inches to get rid of the lousy soil,  took care of some drainage issues and filled it with premium soil from the local landscape supplier.

And then he turned it over to me. The one who kills plants with a mere glance. So I decided I’d start with rocks and see how that goes. Turns out big rocks from a landscape supplier are expensive! So I did what any sane person would do. I asked on Facebook if anyone had any landscaping boulders they wanted to get rid of. Ding, ding, ding!!

The hows of getting the rocks into the flower bed are a whole other story and one I don’t have the energy to tell. Just suffice it to say it was quite the ordeal. Not for me because I just went along for the ride and said, “I like that rock.”

Anyhoo, I’m so happy to report that we’ve had the rocks for over two weeks now and I haven’t killed them yet. I think I may actually try some plants next.

 

And on the homeback, Todd has put two bird feeders in the tree next to the deck. He can see the upper feeder from his office upstairs and I can see them both from the kitchen sink.

So far we’ve seen a lot of sparrows and another type of little bird that is as of yet unidentified,  a downy woodpecker and yesterday there was a hawk in our tree. I’m not kidding! Why was there a hawk in our tree?? He was fairly close to the upper feeder so I think he may have been waiting for his lunch to come eat some lunch. It’s like Marlon Perkin’s Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom all up in here! The only thing that would have been better is if he hadn’t flown away before Todd could get his camera phone to focus.

Oooo, no! The only thing that would have been better is if his lunch would have come for lunch AND Todd could get his camera phone to focus. That would have been fabulous!

As you can see, Sookie is fascinated.