Front Yard: Lookin' Good!

 The sky quickly cleared yesterday morning, making my morning spa a joy and our morning walk inspiring. It was My Day; nothing could get to me yesterday. I won’t allow myself any stress on My Days.

When we got home, I immediately raked the driveway. Man-oh-man it makes Pinecone Park look good to be rid of the zillions of little cone turds that litter the yard. They really make the place look untidy. Next up was feeding the brood their lunch (11:00). I wanted to go to Silva Bay for lunch because the Firetruck Grill is open as of this weekend, but it would take up too much of my day. Instead, I had a sandwich and then got back to work tidying up inside the fences that surround my front yard trees. It’s awful work because I have cut holes in the fencing so that I can reach in, but they are full of little metal barbs that have me constantly pricking myself and bleeding. 

After lunch, it was time to get back to work. I fetched the barrow to collect all the detritus that I’d raked up on the driveway and all the weeds pulled from under the trees and inside their protective fences. As the front yard was looking so good, I decided putting the plants I bought to bed could wait. I decided to clean up the front bed and to clean the walkway from the driveway to the front door and the front porch.

When I was done, the front yard filled me with pride of accomplishment. It’s rough landscaping, all weeds where there might be lawn, but it’s tidy and the front bed has never looked as good as it does now. It felt so, so good to be working and to have a far more attractive front yard. 

I only weed whacked the part of the front yard people can see from the street, and it’s what I see out my big front window. I left over half the yard wild for the bees. I may get to it once the backyard work is done, but that is a long way off and all the weeds will likely die soon from lack of water. Yesterday, my work mojo was most definitely back. I look forward to continuing the work today and this week.

At 13:00, I took a break. My back gets sore from all the bending over weeding and tilling the garden bed. It felt great to rest, but it also felt very, very good to get back to work after a brief respite. When I was done toting all the crap from weeding the front bed and raking the driveway to the rear forty, I decided to carry on and do something I’ve long wanted to do: I enlarged the fence protecting the Italian Plumb tree. Last week, a deer tore off a branch off the tree, and it seriously pissed me off. These trees and plants are my babies! Now it has room to grow and still be safely behind the fence. Today, my plan is to do the same for the Apple tree in the front yard.

At 15:00, I was done. I had a huge and freezing cold Diet Coke. Yum! Next up was taking Her Highness for our afternoon walk. I was done for the day with work, so after our walk we went into the village to get some dinner supplies before coming home to rest for the remainder of the day. I had another spa, and then we all had dinner and then I watched a movie.

This is what happens when I get an iPhone. Last week when I had two days of manic joy working in the yard, I walked 14,000 steps on one of the days, and 16,000 on the other. Yesterday, I walked 13,000. I’m chuffed to realize that working in the yard gives me lots of exercise. 

Climbing onto the chaise after a good day’s work is just the best feeling. Earned pleasure time is so wonderfully guilt-free. And today I get to do more.

•

I really loved yesterday, cleaning up the front yard. I went out with a plan that got blown off when I decided to clean up the front yard bed and expand the plumb tree fencing. It is so, so satisfying to have something to do. When I came here, I eradicated nature in the backyard, leaving some of Mother’s flora integrated into the gardens. Now, it’s just maintenance. When the plants I have go in, the garden will be pretty much full and complete. I’m grateful for having something constructive to do, and so happy that it yields such pride and pleasure.

I still must walk Her Highness, and water the beds and trees, so progress on cleaning up the yard and begs is slow. But to rid the yard of Sheba souvenirs, cones, and branches, I must first weed-whack. However, the battery of my whacker yields fifteen minutes of whacking per charge. So, I whack, then I weed; it’s back and forth between the two activities all day. This pattern is imposed by the battery, but it’s ideal because I’m on my knees or bending over when I’m gardening, but I’m standing when I’m whacking. (Serious double-entendre!) Henceforth, I’m going to maintain a twenty-minute limit on one activity policy at Pinecone Park. Learned from a battery!

•

When I lived on Hornby Street, which is where I was when I decided to move here, I would pile my furniture in as little space as I could. I left the dining room table up to eat on; I pushed it against a wall. I jammed everything together so that I could use my entire living room and half of my dining room as a studio. 

I built thirteen dresses of paper and plastic food plates, and cups, marbles, leaves, and more, but mostly of manipulated paper. I built each one on a mannequin. I shared my apartment with thirteen women. When I’d have friends over, I’d push my girls close together in two rows against one wall, and it gave me lots of space for entertaining. I loved having my close friends over to meet the girls.

It was always like that. Using my home as a workshop. Then I move here, and I spend a lot of money on rebuilding a collapsed building into a huge studio, with a grand table and a fireplace! And I’ve never really used it for making a craft project. It makes me sad. I have now, what I wanted all my life. But I don’t use it. I store my outdoor furniture in it over Winter. 

I did a few things to donate to local auctions, but my heart was not into crafts anymore. I loved doing plays, exhibitions, presenting lectures. I did so many things the arts, including in the end, at Emily Carr U. But that part of me died when my neurological disorder set-in. I felt I had neither the passion, nor the endurance to do a project. I was focused on life with seizures and very poor speech—sometimes, no speech.

The last thing I want to do, is something that draws attention to me. No thank-you! Instead, I landscaped and made a yard and garden. A yard, this year, is 70 cm high. But all my beds need work. I’ve done the first. Here I go on the backyard. 

While I fill the gaps in the beds with all my new babies, the jungle shall go on. But once the beds are done, I’m going back to whackin’. But not all the yard, only in three small sections. 

By the time I finish with the backyard clean-up, the wood will arrive. I’m going to stack some layers, I think, and then, perhaps, get someone in to do the rest following my stacking model. I’m rather addicted to labour when the weather is fine, which it has been since Spring 24 (if a little dry). But not when the cold weather sets in.

•

Today, we walk with our friends and then I come home to Zoom with my fellow STAMMA support group leaders. Then it’s back to work on the yard and garden beds. Woo hoo!

Clean driveway, nice flat green carpet in front of the house.
Edible garden nice and green

Dwarf Lilac (in bloom left), Italian Plum (Second from left), Flame Maple
(closest to the house) Apple (right). All from tiny twigs, tiny trees that no one
wanted at a great price. They know I love them. 

The blue blossoms of my Paulonia tree.This is the first time.
This tree came from a sucker in a neighbour's yard. It's now
as high as the roof of the house.

The front bed. You could not see soil before I cleaned it up.
Years of needles are gone. This was a tough garden to create.
Burning sun and in an unfenced part of my yard, so all the
plants must be deer-proof.

Two years ago, I created beds around the base of trees. This is one.

This is the other.

This is one of two beds under three large trees. It only gets morning
sun. These poor plants lose all their water to the trees if I am not diligent,
especially during the months-long summer drought season.

This is the other garden bed under the trees.

That's my fucking Butterbur, baby!

This is the finest display on the Laburnum. I get discounts on things at
the nursery that aren't visually appealing. This is one of many 'unloveables' I have.

This is the bed off the courtyard (cement, low right), The path
goes to the rear-forty where I dump my garden waste.

These plants, and two more, await permanent homes.
They are to fill holes in the beds.

The Fern Garden is looking resplendent.

Look at the colour of those shiny plumb-coloured leaves.
They will slowly turn green, but I love it when they are this
colour under a similarly coloured Japanese Maple.