expansion

 Let's be honest here: I will always find ways to improve the garden. I will never feel satisfied or think it to be "done." Time spent on the lovely bench (which I freshly treated with teak oil this week) in the rose garden (a.k.a. Millie's yard)? Negligible. Time spent digging, adding, snipping, clearing, moving, training, watering, weeding, mulching, feeding, pruning? Hours upon hours. 

The often spoken words "you must love gardening" never seemed right. There are tasks in that list that I do not especially like doing. But I love how working in my garden makes me feel. The effort! Being outside with purpose! The engagement of all the senses!  And perhaps the best of them all -- the clear mind. It's magic really. When I work outside, my only thoughts are about flowers and gardens. The calm that comes with it is priceless!

I am aware of the privilege here: I have a garden with plenty of sunshine and I am starting from scratch.  Picking up a flower or two every other day may be relatively inexpensive (roses do not belong in that pricing category!), but it's like treating yourself to a latte every day (which I have stopped doing for this reason) -- it adds up! At least I don't have to work with landscape people to remove sod. I do it myself. Digging? Myself. And I try not to bother Ed with any of it either. He's not a garden person. He'd rather pay pickle ball.

Today, however, I did call him for help. That blasted AC fence! It's just too hard to put it up alone and without a drill. And so, soon after breakfast, with buds from my current rose favorite -- David Austin's Carding Mill (I change my mind about favorites but this one has stuck around in my heart and head for a while now)...

 ... I ask Ed if he could come over. Bring a drill! 

As I said yesterday, I went with a cheap option (but one I like!) and I was only willing to dish out money for two sides. Still, I think once the roses fill out (planted by me immediately after the fence went up -- the heavily scented Parfuma Bliss, though these are small still so it'll take a few years), the entire side of the house should look just fine.

I did a lot of sod removal while I was working in the side yard. At first Millie stayed in the house, but she could hear me shuffling around out there and she made her preferences known, so I brought her out as Ed drilled and I dug (tying her to the hose!).

 

 

 

(wait -- maybe I should consider David Austen's Alnwick Rose as a favorite of the day...)

 

  

We resume Sunday family dinners today. With Goose of course. Millie is a little dazed by the sudden burst of activity. But, it's a fine evening and she has certainly learned to hold her own. When she herself is not held...

(inside: everyone loves the reading nook...)

 

A late night for me again. So much to read, so much to contemplate...

with so much love...