After being killed to the ground this winter, my butterfly bush may finally be about to bloom. instagram.com/p/qEwqYhNU9o/
Category Archives: house
Twitter Update: In just over an hour, this flowerbed went from “Da…
In just over an hour, this flowerbed went from “Damn, that’s embarrassing,” to considerably less embarrassing. http://t.co/ztYzGqWpK0

Twitter Update: When I don’t have a tape measure or yardstick hand…
When I don’t have a tape measure or yardstick handy, I measure with 8-to-5 steps. #drumcorpsforever
Spring 2014 in My Garden: A Retrospective
First off, let me say that calling it “my garden” is a double misnomer, as it’s not so much a garden per se as it is a collection of flowerbeds — and, if it is anyone’s garden, it’s still Sonia’s. At least, it is until I know everything that’s in every bed and perhaps rearrange things to my liking.
That said, I’m doing my best with my limited time and resources to make it my own.
Last year, I hesitated to do anything to the beds, not knowing until things bloomed (or went to seed) which were flowers and which were weeds. Our former lawn care guy took me on a tour of the beds, identified most of the plants, and gave me a few pointers on caring for some of them, but it wasn’t entirely comprehensive. I ended up with giant weeds (or, more correctly, unidentified and presumably native plants) and a maypop vine that was pretty enough, but overgrew my beds and made things look like an unkempt jungle.
I knew going into this spring that there was no way I would have have enough time to get everything done that needed to be done. I prioritized the best that I could, knowing what things looked like by mid-summer last year, and tried to allot time to get to most of it. At first I had thought that I could sic our new lawn care guy on some of it, but a lot of what I did was part planned, part triage — I’d get outside to do one thing, then see another thing (or two or three) that really needed addressing.
This is kind of a brain dump for me to remember what I did when this spring, and what still needs to be done this summer, and as a reference for me next year, as well. So, I do apologize for the massive amount of information in this one post… but, then again, I don’t. 🙂
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Two Months in the New Bed
The old bed was old.
We’d gotten the Queen-sized frame, headboard, footboard, mattress, and boxspring (plus a box of sheets) for a steal of a deal from some friends of ours. At the time — 2003, I’m wanting to say — the used Queen was a major upgrade from the Full (aka Double) that Aaron had brought with him when he moved out of his house (and into several apartments on his own before we got engaged and shacked up).
So, the old bed was at least 12 years old.
We both have back problems already, and were waking up with aches and pains that we could tell were related to our old mattress. The memory foam mattress topper we bought a couple years ago could only do so much. We could have just replaced the mattress with a new one, except that we’re both relatively tall people — he’s 6’3”, I’m 5’10” — and our limbs were aching (so to speak) for more room to stretch out.
When we got our tax return this February, we knew that a new California King bed was in our future.
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