Summery afternoon

Hello, blog. It’s been a while.

Well, a week. Almost.

Perfect weather today. 70-something, low humidity, sunny as hell. The backyard needed mowing, so after breakfast and the usual long walk with Herself the Elf, I set to it. Got to the spot around the admittedly-overgrown birdbath garden. Tried to push the mower underneath the overhanging branches of the prairie fire crabapple, and something in me just snapped. I shut off the mower, dug the serious long-handled branch clippers out the garage, and took down a few thin branches.

Then I said, oh hell with it, and got the chainsaw.

Did some major surgery on the poor unsuspecting prairie fire, cutting away a couple of semi-major branches and overhangs and trimming it into the more tree-like shape I wanted it to have. Stared in amazement at how much bigger that amount of trimmage made the backyard appear, and how much more sunlight hit the surrounding lawn. Cut down the nearby sand cherry, which had grown lopsided and developed some sort of disease that led to leaf loss. Trimmed the other sand cherry, then stopped when I realized how much yard waste I now needed to get rid of. I had a choice–I could spend the better part of the next two days cutting it up and stuffing it into lawn bags, or I could cut the branches into somewhat longer lengths and leave them piled on the curb for the city to collect. Problem is, the city collects on an irregular basis–the lawn beneath the piles could be dead by the time said piles were picked up. And I really didn’t have two days to spend cutting up branches.

So, I went with option 3–I called the usual tree trimmer guy, who will grind the stumps, dispose of the brush, and do some additional trimming besides–some of the oaks need a little work, and the sand cherry I trimmed isn’t really worth saving so that will be removed completely. After all that is done, I should finally be at the point where I can handle whatever else needs to be done in the landscaping department, she said hopefully.

September is going to be a stone bitch of a cleaning month. I should just have the junk hauler leave a dumpster in the driveway.

Thinking about work over the next few months, both house-related and not so much. I would like to revamp the website. Write a Jani novella, and a couple other short things for actual submission to markets. I also want to paint the kitchen cabinets, and maybe the bedrooms, but before that I need to toss/sell/donate as much as I possibly can. I see no reason other than sentiment why I can’t get rid of at least half my clothes. The Great Decluttering of 2013.

Finally saw a hummer this afternoon. I have plenty of hanging baskets with brightly-colored petunias, but it was the late lamented Rose of Sharon tree that really attracted them. Now that it’s gone, I doubt I will see as many little tweets as I used to. Plenty of dragonflies, though, some of which are the size of hummingbirds.