So I got out the leaf blower and cleared the patio, and took the weedwhacker to the evergreen beds on the side of the house: next is going to be the driveway area. I so want to do something with that. But first is going to be taking the mattock to a forsythia bush I’ve already cut back. It lies alongside an alley, it’s not a lovely sight, but our whole place would look so much nicer if I could fix that area.
I may be inspired to go out and attack it.
I am getting writing done, btw. It’s just slow at this stage, because I have to think my way through it, and whacking weeds is a good circuit-clearer.
Nope, that is one stubborn forsythia. One age-thing that drives me crazy: I can do a little pick-work, and then the back starts complaining. I look at that damn thing and think ‘Sawzall’, ie, a nice handheld, but getting it below the dirt line is not so easy. Stump remover only works if the thing is dead. And I am NOT up to sitting on the ground with a claw and trowel, the way Jane does. Bummer! Only thing I can do is shovel gravel til the back yells quit; and use the weed whacker.
We are having incredibly cool weather today — 65f in late July? This is crazy!
This is the storm that came through a few days ago and cooled stuff down:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zettepics/9373229730/
My problem is that I’m exhausted. Even writing is proving difficult for me, which it never has been before. I’ve been napping more than I’m awake, which hasn’t helped with any kind of work around the house.
The cats are happy, though. I had all four of them in bed with me yesterday afternoon when I woke back up.
Isn’t physical labor one of the good meditation tools?
Zette, don’t forget you are still recovering from the attack a couple of weeks ago. I expect you will have to build back up to previous levels of stamina. Gently, please!
We were threatened with a storm like that the past few days, but it ended up being (at least at this point) empty. I think Jane’s Pook puts out more spit than the remnants so far!
Zette, please see your physician unless you think you have a temporary bug. Many things can cause exhaustion, and many are easily treated.
I watched (on TV, sadly) a Boston Pops concert back when John Williams was conductor. Someone held up a sign decorated with musical notes, “Don’t forget to write.”
I second Walt, Zette. About time to feel better. If not, hie thee to the doc and just ask.
Actually, the doctors are telling me this is the new drugs I’m on, which have been switched out a couple times already. I should become used to them soon, but in the mean time I’ve had more naps than I care to count.
Once everything gets settled in, I should be doing better. If not, there will be more changes and another round of ‘how tired can these drugs make me?’
It has been an interesting month. Right. Interesting is the word I’m looking for (discarding annoying and a few others).
Oh, good. Well, we shall stop worrying! Just take care of yourself. And spoil yourself. Naps and long soaky baths with bath beads.
In re: the forsythia, I’d gladly loan you the borrow of my B&D cordless reciprocating saw, but ….
As soon as the mail-order potion gets here, I’m committing herbicide in the back yard. It’s full of waist high “Tree of heaven” seedlings. They’re like dandelions. If you don’t get every last bit of the root out, they grow right back. They’re pernicious, gods-rotted abominations, those trees(imports from China). The sap stinks, the wood stinks to high heaven when you burn it, and it’s roots manufacture their own herbicide to scotch the competition. And not to put too fine a point on it, Roundup won’t even faze them. After much research, I learned what noxious potion to procure, and how to do the deed. If one of these days here soon you hear maniacal “Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ing” coming from the southeast, you’ll know who and why. Oh, and more than a few paper mulberry seedlings are going to get caught up in the massacre as well. Yes, I know. Safety goggles, face mask, long sleeves and rubber gloves.
Tree of Heaven, eh? I’ll remember that one. A company is advertising the Empress Tree that allegedly grows 8 feet a year, and you have to wonder what the catch is.
BTW, we mail-ordered 2 trees from a company called Fast-growing Trees, and I have to say they’re good. We got a 4 feet x 10×10 box that had, as I recall, a dogwood and Jane’s chocolate mimosa, and the health of both has been excellent. We were pretty appalled when we got back from Oklahoma and found no leaves on the mimosa, but a little watering and it started putting out leaves like crazy.
We are really highly suspicious now of this Empress Tree offering.
Being curious, I checked out both: they are not the same thing. The Tree of Heaven is alianthus or something like that, looks like pecan leaves and has an orange flower; the Empress Tree is Pawlonia, and has blue-bell like flowers.
Both, however, are invasive, multiply like crazy, and there are people trying to sell off seedlings on Etsy, which says they have a lawn full of them… One person claims the Empress Tree grew 18 feet in one year.
This is not an ornamental hardwood. It’s a Triffid.
Ailanthus altissima. Oh, yes. The rule “If it sounds too good to be true, it isn’t” applies here. A tree that grows that fast practically has “invasive import” carved on the trunk.
There’s this lovely little ornamental vine from Japan named Kudzu that grows fast, too(as much as a foot a day), and my brother battled it like Grant’s army for the 15 years they lived in Mississippi, trying to keep it from strangling their magnolias. Makes you want to dump gasoline on it and set it on fire, which is about what it takes to get rid of it.
What we have is the mimosa or Chinese silkwood tree:
http://www.nps.gov/plants/alien/fact/alju1.htm
It is all over our lot and we pull tiny runners from everywhere. It is all over the South, and it is sort of pretty; so, I’m not exactly unhappy that it grows in the borders of our land; but it is tough to get out of flower beds.
CJ, working with your hands is one of the best ways to working out plot points, etc. I watch hubby do this, and I certainly did it to get through my senior projects. Hubby is finally back on his last rewrite of his book 3 but is having a lot of foggy moments two weeks out from the hip replacement, and I think he is doing better because he is very diligent in completing his physical therapy exercises. (He’s already using a cane, the walker is gathering dust.)
Ah. This is the tree Jane particularly loves. She brought three baby ones back from Oklahoma, and the chocolate mimosa is exactly this, but with deep bronze leaves. It’s quite hardy, fastgrowing. And we can grow most things that survive the central Chinese climate. But I’m not sure the ones from Oklahoma are going to make it.
Oh, excellent about the hip…tell him anaesthetic can cause short-term memory gaps, and loss of some deeper memories from the last year; but they will come back, or can be reconstructed. Bravo on the physical therapy. Patients that are aggressive about it tend to do the best with those surgeries.
I’d stay away from the Paulownia, the boss had/has one in the driveway landscaping. It DOES grow 6 to 18 feet in a year, but then every couple years it gets taken down in a winter storm. The thing may technically be a hardwood, but its SQUISHY soft hardwood. Its just… not great as a tree if you get any sort of wind.
Our 40-50 MPH winds would do that one, for sure.