Yard

I have a yard! I mowed it today. It's much smaller than the last yard I mowed--it was almost pleasant! Here's a picture that Aaron requested, showing the new grass that's grown since they left.

There's not a huge amount of new grass, but you can see the lighter patch in the middle--that part's new. I had left the sprinkler there basically since I moved in, so I had to move it in order to mow. When I picked it up, a shower of ants and ant eggs fell onto me. Apparently the underside of the sprinkler is the perfect anthill. It was pretty impressive how quickly those ants found a new place for their eggs--all the little white spots were gone in mere minutes.

I also noticed today that the little pear tree in the backyard wants to make fruit!

There are dozens of marble-size pearlets on the tree. I'm looking forward to full-grown pears. Maybe I'll get really ambitious and try to preserve some for the owners of the tree. Maybe.

It's been really windy here today. I'm glad I mowed when I did--especially because I glanced into the backyard sometime later and noticed that something was there that shouldn't be there.

Let's get a closer look, shall we?

The neighbor's dying tree decided it was time to let go. So now there's a whole bunch of tree in my backyard, and I get to deal with it.

Since the tree is clearly outside Samara and Aaron's property line, I'm going to see if the neighbor's landlord will remove it. However, when he fenced the yard next door, he fenced inside the tree, leaving it in a no-man's land of possible ownership dispute. If he won't take care of it, I'll probably see if the guy across the street will do it for $20 and a six-pack. Stupid responsibility--I never had to worry about trees falling down when I lived in an apartment!

Anyway, it'll be fine. No big deal, just an annoyance. When I was walking back to the house after taking those pictures I noticed how much happier my (former) window garden is to be living outside.

That's my basil on the right, and it's flopping over behind my newly thriving mint plant! Hooray--my mint is thriving!I've already cooked with some of the basil--very tasty. I'm planning to let the mint grow a bit more, then make some tasty, minty lemonade. I really hope it comes back next year. Actually, what I really hope is that the tendril that has hit the ground throws down some roots in that magical way plants have and then takes over the backyard--because that would amuse the hell out of me. Wouldn't a backyard full of mint be fantastic? It would smell so good.

In other news, my c-clamp and MDF arrangement worked very well for using my borrowed knitting machine. On my brilliant mother's advice I finally watched the instructional video today and discovered the secret to my difficulty. I fixed one tiny thing, and then I was off and running! All 600 yards or so of yarn has been knitted into a lovely stockinette rectangle. Phase one is complete! Hooray!