Well, December

Gah, where'd the Fall go? I hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving. I did a whole lot of nothing and enjoyed it immensely.

As a little pre-Christmas miracle, it is SUNNY this week. And cold. Well, not so cold, as cold goes (if I can wear jeans and not freeze, it's not cold. Also, the rosemary is blooming, and the camellias buds are getting really big). Every bit of sunshine in the winter here is like a little Vitamin D/mental health gift.

Today on the train I brought the gloves I'm working on and had stalled out on finishing because I need some gloves, toute de suite.

K the love monkey is getting grass envy. My little secret is I really don't care for grass in my yard. It's a huge pain to take care of, and it always looks like crap here, and it sucks down water and fertilizer and doesn't give anything back but something squishy to walk on and there are MUCH less demanding plants that will provide that for a lot less work. It looks pretty crappy now, with the moss taking a firm hold and K wants a new one and I am balking (more "not getting around to it" than outright refusal). Not least because for this entire year I have mowed the lawn EVERY SINGLE TIME IT NEEDS MOWING. Yes, I kept score. I'm petty like that. I resent taking care of plants I dislike.

What I really want to do is rip it all out and put in drought-tolerant perennials. But when my back punishes me for days after just raking up the damn leaves? Well. Our soil is for crap, clay-o-riffic, it really needs a bunch of amending for plants to do well. Also we have a big old dogwood that I like very much and I'm sure the roots go through the whole lawn and I don't want to kill it. Same with the back, but in that case it's a gorgeous huge blue spruce (a bit rare around here, it doesn't really get cold enough for them to do well) which sadly is slowly shading out the whole of the backyard.

That's the problem with winter, I start dreaming of plants. Gee, the next Hardy Plant Society of Oregon sale is only 4 months away.