A little compulsive gardening

I might have mentioned that I am just a wee bit single-minded about projects when I gen an idea in my head. I don't think compulsive would be an over-statement. Often these projects involve things around the house. And when I do get a bee in my bonnet about something I want to do it RIGHT NOW. This is where you need to start pitying my husband, because these fits of mine are unpredictable. There has been more than a couple times when arrives home to major changes that weren't there when he left in the morning. Often when he left, there was no indication that these major changes were going to occur. For instance, there was the time that I decided that I absolutely could not live with the carpet which was in our front hall a minute longer, so I ripped it out. J. was a little surprised to arrive home to bare wood in the entryway and piles of hideous carpet decorating the edges.

Well, I mentioned yesterday that we are going to do something about the way our front yard looks and to that end, bought several trees. What I may have neglected to mention is that some fairly large and overgrown bushes needed to be cut down and their stumps dug out before the trees could go in. So that is what has been happening around here. It works out well that B. is as compulsive as I about pet projects and this is a project he can be interested in. He has worked like a dog today, planting the blueberry bushes, digging out two or three stumps, and taking down several bushes. I worked, too. Planting flowers in pots. But then, as I was looking at several of the large, overgrown bushes and noticing that the stump of one (which has yet to be removed), was already sprouting new growth (a good plant for me, as it seems unkillable). This got me to thinking that if we took down the entire row of scraggly, overgrown, and very ugly bushes to their stumps, then they could grow back and look better and be more manageable. And so we (TM and I) started. He is now pacing the kitchen waiting for me to get back outside while I write this and cook rice for dinner at the same time. We have managed to take down almost all of them, with one left which I think we can get done before dinner. The whole thing has created a crazy amount of branches, and I fear now we will have to rent a chipper to get rid of it all. It does really help the look of the front yard, though. At least it will once we drag the mountain of branches littering it to the back.

And, did you know that gardening is terribly dangerous? I nearly put my eye out and I didn't even have a Red Ryder BB gun. I was pruning back some smaller branches, leaned in to reach one, didn't see the pokey end of the branch and ran it straight into my eye. I was wearing sun glasses, though, and that deflected the branch a bit. For a moment I thought it had knocked out my contact lens, until B. started looking at me funny and I realized it was still there and after some blinking it moved back to the right side of my eye. I'm pretty sure that I will be sporting a nice black eye for a day or two. Maybe G.'s idea of wearing safety goggles as a fashion statement (they have them at Sunday School and she puts them on the second she enters the room) isn't such a bad idea.