I truly hate weeds. I don’t mean that I just dislike the sight of them. I mean, I think I’m starting to take it personally that they spring up to spoil my hard work. I’m not sure, but I think my blood pressure goes up when I see new weeds.
Now, that’s not to be interpreted as meaning that I don’t HAVE weeds because I am rabidly ferreting through my flower beds to pluck them out. It just means that I get a little steamed (okay, a lot steamed) when I see them.
I’m trying to be better about the “pick a few whenever you go out” approach. I mean, I go out a LOT since I have two little dogs with bladders the size of golf balls. So while I’m waiting for Sarah to get inspiration for her “business,” I’m stretching my hamstrings in a deep forward bend, breathing deeply and scratching through the dirt with my fingernails to get at the weed roots.
My manicure looks like crap.
I also have a new, slightly evil way of dealing with weeds, inspired by the whole over-the-top weed flamethrower contraption you can buy. I kid you not. You can buy a weeding tool that is attached to a propane tank that allows you to torch errant weeds with the push of a button. As you might imagine, my 16-year-old son thinks this is a grand idea and has volunteered to do weeding duty if I buy him one.
Hah. Not a chance.
I am taking a more medieval approach. I boil water while I’m working in the kitchen and then scamper outside with the teapot and POUR BOILING WATER ON THE WEEDS! It’s very satisfying, really, in an evil kind of way. It also ensures that you kill the roots so they won’t spring back up to annoy you again another day.
This works particularly well for cracks between pavers and for areas with those itty bitty tiny weeds that you can’t seem to scratch up, even if you throw caution about your manicure to the wind. Of course, I recommend that you are careful around the delicate roots of surrounding plants. But there are LOTS of places where this works just fine.
As proof, I offer some photographic examples of what happens with the boiling cauldron approach.
Another helpful, if evil, tip from the Bumblebee Blog. Now go have some mean fun.
Robin
My mom wrote recently to tell me that she and her two sisters were getting together and would be spending the day painting on the back porch. No, they weren’t painting the back porch, they were painting ON the back porch.
All three are pretty clever and handy with a paintbrush. Sadly, I am missing the clever-artist gene as well as my dad’s handy-fix-and-build-things gene. My brother, Dale, got both. My brother, Chris, got the handy-fix-and-build-things gene. I’m not sure what I was left with, aside from my grandfather’s garden gene. I hope not the cancer and heart problems genes.
She sent photos, which I thought I would share.
Some of her paintings are naturalistic landscapes. Some are just fun, like kissing fishes and such.
I remember when I was growing up that my mom could draw ANYTHING. It seemed to me an amazing talent that someone could actually draw a picture of a person and it would look like…well…a person!
To this day, my drawings are more stick figure than realistic. Sad, really.
Good day today. Harry, Ben and I met my new friend, Vennie, who is from Seattle, for lunch in Annapolis. It was nice to be out and about with three handsome and intelligent men.
–Bumblebee (Robin)
Robin
The birds in Calvert County are going to be happy with me! Benjamin and I raided the Wild Bird Store in Waldorf today.
We bought:
- A proper pole with raccoon/squirrel baffle (That THAT, you beasties!)
- Four arms for hanging birdfeeders
- A new nyger seed feeder (because we got 15% off on everything when we did)
- Nyger seed (Duh)
- A bluebird feeder, with little acrylic walls and holes just for the bluebirds. It also has a little tiny bowl inside for the mealworms they like.
- Mealworms
- Books on bluebirds and purple martins (Yes, next summer we’ll probably add a purple martin house. I tell you, this bird feeding thing is addictive!)
As soon as the guys get back from the dump, I’m putting them to work setting everything up.
Benjamin and I also bought a juicer so that we can use up some more of the vegetables that we grow–and that our friend Lucia brings in HUMONGO quantities from the farmer’s market in Hughesville.
In other bird news, there are now TWO eggs in the nest. Bluebirds lay about one egg a day until they have a full clutch of four to six.
You’ll also be THRILLED to learn that I started my first batch of cheese today (if you don’t count the yogurt cheese I make all the time). You’ll probably be all atwitter to know that I took PHOTOS. Whoohoo! Do I know how to have a good time or WHAT?
–Bumblebee (Robin)
Robin
