I got to work all day in the yard today, beautiful weather, lots to accomplish.
My major project, and there are no pictures because I didn’t take any when it was daylight and now I’m out by the fire, was to level out the ground in the northeastern quadrant. The ground just sort of sloped away in front of the glider/swing area down to the fence on the north edge of the property. I thought it would look better if it were level at least in the glider area, so I built a little “dam” at the 1:00 position and filled it in with dirt. It will be very lovely once the grass has grown.
Moving the dirt down from the carport area means that that area is now smooth and ready to be seeded. It also means the huge blue tarp I bought when the dirt was delivered could be moved to the back yard to be dried and folded. So that was major.
This was minor, but it was important. As I laid out the labyrinth last September, I took four clay pots and set them into the ground to hold citronella candles. Now that everything is finalized, I was able to move those pots into the actual positions of the four cardinal points of the compass.
It was actually a bit odd, I found myself resisting making the change, because, after all, isn’t this a semi-sacred space? How can you change what you’ve already put down? But I slapped myself, figuratively, to remind myself that where the pots had been placed were not the actual points of the compass. Now they are.
I also did a fair amount of cleaning up: tools put away, re-routed the extension cord to the porch by cable-tying it to the tree and up to the deck, tables rearranged, many leaves raked and put on the street, and the brick edging for the glider area reset.
Finally, I took the large terracotta pipe that I uncovered when I tilled the entire area and set it in the ground at the entrance to the bamboo area. Lichtenbergians will know the area I’m talking about and will also understand the term lingam.
Now it’s 8:30 and I’m sitting by the fire after a generous supper of hamburgers and fried accoutrements. Also several life-giving beverages. It’s just about time for dessert.
Dessert is Ben & Jerry’s Americone Dream (Stephen Colbert’s). Side of Mayan Kiss (xtabentun/kahlua).
Further: I bought a ground cover plant this afternoon which I have planted on the mound. If it does well there, I may buy more to cover the bank over on the northern edge.
Also I bought nandinas for the northwestern corner where the two fences join. It’s an ugly area, and these should cover it. I got the idea from a nandina that has popped up in the same area, a “volunteer” is what Ms. Ida Ellis would have called it, and it reminded me of the fence area in my grandmother’s back yard, which was bordered with unkillable nandinas. I’ll plant those this week.
Yoni?
Center.
Actually, I already had a lingam in my landscaping, but it had vanished behind the Mercedes and overgrowth. I will be reclaiming it next week or the next during winter break.
The terracotta pipe, however, is definitely lingam.
Where will you put the Minotaur?
Over in the bamboo, right next to the lingam. Heh heh…
A friend of my son’s has been barred for life from the Hot Spot on Greenville Street for inscribing a lingam onto a tabletop with a permanent marker. Tee-Hee. O you naughty little boys.
Silly youth. Does he not understand that he should Mark himself in these matters, not other persons’ property?
By the way, Dale, I’ve been in touch with THE ONE WHO DECIDES SUCH THINGS, and the decision is: you may think you have accomplished much, but you have not.
I’m sorry.
I defy the OWDST!