Work

 It's the last day of April and we have been busy. Once the cold rain stopped we have spent much of each day outside working or plant shopping.

We lost most of this big old Aucuba in the earlier snow storm and discovered that the trunk was mostly rotten. Tom removed it and we bought a replacement. It will take a while for the new shrub to fill in any space, and we may never see that, but there are plenty of ground covers ready to grab the light and take over for now. 

Tom also removed a heavily pruned fir tree that was too tired to continue. The euonymus should put on some size an a few years.

The Secret Garden is a little less hidden, but cleaned up and ready for chairs. 

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The brush pile in the driveway is growing. Tom's geraniums are moving outside.

Cleaning up in mostly what I do. Today I cleaned up the back wall of the house, the patio side, removing all of the plaques and nozzles in our collections, removing spiders and webs and dust and pollen, and putting them back in their places.

The patio has been cleaned up and impatiens and plectranthus are planted along the edge. The big pots have been cleaned up. Hands and knees work is hard for me, but I manage, with plenty of grunts and groans.

The blue pots on the front porch are planted with impatiens too.

The bonsai have been moved out of their winter cover and are back on display.

And inside, work is finally continuing on the water damage of the snow storm of weeks ago. Today the ceiling drywall was patched. The popcorn has been scraped off the whole ceiling. Work will continue through mudding and texturing and painting, and them tacking the carpet back down where it was lifted to dry out. It's a process. PEMCO insurance has already reimbursed us so now we just need the contractor to get it done. 

We'll be doing more work, but maybe at a slower pace. And with May Day on Friday I promise you a few pretty flowers.