hedghog and a sled

My mother will be so proud of me! (Are you still reading my blog, Mom?!) I spent the afternoon in my yard with a hedgehog! Those of you who know me well, know that I can't stand yard work and I don't have a green thumb. However since the snow from Monday melted and the temps reached at least 75 or 80 today, I headed outdoors after church. My husband took the kids on a bike ride to the park for a couple of hours. Before he left, I had him show me how to use the "hedgehog" electric trimmer. Boy is that a nifty invention! Most of the lovely things in my yard are blooming bushes acquired from the farmer's market. I tell them that I need a "shade bush, drought tolerant, that requires no care from me" and they point me in the right directions. I like azaleas, camellias, butterfly bushes, and such. I have a few other things like plants that blow in the wind, daffodils, and lilies... and pots of herbs. My parents have beautiful gardens that are often included in the city "garden tour" each year. Not me. My yard certainly isn't an eyesore in the neighborhood. It's well trimmed and neat, but not beautiful. (I look forward to when my parents move to the area and can brighten up the place!) My mom swears that yard work is good for the soul and rejuvenates her. All I feel it dirty! Anyway, back to my story. Since I don't have a green thumb, I have never been bound by conventional widsom when it comes to pruning and trimming. I merely do the obvious... trim so it looks tidy and you can manuveur the lawn mower around it. If you don't like it, hack it off. (One year the pear tree produced an abundance of pears. We were certainly surpised since we don't know what we are doing when it come to pruning!) I attacked the bushes with vigor and trimmed them all up nicely and neatly. I learned that you can trim most anything in the yard with a hedgehog! :) Even the butterfly bush (mine's over 9 feet tall!) if you hang off the back deck! Since the new growth hasn't quite hit all the bushes here mostly things were dry and snapped right off. When I finished the trimming, I had to gather up all the things I cut off. I went looking for some yard plastic. When I got it opened up I realize just how windy it was. The plastic was blowing all around and that wouldn't work. I headed back to the garage and spied the red plastic sled with a rope attached. Perfect! I bagged most of the clippings and loaded the large billowy limbs of the butterfly bush onto the sled. Since it was REALLY windy, I had to put the rake on top of my load of branches and haul it to the front yard. After raking through the mulch in my flowerbeds to freshen it up, I put away my afternoon play toys... a hedgehog and a sled... and hung out on the back porch with some cold water and my Bible Study book. Ah... a good day!

I haven't posted any other days this week since it took me 2 full days to get over my caffeine headache from the detox week! Overall, we did well. We enjoyed purple sweet potatoes, artichokes, homemade sushi, and other yummy things. I think Big J has the most will power of any of us. Her teacher even brought her an orange this week while bringing the rest of the kids donuts (we had a 1/2 day of school on Saturday to make up for a snow day and teachers were getting creative!) for a treat. It did take some explaining to people that this was just a DETOX WEEK and we have not gone totally crazy with our diet. Tomorrow we'll ease back into things and begin our 3 week break from school. Ah... many good days ahead!