We’ve finally received some much needed rain and our lawn has responded accordingly.
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The grass has started to turn green… just in time for it to turn brown in the fall…. and Lord Dudley Mountcatten approves.
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Not that you’d know it by his face.
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And while the grass is busy turning green, my husband is busy turning his rubber truck mat black.
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Back to Black to be precise, which made me start singing AC/DC … and it totally went over my other half’s head.
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Fall is here and cooler temps mean summer flowers are on clearance sale, like these sweet little hibiscus I picked up for the kitchen porch. They won’t last long… but they’re damn sure pretty right now.
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Another reason to love my town. A cart full of free flowers.
I love finding a new watering hole, and recently we hit the jackpot.
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The Blind Pig Tavern. So named because sympathetic policemen were known to turn a blind eye to speakeasies back in the day.
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This place has a modern rustic feel, randomly placed pigs and the most fabulous craft cocktail list I’ve seen in years.
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Ooh la la!
From the breadth of selection, I knew it was going to be a long afternoon.
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First up? The raspberry basil martini. I’m a sucker for mixing fresh herbs in alcohol and this was sheer perfection. The bartender must have known I was in it for the long haul because she brought me the bonus amount as well. Waste not, want not.
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Next up was the pineapple sage gimlet. As it was being served, the bartender told me she went easy on the sage because a few people said it tasted like tree bark. Amateurs! I took one sip and asked for the full strength version. It was sublime.
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And lest you think all I do is drink, there was food as well. Parmesan garlic brined wings to share…
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And a pulled pork Mac and cheese that was rich, creamy, delicious and enough for three meals.
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There was also a blackberry violet sour. The bartender said a few people told her this one tasted like soap…. which made me marvel at the masses of unrefined drinkers who came before. Go back to the 7-11 and pick up a pack of Bud you heathens! This cocktail was tart, sweet, fragrant and complex. A layered masterpiece.
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As we rounded toward evening, I ended on the Butterfly martini. With gin, St. Germain, violette liquor, hibiscus simple syrup and rose water it was a veritable flower garden in a glass.
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Random picture of the husband’s giant bowl of haddock chowder because yes, he was there too. Someone had to drive me home after all.
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Cute touch. I left the bartender a big tip, but no bucket for the kitchen this time around.
The Blind Pig has earned the top slot on our visited once, have to go back list. So many cocktails, so little time…
I used to have a beautiful perennial garden in our back yard. It was a lovely little brick bordered bed and over the years I filled it with a varied assortment of colorful flowers.
There was purple lupine.
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The harder to grow white lupine.
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And some fabulous red bee balm.
A few years in, a little apple tree seeded itself and since I didn’t have the heart to pull it up… it grew happily alongside the phlox, black eyed Susans and Shasta daisies.
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My garden made a wonderful foreground in photos of the big barn construction progress.
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And I had many happy years of bright blooms and vases full of freshly cut flowers.
Until my husband bought the beast.
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The monster zero turn lawn mower that flings grass clippings and weeds what seems like 100 miles. No matter how many times I begged him to reverse direction and steer clear, over the years my bed was overtaken by weeds. No matter how many of the damn things I pulled, dug up or chopped… I couldn’t contain the growth and they slowly started choking out my flowers.
By 2019 I gave up.
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I bought numerous bags of mulch.
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Weed whacked everything down to ground level…
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And covered the whole thing, leaving only the tree. And while I missed my riotous blooms, the aesthetic was pleasing enough to satisfy.
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Of course the husband and his big orange beast kept throwing grass in the bed so I kept getting down on my hands and knees to weed. Until I blew out my knee in the fall of 2020 and could no longer crouch or kneel without considerable pain.
So I gave up again, and now? It looks like this.
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A large brick bordered bed of weeds. It disgusts me on a daily basis but I vowed not to touch it again until a new, taller stone border could be built. And now that the husband is retired with nothing but time on his hands….?
The forest of trees my husband recently planted need to be watered and I’ll give you one guess who has to do that….
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Twice a week I man handle 300 foot of hose down to the back forty to give them a drink.
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And once that sucker fills up with water? It is HEAVY.
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But I’ll do it, despite my bad knee and pinched neck nerve because I refuse to let $700 worth of trees die. The husband loves to plant them, but never offers any follow up care.
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After that I was down on my hands and achy knee to plant. It hurts, but is so rewarding.
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Sadly, the mice are at it again. They live under the floor of the baby barn/shed and damned if they don’t chew the blooms off my marigolds and drag them through a hole.
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I plugged it with some stones, hopefully that will stop the raiding.
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Where there's only one step from the sublime to the ridiculous.
River's world..... 