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Viola!
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The what seemed like never ending stone perennial garden border construction is complete.
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Yes, it’s much smaller than I wanted.
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But I’m pleased with it all the same.
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It was a lot of work and the husband did a great job.
But the best part? Our marriage survived all the arguments it caused.
Next up? Dirt and flowers!
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P.S….. I wrote this a few weeks ago. The lawn is actually the crunchy brown from yesterday’s post.
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Our carefully tended lush green lawn is gone. Baked to a crisp by record breaking heat and dry weather.
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How dry? Severe drought dry…
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How hot?
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Feels like 108 degrees before 10 in the morning hot. I live in Maine FFS! This is not supposed to happen.
That bright green patch of sod we laid?
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Dead.
My full and healthy for the past 20 years boxwood shrubs?
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Dying.
The brand new flowering crabapple tree we planted on June 7th over my mother’s ashes?
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Might soon be joining her in the hereafter.
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It’s beyond depressing at this point and moving toward the panic stage. We live in the country and rely on a well for water. As much as I’d like to water the garden, I can’t. Hell, I’m down to doing laundry twice a week and not flushing for number one.
(TMI? Sorry.)
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As I type this, yet another flash thunderstorm is moving past us without a drop of rain falling.
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Now that’s just cruel.
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Of course it happened on the day we’d invited friends over for adult beverages and pool in the man cave. I’d gone out early to set up some tasty snacks and heard an awful noise coming from under the bar.
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My mini mixer fridge.
Oh, the horror!
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Frozen solid and ready to burn out the motor. I unplugged, emptied, laid down a towel and propped open the door to defrost. Thinking our not even two year old expensive appliance was ready to die, I did some research. Turns out over packing a mini fridge is common and once the air flow is blocked it freezes up.
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And yes, I was certainly guilty of that. Club soda, tonic, Coke, ginger ale, Sprite, Bloody Mary mix, Tom collins mix, premixed margaritas, cranberry juice, lemonade, lime juice, orange juice etc. I have a well stocked bar, I need a well stocked mixer fridge!
I’m happy to report the 24 hour defrost worked with no apparent damage. Fridge is back up and running though with considerably less inventory this time around.
Thankfully we have a much larger beer fridge for the overflow.
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This weirdo bush was in place when we moved in 20 years ago. It blooms well, in big fuzzy pink blossoms.
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Bees and butterflies love it, so even though it clashes with our red baby barn… it stays.
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In my front bed? A small salvia that doesn’t get any larger year to year but keeps hanging on.
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Then there’s my little daisy.
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She’s so bright and cheerful, I went back to the same nursery later that season and bought two more of her.
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But as you can see, her big sister is large.
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Soooo much larger than they were supposed to be. They don’t even bloom at the same time. Major daisy fail.
😳
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Another day, another layer of stone.
It’s back breaking work and though I kept offering to help… I got the look and strolled myself back inside the house.
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Every time I thought he was almost finished, I’d check back to find he’d removed what he previously laid and reworked the section.
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And when he knelt inside the border like that?
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It looked like one very expensive sandbox.
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Bateau – def. a light flat-bottomed riverboat used in eastern and central North America.
A bateau is a boat, but in my neck of the woods? It’s also a brewery.
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Perched on the river in a turn of the century mercantile building, we met the owners recently and had to check it out. And though the outdoor seating had a great view….
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It was hot, so we opted for indoor.
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Which also had a good waterfront view.
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I liked the vibe, and I liked the beer.
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I did not like the fact that my husband and our friend found the strategically placed cribbage board and left me twiddling my thumbs for an hour .
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But I joined the Maine Beer Trail and checked in accordingly.
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And I drank.
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It was called pucking sour… and it was, with cherry and pomegranate undertones.
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The husband came home from the gas station with something cradled in his hands the other day.
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A perfectly dried and preserved Monarch butterfly he found on top of the gas pump.
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Such delicate, beautiful creatures.
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He (she?) will reside on the auxiliary desk in our home office, with the hummingbird nest a girlfriend gave me and the pig made from nut shells I bought in Chinatown when I was a child.
🙂
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I’m happy to report it was a dull and uneventful day of stone installation.
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Probably because I stayed in the house. Oh, I was out there bright and early ready to work, but my help was neither needed nor desired.. so I left him to it.
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The border looks great, though it really is a lot smaller than I wanted.
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The perennial bed I had envisioned will have to be dramatically downsized.
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But something is better than nothing and he certainly is doing a good job.
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She’s baaaaack.
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And looking entirely too comfortable next to Casa River’s kitchen landing.
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But what’s even worse than her extreme state of chill?
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Her distended belly which leads me to believe she’s pregnant again!
😳
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As you know, our cat Lord Dudley Mountcatten is spoiled. He is not however, ill mannered.. and never tries to jump on the dining room table during meals. But for those of you who have misbehaving felines? I offer a solution:
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You’re welcome.
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What do you do when a friend recommends a fabulous blueberry vodka but you have no space on your man cave bar shelves?
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You pack them a little tighter and hope the shelves are up for the extra weight.
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We seem to be down to three baby woodchucks from seven. I prefer to think this is a result of momma chuck kicking a few of the kids out of the den and not the result of predation. But this little guy?
He’s still trying to move in with us.
🙂
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River's world..... 