This wretched, miserable beast….

left tiny, sharp little cacti spiney things all over my body. There are still some I can’t get out. On my right ring finger. On the back of my upper right arm. And I swear there’s still one or two on my stomach somewhere.

To my lovely green garden gloves…

May you rest in peace. You fought a good fight. I will miss you. You did me well, for the time that we shared.

So, I didn’t end up getting the best “before” shot, but I’ll try to show you what I’ve been doing.

Before

After

Before

After

The tree in that last shot, the one on the left with the starters shooting up from the bottom, is gone.

I also started in on the other side of the driveway last night.

The rhode that remains, tucked behind the front porch is coming out. Lots of things not in the photos are still coming out. I’m going to rip out most of the grass and reshape the lawn. The new beds will be raised in the back a little, sloping towards the lawn. It’s going to be awhile before it’s done, but I’m getting really excited.

I have calls out for house painting bids, though I’m having a devil of a time trying to decide on a new color. (I can’t believe I’ve spent this long in a white and purple house. Purple?!?!?!?!) We need some siding repaired before we can paint, and, though I don’t think we can afford it, I’m dying to rip out the front porch and build something respectable.

So, wanna see what plant, in a yard up the hill, gave me the last nudge I needed to start all of this?

It’s pretty.

Behold, the Euphorbia Wulfenii…

wait, there’s another one-

I am SO putting as many of these as will fit into my yard. I hope they’re not expensive. They’re evergreen, even! I didn’t expect that. And the blooms last a really long time. They’re so pretty! And I think they’ll look good in front of the chocolate New Zealand Flax that Nate wants in the yard.

I finished the shawl, finally.

(Unblocked)

As I said, I ran out of yarn. If you recall, when I bought the Zen Garden sock yarn in January, I bought two colors, the lavender and purple, and the exact same color with some red splashed in it. So, I finished off the edging with the red. I think it actually frames the shawl nicely, but we’ll see how it blocks out.