My Way of Living + Story

Taking the edge off

It’s getting harder to see where I am going as I weave, and stagger slowly around the front yard. My stomach is growling, and my muscles are starting to protest, blurry eyes can barely focus enough to see detail in the darkening sky, I think I am starting to see double.

MBD collage Bootsie and garden

There is a early spring mosquito dementedly buzzing around my legs which is annoying enough to make me swat at it clumsily, and I look up as my husband calls out from the front doors to see if I will finally come inside.
“Come inside, he calls, you are done for the day, you are going to fall down.”
“Just one more swig, I mean slice,” I tell him, and head facing down, neatly slice the smallest sliver of grass off of the edge of the garden bed that I have been working on for the last few hours. The new progress lens in my glasses tend to shift my vision when I move my head and the sudden distortion makes me stagger a bit.
What? Now did you really think I was out there doing, drinking? In the front yard?
I’m out there taking the edge off of the garden beds, it’s like snacking on a alluring cheesecake sitting on the counter, each tiny piece is taken stealthily, until suddenly the sliver turns into a big gap.
It’s only when you stop and stand back to look for a moment, that you will notice every mistake in the curve, the angle just not quite right, the line slightly crooked.
Which forces you to snitch another slice of the cheesecake, I mean garden bed.

Bleeding heart collage

Unlike the delicious cheesecake which cannot be put back together once it’s eaten, grass is more forgiving. So you tried to create a curve, where there shouldn’t have been one, no problem, just tamp the sod back into place, water it, and wait. Soon it all grows back again, and you can redo it to your hearts content.
We bought this house from lovely people, but I don’t think they were gardeners, granted they did what they could, and it’s not easy to garden up here. But placing a plant at the end of each stream of water coming from the previously inadequate sprinkler system is not how I would decide to design a garden.
So I’m making a few changes… a shrub chopped down here, a plant moved away from the foundation there, a new tree here, and so on. Each new owner will make changes, after us, and I am under no illusion that the next ones will want to “spruce it up a bit” when we move… oh in about 20 years. But that’s for later, for now, I have a edge to take off, the swoop of the front garden bed isn’t quite to my liking.
Now if you will excuse me, it’s getting too dark to see, and I need to stagger out there again and finish it off. Canadian Eh? I’ve got a new feature in my “pages,” Canadian bloggers whom I read, and/or are followers of this blog are now linked and featured. Please take a moment to check to make sure you’re URL is there, and let me know if I did miss anyone.
And if you are not Canadian… eh? Take a moment anyways to check out some great Canadian content the far north is a great place to be a blogger.

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Taking the edge off + Story