A Conglomeraton of Things Momentous

1.  We had our inaugural fire last night in the new fire pit on the new deck.  Now it had rained heavily earlier this week so all the wood on the ground was fairly damp.  Also my fire starting skills are rusty since we haven't been camping in ages.  So the first attempts at getting the fire to keep burning were a bit ragged.  Dan came to the rescue with paper from his art class pad since we don't subscribe to a newspaper and paper from the recycle bin just didn't have the same burning power.  The fire lasted about an hour but it was wonderful to smell the smoke and watch the flames while they lasted.  We had a foreshadowing at least of what it will be like in the future.
 

2.  I can remember when I first fell in love with Japanese maple trees.  It was the spring of 1958.  My family lived in Lancaster, PA and we had just returned from 5 years in the Philippine Islands.  I believe the street was named Shady Drive East (but that may not be quite right).  We would walk to church which was on that same street and pass these homes with these gorgeous red leaf trees.  I've since returned to Lancaster and those trees are still there! The trees were so lovely.  All these years later I finally have my very own Japanese maple given to me as a gift for Mother's Day. 

Yesterday I planted the tree.  My original intent was to plant it by the front walkway and remove the pink hibiscus that was there.  As I thought about that location and discussed it with Dan at breakfast, he suggested planting it in the back along the glen.  I'd seen on someone's blog a Japanese maple with green trees behind that made the red leaves stand out and thought better of planting it all by itself in the front. Also like many of you I don't use my front door.  I come and go through the garage and only use the front to greet guests.   Dan's suggestion to plant it along the glen behind the hostas was perfect because now as I sit here at my desk typing this I can look up and there is the tree directly in my gaze.  The perfect spot.

3. Yesterday was also momentous because I harvested the first snow peas and the first broccoli of the season.  We divided both three ways and though there weren't a lot they were delicious.

4. Finally, all the mulch remaining to be moved to flower beds got moved yesterday.  A long day of loading mulch into the wheelbarrow and dumping and spreading it too.  I think it kept multiplying every time I left it.  What I thought would be three more loads at the end turned out to be more like 7.  The mulch had been there too long that the ants had made a nest and laid eggs.  At one point I was loading mulch in a cloud of flying ants.  No fun!  I also had to do battle with a borer bee which thought it wanted the plastic wheelbarrow to bore into.  I've never had a bee threaten me like that one did.  I could almost hear it say "Back off!"  Anyway the mulching is done for another year, a momentous occasion to be celebrated.