The party's over...

I hear a dirge.

I really don't want to go back to work.

Really.

Really, really.

The week will be made even more special because I have jury duty Tuesday. I don't mind jury duty. I was on a panel for three days last year. First time in 15 years of doing duty that I got into a courtroom. I have a cousin who's a judge. We were having family chat time after her father's funeral and she shared that she "hates teachers who do jury duty." The rest of the family thought I would be insulted but I just smiled and said I knew what she was talking about. No teacher thinks a sub will ever do a decent job of covering their class while they are on jury duty. I don't have that problem. I'm not that terrific a teacher this year anyway, and we have great subs. But it does take time to get everything set up and that irritates me.

Oh well.

I thought I'd do a little inventory re: my goals that I set before break. Here's how things turned out:

Dodger meets his first bubbles.

I did not read The Host by Stephanie Meyer. The puppy (only 11 weeks) still requires a lot of attention (still tearing plants apart, still fascinated by the pond, still doesn't understand that there is more than one door that leads to the toilet so that if the one you usually use is closed, you have an alternative.) I did read Debbie Macomber's 20 Wishes and am part way through Barbara Delinsky's Together Alone.


Did not work on the winter bird. Again, with the constant vigilance on the dog, it was impossible to do something as mentally strenuous as COUNT. So, I traced this freebie by Natalie Lymer and worked on it a couple of evenings. I'm looking forward to making it the centerpiece in a journal cover and have already picked out the fabrics (most by Sandy Gervais).


I got quite a lot done on the side yard clean up including getting all the grass and weeds out of the Fairy Garden, installed a working pvc sprinkler system (still hoping to cover the pipe with soil). The biggest concern was getting my Cecile Brunner rose up off the ground and onto a support and I did manage that (although why I needed thirty trips to the garage for tools -one at a time- still escapes me).

I was able to extend the tire mulch another 1.5 feet or so. My next steps are to cut up all the scrap lumber that is propped against the house so that it can go out in the wood recycling. Once that's done I can finish pulling grass, then bring in another 30-40 stacking blocks to finish the rest of the retainer along that fence line. And once that's done I will plant milkweed all along the fence for the Monarchs. (DS2 did us a huge favor by weeding the entire yard while we were on vacation last year, but he didn't realize the milkweed patch was not a patch of weeds. Poor butterflies had to find someplace else to lay eggs last August).

Speaking of butterflies, I have a trellis similar to this one in my front yard that is covered with passion vine. The Gulf Fritillaries lay eggs on it every year.

I love these butterflies. Not quite as large as a Monarch and they have more of a "flutter" in their flight, but the color is almost a fluorescent orange and I really enjoy watching them. So much so that I keep trying to grow passion vine on the Fairy Garden trellis. When I pulled the weeds this break I was thrilled to find last year's plant still hanging in there. I'm sure I could plant the common variety here and it would grow as well as it does in the front, but I wanted to try something different. I tried one with a gorgeous salmony-red flower, but it turned out to act like an annual. Then I tried one with a dark blue bloom and it never did get going. Last year's is another species (rather than a cultivar) and I was hopeful it would "take" and stick like the one in front did. Of course, they can only handle so much neglect, and this bed was completely neglected for months so I expected this plant to be long dead. Not only is it not dead, but once I got out the grass that was choking it and gave it some water, it really started to grow.

This is what it should look like - eventually.

I decided not to work on the baskets BOM blocks this break. Instead, I will take them to jury duty with me Tuesday and do the tracing there. I also have not decided how to finish the Easter piece, although I did find a good pink to go into the mix. The pile on the ironing table in my room is higher, not lower, but I did get the space cleared to sew in the spare room. And, as I already posted, I added the task of clearing the sideyard that the puppy uses as a toilet (that was a very good move) and I got the sweet pea bed weeded. I have the compost in the car and three packets of sweet pea seed to plant, but today was really hot and I fear I may have missed the window.

I have about two flats of flowers to plant in the Fairy Garden and will try to get some in after school (if it's cool enough this week.)

For now, however, I have to go wash dishes. It's been quite warm here (in the 90s today) and I had to wait until it cooled down a little before plunging my hands into hot water.

I hate summer weather. Especially in April.