Note….I actually began this on Wednesday. My how time flies. But when I went up Wednesday evening to finish and post, the site was sllllooooowwww. Suffice to say,  I didn’t get it finished.  Anyway, I guess I’ll just let it ride.

Much, much better this morning. (And the crowd goes wild.) I feared I wouldn’t be able to move, but I guess the stretching involved in the gardening and especially the digging of The Hole did the trick. So…It’s off to the rink today.

We had breakfast on the patio this morning. It was glorious. A pleasant wind (too strong to constitute a breeze) kept the trees moving. The cypress is wonderful. It’s got all these oddly twisting branches that catch every air current making it extremely animated. I’m so glad we got it!

I have a few minutes to work before we head for the rink, so it’s back to sorting files on the Big Drive. I keep telling myself, just a little each day. Eventually it will get done. But then there’s the listing of the library on Library Thing (a little each day) the gardening (a little each day) and the Closed Circle business (a little each day)…Oh, and housework (a little each day…) Hmmm…(closes eyes and places fingertips on forehead) I believe I’m getting a clue for the title of this post.

I finally got my room window open more than a couple of inches so I could really hear the pond. Good old soap on the frame. Does the trick every time…at least if you’re dealing with older wood-framed windows. They’re really pretty, but compared to modern aluminum framed windows, they’re heavy and difficult to lift. To add to the problem, I have a beautiful oriental chest right under the window, topped with my black cat plushy collection. (They reside there until the Halloween season, when they  invade the rest of the house.) Getting an angle on the window creates another of those awkward gymnastic moments.

Just went and took a picture. The blond fellow sitting on PhatKhat’s lap is Wesley. The little pink-hair plushy at the bottom right is Shuuichi, and the one in the pink bunny outfit to the left is Ryuichi. Train AKA Black Cat is the white-faced plushy in between them. (And so, I slickly begin to  insert my interest in manga/anime…are you impressed? What I really really really want are Saiyuki plushies. Now those would be fun!)

But…I’m wasting time. Must go sort files. Nice brainless activity to fill a spare few minutes. So much more productive than playing Spider Solitaire. Is anyone else addicted to that game? My preference is the medium, two suit, difficulty. Hard is boring…way too hard to win, and so is easy. Way too easy to win. It’s a wicked game, because every one of them can be won, therefore, I must continue to play a given game until  I win. Supreme waste of time….

Skating was, um, brief. We got there late, and the nicest skating mom you’ll ever meet was there. She brings her autistic son, who absolutely loves skating (and is really very amazingly accomplished) several days a week. Her husband brought him last week and I was concerned that she’d been ill, so I stopped to make sure she was OK. Well, she’s a real reader, one thing led to another, and I was, shall we say, tardy in getting on the ice. I no more than got on and was warming up my recalcitrant feet (a major process) then everyone else was getting off! Wah! The session still had about twenty minutes to go, but I really don’t like skating alone. One of the hardest falls I ever took knocked me cold for several seconds and there was nobody else out there. Fortunately, it was only a few seconds and I got off in one piece, but it brought home the potential dangers of skating solo. So…I got off, too.

And then, we went plant hunting. We planned to go after the pretty star magnolia at Lowe’s, but…we found something we wanted much more. Some beautiful Japanese Maples. One flaming red/orange, which will grow to about 15 feet, and the other a luscious spring green that will stay about 41/2 by 41/2.  (See photo) Naturally, when we got home, I began digging. The red one, as you see, is on the near end (the pic is taken from the back doorway) and the green is off to the right.

I placed a bunch more rocks, then attacked The Tangle Beneath The Hawthorne. I’ve tried for two years now to salvage the ivy bed, but the grass has just embedded itself thoroughly…So I began stripping and sifting roots. Several hours later, I had a pile on the concrete and about a square yard cleared. Glug! Blow torches are now being considered….

When I finally came in and showered and sat down to finish this post…the site was pretty much ice aged. Took forever just to change screens and the display lagged behind what I was typing by about three words. I decided it wasn’t worth it and began doing some more file sorting while we watched Bleach.

I think it’s time to investigate an offline blogging software….