A Semi-Frittered Day

I am unsure how to feel about this Saturday.

There were outdoor plant-related things I wanted to do, but it drizzled throughout the day, leading to an idle afternoon. Rarely do I spend a Saturday afternoon reading and knitting, so it was kind of a welcome break. It's just hard for me to feel okay about sitting around.

However, with the work we did yesterday afternoon and evening, I don't feel too guilty.

Porkchop and I had doctor appointments in the early afternoon, and neither of us returned to work. It was too darn nice outside! Instead of going back to my drab office, we enjoyed treats from the CWE Gelato di Riso and then went home to do yardwork. Yay yardwork!

Last summer, I noticed that the hardwood mulch in the front flowerbed was....sick, not right, and gross. We could pick up large sheets of mulch; the individual pieces were stuck together with weird white stuff. For the past 8 months, the flowerbed was a blight in my eyes. In fact, I trained myself to not look at it because I hated it so much.

Yesterday after the doctor and gelato, I decided to finally get the mulch the eff out of here. It was more work than I anticipated! There was SO MUCH weird white stuff.

The stuff resembled a mixture of latex paint and mold. And, we think that's what it was! Our hunch is that the rehab people were painting the eaves and dropped a big paint bucket. Instead of cleaning it up, they just dumped a bunch of mulch on it. My theory is that mold then grew because the stuff couldn't dry out (or something like that).

Anyway, most of it is now gone! The bits that are left shouldn't pose a problem. After removing the grossness, we spread out new, healthy soil and compost. And we planted pretty little flowers, which we hope will stay alive and thrive.

I wish we had taken a before photo for comparison, but I didn't think about it.

Here is the work in progress:


The area in question is really small, but the new soil and compost make a big difference. We have two surprisingly healthy azalea bushes, and one that is struggling. We removed a lot of paint mulch mess from around it, so hopefully it will get better.


Keetah surprised us and came out on the porch to supervise our work!


This outing showed a lot of braveness on her part; she's very cautious in exploring new things. Her heart was pounding the whole time. Especially when she was on the steps and cars were whizzing by:


So, with all of the work done yesterday, I feel sort of okay about doing nothing this afternoon. However, we did need a break this evening. Since the rain had stopped, we decided to go for a little walk around our neighborhood. We ended up at the Map Room, where we enjoyed sparkling orangeade and snack-size cheesecake.

The people at the Map Room are super-nice, and they have a great selection of drinks and desserts. We look forward to going back! Indeed, once it is cooler weather again, I know I will be there for some spiked hot chocolate.

Hope you're having a great weekend!