On Bushes and Trees.

Well, the weeds in the pot with the jasmine are growing really well, but it is with some degree of optimism that I convince myself that the jasmine is growing as well, though I do think that I see some new growth. It is getting watered very well anyway and not because I go out there with the watering can, but because it is raining again and the soil is soaked all the way through and draining very nicely through the hole in the bottom of the pot. I will be disappointed if it doesn't grow, because it was with some effort that I dug it out of the flowerbed out back, but I can easily walk to the nursery around the corner and buy a new plant and put it in instead if all else fails. It's just a matter of pride that it should grow and sprout very many green buds.

I am waiting to see new growth on my three alder berry trees. Nothing is happening there yet, they are as bare as three totem poles, but I know that before long they will sprout new branches and new leaves and have a big growth spurt, because they do this ever year. The first year I thought they had died, but now I know better.

And then there is that mysterious bush that grew up in the jasmine in the flowerbed. It is almost as tall as I am and I have no idea what it is, but for now I'm leaving it there and maybe this summer I'll figure out what it is by the shape of it's leaves. Maybe it isn't a bush but a tree, because it sure grew quickly.

I really appreciate these gifts of nature and am loath to take them out of the flowerbed. I assume the are meant to be there and that they are a present to me. I did have flowers in the flowerbed once, but I took them out when I realized that I didn't enjoy gardening anymore and that I didn't like the fussiness of taking care of plants. I did in another life, but now I like bushes and trees, so I am happy with what is growing out back.

The Golden Rain will be beautiful again this spring, as it always is. Before you know it, it is covered in yellow blossoms that are as magnificent as anything I've ever seen. There are two bushes of unknown origin growing beside it in that very narrow space. One has prickly thorns and is best avoided, but the other one is bright green and lush, though I've had to cut it back because it interfered with the washing on the clothes line.

I obviously need a book on all the native plants and trees that grow in Limburg. I am so ignorant of trees and bushes that grow here. I can only identify two or three trees and there's not a palm tree among them. That would have been easy. At least in California you had those and the shrubby oaks. And the endless rows of eucalyptus trees. Here you see many poplars planted along the highways as windbreakers and for you to have an accident with your car with. The elm trees really do get Dutch elm disease and have to be felled, which is a darn shame when there are many planted along a road.

It has stopped raining, but I'm waiting for my package and have to stay inside until noon and I hope it is not for naught. I'll check on the website in a little while and see to the state of affairs and make some phone calls.

I've been unable to walk the Überhund and so far he's being patient and has been out back once, but I don't know if that suffices. I think he really needs to be walked, but we can't go anywhere now. This is the first time that I am having a confusing situation with this mail order company. In the past everything has always gone spotless. It's very frustrating to have it run differently now.

Right, this was my treatise on bushes and trees. You will have guessed as much. I just felt like talking about that. I really care about my alder berry trees and, although they are growing in completely the wrong spot, I can't cut them down, so they will stay there forever.

Have a brilliant day, whatever the weather and don't let the rain get you down.

Ciao...

An ordinary Tuesday.

I called the supermarket to find out if they were open for business again as usual and they were. I wanted to make sure, because today is the last day of Carnival and even that is mournfully celebrated with a ritual, which is very unclear to me, except that it involves people mourning and crying, because it is over, and other emotional outbursts. I am not conversant in all the details of the various Carnival rituals and just pick thing up here and there, making them all the more mysterious.

So I went to the store and picked up supplies, including good cookies, and for a change it wasn't real busy, so there was no manhandling of the shopping cart in the aisles and pushing around for position at the check out lane. Listen to me, I make it sound like we're uncivilized barbarians.

After I checked out, I remembered that I had not bought an energy saving light bulb for the hallway, so I'll have to move around in the dark there another couple of days. Or steal a light bulb from someplace else, but I think I have already done that once and it won't work again for a second time.

When I got home, I put the first bag of groceries down on the ground and the Überhund stuck his nose deep into it to see what I had gotten. He saw many goodies and wagged his stubby tail extra hard. After that, Nouri climbed into the bag, but couldn't make any sense of it. It was the same way when I got the second bag of groceries and the Überhund barked at me in frustration, so we shared three cookies. I think we showed a lot of self restraint.

I sat down on the sofa with a mug of coffee and a cigarette, but realized that I was so tired that I started to nod off and I laid myself down and took a tree hour nap. I don't know if you can call that a nap anymore. That's a regular sleep. I must have needed it though, because when I woke up, I felt ever so much better and not all discombobulated anymore. Sometimes I work on half a cylinder and I don't even realize it until I lay down and go to sleep. It's like before I do things in a half dream state, but I don't catch onto that until I have had some more sleep and am really properly awake.

I was supposed to have cleaned the apartment, because my friend Lucien is coming over tomorrow afternoon and I have ergo therapy in the morning, but I think I can clean the kitchen and the bathroom tonight. She'll have to excuse the rest of it, I'm not too bothered about that. She's coming to see me and not how clean my apartment is. Besides, a bucket of suds will do a lot of good. That and a little elbow grease.

I've just fed the animals. It's a real trick to keep the cats of the counter until I'm done filling their dishes. I keep telling them, "No, off you go," and pushing them off the kitchen counter. Slowly they are catching on. They are stubborn animals, because they jump up as quickly as I push them off, but the persister wins and that is I. I guess I'm more stubborn and I will have it my way.

The Überhund loves his food so much and it is doing wonders for his digestive and intestinal tract, that's as detailed as I'll get, you can imagine the rest. Let's just say that things are very easy to pick up. Now he is laying by my feet being perfectly satiated and waiting for me to take him out in a while. I always wait a bit for mother nature to take her course, although he watches my every move.

Right, I'll go take him out then.

The last couple of days the temperatures have been mild and you almost start to believe that springtime is around the bend. Weeds are popping up in the flowerbeds. Soon I'll have to weed my own little patch. I'll keep laying the weeds down as compost and as a place for the cats to do their business. Anything to keep them out of the neighbor's garden.

I'm curious to see when the three trees will start to show their little buds, they are barren still and so is the bush that shot up in the jasmine, that I have no idea of what it is. The jasmine needs to be cut way back, because it is so invasive. I'll have to go at it with the garden clippers. I'd like to dig it up and be rid of it completely. I wanted a climbing jasmine vine and the Exfactor came home with this bush. That's been a major regret ever since. Maybe I'll ask him to dig it up for me.

Okay, I have some house cleaning to do and I better do it now.

Have a great evening.

Ciao...