spring

Just having checked on my previous posts, I thought I would blog about my day…It was unusually productive and interesting. Awoke at 5 a.m. and called my husband off-work due to a cracked tooth and resulting dental appointment. He went back to sleep and I shuffled off to start the coffee and think about what I wanted to accomplish for the day. Cricket got her morning walk with the two of us. That was nice as I didn’t have to hold the leash and could look at all the amazing architecture of the century-old homes in our neighborhood. I must say, this spring the whole neighborhood looks cleaner and like more people are taking an interest in fixing up their properties. Landscapes are superb with flowering trees of pinks & whites, brilliantly red and yellow tulips and daffodils and of course the object of my envy for quite a few summers now a spice viburnum on the corner of 10th and Cherry Sts. Its flowers emit the most wonderful fragrance I have ever experienced!!!  After the walk, we returned home and set about transferring four foot sections of branches from walnut and choke cherry trees which blew down and were damaged in the January 29th wind storm here.  We stacked brush piles three feet high  the length of the curbside from our house all the way to past our neighbors. Hopefully the city streets crew will collect and chip them for us. We gave them a call requesting pick-up so we’ll see.  Any larger branches were stacked for firewood. There remains one walnut trunk to finish taking down but that has to wait for another day as my husband wants some assistance to fell it due to its size and proximity to both ,our house and the neighbors. After collecting and stacking the debris, we raked the yard and took a coffee break.  As we needed more garbage cans to fill with yard debris we decided to go shopping.  First we visited the post office to dispatch some photos to the neighbor of his yard post tree and return In the Valley of Elah[an excellent Tommy Lee Jones film which we very much enjoyed.] Then walked over to the Sidewalk Cafe downtown to eat a bite. I had a Greek omelet with rye toast that was spicy and delicious. My husband a veggie burger with side salad.  Afterwards we travelled on to Nickle Plate Mills, a feed store turned garden center downtown in search of plants and basically just to peruse the merchandise. I like to frequent the locally owned stores and give them my business as opposed to the often cheaper but objectionable “Big Box” stores like Wal-Mart, or as I like to call it ChinaMart.  I am sooooo glad that we did.  a very knowledgeable garden lady helped  answer some questions I had on what to plant in my front yard since the large maple tree is no longer there and the area now gets full sun which killed all my lovely azaleas [Boohoo!]  She asked what other plants remained in that garden area and suggested we move the hostas as soon as possible as they too are intolerant of full sun. She asked that we bring in digital photos of the area and she would help pick out some plants or better yet a tree  to replace the maple. She had some great suggestions -hydrangea, a flowering pear tree, and Then- she asked us to follow her back to their greenhouse and showed us five Korean Spice Viburnums !!!! Oh Heavenly Day!!!! For sixtydollars we left there with a beautiful fragrant blooming viburnum with a bag of peat moss to help the planting, plenty of good advice on caring for it, some free dog food samples for Cricket, and some urine-off spray as Cricket is still on the path to being totally house-broken. Then we stopped at Valu-Home Center and purchased three new navy blue 34 gallon trash cans. When we got home we set out the perfect spot for the viburnum and Alan began to dig. Meanwhile I began to load the new trash cans with leaves and branches from a huge 3′ x 10′ pile of debris. It took no time at all for them all to be filled to the brim and still the pile is 2′ x 6′!!!! Nine garbage cans of various sizes filled with leaves and branches from the neighbors yard mixed with magnolia flower petals from our tree. The trash men are going to LOVE us on Monday- Not!  Took some more digital photos of the cleaner area.  Why? you may ask…..well, the neighbor bordering our neighbors house uses Ted[the aforementioned neighbors driveway and parking area quite regularly  and he felt all these branches and leaves were impeding his huge Chevy truck's ability to drive up and down and park in Ted's yard!!  What nerve! This guy is relatively new to the neighborhood and has been slowly impinging on Ted's property and offers no payment or acts of kindness for Ted's generous permission to use his drive and parking area. It aggravates me as I am sure you can tell! Said neighbor, Mark, enclosed his yard with an ten foot high chain link fence and is in the process of converting his carriage house [which was a three car garage] to an apartment to add to is main house four or five units!  Thus he limited his own parking area and needs Ted’s area. The driveway is really two abutting drives separated by two century old chestnut trees and a boulevard. Right after they took ownership of this property, Mark wanted to cut down those Chestnut trees and Ted protested as they are growing right on the property line and he feels they are his trees and he emphatically does not want them removed.  We believe this may be the crux of Mark’s displeasure with the fact that in removing the fallen trees we had part of Ted’s backyard filled with branches and logs and leaves from the spring clean-up. But they never were in the drive or blocking his access!!!! Luckily I took photos of our progress to send to Ted as he resides in Cleveland. We have been mowing his yard and keeping watch over his property with his permission for years now and we have a cordial relationship with him. I wish the same could be said of the new guy,Mark. But, alas, he projects a superior attitude and has made comments that disparage the neighborhood, its residents, and definitely believes he is above us in all ways. Today he and his wife drove up said driveway as I was finishing putting the filled trash cans off  to the side in the back of the house. They never acknowledged us and just drove through and left!  After a few telehone calls between Ted and myself we have decided he may either be under some sort of stress [financial or otherwise] or just one of those people who are never happy and are best avoided whenever possible. So as long as things are copaceticwith us we will still tend to Ted’s yard as well as our own and endeavour to make the neighborhood a more pleasant place. Anyhoo, the yards look great. The viberniumis planted and watered and I hope it thrives in its new spot.  After we finished all the yard work we cooked skinless boneless chicken on the grill and had baked potatoes and corn. We were beat. We gathered up all the toys Cricket left scattered about the yard and put away the tools and hose and waited for the thunderstorms that were fast approaching.  Needless to say, it didn’t take long to fall asleep with Cricket at my feet. But then, at one a.m. the dog began to growl and bark and lo and behold the other neighbor was up and making noise with her screen door open and woke us. Alan went back to bed as he needs to be at work at 6 a.m. and I , of course, couldn’t get back to sleep so here I am doing laundry [better for electric use] and blogging. So that’s my day.