Our back yard has never really been totally landscaped. By "landscaped" I mean that there are parts of the back yard that I have just not been insane enough to tackle. The last real hold-out in the back yard was a hedge of azalea bushes that grows along the back out the house. They are absolutely the ugliest azalea bushes ever known to mankind. The bottom of each bush is nothing but scraggly woody twigs, and the outer branches were overgrown and unkempt. Here is a before shot, just in case you don't believe me. They were just hideous.
That's not all... there is another hedge of ugliness that runs down the lower part of the back of the house. Notice that you can't even walk down the brick stairs without having to duck and push the overgrown branches out of your way.
Enter one determined girl, armed only with a 20" electric hedge trimmer and a manual (woman-powered) long handled clipper, and voila! Here is the after...
Now I'm not saying that the "after" is necessarily pretty. But what I am saying is that the azaleas have one chance to prove to me that they can grow into strong, healthy, and beautiful azaleas. Otherwise, I will trade in the trimming tools for a shovel. The two high-school guys who help us with the yard came over and helped me drag out all the debris and limbs, because by the time I took down these bushes and the ones in front of the big window, I was exhausted. Miraculously, there is new growth at the very bottom of these bushes. I had no idea about that until I started trimming away the outer layer of leaves and branches.
That brings me to a rather philosophical point. We never really know what lies beneath the outer facade of another person or situation or relationship until the outer layers are removed and the inside is exposed. This has been a rough week for my family. We learned that hard way that you can't always trust what you see on the outside. And now that the inside is exposed, we will have to wait from a distance and see whether or not there will be little shoots of life to spring forth and blossom or if what remains will shrivel and decay. Only the Master Gardner knows, and the rest of us will just have to wait and see. Watch and pray. Hope for the best, but remain vigilant.
There will be more pictures in the next few days. I finished my first quilt, other than to make my label and sew it on, and I've finished a couple of tote bags -- one for Evelyn and one for me. Tonight I cut out the pieces for a lunch tote for Evie to take to Art Camp in a couple of weeks, and hopefully that will turn out well. In the background, I'm working on two quilts. One is a picnic quilt for our family, and the other is an eye-spy quilt for Gunnar. I also have two owl pillows to make and an appliqued owl quilt/throw for Evelyn's room that are in the line-up. And, of course, there are ideas of a hexagon project, since I keep wishing I had something else to sew by hand. All those tutorials for hexagon quilts, bags, placemats, and who knows what else are calling to me. But the hexagons will have to wait for now.
I suppose it's bedtime. Hope everyone has a restful night.
No comments:
Post a Comment