Poem

Apologies to Joyce Kilmer...

"Hackberry Trees"

I think I will breathe a sigh of relief
When chainsaws take down this hackberry tree.

A tree crew will arrive at my behest,
And lay to rest this ruinous mess;

A tree whose greatest testament of peeve,
Angered me with downed electricity;

Upon the ground where fallen limbs stain;
Who stump grinders soon will consume of remains.

Poems are a great gift for the likes of thee;
But only a fool would plant a hackberry.

Yes, I just spent a lot of money to have yet another dying hackberry removed from my back yard. I wish I had been home this afternoon to see the stump grinders in action. While the crew was at it, they removed the stumps from my front yard also. A truckload (3 yards) of dirt is arriving tomorrow morning. Finishing up the side fence this weekend. Hopefully, beds will be planted by Sunday evening. Hopefully.

Before...



After...

Say hello to my little friend

My potted strawberry plant is thriving on my front porch step. And apparently, I'm not the only one who thinks it's lush and inviting.



Btw, toads are cool.

Make your bed, part 1

So this is my new blog layout. Let me know if you think it sucks.

I had a full day today. With the removal of 3 trees and 2 large branches, the sunshine profile of my side yard has changed dramatically this year. What was once a shady corner is now ripe for a garden bed or two.


I'm thinking two raised beds, one will be 8' x 6', and the other will be 6' x 6'. To that end, I spent the morning at Home Depot picking up the cedar necessary for the first bed. I then cut the wood to the required dimensions:


After a late lunch, I assembled the pieces into the box you see below. It was a pretty easy project. I just need to determine the final location of the box, then dig the holes for the anchor posts:


Eric and Diego came by in the afternoon to help me flip the box and move it to it's temporary location. I think it looks pretty good.


I finished off the evening at the Black Star Co-op with Pete and Glenn and stories from their UK and Italy trips. Nothing like sharing a cold liquid dinner with friends after a long hot day in the sun.

Food for thought

It occurred to me I haven't posted in a long time. My apologies. The last month or so have been a nice blur.

I've been running a bunch and have sold off a number bikes, including my stainless Hampsten and my celery green Speedvagen (not to worry, I have more):



But this past month has really been about food.

Like the good son, I went to Houston for Mother's Day. Benihana happens to be my mom's new favorite restaurant, so we went there for lunch Saturday. I will admit, their sushi boats are quite tasty. For brunch Sunday, we went a more traditional route and had dim sum at Arco Seafood Restaurant. A lot of dim sum:


It was Betsy's birthday Wednesday, so I surprised her with dinner at Olivia. Yes, that's foie gras (let the hate mails begin):


And some artfully arranged bird bodies:


Olivia's dessert selection is pretty amazing. This one had dollops of smoked cream, toasted marshmallow, a small cup of chocolate sorbet, malt, and a wafer thin cookie (not to be confused with a wafer thin mint):


Our waiter composed this shot. I'm not so sure I like the careful symmetry of it all, but at least he tried:


Thursday night, I helped Betsy make frosting for her son's birthday cake (by keeping Aster the beagle from eating the butter):



And finally, my strawberry plant is starting to bear fruit. I just like the way the morning dew collected on the ends of the leaves in this pic:


That's it for now. Hope you all have a good week.

Roots

I planted my basil cuttings recently. Their first day in dirt was a bit traumatic with a lot of wilted leaves. Given a better mix of sun and water, they seem to be doing fine now.



Speaking of sunny and green, I have Cat Steven's version of "Another Saturday Night" on my music player at work. It's light and poppy, which I really need at times. Reading about Pakistan's flooding these past few weeks, I'm reminded that Cat Stevens is now Yusuf Islam (just Yusuf when he tours).



I wonder if he still plays his old songs. And I wonder if he feels bad for referring to some random woman as Frankenstein.