A Landscaping Story

Saturday morning, before I'd had an adequate amount of coffee, Todd and I decided to re-landscape the small bed that surrounds the mailbox. Because of the driveway and the street, the bed is a quarter-circle, with a radius of about 4 feet. No big deal, right?

That would be, in fact, wrong.

For starters, last weekend was the hottest weekend of the summer. Second, the bed was initially dug by morons, who put potato-sized rocks into the red Alabama clay and spread 1" of topsoil over the mess. The bed will not even grow ivy. Come on.

Armed with a pickaxe, a sledgehammer, and a shovel, we tore the bed up. By sundown we had a 6" deep hole. There are no photographs from this period, which we shall heretofore refer to as "the bad time."



(Actually, Todd did most of this work. His pickaxe muscles are still sore.)



Sunday morning was easy, comparatively. We spread out composted leaves, seven bags of topsoil, and planted seven "Stella D'Oro" daylilies. A little weed paper, a little mulch, and we were finished.


And, of course, our little general contractor was on hand to make sure we didn't slack off.

A Basic Tank


I took the basic design for this tank from "The Yarn Girl's Guide to Simple Knits," but (of course) made some changes.

I started with 5 rows of seed stitch, to keep the hem from rolling (blocking and I don't get along). I also added some shaping - decreasing through the waist and increasing through the bustline. Other than that I followed the pattern exactly and it turned out great. I am pleased.

The Day Has Come!

That's right, kids - I've gone digital. Which means that, in addition to sharing pictures of the Tyler-Bear, I can post my crafty concoctions and other flotsam from my daily life.

Like this:


Bring it on.