It’s almost Spring, and out at the lake cottage, spring equals work. I admit to slacking last year. My one-year-old needed so much constant supervision, was hell-bent on diving into shallow water off the sea wall, and liked to run full-speed for the hills, that I actually had to hire a babysitter (teenage daughter of a friend) to help me watch her while I got my flowers in.
This year it will be better. Not a ton better, but my two-year-old is now directable. She is curious about things other than running away fast and far and diving into water, and she has a fear of falling now. She’s also happily glued to my side most of the time. I think I might be able to actually do a fair bit of outside work without her running off or trying to drown. If not, at least now I have a fenced in portion of yard. Small, but adequate, space for her to be free outside. Also, for Christmas she got a super adorable mini gardening tool set. So she’ll be ready for action.
I have the memorial garden that needs a lot of attention this year. Once the perennials start coming in, I need to put down new weed cover and mulch. I need to replace the fountain (it fell over or froze and is busted). I need to plant flowers on the back side of it from seed, and do the beds around the cottage as well. Several flower boxes need their liners replaced plus new flowers. Finally, the vegetable patch: I’ve done nothing with it for two years (except let others use it) so this year I’m going to give it more attention (I hope).
My sea wall is in bad shape. But it will cost $2000 to replace, and I am going to Germany instead. So this project will wait, wait for a portion of next year’s tax return. So we will just suffer through a weedy, crumbling sea wall for one more year.
Unless I win the lottery. Which is not likely, because I don’t play the lottery.
Mother of All Things 