The fencers will be here any week now and we're sternly instructed to remove any tree, bush or shrub. I always hear dear Lady Bird Johnson saying that when she launched her beautification program. When you see a verge or a roadside with wildflowers, chances are we should thank her.
Anyway any big stuff within two feet of the fence. My Japanese maple is safe then.
Not so much my cherry bushes and spice bush. So I started cutting them back hoping that would suffice. High time I did, fence or no fence.
Friend next door summed up the situation, came with sawzall and has taken over. Getting me up to date on his own news while cutting.
I cut back the sage while I was at it, large branch now in different neighbor's freezer, another one in mine.
Three bean salad today, weather still hot enough for it. Last time Handsome Son shopped for beans he noticed Roman beans. He said I'd never heard of them, thought you'd like to try them. A true son of his mom.
So, Roman, cannellini, kidney, handful of fresh chives, dandelions and Thai basil, onion, we're good. Romans look like white kidney beans to me.
Still reading outside when guys with sawzalls aren't at work, and here's a recent read.
It was supposed to be like beach reading, light, Royal gossip mainly about the hats. And I found that this well connected lady, so well connected she carried the queen's train at the coronation, this is apparently a huge honor where she comes from, and was a companion to Princess Margaret, about whom she's way too discreet
Anyway this lady who appeared to have a fairytale life actually was in hell. Locked in a decades long marriage to a mentally ill man, rages constant, one son died of AIDS, one permanently disabled by accident, husband ended up leaving his massive wealth to a man he'd known a few months.
It was so sad, and she so accepting and resigned, that I couldn't read on. No hats at all, either, if you don't count coronets.
I don't recommend this for light reading. Better go for Lucia or the Provincial Lady, where you do get hats and no heartbreak.
