Oak, oak and more oak

It's pouring outside.  In between rain showers I have been running out and pulling weeds because it's so much more satisfying and productive when the ground is wet.  I don't know why there are so many weeds this year but my grass is having to compete for its turf, so to speak.  Of course, I avoided using chemicals to weed and feed so I guess that explains why I have a lawn that consists of 80% dandelions, clover, chickweed and poison ivy, 10% dirt and 10% unruly, spindly patches of grass.  It's hard to get motivated to crank up the mower when there's so little actual lawn.  Also, our mower and edger are not functioning right now, so it involves driving to our studio to get the other mower.  That's way more commitment than I have been able to muster.  For a gardening blogger it's pretty embarrassing how unattractive our yard is.

I came home from a week in California to a heavy layer of oak leaves and pollen covering everything.  Every April we go through the oak barrage and our sinuses tell the tale.  This year we hired a friend to rake and sweep and bag and get it out of our life.  It's not a super hard job, but for a couple of singers it's worth having someone else spare us the five hours of inhaling the vocal poison.  Now at least I can walk outside without going into an asthma attack.  Of course there's rain in the forecast for the next several days, but the negative ions that it is stirring are already working their magic on my mood.  I don't have to find my headphones to listen to the rain app on my iphone to chill out.  I just open the door.  What a novel concept. 

I'm home for another ten days before I leave for Florida to visit my parents for several days and play in Louisiana on my way back to Texas.  By the time I leave I'd like to have some hanging baskets of colorful flowers, the tomatoes planted, beds mulched, piles of bamboo roots that my pal David has been digging up disposed of (that's a whole other story - waking up to David in his Gilligan cap hacking away at the bamboo in the backyard) and the beginnings of a new bed in front of my office window.  We'll see.  That's my wish list so I'll just keep chipping away at it.  Throughout this process I am challenging myself to not pass judgment when the demands of our life pull me away from my plans and goals.  For a list maker that's a hard one.  

But what a sweet sense of accomplishment as I watch my new grapevine take root and start to reach up towards our first bottle of MoonHouse Wine.  I can dream can't I?  Just don't hold me to it.