Instrument of Grace

Get DOWN From There!

I'm afraid of heights. Terrified, actually.  When I get up too high, I've been known to freeze and need help getting down.  I don't know why I am so afraid when I love roller coasters and going fast and being upside down. Roller coasters are often high, and that doesn't bother me a bit. Maybe it's the fact I have a floor under me that makes it OK.  But when my feet don't have a floor under them or if my feet can misstep, then I'm usually a mess when it comes to heights.

That mess transfers to others when they are up high. Add that to my tendency to be a worry wart - it's genetic and I can't do anything about it, honest - and I can be a nervous, shaking lump of uselessness if someone I love is in a high place.  It doesn't help any that Garden Man is somewhat of a daredevil who routinely gets up on the roof and seems to delight in scaring me out of my wits.

A week or so ago, he tackled some of the trees down in the swale.  Years ago, it was a grass lined open drainage ditch to handle stormwater.  The original owners of the house lined their side with silver maples and a few other trees, planted in a perfect, soldierly row. The neighbors on the other side did the same thing with white pines.  Over the years, the ditch became more and more shaded and all the grass died. Now, it's just dirt and leaf mold, which make an ideal growing medium for anything that can tolerate low light.  Over the years a number of trees have volunteered on the sides of the swale and in the bottom.  They are mostly box elder with a few wild cherries and a couple of willows thrown in. The ones on the sides of the swale lean pretty steeply, and the ones in the bottom have obstructed the water flow and created islands.

We've slowly cleaned up the sides of the swale, but we hadn't tackled any of the trees until last week.  He got the easy ones first - the ones he could drop across the swale without hitting anything.  But there was one big box elder which was hanging right over the neighbor's shed, and it was a big box elder that was as crooked as a witch's nose.  He left that one, and I said I'd call the tree service to come take it down.  Now, if I haven't mentioned before, Garden Man is somewhat tightfisted with his money. I love him for it, really I do, but I don't think it's an endearing trait when his tightfistedness causes him to risk his neck like he did over the weekend.

Garden Man and Garden Punk had disappeared. I was doing some cleaning inside the house and began to wonder where they were. I looked around the house, but I didn't find them. When I looked out into the back yard, my heart jumped right into my throat. I found myself transfixed by the back door, horrified by what I saw but unable to tear myself away. The camera was on the table, so I took a photo. Just looking at it makes my stomach almost turn over. 

What was he doing?  Working on that darn box elder. That's Garden Punk's head and shoulders - he's standing in the swale.  And that crazy Garden Man is waaaaaaayyyyyyy up there past the ladder, up in the tree.

I'm happy to report he made it down safely. He trimmed the tree up a bit, but it was too tall for him to remove the top without endangering himself more than he was willing to accept. Thank goodness he has some sense!  Did he enjoy teasing me about my fears as I watched?  He did.  Did he say he was going back up in that tree once he had someone to help?  He did.  Am I calling the tree service before he can do that?  I AM.

More Fall Color

I've been sadly neglecting my blog, and don't think I didn't know. Between work and things going on here at home, I haven't had time to take photos and sit down and compose a post. And I've missed it. Since now really isn't the time to be digging in the dirt, taking photos and writing is one way for me to connect to my garden. I've been missing that connection.

I stepped outside this morning into the fall air, and it was not too cool, not too warm. I think it was just right. Perfect, in fact, for strolling around, getting the hem of my pants wet and taking some photos. While this morning's paper said our colors are at their peak, my daily commute tells me otherwise. Most of the trees are long past their peak, but a few, including many Japanese maples, seem to be coming into their own. I've also noticed that while some shrubs have already given up their leaves, some are shouting "Look at me!"

Here are a few photos from around my garden this beautiful fall day.

While you won't see any fall color in this first photo, you will see flowers. I seem to have two very confused hollies which are covered in tiny little flowers. I don't remember them blooming in the fall before.

The following image shows a little unknown volunteer that has sprung up tight against the base of a maple. This volunteer has been there for several years and is about twenty inches high. I have never paid it much attention, but I have wondered what it was. Can anyone enlighten me? Some of its leaves are such a pretty red.

When we moved here five years ago, there were a three variegated euonymus shrubs planted between a pair of wild cherry trees. They didn't get any sun, but they were healthy. We moved them to make way for the screened porch, and they seem very happy in their new location by the chimney. While I am somewhat ambivalent about them, they are thriving which shouldn't be taken lightly. And they are evergreen and hide the base of the chimney. I just wish the darn things didn't grow like such weeds. Even though I hack them back severely in the spring, usually by more than half, they still end up taller in the fall than they were in the spring. Next spring I'll need a ladder, I think. I was surprised to see berries on one of them in my walk around the yard today. I kind of like these berries, so maybe I'll have to rethink my ambivalence, about that one at least.

I mentioned that many Japanese maples seem to be coming into their own as the fall winds toward winter. My little maple in the front yard is no exception. While it doesn't have the brilliant orange color of some other maples in the neighborhood, it is quite pretty. Considering the bad shape this little tree was in when we moved here five years ago and how it seems to be healing (and thriving) now, I'll forgive it for not equaling its neighbors in the color show department. Here is a shot showing some of the leaves backlit against the blue morning sky.

My Oakleaf hydrangeas are also putting on a show. While they can't compete with the overall intensity of color in a shrub like Burning Bush or Fothergilla, I love the mixture of colors in their leaves.

And speaking of Fothergilla, my Fothergilla major 'Mount Airy,' which we planted this past spring, is putting on quite a show. It was in full sun this morning, so the leaves are very bright. I knew it would have some fall color, but I wasn't expecting this spectacular show.

And I ended my stroll around the yard with this - something I'd been hoping to capture all year. While I'm not thrilled with the photo, it was the best I could do with the light and location. Not too bad, right?

Happy fall, y'all!