On the mend

Sort of on the mend anyway. The cold is now full blown but I think by tomorrow it should be hitting the stage where it feels almost good - like a internal purging of bad stuff. In any event, I intend to rest up today since I'm already exhausted by the lawn mowing excitement this morning.

Ortega showed up bright and early before I had even had my coffee so I had to race out and try to stay ahead of him on getting the rest big sticks out of the way. He dispatched the jungle in an hour and charged me so little I tipped him ten bucks. I'm sorry I didn't a chance to rescue the coreopsis that had sprung up in the front but I'm hoping they'll come back and I'll be able to transplant them yet. Anyway, the yard looks so good now I can't stop going to the door and surveying it's beauty. Plus I can now go out to the garden without needing a machete to get there.

The garden is doing surprising well. I have flowers and one baby tomato already on my one vintage plant. It's a Brandywine, which I tried to grow in Noho with limited success. I also have flowers and one baby pepper on the Early Girl pepper plant. I'm wishing I had bought one more of each now but no matter, I have lots of other stuff. My six pack of really baby pepper plants, I don't know what these are, I think they're just ordinary green ones, are double in size and well established and my two squash plants are looking happy and sending out new growth. So far it appears the only casualty will be the one basil plant that got trampled by the deer. Hoping to get the weeding done this afternoon and complete the restoration of my respectability in the neighborhood.