good bad ugly

We’re talking about newhouse here. There are things. You know my environment affects me deeply. Here are my recent notes.

GOOD – lavender. It’s everywhere. There are 3 sizable plants out front, another smaller one that I successfully transplanted outside my bedroom window, and so many tiny volunteers that I’ve had to weed them. I’ve kept a few, or more than a few, because letsbehonest, I wouldn’t mind a whole entire field of lavender in place of a yard. But I do have to be practical and let the other plants live. P.S. Most of these pictures totally aren’t mine.

GOOD – mint. I’ve liked mint, always wanted to have some in my yard. It smells good, and the children like to pick leaves and put it in their lemonade as was suggested on a favorite TV show of theirs.

BAD – mint. Because it really is a weed. I wouldn’t mind if I hadn’t ripped a bunch to make room for oregano and tomatoes, but they’re trying to overtake them. So I have to rip them out, too.

UGLY – ticks. I live in constant paranoia of them, both attached and unattached.

GOOD – mimosa tree. Or in my world, Fraggle Trees. Because their flowers look like Fraggles. I remember taking a walk around the neighborhood last year and noticing these trees and thinking a) I have to find out what they are and b) I want one for my yard. And lo and behold, here at new house, there one is. God listens.

UGLY – ticks. I check the dogs every day and yank them off with tweezers. I’ve lost count how many sycophantic, brainless creatures I’ve extracted from their bodies, in various stages of feeding. Read: tiny to full. K.Lo desperately wanted me to look at something under Bailey’s chin and I begged off, completely in denial, and said, no, it’s just her cyst. It’s fine. I’ve seen it. But then she’s like, but Mommy, it has legs. And I saw the legs move. *EFF*

UGLY – ticks. I feel them crawling on me, even when they aren’t. And when they are, I practically jump out of my skin. Today, I felt something all of a sudden crawling on my face, near my eye, like an inch away from my eye, and I grabbed at it, and it was a tick. Which I flushed. But not before it knicked me. Fugging thing nearly latched on my face! by my eye! the nerve!

UGLY UGLY UGLY – ticks. As I’ve mentioned, I’m in a state of constant vigilance regarding this blood-sucking enemy. Especially the inevitable little trolls that I’ve missed on the dogs that feed for like, a week and fall off and there they are on the floor, all bloated with their legs wriggling. I’ve documented this before. We’re familiar with the saga. But one of my very, very worst nightmares is missing one of the fugging things and stepping on it. In my bare feet. And having it explode all over the bottom of my foot, leaving a deflated puddle of blood and squish. This happened this morning. It did. I’m traumatized for life.

GOOD – the rosemary. Which I’m sure I’ve talked about before, but I have to talk about something, anything else and it’s the first thing that popped into my brain. It’s evergreen. There’s a lizard living in it. We leave each other alone. Occasionally I thieve some rosemary to season chicken. I don’t think the lizard minds.

BAD – wasps. Hate them. K.Lo asked today, “Mommy, why did God put bugs like wasps here?” Exactly, my dear. They like to build nests under the deck and in the eaves and are generally everywhere.

GOOD – daisies. There’s a bunch under the deck stairs. I’ve left them alone while mowing and now there’s a big group of them blooming at the base of the stairs, in between the first and second step. They stay. (This picture is mine.)

BAD – ticks. Just one last, neutral observation. I had wanted to camp in the woods at some point. But I’ll pass, thankyouverymuch. Indoors next-door to the woods is bad enough.

GOOD – porchulaca. I planted these. Isn’t it the best flower name ever? Porchulaca! It’s like a song. What I love about them most is that a single plant will produce several different colored flowers. White, yellow, orange, pink, fuchsia. Every day’s a surprise. These spread as well, but they’re like the lavender and the daisies, not the mint, imho. I will keep them.