---

Yesterday was a perfect spring day. The sun was warm, almost hot, but the cool wind kept the heat down. I spent nearly all day outside.

Having spent two days working on the WV description for Intelliguide.com, and still rather blocked on the whole trip writing and photos endeavor, I kept yesterday's "work" goal limited.

First, we prepared all our rolls of film for developing, and sent them out to York. Here in the backwoods, we don't have many choices for film developing. There's Rite Aid, 30 minutes away in Glenville, or Walmart, 40 minutes away in Spencer. Plus, we want to keeps costs down, so we're skipping the one-hour developing option - thus, requiring two trips.

With gas, the one-hour developing option might be cheaper.

Nevermind all that, we just mailed it to York. Four rolls of film and two disposable cameras. They should be back in a few days.

I'm hoping that will help break down the lull I have had for that project.

Also, true to form, I worked on a new t-shirt design to take my mind off what I wasn't getting done. The new "Martyr Seeking Sainthood" items can be seen
HERE. .

I'm too lazy to take the steps needed to include a photo of it here, and that's not the reason we're all here anyway, so there's the link - no photo. I think I'm going to make that part of my blog policy. No photos of items I'm selling. :o)

Those two things accomplished, I left the house.

First came the survey. You know, the whole walk around the yard, make note of what's happening there, just checking the situation.

I brushed Jazzy, my fuzzy Norweigian Elkhound, who frankly, is looking a little shaggy in the current shedding process. I put "Flies Off" ointment on the tip of Zeus' one good ear where the deer flies have already started their summer torture.

Then I began what I call, "The Garden Piddle".

When we moved here, there were no flower beds. I basically began each of the five beds in places where it was tough to mow, and where Frank would approve the location.

Each year, I expand the beds. My process is simple. I spread plastic, junk carpet, or thick newspaper where I want the grass to die. Then I cover it with mulch.

If it's plastic, I'll cut a hole or two and add a flower. If it's newspaper, it's laid around a plant, then the area is left for about two years while the newspaper rots. If it's carpet, It's a location for a future garden gnome or something.

I've asked for a truckload of mulch as an anniversary present (May 25) and spent yesterday laying the base - covering it with dirt, rocks, branches, to keep it in place. Frank, the man that he is, asked, "How much paper are you going to plant this year?"

Smartass.

Over the weekend, Frank bought a tomato plant, some pepper plants and cabbage starts. So I put all those in pots which hang out on the porch. (Rabbits, deer. Need I say more?)

We've never kept up with any of our attempts at a real vegetable garden, and I am not a practiced canner. I like hot pepper jelly, and always make a little, but doing a whole garden harvest? No way. I'd likely cut a finger off or blow up the kitchen.

Anyhoo, another annual ritual in the gardens is the relocation.

When this gets too big, it needs divided and moved. When the forsythia gets too big, everything around it needs moved. When this spreads from one garden into another, sprouts are taken back to the region where they belong. As this garden is expanded, plants from that one fill in the new space.

Throughout all of this, of course, there's weeding to be done.

Anyway, it makes for a good day - doing The Garden Piddle.

I took three splinters out of my hands last night, and removed two more this morning. I now have a good start on a farmer's tan, and am betting I have poison ivy break out somewhere on my body by tomorrow afternoon or the following morning.

Oh yes. Yesterday was a great day.

:o)

---

Want to know more about DeLaHaye? Visit her web site at WV Travelers , or her online store at Impecunious Impressions, or read her weekly column at The Calhoun Chronicle.