Summer is over; the trees are turning; and it’s time to clean up the garden. Yesterday my friend Nancy and I went to Mahone Bay to buy some rhododendrons. I know a man there who grows some from seed as a hobby and sells them at a very reasonable price. We left home as adults and came home as children: very excited about our new toys.
Nancy bought four big ones; I bought three. We stuffed them into my Element, along with her handsome ten year old son, Jonathan, and my pup, Lila (who had a delightful time racing around the rhododendrom beds and wading in the stream by the house). We then toured the scarecrow festival in Mahone Bay before stopping at the Inlet Café for a light dinner. (Really, I love their biscuits, the main course for me!) As Jonathan has shoulder length hair, the waitress there addressed Jonathan as “young lady”. We told her he is a boy and of course, she was very apologetic. Nancy told me other stories of kids making fun of him at school, but none of this seemed to upset him. They then told me Jonathan is growing his hair to donate to cancer patients for wigs. He wants to wait until he has nine inches before he cuts it. And when the other children found out his motive for growing his hair, their respect grew as well. Very impressive.
I put my rhododendrons in today and moved a few other plants. First I had to clear one of my garden patches of goat-weed (or gout weed or, better yet, vicious weed, a name it also has). It’s an extremely invasive weed that had taken over most of that particular bed. It was a warm sunny day and my friend Brian came over to help. We both love to weed. It was great playing in the dirt all afternoon. Chatting and pulling weeds, cleaning up, getting ready for winter. It’s raining now. Perfect for my transplants.
Posted by leya at September 28, 2006 07:51 PM