Three rocks

Three rocks
Originally uploaded by mara.

I finally got a photo of my new three-rock arrangement. That's a very old, large Japanase maple. There's another one to the right. I need to go look and see if the moss seems to be reviving. The moss on the rock in back is doing really well, despite getting a little bit of sun.

Big rocks can be too big

I need to get a photo taken, but we placed two more rocks yesterday, near the front one that was all alone. I'm so relieved. I kind of bought the wrong rock -- it was easily twice as heavy as I thought it would be (which means twice as expensive). But I wanted one bigger than the first one, and one smaller, to make a family of three. So the size is actually quite nice. But it was a bear to move and position. In fact, I decided not to try standing it on end (it's somewhat triangular), even though the hubby was willing. So three reclining rocks instead of one standing and two reclining. Some kind of symbolism there, maybe.

The lamp-post garden, with rock piles

Another view, with rocks
Originally uploaded by mara.

This is pretty much what the lamp-post, or triangle, garden looks like now. I've added just a few more limestone paver fragments, in semi-balancing piles. (That is, there's no real impressive balancing, but they look kind of precarious.)

We've bought two more big rocks for the front, also.

Close-up of boulder in triangle garden

Close-up of back boulder
Originally uploaded by mara.

This was early on in the garden design process. The limestone rock on the left has since been moved, and more plants have been added.

Off my duff

I had two days off this week -- Thursday and Friday -- as comp for working four hours on Sunday, and working today (Saturday), and I could very well have spent them playing Sims 2 all day long. I know because I've spent days off that way. But in April, with nice weather, even I can get motivated to do something outside. Plus I was expecting a houseguest (which ended up getting called off), so there was house stuff to do too.

The cool thing was, we ordered some rocks. One hundred dollars worth of limestone (two pieces too big to lift, so I'm calling them boulders, although they're pretty small boulders) and granite (nine pieces, all liftable).

I thought I knew where I wanted one of the boulders, and the more I looked at it, the more sure I was. I decided to prepare it for the installation of the boulder on Thursday, and also started planning the planting. I probably should have conditioned the soil with peat moss and topsoil, but decided to try it with native soil instead.

After the boulder was set in place yesterday, I transplanted two hosta, a Japanese spurge, a bit of dianthus (I'm not sure if will get enough sun, but what the heck), and today finished up with one more hosta, a goldenstar, and a ragged robin I bought yesterday. All in a triangle no more than five feet to the side. I only hope the dogs and step-grandkids stay out of it.

Reference desk

Some of this morning's research (counting real reference questions and things that come up at my "online community"):

How much potassium is recommended, and what are the food sources?
How do I get an Armitron watch repaired?
The third prophecy of Fatima, and something a little more sane here
Online auctions

Color coordination

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Originally uploaded by mara.

Looking again at the previous entry reminds me of how my husband teases me about color coordinating my pets. Black; black and white; and black, white, and gray. Mirfy used to have more black, actually, back when he was a blue-merle-wannabe (as shown in his puppy picture).

Plus, now that I think about it, our cars are black and white. Hmmmm.

Happy birthday, Mirfy

Mara's pets
Originally uploaded by mara.

Mirfy's the one on the left. He's fifteen years old today (or sometime soon - I don't know why I didn't get his exact birthday).

The photo still amazes me. The animals get along okay, but they're really not as good as they look.