skittermagoo!

What? I didn't tell you I was going on Blog Hiatus?

Well, don't feel left out . . . nobody told me, either! I wish I had a really good excuse for not blogging for a whole entire month (and a couple bonus days), but I don't . . . I think I just wasn't feeling it.

Of course, now I have a ton to say, and don't even know where to begin! I'm gonna try and pace myself, though, and get maybe several entries out of it.

Hub and I have been very busy with the gardening lately; we've been working really hard to get the front of the house looking decent, as opposed to being "that" house, the one that all the neighbors are embarrassed of. The previous owners of our house don't seem to have been much for working in the yard, so we've had a long haul of it already (and it's not done yet).

Ah, but before I go into any sort of detail, here are pictures of "before" and "during" . . . we ran out of time and inclination to brave Home Depot again (I went twice on Sunday) and finish the mulching.

Before:

ugly, ugly, ugly. and not just because it's winter!

During:

much better, but still not done!

We put in new edging (the old was rusty metal that had disintegrated down to nothing in some places), took out several misplaced shrubs (note: Japanese Boxwood is almost impossible to dig up, especially in hard clay soil) and added 20 cubic feet of new soil, then laid down weedblock fabric and spread mulch. Even with no plants in yet, I think it looks MUCH better! I have plans for all kinds of native and drought-resistant plants here (the front of our house faces West, which in Texas summers is pretty darn hot and dry).

Did I mention that we have really hard clay soil? It is soil that hates gardening tools, apparently:

can anyone recommend a good, strong trowel? I don't think they are supposed to bend like this.

OH! And we've planted some things, but so far one of my favorites has been the hosta that I bought at the Texas Garden Show! I planted him on Sunday, and he looked like this:

ummmmm

And today, he looked like this:

it's growing!

New! Green! Leaves! WOO!

And lest you think I dropped knitting to play in the dirt, never fear! Knitting continues!

When last I wrote, Samus was blocking, or at least the body of Samus was blocking. Since then, I blocked the sleeves and seamed everything, and now I'm working on the i-cord edging! I would show you a picture, but I'm a bit mad at Samus right now (something to do with it taking seven tries to get the first stupid sleeve sewn in, and I'm still not completely happy with it, but it's done, so I'm not going back to do it again). Anyway. Maybe a picture next time.

I started a new sock, and knit on it during the super-fun knitting hockey event the grrlz and I went to, but it's still in that awkward "not enough rows" stage, so no pictures of that, either. I didn't knit nearly as much as I expected at the hockey game, mainly because I was too busy watching the game and yelling. I like hockey.

I do have a picture of another current project, but I think I'll save it for next time. Wow, I'm such a tease, eh? Heheheheh.