My Bleeding heart

My bleeding heart is growing through your fence
You’re annoyed, I’m not dense!
That was not your plan
For the span
Between your cherry tree and gate
A clean picket slate
But my over-zealous plant seems to exaggerate
Its claim on the property it can stake
My mistake

The lady next door is losing her life to a malfunction her body cannot seem to correct. We call it cancer so that we can externalize it and make it the villain but it really is our own body turning against us. If only we would have eaten different or been more cautious we might avoid the tentacles of the monster lurking in the shadowless inside. She sits by her living room window to squeeze the last ounce of joy out her misery. So her husband asks me if it would be okay to trim my front yard tree so that she might see the neighbourhood a little better. I will not deny this simple pleasure even if it means that an already shabby looking tree looks even less respectable. Hidden away from sight she sits and stares out past my tree. She is looking uglier each day. My tree looks uglier than it ever did before. She feels even uglier than she ever has before and I forget that when I look at my tree. I’m struck by the inconvenience of illness. It really messes things up….

Your bleeding heart is growing through my fence
I’m not annoyed, I’m not that dense!
You would have kept those blooms
to yourself if you could have – not shared the doom
impending - coming too soon
with the quarter moon
rising and the darkness and the gloom
when your bleeding heart will stop growing
through my fence…

things to do this week...

-change oil on both vehicles
-get them both booked in for repairs
-finish Briercrest courses
-rent a transit to get started on 'front of the house' deck and walkway
-Get record of employment stuff sorted out
-apply for EI
-get VBS float ready for the parade
-VBS band practice
-get dog groomed
-get started on bathroom reno
-pack away books from office
-cut and stack firewood (borrow chainsaw)
-take boys to swimming lessons
-marriage prep. session
-book tickets for U-20 World cup game in Edmonton on Sunday
-prep Mom and Dad's 40th Wedding Anniversary party
-confirm speaking engagement for July 21st
-help Jared prep for Learners...
-figure out more VBS songs for Jesse on the sax
-get costumes for VBS mascots and stuff...
-make espresso till I get it right

glee

I am the kind of person who takes a certain amount of obsessive pride in the quality of my lawn. It was incredibly disconcerting that when we moved into our current residence almost two years ago – I learned that the previous owner had sprayed round-up on the lawn in an attempt to remedy a significant weed problem. His plan was to reseed or sod the back yard but he never got around to it.
It has taken a lot of work to bring the lawn back – and there is still much work to do. It is still patchy-but it is pretty lush.
The front yard however is another matter altogether. Our cul-de-sac is one of those neighbourhoods where one or two make it their business to chide and guilt people into keeping the neighbourhood looking good. So there exists a weird sort of competitive snobbishness about how our front yards look.
Now my front yard has it’s own challenges. A large pine tree is located in the center of it. I am less than affable toward this giant forest dweller. It sucks water and covers the ground with acidic needles that ruin the ph of the soil in the front yard. Because we are a corner lot we only have a small pie shaped piece of lawn – difficult to water and small enough to reveal every blemish. I fret over it constantly.
My neighbour to the west gets a professional company to come in with their fancy sprays and chemicals. His front yard postage stamp of a lawn is decent. I’m far too Mennonite and proud to stoop to having someone else prop up my lawn.
My neighbour to the east has a nice size lawn that is square to the street. No trees. His lawn flows right into mine. We intentionally mow our lawns at different times to tell where one property begins and ends. I was priding myself on how well I was able to keep my grass in comparison to his given my inherent challenges.
Imagine my delight when this morning I drove out of my driveway and discovered that he had sprayed round up on a large section of his grass in much the same manner that our previous owner had done.
The jaws will be waggin…

i just smiled!

oh by the way here is a new and interesting product - never needs cutting or watering!