I woke up Saturday feeling the effects of the wine the night before. I hate that. First of course is the physical aspect - headache and tiredness, even though I got plenty of sleep. I also hate having half my day ruined because I was irresponsible the night before. Oh, sure, it was fun - but not worth the hangover, however mild, the next day. I puttered around the house a little, organizing and doing laundry. The Maricopa County Home and Garden Show was going on at the State Fairgrounds, so in the afternoon Paul and I headed out there to catch the 3:30 pm presentation - Beekeeping. We have a beehive that's been hanging on the eaves of our house for four years now and need to move it to a bee box. Obviously, this is not something two amateurs should attempt on their own, so we wanted to get as much advice as possible.
The presentation was a bust. Nobody showed up except us, so we spent the time just asking a lot of questions about 'our' hive. What we were told by Ed was that even though the bees appeared docile and unthreatening, the fact that we've had the hives through probably two or three queens meant they had been Africanized. That certainly surprised and worried us and for me, anyway, gave me second thoughts on trying to relocate the hive ourselves. After our sobering discussion with Ed, we walked through the home and garden show. It was a bore, to say the least.
Sunday I woke up feeling great and began clearing my gardens of weeds, pruning the roses and rearranging the front porch furniture. Our yard has taken some hard beatings over the years with precious little maintenance and inconsistent watering. The area on the east side of the house is a perfect spot for a garden, but until last year was so overgrown with weeds and wild sunflowers that it took Paul and I three seasons to clear it out, till it up and prepare the earth for planting. We built a small patio and arbor under our bedroom window with the future plan to put French Doors in. After planting several tomato plants, two new rose bushes to add to the ones we revived, broccoli, grapes, pumpkins, peppers, parsley, cilantro and rosemary we were quite proud of our little garden!
Now I take my morning coffee out there and water the plants while the dogs romp around the fresh smelling dirt.
I also have a small garden that lines my front walkway. Again, years of neglect meant I had to excavate the area and get the soil ready for plants. We tried several kinds of plants along this path but nothing really took, until the basil. For some reason, the environment right at the front (Southern exposure) of my house was perfect for basil. It grew into four luscious bushes that just recently bolted and went to seed. I also planted mint, which is in the same family as basil. The mint has gone wild and spread it's beautiful greenery all along the front of my house. It looks great!
We have a good sized porch with a few chairs and potted plants, so in the afternoons Paul and I have wine meetings on the porch. Our dog, Piccolo, joins us. But he wants his own chair.
