I love to garden, really I do. I am not afraid to get down and dirty with the er, dirt nor do
I care if I get a little dirt under my nails. It's all part of the process of being "one" with Mother Earth. I've looked forward to many a spring in Alberta with seeds and nursery plants pushed against a window at home waiting for the 8 days of summer like the rest of you. So I was quite keen on starting to get to know the local floral and fauna here and purchased a rather large encyclopedia from which to get a better understanding of what grows here. Maybe I could have saved a bit of cash and tried to find a smaller tome of what doesn't grow here -at an alarming rate. I swear the vines that grow on the lower level of the backyard and up the balcony rail manages 6" a day. At first I thought it was cosy and had a country like feel to it but I am seriously concerned that this plant may have a plan to take over the house. I have given up "pinching" back the stems and now greet it in the morning with a hack saw. I beg Ronin not to walk too close to it lest it grabs him and takes him into it's embrace. Much similar story can be said for the 13' high hedges that are so dense that you probably could walk on them. I'm not complaining just voicing a concern that one day I may not be able to find the house.
I don't think I have mentioned this but I live in a glass house. Truly almost all the walls are glass. Great big sliding patio doors surround me. It's fantastic but also a lot of work keeping them clean. I have been doing my best and maybe too good a job as the birds don't seem to understand that they can't fly *thru* the house. I have had many a feather to pluck off of the windows but no carcass to bury. My only guess is that the ants have been kind and carted Tweetie off. Ant's among other insects are a problem. I had been using the laundry sink as a kinda catch all for the dirty clothes and damp towels until one day while I was reaching into the sink to load the wash, I felt a tickle going up my arm. It was a lonely little ant. "Hello little fella, where did you come from?" I wondered. Not for long, as i reached to the bottom of the clothes and upended an entire farm busy making plans in the bottom of the sink. Screams and the pee pee dance came next with me turning on the water to full blast and washing them down the drain. I found the plug and hastily put that in and have never removed it since.
Now, for years, I have been a stickler about the kids taking food/drinks into their bedrooms. The black holes of the house if you will. I made that rule the day i found a half glass of yogurt which I suppose started off as milk in the boy's closet. Always dire warnings of consequences to the two should I ever find stuff again in their rooms. I *know* they still sneak candy in there and to a point I have been lax on the rules but after last nights clean up in the living room the rule came back into play. Sitting at the bottom of a near empty juice cup was a drowned cockroach. I paraded it around to the masses and made them take a good hard look at what would end up in their rooms should they be foolish enough to have any form of food. It made quite the impression especially to the girl who is deathly afraid of spiders.
At first, I thought the previous owners were a bit lax on the cleaning of the house inside and out as there were many cobwebs to be found in the rooms. It was almost like we were getting ready for a Halloween Party in the main room up in the rafters blowing webs of gossamer floated around. I spent a goodish part of my morning going up there and every other room, into the corners and along the beams. Feeling instantly cleaner after every room was sucked clean. That lasted a scant 8 hours. I don't know how it happened but the next morning I was laying in bed staring at the ceiling and was watching a spider waving at me from it's new web. I must have missed one, I mutter but on closer inspection i see that he is not alone and once again the ceilings and rafters are decorated for Halloween. I am learning to live with this and even almost caught myself petting one the other night as it lay on my duvet beside me while I read. I understand now that it's a matter of balance. If I take away the spiders then the giant flying things are more plentiful in the house. I have taken out plates from the cupboard only to discover something of a flying nature spread out like a museum specimen on it. The boy looked at it and asked if that's what I was serving for breakfast. Yes, it could have made a meal. I turned my back for a sec and it disappeared to somewhere less conspicuous in the house i guess... my tolerance has grown by leaps and bounds. I'm sure the spiders will take care of it eventually. It's not uncommon for me to be working outside in the bush trying to tame it only to be given a scalp massage by one of my eight legged friends or catching a ride to the next clump of trees on my shoulders. Probably just another reason for the birds to attack me at this point. I'll save that story for another time though.
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