A Bit-of-Everything Update

Firstly:  I FINALLY GOT A JOB!!!  Seven months! Egad.

I haven't gotten much done in the way of yardwork or gardening for the past couple of months, because my asthma and allergies have been kicking my ass so severely that I've basically been couch-bound for two months.  But I'm back to it, and have a few small things to share:

In May, I found this little (1") Golden Orb Weaver spider
in my yellow roses.  I call her Margaret. She's now got a
4" legspan, and has made her home in one of the archways
on my front porch.  

Exactly a year ago, I did a post on some weeds I found in my yard - after the
last bout of severe allergies kept me on my ass for two months and my yard
had gone to hell while I wasn't looking, in fact, which is where I'm at again. I
I found the Mystery Weed again, and this time took photos and looked it up
online:  it's Pigweed (Amaranthus retroflexus).  

Plants at work: Scilla violacea and a Jade Plant.  And a wee
brass Ganesh, the remover of obstacles. 

My 'Romantika' Clematis climbing the post on the back
porch.  Behind it you can see Raven's Garden, which is
just a freaking MESS.  The Morning Glories and Cypress
Vine have completely ignored the back fence and wire lines
 I gave them to climb on, and have made a little mound on
top of the strawberries I planted there.  The Cosmos are
doing alright - you can see a couple of them (orange) behind
the Clematis.  More on that soon. 

Meanwhile, I've got a LOT of work to do in the backyard.   Like I said, I've been sick for two months and everything has just gone to hell.   Yesterday I spent about three hours pulling weeds by hand in the backyard.  Today I'll mow, prune up the trees, and see about getting those flower vines off the ground, or at least also onto the fence where they're supposed to be.  I also have to clean up my tomato plants - they all fell off the stakes while I wasn't looking, and had patched out into the yard and made a great big, tangled, tomato-y mess.  I ripped them off the ground yesterday while I was weeding around them, and just threw them back into the vegetable garden, hehe.  

Updates soon. 

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