on gardening

alice bradley is moving from the 'burbs back into brooklyn, from when she came. i am positive that she has many many reasons for doing so, but the one i can relate to the most is the mulch. when we lived downtown, our house had a yard filled with lovely blooming things that had been planted 50 years earlier and loved long enough to become well established. the grass would not grow, but there was always something lovely and interesting going on. i had ideas then of gardening--of what i would one day do, given a yard of my own. i have a yard of my own now. i hate my yard. i hate my lack of time for it and how it alwyas looks just half-assed. i have these pictures in my head of what it may one day be, but in truth, i just don't see how it's ever going to get there--at least not till the kid is about 10 and able to help trim the holly bushes that threaten to overtake the porch. someone should really do something about all the plants i have that need to go into the ground. someone should also maybe finish the Great Soil Amendment Project of 2008^* that i started last march while still pregnant and filled with illusions of grandeur. someday i will finish it. someday i will plant trees. and bulbs so i have daffodils in the spring. someday i will repot all my houseplants. someday i will mulch. meredith's coming into town this weekend. maybe i'll make her hold the baby while i work on the yard.

* the flower bed in the front of my house is full of builder's detritus and clay. i've been slowly digging this out and amending the "soil" with a mixture of peat moss, perlite, and fertilizer. it's working wonders for the weeds adjacent to the bed, and i am guessing would also be good for the plants in the bed, were there any. the hippie pokes fun at me for "planting dirt", but i maintain that this must be done before we plant anything else. last time i checked, plants and bulbs did not find tar paper and 10-penny nails nourishing. but i digress...

catching up to the present

a lot's happened in the last couple of months while i've been not blogging. time has been going by so quickly, i haven't even realized i've failed to blog it. so--let's catch up, shall we? some visual aids should help us.

labor day weekend, we went to visit my parents. kieran spent some time with some of his cousins and had his first rice cereal. he liked it. :)

we went to see the carolina rollergirls with many friends. fun, but jesus, it was HOT! the kid did pretty well with his first sporting event, in spite of the crazy loud applause.

then he got a nasty cold, but he was still happy.

luckily he was all better by the time we went to the beach, where we spent time with carrie, isaac, ella, meredith, denise, warren, and lani. i've been dreaming about putting his feet in the sand since i was pregnant, so this was particularly satisfying for me. he was very brave about the water on his feet, and he immediately put a fistful of sand in his mouth, as expected. there's a whole set of pitctures here, but here's one of my favorites, too:

there's been some knitting:

the critter started sitting, crawling, and pulling up.

fall came.

my friend tina had her baby, kyla christina. i was there with her, which is always an awesome priveledge and makes me want to become a doula. still thinking about that...

and then--suddenly it was halloween.

y'all want to tell me how the hell that all happened so fast?

and then i voted, but you guys already know about that.

whew! that only took 3 days to get posted. maybe i can get back onto the normal blogging schedule now. clearly, i should not make any promises. but man--i miss you guys!

ps--happy birthday, alyce! love and miss you like a fiend!!!
pps--good thoughts to lisa, who's having a baby as we speak!

i voted

this is the first time i have voted in my life. i have planned to vote for barak obama for president for some time, mainly because sarah palin scares the hell out of me. and i think it says something about our country that i finally registered tovote, not because i was totally gung ho for a candidate, but because i was so filled with bile and rage that i wanted to vote AGAINST someone. but i digress... anyway, i voted. and about a week ago, somewhere in all the reading, i drank the hope kool-aid. cnn just projected that obama was going to win. i have my fingers crossed that the coming change will be good. i am stunned that we have elected an african american as president of the united states in my lifetime. stunned and thrilled.