What Can I Say About Today?

What can I say about today? It's a beautiful but chilly day today. I woke with the birds and couldn't wait till my housework was done to go out and do a few things. There were little twig like branches to be picked up. I use a light plastic rake and pull them into piles...then sit on my green chair and put them in a big cardboard box. We will dump the box contents in the woods later. We already have garbage cans full to be dumped too. Our River Birch is causing so many problems. There are little branches down every time the wind blows.....and lately that has been most days. We made the decision just this morning to have the tree removed. Someone is coming tonight to give us an estimate. With Joe and I both having back problems...we find that it just takes too  much out of us to pick up after it all the time. The seeds in the spring and leaves in the fall get in our gutters and then they need to be cleaned. It's a beautiful tree and I always hate to see trees like this one destroyed, but it has to be done.
After picking up the branches, I meander over to the side garden. The bleeding heart, that was just planted, is doing well. We had a good rain, so it should be OK. I had my long handled clippers with me (I looked like a pack mule) so I clipped the ajuga to keep it in bounds. The clematis vines are doing pretty good on this side of the house. They will be out of the shade with the tree gone. They'll enjoy that :)
Going around to the back of the house, I noticed a couple of things. Last year, I didn't remove the dead lily of the valley leaves...just left them there through the winter. The new lily of the valleys are nice and thick and the dead leaves are not to be seen. This is true for my Lady's Mantle too. The new plant material simply covers all the old dead leaves. I won't be cutting these back anymore.
 I sit on the chairs at the bottom of the deck and see where my tomatoes will be planted. I have some large containers for those. I'm planning on asking someone to remove the big trellis from the woods and put it at an angle...behind the containers. I'm going to train the tomatoes to climb up the trellis....tying them as they grow.When in town yesterday, I notice a truck at the grocery delivering the tomato plants. I decided, on that super windy day, to buy my tomatoes and take care of them till it's time to plant. Probably a month away. I figure that I would buy them in town anyway, so instead of them not getting good care at the grocery, I will do it myself and maybe they will be healthier and do better.Besides I had first choice as to the varieties I will plant.
 I glance at the woods and decide to go back and sit for a while.I worked so hard on this project of clearing the woods. It was simply a place full of weeds, barbed wire fencing, some trash in the way back, and little scrubby trees and tons of garlic mustard.I kept looking at it and Joe asked me to not go back there...it wasn't safe. I wanted to have a place that was not so manicured....as the rest of the yard. A place for me to sit and enjoy watching nature.As I have grown older...I am letting it go.  It's hard to believe that something that took me so long...years...with blood, sweat and tears...can revert back to the wild in just a matter of days and weeks .It's still an enjoyable place for me to rest and visit the birds and creatures of the woods. I guess that Mother Nature knows best what the wild things enjoy. If I could only have her natural ways with the world...instead of always wanting to fix things.
Balisha