An End to Work

Does raking fall under the big umbrella of gardening? If it doesn't, then it should, if for no other reason than I am justified in complaining about it. In spite of the late date, Camille and I finished our raking for the year on Thursday afternoon. It was a brutal slog, spanning two months and approximately twenty man-hours, during which time we officially became old. Our backs ached, we demanded compliments from each other for "doing my share," and finally, conclusively, we decided to pay someone else to do it for us next year. There is a small amount of shame that goes along with having someone do work that you are entirely capable of.
That is unfortunate.

One potential boon to our spring and summer gardening endeavors is the bright green, squirrel-deterring bird feeder that is hanging from the edge of our porch. Our (read: Camille's) thinking is that the birds will stick around until spring, when the vegetable-eating bugs begin to swarm. As we ween the birds from our feeder, they will naturally begin to eat the bugs. Of course, some of us aren't so sure. Some of us think that all the birds might just go ahead and eat the vegetables themselves. We shall see.

In the meantime, it's been wonderful to have the birds in our lives. We're keeping a birding journal, and even in just a few weeks we've seen an increase in the number of birds on the porch. This morning, for the first time, we saw cardinals and a bluebird (which our neighbor Billy claims is rare this time of year--I attribute this to our impeccable selection of bird food). Very exciting.

--David