the underwear drawer

more martha than martha

Due to some call-scheduling swapping with Mark, I ended up having three full weekends off this month. Take a good look at how sane I am as a result of this. You'll never see it again.

Given that I have some time free, and in my continuing quest to become an old lady, I thought that this would be the weekend to do some gardening on our balcony. In my rich fantasy world, our balcony will become a Pleasure Pavillion, filled with sweet-smelling blooms and rich foliage. But, closer to reality, and still pretty nice, is just having some potted flowers to enjoy. I think we did a pretty good job, but judge for yourself.



We got lost in Queens, trying to find Home Depot. Driving down Roosevelt Avenue, I saw a lot of cool restaurants that I wanted to try, but Joe had to meet up with Dave later on so we didn't have time to stop. Queens is literally (and I mean that it's documented to be) the most ethnically diverse area in the world. And only along Roosevelt Avenue could you see a Tibetian restaurant called "The Amazing Yak."



Finally, we got there. I thought it would be clever to go to Home Depot Friday night to get a jump on the weekend, but apparently everyone else had the same idea, because the place was packed.



Surveying the goods. The wooden planters were nice, but at $18 each, a little too nice for our budget. We ended up using the green plastic planters that we already had.



We ended up getting two carts of flowers and soil. I was surprised that the big bags of potting soil were only $2.00 each, but then I realized, as Joe pointed out, "Honey, it's just dirt."



The next morning, we started planting. I hope Joe's not mad that I show this photo. There is the verisimilitude of plumber's crack in this shot, but it's not really crack, it's just the indentation between his back muscles.



It was all messy and such. After planting, my hands looked like Hobbit hands, that is to say, all caked with dirt under the nails.



Here's one planter combination: lavendar petunias interspersed with Coleus. (Coleus are the green leaves with the pinky-purple centers.)



And here's another planter combo: pink and white petunias with Coleus. We alternated the planter colors along the edge.



It didn't really take that long for us to get the job done. Here's one side of the balcony, all flowered up.



And here's the other side. I told Joe to raise his fists in triumph, but I think he was a little lackluster about it because he was all hot.



The no-dog zone, where we're keeping all the gardning supplies. We had to impose these limits because she ate our last hose and we had to buy a new one.


It feels good to get all that done. I think we're going to have an end of year barbecue out there in a couple of weeks when I'm on break. Do you think there's ever a point in my life where I'll stop thinking of June as "the end of the year"?

Currently reading: "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time". Almost finished! There are some books like this one that you enjoy so much that you just want to gulp them down.

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