#Microblog Monday: Getting Some Me Time

This first long weekend of the year is sacred to me. It is a time when I can rest, and rejuvenate, and get some me-time that is sorely needed. This year, I decided not to make any social plans, not to make any appointments, NOTHING. I spent the day with myself.

It was lovely.

I needed to do a lot more school work than I did, but you know what? It will get done, and it was worth it to feed my soul and rest my bones.

Except I didn't do a lot of resting after having a leisurely breakfast and snuggling up with the cat and my book in the morning.

Instead, I hauled ass on my side garden -- I did the whole retaining wall side over the summer, but the rest of it down the hill towards the street was a hot mess of weeds and blecchhh.

Summer work, my garden lady cleared all the evil weeds and then I did all the amending of the soil and the planting and the using of the rocks that PEPPER THE SOIL LIKE POTATOES IF I WAS A DAMN POTATO FARMER

There, you can see the liriope I planted to the left of that honeysuckle bush. Everything behind me, behind that liriope? TRASH. 

So today, today I tackled it. I bought a whole bunch of plants on sale and some mushroom compost at the garden center lady's suggestion, since I discovered yesterday while planting a grass near the liriope that everything to the left of that is straight up solid clay. Full of rocks. And roots.

I did all the pulling of the weeds myself.

Holy shit, I am exhausted and in a lot of pain in my legs and lower back, but I am pretty damn pleased with my time outside in the chilly cloudy air, covered in dirt, swearing at the rocks and roots and clay. And I just enjoyed a lovely whirlpool bath (embarrassed to say our new home has one and I've never used it before), and all is right with the world.

I suck at "before" pictures. I'd already started digging out the stuff to the left of that post, but you can see all the crap still to be ripped out. 

SOOOO MUCH WEEDINESS. This is a pretty good "before," actually

FOUR wheelbarrowsful of roots and weeds and stuff. Kept the rocks though, for wall-ish stuff. 

Hoo-eeee! No more crap weeds! And look at all that lovely stuff! 

Hard to see, but there's 3 hummingbird mints, a false ageratum, a russian sage, 3 Cheyenne Sky switchgrasses, 1 ruby slippers switchgrass, and 3 ice dancer sedge grass. Plus two bleeding hearts you can't see. 

Trying to fake a retaining wall of rocks from my rock farm. I fear my driveway will never not be muddy. I also realize that now I need to mulch all this... 

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