I love a long day!

I'm SO happy to be sitting on my perch on the porch, writing. My hummingbird feeders are up and ready. The birds are enjoying the birdbath. The phlox is beginning to bloom and the red of the tulip buds are starting to peek through the green that encases them. Rob is putting down bags of Leafgro organic soil conditioner while I just sit here. I've never had help before!

I don't know if what's going on in MD with pear trees is occurring in other parts of the country. We are developing forests of these invasive trees. According to one of my clients, this is how it happened...Builders started planting pear trees because they were cheap, fast-growing and ornamental. They were sterile, which was a good thing. It came to be that the trees 'ripped' in the wind...the trees were very prone to splitting. A hybrid was developed that didn't rip and they weren't sterile. The trees have berries in the fall that birds love. The seeds readily propagate. They're crowding out the native trees. And the smell of the blooms stink to high heaven. MD is very smelly right now. I have one of these trees smack in the middle of my garden. In the spring, the casings from the flower buds fall from the tree and cover my driveway and garden. Then the tree blooms and it's beautiful and worth the stink. Then the flower petals fall and cover my driveway and garden. I have to wait to mulch till they're all down. The tree is very nice in the summer. In the fall the leaves fall and cover my driveway and garden. And then millions of berries fall everywhere. I use a shovel to scrape them off my driveway and sidewalk. And here we are again at spring. I have to weed my garden of the seedlings throughout this season if I don't want a forest. Here's a bunch under some tulips.

Rob and I ran a bunch of errands today. We went shopping at Marshall's. I hate to shop for clothes. We went to Brookstone so I could look for a new iPad case, but the only ones they had weighed too much. We went to the Apple store and I learned a little about iPhoto and I signed up for a workshop next Monday. I'm so excited that I got a new ankle bracelet from Brighton! We went to Home Depot. And the Dutch Market. It was nice to get a lot done, and still be home by late afternoon. I love a long day.