Tuesday, March 25, 2008

signs of spring

there aren't all that many yet, but here are my own personal signs:

1. i've been reading a perennials book every night, looking at pictures and making lists of plants i'd like to buy, imagining my plans for our back yard this summer.

2. speaking of our back yard, which through the winter is generally referred to as "the poopery," it is now spic and span. or, anyway, it is no longer, shall we say, "poopery." using it as an adjective now. it is still covered with willow branches and leaves, but it's no longer minnow's personal toilet. i'd like to leave you with this image: thirty pounds of dog poop.

3. i forget what number three was. i did see some little green somethings coming up out of the ground the other day -- crocuses?

4. the night before last, a loud frontloader* spent an hour scraping away much of the permafrost in front of our sidewalk. at 4:30 am. scraping, scraping the ground with a hideous metallic sound. and apparently this was only done on our block -- i can't find any evidence that the city cleaned up a patch of snow/ice anywhere else.

5. this map of potholes in portland is kind of adorable.

6. i started composting again!



*backhoe? some kind of tractory thing. back in the days when boo was obsessed with a book called you can name 100 trucks, i would've been able to accurately identify it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

LP and I like the pothole map, and we noticed that the luxurious West End is remarkably pothole-free. At 101 Austin, our composting plan was the most exciting part of Easter (kind of sad, but true.) We have taken a long break from composting because a big rat jumped out at Peter as he turned the compost, but we have found just the right bin and we don't think it will be full of rats. I want to get a "Can o' Worms" for the basement, but we may have to wait until we are empty nesters, because somebody finds it a little too disgusting. We're down to one garbage bag/week, but with composting, we'll be able to switch to the small bags. Big doin's!

Liz Woodbury said...

i'm excited about your composting plans -- and also that you'll still have that "can o' worms" to keep you going when you have an empty nest. or rather, how can you have an empty nest when it's full o' worms?

oh, now i'm scared of my compost pile.