Great Outdoors

Item No. 1:  Our landscape guy Patrick came Monday and marked out paths through our woods.  It will still be a few weeks before they start clearing out debris, but exciting times!

 

He made a list for me of all the neat indigenous plants growing out there (including 3 kinds of wild blueberries!), so I hope to mark the different specimens along the path once we get it well-broken in.  The April tornadoes left a big clearing in the woods on the north side of our property, so the plan is to try to encourage a meadow to grow there.  Makes me feel all Anne of Green Gables just thinking about it.

But before all the good stuff can happen, we must eradicate miles of poison ivy vines.

I think even Patrick was impressed by how much of it is out there.  He first said to stay out of the woods entirely until it is more under control (i.e. sprayed DEAD).  But then he added that if we simply had to get out there we should wear old pants and an old long-sleeved shirt and when we come back inside... 

And here's where I'm thinking yeah, yeah, yeah... strip down in the laundry room and wash all the clothes in really hot water right away.

... just throw all our clothes away.

Oh.  So it's THAT bad.

Item No. 2:  I was sitting around one night last week listening to sad music and generally wallowing when I noticed a strange tapping sound on our back window.  And look!

Three luna moths, each almost as big as my hand.  I've only seen one other one in person ever.  I stayed on the porch a while and photographed them and let them bash into my head and land on my shoulders.  It was a perfectly-timed, rare and beautiful moment.  Thanks for that one, God.