Jim's quiet musings . . .

Chapter six is up! Naked Novel is coming along wonderfully and Burrow's is screwed. Make sure and check out Caitlin's wonderful contribution to the story! She is a true jewel to the writing trades. Personally, I wish I could have put a little more effort into my Chapter but trial and error is good for the soul. Only two more authors to go and then I'm not sure what will happen. Maybe we'll end up going around again.....maybe not. Time will tell.

Well, I purchased Lawnmower Number Five. I actually found a credit card that I hadn't maxed out and ended up charging the thing.....A SNAPPER. Now there's a name for ya. So, I took the thing home yesterday afternoon and "Snapped" my lawn to the tune of almost two whole hours and two tanks of gas. It seems part of my lawn had gone "jungle" on me. I stayed right with it until I had it done as the weather forecast for New Hampshire was ..... rain, rain, and more rain.

So, here I sit today with rain coming down to beat the band, looking out upon my newly mowed lawn. My lilacs are already gone by but my Alexandera Wine and Roses Weigela, white bleeding hearts, Iris, daisies, orange Indian paintbrush, brimeura, star-of-nature, pink bleeding hearts, allium unifolium and fritillaria are all in full bloom. It appears that the little furry creatures are at it again, planting stuff in my garden that I did not authorize. I have found an interesting array of cat tails in my pond, yellow lilies in my side garden and a lone Jack-in-the-Pulpit that has appeared beside my house.

I plan to break down and order some Clematis for the yard this year and once again, I'm waiting for my smoke bush to "smoke" but it doesn't look promising this year.

So, I have taken a vow of gas powered machine empathy to treat my new Snapper with care and I've begun rock and large stick hunting before I venture forth with my new petrol powered, gas guzzling, noise machine. The only good I actually see out of it is the lawn looks good and it produces yards of good compost. *Sigh*

I almost forgot to mention my award-winning yellow Foxglove that decided to appear once again. It seems to stretch the bi-annual coming out party a bit, by skipping a few years in-between. Of course it could be that I end up ripping it out in the spring as its foliage is a bit less than easy on the eye. This one is gonna be a doosey though, as it is already at least two and a half feet tall and looking healthy as a ..... well, a foxglove I suppose. Anybody got any enemies? I can grind you up some good, high quality Digitalis! One sip and they won't know what hit them! Ya know, ya really gotta be careful about these poisonous plants in our gardens! I mean, ya never know what will happen when your refrigerator and food shelves are empty and ya turn to eating those yummy looking plants in your garden! Best be careful!

Okay, okay....too much Java again. At least I'm not addicted to that yeba mate swill that Eve slurps down each day in ritual format. I'm gonna have to try some of that stuff. Wonder if you need a physician's prescription for it?

-Jeeem-