The Avant Garden

I returned to the site of defeat to erect this today:
It took four more drops of the keystone ...

It took a while to get right, partly because the force of the water prevented me from using any cheaters to hold the stones up on one side while I ran with the other.  I'd tried it last Wednesday, but gave up. New and improved Rock As were the key.

I've been working with sticks-n-cliff crevices for the past few days, like this:

I'm not sure where it's going ...

Here's a detail:
Don't know where it's going ...

The Rootball Avant Garden looked nice today: . I like to think that at least one other person has seen it and smiled. Then I will have gotten double my money's worth.

... I offer this April 23 dusting:
This guy has stood through some high wind ...

I know, I know, in Minnesota, this wouldn't even be called snow. Had it fallen in January, I wouldn't have mentioned it. But April 23?

The Serpents (mother and child) got a slight smattering as well:
I planned triplets,  but birthing one hurt enough

I missed work-work yesterday, but didn't do anything in the Avant Garden. I did a few mild errands, but never got around to the haircut I so badly need. The Honda, my rusty-but-reliable gardening car, has gone on to a new life with Alift.org. May it serve its new owners well.

Tonight I started inserting bent sticks into a crevice in a cliff near my house but ended up dancing until it was too dark for a photo. There is no Dave column this week.

... it's a lot of dead tomato plants, I know that. I'll lose my parsley to this half-inch dusting. Ah well, it's cheap and plentiful. Friday after work I went to see the recently-cleared landslide on the BluRP and had to go on further and play a little. This is very flat earth:
Tougher than it looks this time ...

but took a long time, for some reason. I kept thinking that if some of those same people who watch me work and ask, "How do you do that?" had been there, they would have been asking, "Why can't you do that?"

I added an arch to the other side of this downed tree so it really is cuffed to the ground now:
I hope it makes someone smile ...

Yesterday I went to Bent Creek and hiked and played. I wasted a good bit of time on a project in which I bit off more than I could chew. It's a great project and I will go back with help eventually. I did a double arch on the side of Bent Creek, and as Anne had my camera at Joshua's Tae Kwon Doh! Tournament, I had to use my spy camera:
Spy camera is for secret documents, not arches ...

This morning I awoke to find an inch of snow on the cars and a dusting elsewhere. I decided to go for a drive and ended up back at Bent Creek. I like this fern photo:
Seasons collide ...

My miniature avantgarden got a little snow as well:

Looks like the home of "Freaky Barbie"

And at 10:45, it is still snowing. We never did get the snowday I wanted this Winter. Maybe tonight we'll get those 6 inches that close everything. Naaaah ... won't happen.  Anne's declaration, "I hereby declare fire season over" as she finished cleaning out the fireplace a few weeks ago turned out to be premature.

... demanded I take some Dave time. Immediately after work I walked over to the Salvation Army, thinking I would buy some $2.00 shorts and shoes and go to Bent Creek Experimental Forest from there, but there was nothing available (though if the ballet slippers had been men's 11s, I would have bought them), so I came on home and patted Josh on the head and as soon as the other two kids came home, off I went. Anne and I went to Bent Creek Sunday night and Just as we were leaving, I saw this poplar on its side and knew I would do a little miniature avantgardening there on its rootball:  

Actually, I just built one arch, but one arch plus wildflowers an Avant Garden makes. I am going back on Friday and will add to it.

And this fern seemed to grow out of the trunk:
Looks like Spring ...

I had to take a photo of Amputree:
Multiple Amputree, poor guy ...

I hiked a bit on down Bent Creek and did these arches:
A matching pair ...

and then spent an hour on an arch I could not get to stand. A little stream fell into Bent Creek about 25 upstream of these arches (that'd be west) of these arches and I wanted to build an arch there where it joined the creek, but it just wouldn't happen. Sometimes I lost grip on the slippery rocks, sometimes my Rock As just were not sitting properly, etc. I gave it an hour and was tired and hungry and barefoot, so I will save it for Friday. 

Tomorrow the plumber dominates my daylight hours. Ug.

... I am tired, having worked pretty hard this weekend. Friday night and Saturday my computer would not upload thumbnails, but it inexplicably fixed itself.

 I got a lot done on the "No One Else Has One" Garden, but shan't bore you with the details. I did this arch, which would probably place second in the "Most Precarious Footing" category to go with these stickribs I did in my neighbor's yard:
Who has been here?

This morning I took all three kids and the dog on a picnic to Paint Rock and we had a great time, even the kids who seemed less than thrilled at the idea.

Last week's  , looked like this:
Sunday morning follies ... 

when I left the area today. There were more people this time.

Further upstream, I did this arch in the Creek:
Fueled by a junkfood picnic extravaganza ...

while we picnicked. At one point, I said to the kids, "I am going to take off my shoes and wade out there and I might need some help, as in, someone to bring me rocks and things ..." and Matt spoke up and said, "I think it would be a good idea for you to take lots of rocks out there -- more than you'll ever need -- instead of expecting us to interrupt our lunch to hand you a rock." Wiseass punk.

I had to stop for one more photo of this guy on the way home:
I like this angle ...

Tomorrow evening I have to write, so I doubt I will do anything that involves getting dirty.