Last night’s season finale of “Mad Men” featured the engagement of Don Draper, the handsome, middle-aged, literally self-made man – to his 25 year old secretary. Which brought up the question, “Does she really know him?” (Answer: no, since Don has not yet revealed his actual identity to her).
That resonates because I’m wondering the same thing: at what point do we really know another person well enough to say that we love them and not our idea of them?

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Planted a half dozen hyacinths yesterday in between the back yard Montauks. Should be a great spot, since it gets a lot of sun. I was happy to get them in before last night’s rain.
Had a really nice, easy supper tonight, baked pollock (beautiful fillet from Roche Bros) and a home made Asian Salad knockoff with romaine, peapods, craisins, almonds, noodles and Drew’s sesame orange dressing, far superior to Kraft’s.

Unloaded a yard of wet mulch today at Edgewater. Emme helped spread about half on the new grass garden, and she also decorated with some of the larger rocks. It looks quite nice.

Peter will take some pix tomorrow, and I may go back myself to finish weeding and spreading in the front.

I’d like to know how much that mulch weighs! I’ve seen estimates of 800-1,000 pounds.

Fell into a deep sleep, woke up about two hours later.

Remembered that poor Fluffles had been outside the whole time!

I’ve been sleeping very well, going to bed early and getting up before dawn. Sweet Mr. Fluffles has been curling up with me.
I spent most of yesterday in front of a computer screen. A full-time gig fell through for budget reasons, so I’m on the lookout again for work.

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Finished planting yesterday: Miscanthus Variegatus, lavender, catmint, sedge, maiden grass, dwarf fountain grass. Pulled off some serendipitous little vignettes and unearthed several big pudding stones for interest.
Will add mulch or woodchips and may ask Emme and/or James to help pick out some inexpensive whirligigs for color. There is room for the gazing ball that Bonnie wants.
Rained last night; we may get more today and a big storm on Friday.

For the last two days, I’ve been prepping a good-sized section of the back yard at Edgewater for a grass garden.

I’ve been fretting about that part of the yard for years. I had it cleared but never did anything with it, so it filled itself in with chamomile, weeds, evening primrose and a lot of nasty wild stuff with killer thorns.

I also trimmed the forsythia in the front and dug up two azaleas that never took. All of this required 2 trips to the transfer station in addition to the regular dump run. I was so worn out yesterday evening that I almost fell asleep in my driveway.

Don’t ask me why I’m doing this instead of working on the deck(s) because I really don’t know.

I do know that I could get a flight on Southwest from Providence to Oakland, with a stop in Phoenix, for only $204.

Emme redid the window boxes on the shed today, and I think they look great.

We picked up a bunch of grasses for their backyard. Clearing and planting will likely be a weekend-long project.

Scottish Blessing
May the blessing of light be on you
Light without and light within.
May the blessed sunlight shine on you like a great peat fire,
So that stranger and friend may come and warm himself at it.
And may light shine out of the two eyes of you,
Like a candle set in the window of a house,
Bidding the wanderer come in out of the storm.
May the blessing of the rain be on you,
May it beat upon your Spirit
And wash it fair and clean,
And leave there a shining pool where the blue of Heaven shines,
And sometimes a star.
May the blessing of the earth be on you,
Soft under your feet as you pass along the roads,
Soft under you as you lie out on it, tired at the end of day;
And may it rest easy over you when, at last, you lie out under it.
May it rest so lightly over you
That your soul may be out from under it quickly;
Up and off and on its way to God.
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St. Anne’s Reel