Can anyone say Bengay

We are all so tired tonight that we can barely move. Our day started early, which is always easier when the sun is out. I was at the library by 8:30 to oversee set-up and the first two hours of selling at the book sale and the guys were off for errands. We met back at home at 11:30, and that would be a quiet day if it had ended there. Instead we took up our earth moving tools and headed to the back yard where we remained, sans breaks for lunch and drinks every now and again, until the pizza we ordered arrived at 7:30. Or, actually, we came in fifteen minutes earlier to shower the dirt and grime off first. And thus we are are all so tired that we can barely move. At least Jon and I feel that way. Calvin is fast asleep.

There is much to show for our day, although when my hands are that dirty I don't take pictures. All the gardens are edged, weeded, and turned, the lawn is mowed, the hummingbird feeders are out, and the seed feeders are all full (although that is a constant job) and two new cypress trees, a service berry bush, and a lilac now fill out the back garden. Our work is done there! At least as far as major plantings, like trees and bushes, go. And that is if the birch we planted last fall comes back to life this year, though as of now it's seeming sluggish, maybe even unlikely. But while the evening sun faded we stood on the deck basking in the glow of our hard work. Today's hard work, last year's hard work, and the hard work from the year before. The yard is really getting there.

And another thing to show for our day. I came home from the book sale this morning with a fifth edition, second state, copy of the Wizard of Oz. Printed in the late 1920s it has eight color plates of Denislow's original illustrations. A real original, a real collection piece. Calvin is in love (and so am I).

If my hands stay cleaner tomorrow I'll come back with more pictures.