Three And A Half Days In Review At 100 Miles An Hour.

My latest scheduleing tactic has been to start the workday at 4AM. It is monumentally productive but it leaves me very much out of the "circulation" I am accustomed too. Sunday even, up at 4:30, picked up my work clothes strewn about from the weeks race, put some laundry in, and tidy'd the house getting it emotionally stable for the week before I got out for a 10 mile run. Oatmeal and yogurt for breakfast and off to spend some time (first appointment of the day is at 10:45) at the caffe with ear plugs in - organizing task lists and hoping to drop a blog post.

Everything is fast and on (or terribly off) schedule this time of season. I spend the day hitting time frames one after another. Its complication comes from racing as fast as possible to be responsible, "on time," and productive, all the while, in the midst of each frame being as slow as possible to help everyone with what they need. Stop go. Stop go.

The whole point of the above is to explain this moment I just had, ears plugged and the bitter flavor of espresso in my mouth, where assembling the images below I said, "I think we succeded in making beautiful things this week."

My beautiful friend Vanessa, who I miss very much, texted me Friday. She was having Passover dinner Saturday evening and was looking for something to decorate her plate settings with. I started texting her images of possibilities.

I sent her this one at 5:30 in the morning Saturday. Its my favorite. I never heard from her. Never really talked about, these are the flowers of a Norway Maple - the worst tree ever - which is why for this one emerging second in the springtime in can pull a tear. Norway Maples are terribly problematic and invasive in urban landscapes and we need them to go away.

My level of awareness of the spring's details has never been higher. Every season to this point in my life there has only been "Daffs." Now there are endless varieties. I have favorites and can't catalog them fast enough.

The last few springs I have begun to wonder just how many more there may be. Landscape and garden life - unlike the worlds of factory produced living - is seasonal and the business has its stages we pass through each season. I feel I get dramatically better with each season's experience. By this time next week, these Daffs will have passed on and I'll be looking at Crabapples and Tulips. But how many more bloomings of the Daffs will there be to learn from?

Back in the first week of January I collected a bunch of discarded Christmas trees from the neighborhood's curbs and erected them in this vacant lot near my house. I took them down last week and made this form. By the years end this won't be a vacant lot. The neighboring house has been bought and we're building a garden here.

We are very happy and proud of our new site sign.

Three Peony "Karl Rosenfeld." I bought them at Aldi for $1.49 each and planted them at "The Territory." Surely they were on clearance but that is 1/2 of what I can by them at in cases of 12 at wholesale. It about experimentation and learning. Turns out "Karl Rosenfeld" is a reputed variety and was offered in nearly every wholesale catalog I had. So. I'm just say'n. Aldi may be the next frontier of the garden world. ❤️ to all.