A Yard Facelift

Some of you may know I have a ginormous German Shepherd named Anubis.

I generally refer to him as The Werewolf. My backyard is a small, fenced-in space that is barely large enough for The Werewolf to terrorize tiny beasties that also live there. He's not destructive in the least (Mama raised him right), however, just the simple act of playing fetch causes him to tear up precious lawn and trample plants. Plus, during these hot July days, my all-black monster gets overheated pretty easily. Due to these issues, we had to do some renovating to the yard.

We dug out a stream and a pond so Anubis could cool off at his leisure. I tried the blue, plastic kiddie pool route last summer, and while The Werewolf loved it, the pool just didn't stand up to his constant in and out and thrashing about. Now, he can slosh around in the pond without fear of needing duct tape to keep all the water in.

 

 

We planted things behind the stream and pond so he is less likely to roam back there. He still explores that area, but the way the plants are placed makes him unable to whip through at the speed of light. It's sort of like an obstacle course now where he needs to tread carefully to navigate around.

Around our fire pit, the grass would always burn due to sun exposure, and more recently due to dog piss, so we built a patio around it instead with crushed stone and large flagstones. The area is way more conducive to sitting around now, and I'm sure we'll use it a lot more. As a bonus, Anubis doesn't like to walk on the crushed stone. Ah-HA!

 

 

So while the grass is still torn up in spots and new spots get sacrificed every time we play, the rest of the yard looks amazing. It's about dragging the eyes off the patches of dead grass and to the colors of the flowering plants and the gentle ripple of the pond and stream.

Yeah, it's about tricking you. I had to do something. It's my Outdoor Writing Office out there in the summer. I couldn't be distracted by the non-lushness of my grass. I needed areas to focus on that were beautiful and inspiring.

Hey, we do what we gotta do. Someday I'll move to Vermont where The Werewolf can run free and there is no manicured lawn to worry about.

What would your dream yard look like?

Happy Fourth of July!

Toodles,
Chris
www.christinedepetrillo.weebly.com Adult Romance
www.christymajor.weebly.com YA Romance
www.christineteaches.weebly.com The Writing Teacher

Weird Behavior? Moi? I Hide Plants....

By @GlenysOConnell

I hide plants.

There, I've confessed. 

While everyone else is out there nurturing their pretty green garden plants and jewel-toned flowers, I’m hiding houseplants. It's not like this is some dark secret  vice or anything - like talking to dead people or collecting booze bottles or having a mad crush on Justin Bieber  (if I was blah-blah years younger, maybe…)

No, I hide plants for their own good. Ever since a certain young lady came to visit for a while, brought by one of my sons, there hasn't been a safe place for plants anywhere in my house.

Her name's Miss Kitteh and she eats house plants. Now there's a dark secret vice if ever there was one.

It all started when the aforementioned son decided he was changing jobs and couldn’t keep his beloved cat with him until he had got settled in his new apartment. I sighed a bit (we already have two cats) but agreed. Of course, it was only going to be for a week or two.

That was three months ago.

And in that time, Ms. Kitteh has cut a swathe of devastation through my pride-and-joy house plants. Even worse, she's got the other cats chewing on them as well.

So I have plants hidden on a high shelf in the bathroom. And two on the guestroom window sill - a forbidden spot for cats but unfortunately, one where the plants get forgotten at watering time. Then there's in the window behind my desk, and another - one of my favourites - hidden on a filing cabinet behind my office door. And that door is kept tightly shut.

I occasionally wake up in a sweat (yeah, it's an age thing) wondering if I remembered to close that office door. Of course, I then elbow DH awake to ask him if he noticed it was closed. It's a good thing he's pretty patient. Or maybe just too tired to care.

Of course, I've read that some house plants are dangerous to cats if they chew them. That may be so, but nothing seems to upset Miss Kitteh's digestion.

What worries me is how I'm going to retrain the other two to stop chewing, once Miss Kitteh goes back to her rightful slave. I mean, owner.

She's a former stray with sharp claws, sharp fangs and an even sharper temper. But you know something? We'll miss her when she goes to her new home.

Like, really.

Glenys O'Connell, a card carrying member of the Crazy Cat Lady Club, can often be seen waving her arms to stop traffic while she rescues turtles, frogs, snakes, chipmunks and other assorted creatures on busy highways. Friends predict that one day she'll be smucked by a fast moving transport. But until that day, she plans to keep right on writing - right now working on Never Kiss Another Frog - a romance writer's guide to dating for women who no longer believe in fairy tales! Visit her at Romance Can Be Murder! or on Twitter at @GlenysOConnell