Yep, it's worth getting excited about.

So, today was the day the man came to remove the grout from between the bricks on the front and back of the house. He used a tool, the name of which I do not know nor desire to know. The tool blows huge and I do mean HUGE streams of mortar dust the entire time it is being used. The dust is very fine, not sweepable.  When he finished removing the mortar, which was noisy but not as bad as I thought it would be, he starts up a blower and starts blowing dust away from all the surfaces. When he swept it across the front door, two large clouds of dust came THROUGH the door. That's when I started getting a bit tight in the jaw.  The fact is I have always despised the use of leaf blowers and snow blowers, basically for the very same reason as I now despised the blower this fool held in his hands. When you blow at something, it doesn't disappear, it just goes somewhere else.  This does not take an abundance of education, or even intelligence, to understand.

Why would someone use a blower to disperse this stuff?

Wouldn't a vacuum be a better idea?

 Mess made by brick grout dust blown all over by workman, 

everything was completely inundated. The fountain and the kitty shelters

had been covered with the grey tarp, which is fairly thick. 

Didn't matter, the crap clogged and muddied the fountain, 

and made all the cat blankets and shelters filthy inside and out.

 Just more of the backyard - looks like something exploded back there

and note how it reaches into the neighbors yard,

everything covered in gritty brick dust

 Accumulation of brick mortar dust on door to cellar 

showing how thick it's piled up in places

Dust coats floor and every object inside.

This dust is on all the cars, front porches, and yards of 

most of the neighbors.

Low bid is frequently low for a very good reason.

Again, why use a blower?  Not only did fine powder cling to virtually everything it touched, the animals and I had to breathe it for hours as it seeped in around the doors and windows, at times so thick it looked like fog. It gets in the eyes, ears, nose and throat. It covered every car parked near by. I cannot believe this is the result if this job is done properly.

Crunchy out today

The sidewalk was covered with broken glass - doesn't really show up well in the photo but the thing that went through my mind when I saw it was the pictures I have seen of shattered storefront windows glittering on sidewalks. 

Overhead, boughs of trees bent low with ice from the freezing rain and what covers the sidewalk are the thousands of pieces of ice that have shattered and fallen from the trees.  I thought it might be as difficult to walk on as the sheet ice that has covered the streets for weeks.  It wasn't though. It was very easy to walk on, not slippery at all, more like little cleats on the sidewalk.

And the sound it made - wonderful!  Big crunches and crackles, much more satisfying in that way than scuffling through fallen leaves.

So Lucy and I took our little journey down the walk, she did her job, we cleaned up, and walked back home, crunching and crackling all the way.

Last year's backyard Basil

The backyard is frozen and looks pretty much like this only more snow, more ice, more cold. That's my old dog Lucy back there. She doesn't stay out long.

This is last year's back yard Basil before it got REALLY big, only about 4 feet in this shot. There was another gorgeous big Basil in the front yard. Lovely smelling the Basil, takes one right into the best Italian kitchen you can remember.

This is my way I guess of easing myself into believing spring is just around the corner. Soon things from last year will be poking through and I'll be able to get a shovel into the soil, to turn it over and run my fingers through it.

Fifty-nine years gardening.

In my mind's eye I see that first garden, me ten years old, my Gram with a handful of Nasturtium seeds.  Seems so incredible I can still feel the warmth of that sunny day, see the wide flower box by the sidewalk, and the apron my Gram was wearing. "Dig a little hole and drop two seeds in it, then water it and wait."

My Gram knew there was hardly any way at all to keep a Nasturtium from growing, she knew how to hook me. She knew what I would feel once those great heaps of orange flowers began filling the flower box, spilling over the side, reaching for the sidewalk. 

Right now through  infinite space and time, the thread that connects us vibrates.