With the end of school looming (see all the cross outs in my dc curriculum) I have had more time for gardening.  My poor gardens have been neglected over the years as my dc have gotten into deeper subjects, requiring lots of study time for me!  I'm glad I like to study and learn!  However, it's been a delight to return to my roots...gardening!  LOL 

Yesterday morning I labored in one of the front gardens by the driveway that has become increasingly shabby.  I asked dh pretty please the night before to remove a few roses out front and out back, which spent more time looking bad than looking good.  At the foot of this one garden, was a blue plumbago growing too large and invading the yard, making it difficult for dh to mow and edge the lawn.  I knew it had to come out.

I was sitting in the garden, hacking away at this deep root system, when a lady walked by.  She had been putting notices on front doors.  She commented on my labor, saying it was certain to produce good results.  Then she said she was the realtor who lived up the road and was going to stick a note on my front door.  Commenting about the loveliness of my garden all the way, she came back with more edification.  She loved my entryway, saying that it was peaceful.  Wow!  That had been my goal.  I never realized someone actually thought it was.  She kept encouraging me in my efforts and headed up the street. With that encoucouragment, I got the rest of the root out!  I found the edge of the garden too!  Being at the bottom of a hill, the dirt and mulch over time, and dh's digging, had caused all the dirt and mulch to cascade into the yard.  Think we'll have to build a wall of bricks there before I replace plants.  I wondered if dh would want to put edging there first. Yes.  Now I have to pretty please to my dh again since I'd like to put new plants in by this weekend! 

Last night we took a walk as a family.  As we walked up the road, we passed a group of 3 ladies, leisurely walking one dog and chit chatting and laughing amongst themselves.  I didn't really give it much thought. We continued up the road and met an elderly lady gardening, who'm I've blogged about before.  She was one of the very few homes flying the American flag  and dh had to thank her.  Of course she flies it lol, she said, they are retired Army of 40 years and went through many hardships to be able to fly that flag!  She said all this with the sweetest smile on her face. We talked for awhile and continued on our way, up the hill, over other streets, about a mile in all. 

Eventually we came across those 3 ladies very l-e-i-s-u-r-e-l-y s-t-r-o-l-l-i-n-g their dog and chit chatting.  So leisurely were they, that we were very near the point we had passed them earlier.  I was surprised with how little they had advanced on thier walk, but chalked it up to their desire to be with each other, rather than conquering the walk like we were!  LOL  Then one of those ladies looked up and saw us and her jaw dropped to the ground and she exclaimed, "What!  How did you do that?  You made it around twice in the time it took for us to get here?"  Of course she knew full well we had only made it once, but quick witted as I rarely am I piped up, "Oh no, we made it 3 times around!!!"  Oh my gosh we were ROTFL and she just couldn't get over it!  Well, I guess you had to be there! LOL