Monday, August 28, 2006

MY BAD

Fall is coming. I can feel it in the air in the early mornings and late evening. When I get into bed I find myself pulling the comforter up for the first time since late spring. The crickets that have been chirping so lustily on my windowsill each evening are beginning to sound like electronic toys whose batteries are dying down.
The birds are flocking. They're flying from field to field and bush to bush, gleaning all the seeds and insects they can find to get ready to migrate. And my wimpy little Amur Maple needs tree wrap to survive the upcoming winter.

When I had a huge overgrown upright juniper removed in the spring I really wanted to replace it with a tree that would sport bright red leaves to complement all the evergreens in the neighborhood. All I could find was this little Flame Maple, a Charlie Brown tree if I ever saw one. It's needed lots of support to even stay upright but I have high hopes for it. So I want to make sure it makes it through the winter. I swung by WalMart to get some tree wrap for it and also to see if they had any "Croc"-type shoes to wear in the garden. My gardening shoes of choice, flip-flops, are so slick on the bottom after a couple of years of wear that standing on a wet patio is like trying to stay upright on glaze ice. Well they didn't have any Crocs but I did find six other pairs of shoes.


These are my favorites. None of them will do for the garden but I can wear them to work and I spend more waking hours there anyway. So $1.87 for tree wrap turned into a slightly larger dent on the debit card, but hey, we're talking WalMart here. I'm still going to look for Crocs, and I bet if I wear them with a pair of socks I can even go outside in the middle of a blizzard-y night and knock the snow off my Charlie Brown tree without falling on my butt.

And when I'm snuggled back under my comforter, I can dream that my tree will look like this in a few years.

5 comments:

Christine Boles said...

You crack me up~
I'm going to be adding your blog link to the unwieldy list on my home/garden blog. Try to stop me.

Anonymous said...

I crave socks on my feet these days, it's so cold! How'd that happen? It's still August. Love your Charlie Brown tree and new shoes! If you can test drive a pair of Crocs, I recommend it. I spur of the moment bought a pair--they have little pricks in the foot area of them that take getting used to and to be honest with you, I've never had such dirty feet--lousy garden shoes, they let all the dirt in.-Judith

LostRoses said...

Christine, you're too funny! Thanks for the blog link, I'm honored!

Judith, yeah, the chilly nights, what's up with that? It's not even Labor Day yet. As for the Crocs, hmmm, if the dirt can get in, I guess a quick spray from the hose can too. Looking forward to trying them, thanks for the recommendation.

Boxwood Cottage said...

LOL!

Are that your feet LR? Oh my they are so beautifully brown!

Yeah I'm also dreaming of a tree like that! I'm sure your's will be wonderful one day with all the love you give it!

LostRoses said...

Carol, well you know we are one mile closer to the sun here so we do tend to get tan in the summer! Plus wearing flip-flops at home all the time helps! As soon as winter comes we will be pale as the moon.

I bet my tree never looks like that but that is the fun of gardening, the patience to see what turns out!