My friend Lucy always sang, “And when they come, they come at a run!” when she called her horses—or so I remember, anyway—and it comes to mind when I call my team up now. This evening, as Tank sauntered across the top of dam, I called for him, and he sure did come at a run. And I didn’t miss out on my much loved greeting by the darling Cobber: a super deep Hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo-hoo. (When he’s feeling less exuberant, you can just make out the quivering nostrils.)
Early last summer we planted out a garden bed in front of the back deck. It looked great—until we got the unbelievable run of 40+ days. Watering alone did not save much of what we planted, and disheartened I left the rest till the season passed and I could start again.
On Wednesday I put in five hours of back-breaking toil to dig into the clay with a mattock, work hard enough to approximate a chain gang for a soft office worker like myself. We had planted a load of Little Ruby, which was robust enough to bounce back from the heat, but had sprawled out and was in entirely the wrong spot for my new garden plan, so I trimmed each one, dug them out and replanted them in a row as a vibrant back border. I’ve really taken a shine to the fiery Nandina Obsession, and couldn’t resist adding these little eruptions of colour along with my favourite red Salvia, and some flowering grasses in the front border. Today I planted about 30 daffodil bulbs through the centre. Later I am going to add some roses. A work in progress.
I pray The Peepers don’t stumble across this bed covered in its tempting blanket of sugar cane mulch—given a chance they would happily take that garden bed apart. Vandals.
Some of the bulbs I planted a few years ago have come up and flowered already. I’m not sure if it’s the warm weather or if they are true early bloomers. I don’t think I’ve seen Aloe Vera flower before, but the orange spikes are quite impressive.
Last stop before heading indoors was our fountain fish pond. Though the fountain itself has broken, we’ve added in water lillies and other aquatic plants and the fish seem really very happy. It has to be a much more fun place to hang out than a glass tank.
Weekend greetings, from The Peepers!
The Peeper Project 
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