To get started this afternoon I cut up a very large trunk of crape myrtle from my next door neighbor's yard - when her yard guy trimmed stuff he didn't notice this go over the top of the fence. I'd left it by the garage gate and was going to haul it to my curb, but after trimming off the leafy branches I find a have a beautiful twisty multi-branch topped limb with smooth wood (the bark peels off of these). I think I'll bring it in and wrap lights around it for the holidays. It should look fabulous in the corner by the fireplace. If it won't prop I may need to get a bunch of smooth gravel and a stand for it. I loose points on de-clutter but earn one for recycling. It might do to use instead of a tree altogether - what a find! :)

After that was out of the way I took the wheelbarrow full of cactus roots and pads I dug last week out through to the back gate and spread them along the upper edge of the bank over the creek. They should root pretty quickly.

Right now I'm taking a breather from re-working the wall around my keyhole garden out front. I originally used smaller rocks to build it up and it didn't look that great. I realized that with the other large rocks I've used elsewhere in the yard (all limestone leftover from a big thing that used to be in the front porch area as a wrap around planter - dumped by the back fence years ago) that this looked funny by comparison. So I dug around the outer edge to get the grass out, put down mulch and am simply pulling the first wall down and using the bigger rocks and new rocks hauled from the back to build this about 6 inches out from the old. The garden will be bigger but will also look more like it fits here. I'm about 1/4 of the way around it now. I hadn't planted it yet so grass got established in the fill dirt. I'm having to weed the thing as I go. I think I'll do half of this today and half tomorrow.

I'll set up the bread machine to make dough for pita bread while I make my next pass at the garden. There is also a trip to the grocery store in my plans today, and if I remember to get fresh lemons I'll bake an eggplant and make a batch of babaghanoush. Mmmmmmm! I need beer for snail bait, and maybe the cook will have some with a late Mediterranean dinner! :-D

SRS