Landscaping

The other thing that's been going on around here is landscaping the areas right around the house, especially on the south and east sides. We hired a company, Sage Ecological Landscapes, to do that work. Design-wise we were all on the same page in the hymnal. Lots and lots of native bunch grasses, some striking agaves, and a few other native shrubs and perennials. Three big California buckeye trees on the north side. And culinary herbs around the birdbath right outside our bedroom window. Sage reworked the flagstone pathway on the south side and added a french drain under the balcony. The guys pretty much finished up today. They were totally wonderful. Friday they'll return to plant my culinary bay laurel tree, a Saratoga cultivar. And they will add more grasses in a couple weeks when those plants are big enough to plant. We generally used smaller plants and put the money into gopher baskets for everything. I think going with smaller plants and baskets is going to pay off in the long run. We bought the baskets ourselves and have plenty left over for future expansion of plantings on the north and west sides where Randy is working of restoring native vegetation. The three men who did the actual work here over the last 2.5 weeks were fabulously skilled and very professional. I'm kind of going to miss them.

I did the tie-up and sleyed the reed for my first batch of serviettes. This is exciting, to be making fabric again. It seems quite magical to me.