Friends in the garden

The last few days I've been gardening for a woman who works with my mom. She has a steep back garden that's pretty overgrown and in need of some attention.


We made a run to the dump with a truckload of old rotting junk, and another truckload of leaves went to the garden waste recycling place this morning. That was a fun excursion--watching the backhoe shoveling a huge mountain of compost.

The woman in the little shack that functioned as an office took $10 for the truckload and wrote me a receipt. While she did that, I looked at the piles of rocks, rough gemstones and crystals and petrified wood she had sitting around. She had agates and quartz and all sorts. Did you find all those around here? I asked. Yep, she said, every time I go out there something catches my eye.

So far I've raked piles of leaves and dry weeds, stacked branches and rocks, and dug. I put in a few more steps and a connecting path to make it a bit easier to access the hillside.


Today I found some friendly creatures while I was working!






All my muscles are fatigued and I'm having a hard time holding my head up, now that I've had a shower and a cup of tea. When I worked as a gardener for a spring and a summer in Portland, Oregon, I got really strong from all the hard work. Clearly it's been a while since I've done that much out in the garden!