Party

We got a flyer in our mailbox — it is nice to have a mailbox rather than picking up your mail from a scattered pile on the floor of the front hall; but the amount of coupons we receive is astounding. The flyer was for a block party being held down the street. Drinks, grills and condiments would be provided. We were invited to bring meat, sides, dessert, chairs. While it feels now, closing in on the first year anniversary of our move, that we have been here a while, we are new to the block.

Because everyone drives everywhere and there is nowhere to walk to we have little chance of meeting the neighbors. Although as we take the dog for longer walks we may see the other dog people, and in fact, on the morning of the party, as we push the dog to challenge himself, this happened.

The neighbors seem nice. There are other children on the street and the people hosting the party have a tennis court and a big lawn where the kids will gather. As conversation flowed from snakes in laundry rooms to doctors to professors, someone whose friend, in a different neighborhood, lived near “that crazy Amy Bishop” remarked how relieved she had been that she hadn’t called the city about the state of the Bishops’ lawn.

Now our lawn is not a splendid thing. Readers will know that we have a pile of sawdust where the tree was, but that very morning we had been to the garden center and bought a new tree, some grass seed to fill in the bald patches, some flower seeds and a shovel.

The next day we start to dig, but it is hard work. There is a network of roots beneath the surface and the soil is packed down tightly between them. We are 3 or 4 inches down with another 8 to go. We may have to Call Someone. Time will tell which seeds will take and how lush our lawn can be but we are walking the dog further and further, going to puppy class and getting to grips with yard work. As summer takes hold we will start our second year and see where that takes us.

tree

There used to be a big tree on the little, sloping lawn in front of our house but when all the other trees came into leaf it did not. At first you give it benefit of the doubt. We went outside and poked at it. After a while it became clear that it might be dead and that we might have to Call Someone. Stump grinding was a new term to me. Sounds risqué or like some kind of 19th century pioneer sporting event. Now we have a pile of chippings where the tree was and a big pile of trunk segments to be chopped into firewood and yesterday we went to the garden center and bought a tree. Before it gets too hot, I have to dig a hole. The lady at the garden center told us how. They make it sound so easy. I take pictures of the grass with my phone in case I need to refer to them but she asks us if the grass was green over the winter and identifies it on that. I’m not sure what to put the dirt from the hole into. This is probably something you would use a wheelbarrow for. Would a wheelbarrow come in handy for other things? When we looked at houses to buy I was impressed by the ones where the garages and workshops were tidy and well-organized, though it also might indicate badly executed DIY. Yesterday at Wal-Mart we buy a shovel. Do we need a rake? I wonder. Should I get an axe? my husband asks. But let’s not go crazy, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. So we’re going one tree at time.

first past post

This blog is named in honor of the Wertis. It may involve cats but it is not going to be a blog about cats. I have started this blog as a way to do more writing (that isn’t work email) (and where I can use punctuation and sentence structure as I please) and to record my life as a neophyte in suburbia and as a somewhat newly repatriated American (July 2009) and because in my work I need to be able to help and advise with things like blogs so I need some place to practice and try things out. And because, as a lapsed fiction writer, I like the sense of having an audience. Whether or not it exists. I know Americans blog like crazy when they leave the country but how many do it on their return? Probably lots! And I need somewhere to post all the pictures I take out the car window.