St Patrick's Day and Such

Happy Saint Patrick's Day!

St. Patty's Day was a big deal growing up. I'm not as good as Nana or the twins about keeping it special. I did see some special cupcakes being advertised at our local shop, though!

But to be honest, I was more excited by a different flavor on display.

Not that I agonized choosing. I bought both (and other Shane friendly flavors, too!).

Nana and Pop proudly posted themselves in green. I got a text asking if I was wearing my green, too.

Hopefully, teal counted. My eyes looked fairly green that day and I was wearing a cap to help. 

It was a teacher workday for me. I was at a County-wide Math meeting. Shane had to come along and read Calvin and Hobbes comics in Albemarle High School's cafeteria.

I forget exactly why he came along. It may have been the last hunt of the season for Carrie. He said was about to explode when the meeting ended. "Why didn't you just look for the bathroom?" I asked. Most schools are smart enough to have a bathroom close to the cafeteria. We didn't have to walk far.

On the way, we passed an open room and my ADHD/curiosity spotted something highly amusing.

There is a story behind that chair. I don't know what it is, but I would like to! Shane and I imagined a few scenarios on our way out.

We had an errand to accomplish on the way home and stopped by Snow's Garden Center.

Shane played with the store cat while I took pictures of shrubs and sent them to Carrie.

Smartphone technology and my legs allow Carrie to remotely shop in real time!

Technically, Carrie was selecting the plant for Grandma. "Do I have to hold this the whole way home?" 

"Cool!"

The plant  was for the crew Grandma hired to work on flower beds.

In a perfect world, I'd have before and after pictures. I don't.

The front yard looks nice now.

The question is: For how long? Gardens take work to maintain.

I value my blog much more highly than the garden and I'm behind on that. How often do you think I'm working on the flower beds? Whatever weeds I do pull is out of love for Grandma and not any personal drive (and sometimes because Carrie is panicking that they're going to visit and wants the yard to look better!). 

The crew did a good job from what I could tell. They worked on the back, too, but I don't think they'd gotten to it by the time I took this pictures around St. Patrick's. You'd think I could tell, but I really can't.

In my defense, I'm on record not caring about landscaping. I can look at a garden and appreciate it a moment, but then I move on with my life. As long as the grass isn't so high I'm freaking out about ticks, I'm happy.

We had one garden at our first townhouse I actually cared about and took care of. It was small. I tended the garden before I had a phone with a decent camera and had trouble finding pictures of it, but someone put the house up for sale again. The garden is still there!

The Japanese maples have grown considerably, but the rock path and pavers are all as I installed them under Grandma's watchful eye. I liked living in that townhouse.

Later, Carrie and I did a ton of landscaping at our first house. That got the urge all out of my system. 

There were the bamboo wars when we moved to Charlottesville (at least until we figured out we could give it away wholesale to fraternity houses!). People used to harvest the new shoots for food. 

Finally, Pip the kitten is doing very well. Carrie is highly amused by how much he trusts her. She can arrange and dangle him in all sorts of creative ways and he just purrs away.