Best Laid Plans

Here is an online link to this week's Top 5 Home & Garden Events listing on page 29 of today's print edition. Pick up the Washington Examiner at any area metro station. Those are my nieces in their faerie finery at last year's Maryland Faerie Fest - a highlight of their social season! One of these years I'm going to have to plant a nice Faerie Garden for them. I have a few small faerie figurines strategically placed among my hellebores and pachysandra. That will have to do for now.

Pictured here is one of the blooms from my 'Silver Moon' clematis. I have two plants -- one on each side of the gazebo. Full shade and pretty dry, but blooming like crazy right now and each flower is the size of dessert plate. The pale lavender is one of my favorite colors. The photo doesn't show it well, but it also has a nice opalescent sheen to it that is another benefit to its being happy in a shade location.

Today was one of those days I was in perpetual motion, but at the end felt like I got nothing done. Looking back though, I did get a lot accomplished -- just none of things I'd scheduled or have on my to-do list. Two large boxes of sample plants arrived unexpectedly on my front steps this morning so that dictated an afternoon of planting and rearranging. I also stopped at the post office to buy 2-cent stamps for the new rates. (Grrrr - don't get me started! I should bring my change jar and just dump it on their counter. "You want my pennies? You got 'em!") The trip to the USPS, of course led to detours to pick up necessities at Rite Aid and Giant as well as a chat with a friend who works at NOAA. Finally, throwing my whole planned schedule off were two unexpected visitors this afternoon.

The first visitor, a lost dog, snuck up on me and Chantilly, my cat, while I was planting around my gazebo. I should've realized something was wrong when the constant squawking of the two mockingbirds had suddenly ceased. Isn't that the way it works in horror films? The eerie dead silence, then *bam* around the corner bursts the killer. In this case, the dog was friendly enough -- but still quite a shocker for kitty, who puffed up like a balloon. I never did get to read his tags or locate an owner -- he took off before I could find something to tie around his collar. He did have time though to eat the carrot butts I'd left at the bird feeder for the squirrels.

The second visitor was a homeless man who has been loitering around my street corner for the past few weeks. He is fairly young, very tan, and has a completely shaved head. I know he is homeless as the sign he carries everywhere with him reads: "Homeless - help me." I have seen him off and on. Some days he is literally standing in my driveway. Sometimes he is out approaching drivers as they are stopped at my light. Other times he is just gone. I had been debating on whether to call the police on him or not, not to arrest him -- just to get him to move along. Then today he rings my doorbell like 15 times in a row (annoying!) and asks me in quick succession whether I am with the Washington Post, if I want to hire him to water my garden, do I want to buy a back-up cell phone for $5. That would be no, no, and no. I ended the conversation as quickly and firmly as possible without being a bitch, but got to say he was working a nerve. Ahhh, urban living.

This is going to be another very busy weekend with a booth this Saturday, 5/19 at Spring Garden Day Green Spring Gardens. Then try to squeeze in visits to the 5/19-20 Maryland Faerie Fest, 5/20 Shepherd Park Garden Tour, and 5/20 Historic Hyattsville House Tour. Then Monday night is the 5/21 Silver Spring Garden Club Meeting.