This time it was the south bed, the one with the rosebushes in it. I watered it yesterday for a couple of hours to loosen the gumbo enough that I could dig in it with a trowel (the only way to make sure I get up the roots rather than breaking them off at ground level is to dig under the roots and loosen the dirt around ’em), and this morning I was able to get up a great wodge of golden foxtail and lamb’s quarters, as well as other assorted nasty grasses and dozens of little-bitty elm seedlings (a nearby elm tree re-seeds the bed every year) and a bunch of old moonflower and morning-glory volunteers, left over from the time two years ago when T planted them on a now-rotted trellis. Next I have to lower the current trellis, replace a broken crossmember (twisting a half-inch galvanized iron pipe in two takes some doing, but I did it), dig new post holes, and get the damned thing back up and guyed so I can begin to train the roses onto it.
And in much more entertaining news, this week L gave me a registration to Bouchercon, which is being held in Austin next month! Mystery fans will know why this is a Big Deal; for the f&sf fen, I’ll explain that Bouchercon is the mystery fen’s equivalent of Worldcon. And this year it’s being held in AUSTIN!!
I’m particularly looking forward to getting to meet a number of people I know from the DorothyL listserv, and to getting to see some fannish friends and authors I haven’t seen in a Long Time, most particularly Laura Lippman, who promised to stand me at least one drink while she’s in town.
