Outdoor Projects

What are our new projects? Maybe you didn't ask, but you could.

I can't write for Shari. She's busy sewing shade fabric for the vegetable garden and making beautiful jewelry out of pieces of silver, argentium, solder and gold foil.

But Tucson Tom has a few things to boast about. Like the new driveway. It's been paved with new asphalt and -- no extra charge -- dusted with Portland cement. The benefit is a lighter color that absorbs less heat. The downside is that it looks like it's been dusted with Portland cement.

There is not much that I like about the light grey-green shade of pure Portland cement.

Not to worry. We've etched cement before and we still had some of the iron-laced acid that we had used. Washed it on and the color changed. A bit too rusy-yellow instead of rusty-red, but still an improvement. We are actually getting used to it.

We had only half of the driveway surfaced. The gravel by the house is too important a rest area for the furry kids to be paved. Given how -- shall we say -- unusual the etched/cement/asphalt looks, I think we will complete the rest with something more conventional, like crushed Yavapai coral rock with its rosy-red color.

Speaking of the driveway, I've been clearing on the other side of it from the house. This is the little gully below our house, on the south side, where most of our acre lot is located. It's actually a very pretty gully with several palo verde, acacia and mesquite trees.

The clearing opens up the area so it's easier to walk through. I've been planting extra blue and green agaves there, some of the many agaves I have been thinning and transplanting elsewhere in the yard. Now I am moving rocks to help define paths. Actually, moving rocks and stray gravel is one of my favorite outdoor activities.

Parking-out the yard on the other side of the driveway wasn't enough. I didn't like the low, stuccoed cinder-block wall that seems to act as an energetic barrier (bad feng shui or vastu). It discouraged stepping over it to explore beyond the driveway where quail, rabbits, lizards, cactus wrens, ground squirrels and chipmunks make their homes. And the view is nice, too.

Well, it was nothing that a sledge hammer couldn't fix. And a little stucco patch, a couple of bags of mortar mix, and some red clay bricks to create a little area on the other side.

Out with the meyer lemon tree . . .

There's at least one other part of the driveway boundary wall that I'd like to punch out. That would entice walking to the area where I transplanted the meyer lemon tree.

The origin of the transplanting is an increasing recognition that our queen palms and climate change don't mix. The cold snaps in winter are getting more frequent and severe, and there may come a time when the two big queen palms by the pool give up the ghost.

Mexican fan palms are supposed to tolerate frost a bit better, so we decided to start planting them as a contingency.

. . . in with the Mexican palm.

The meyer lemon tree by the pool really wasn't doing much. So Tucson Tom dug it out and that's where we planted our new Mexican palm.

Rather than chopping up the citrus tree, we transplanted it. Yep, you guessed it. On the other side of the driveway. If it survives the shock -- odds are not in its favor -- it will be the anchor for the new vegetable garden that Tucson Tom will build for his honey -- maybe next year.

For now, the small vegetable garden by the pool will serve for another season.

Last year, little critters munching on last year's produce made me build a frame and wrap it in wire mesh. Trouble is, we kept forgetting about the low cross-braces and we kept bashing out heads. So Saturday, Tucson Tom screwed on some strips scrap plywood to raise the braces, and therefore the roof.

Which is why the structure is now entirely covered with brand new and architecturally soothing shade fabric. It hides the Rio slum, favela-style extension. Give Shari a little time; she'll have it hemmed properly. Meanwhile, the new little veggie plants are thriving under the semi-shade. That's all Shari's work. I clear vegetation. She makes stuff grow.

I have to admit, I love being outside.

From Winter into Summer

View of Lake Washington from our nephew's house in Seattle.

Somehow we missed Spring. Before we left for a short, three-night trip to Seattle, we were wearing sweaters in the morning. Come back, and it's warm in the mornings, hot in the afternoon, and we are wearing shorts 24/7.

We did enjoy the weather by the Salish Sea: dark, grey, cold and wet. Our enjoyment of that weather was greatly enhanced by the knowledge that we were shortly returning to the Sonoran Desert.

Still, we had just been getting used to wearing warmer clothes when all of a sudden, they look strangely out-of-place in our closet. Why would anyone have thick pants and sweaters?

Yesterday was Easter Sunday. I have lots of nice memories of Easter Sundays, particularly one sunny Spring day at the U-District house in Seattle: the huge tree that almost touched my bedroom window was loaded with cherry blossoms. Yesterday's Easter Sunday memory was swimming my first laps of the year in the cement pond.

Time to change my "gum tree" photo for something more seasonal.