My husband has been working his butt of in the yard today. I, on the other hand, have been taking photographs and trying to fit in as much laziness as I can. OK, I helped as much as he ever lets me help. I was the bearer of chilled beverages, the bringer of needed things, and a sometimes useful pack mule. I’d do more, but he becomes such a grumpy butthead while doing yard work, it isn’t pleasant being around him. Also, aside from planting things and taking care of them, I don’t much enjoy yard work.

He’s mowing the lawn now. Previous to this he trimmed trees (finally — the mailman can stop griping), cleared most of the crap out of the front flowerbed (yippee), and did some edging. The yard is going to look great! Well, it will look great for this yard. Our grass is still mostly weeds and prairie grasses, but hey … it’s green and trimmed!

In the next few days, I plan to finish up cleaning out the front flowerbed. Then I get to decide what to plant in it! There’s sure to be arguments, because though the two of us work perfectly well together on many things, plant selection and maintenance is apparently not one of them. We are, in fact, still arguing about the permanent location of my planters. He insists they need to go into the back yard and while “full sun” may be defined as 6 or more hours of sun a day, 10 would be better. Yeah, sure, right now 10 would be OK. Wait until deep summer hits. Then you do NOT want your plants sitting in the Texas sun for 10 hours a day … unless you want them to fry. Anyway, the argument on this is ongoing.

I suggested I would be willing to move them somewhere in the front yard, to which he counter-suggested we could move them out into the sun and back in every day. Dude, full of plants, soil and water, those things weigh too much to be moving every day … as if he would keep that up longer than, oh, one day anyway.

OK, let’s go back to full-sized type but stay on the subject of my planters. There are reasons I want them in the front. First off, the water hose is in the front. We do not have a water connection in the back. He can say he’s going to put one in all he wants, but I am not counting on that happening any time soon, and thus, I would be stuck hauling the hose all the way around the house on a near-daily basis. Also, it’s easier for me to get out to the front to keep an eye on them and take care of them. Additionally, there are fewer critters in the front. The stupid possum never goes up to the front yard, neither do the squirrels, and most of the cats keep to the back yard as well. Furthermore, and possibly most importantly, I am trying to stake a claim to my right to be in my front yard without any of the Insane Neighbors constantly coming over to pester me. I have a right to be in my front yard and alone, and dammit, I would enjoy that. Gardening in the front yard gives me a perfect excuse to be out there and a good excuse to tell them to leave me alone when I am busy puttering with my plants. And finally, yes, I want to show my plants off to my neighbors by having them in the front yard. Cat Lady does it so why shouldn’t I?

Well, as I said, the argument is ongoing. The way these kinds of things tend to go with us, we’ll still be arguing about it while eating the first tomatoes and peppers.

Anyway, the day is getting late, Lin will be done with the yard soon, and I need to decide what to do about dinner. I believe I may order a pizza, because as I said, I am trying to squeeze in as much laziness as possible today … and well, it’s been a week, and I need pizza!