dear babies:

Hi- it's me. You know, the lady who takes care of you and waters you every day and occasionally wanders around telling you how beautiful you are and asking you to hurry up and grow. I've been putting a lot of work into you lately, and I really hope you'll show some appreciation and grow up big and strong like I keep suggesting.

Aerial view: still far too much brown out there for my taste.


What do you say? Maybe take a tip from your friends the hens and chicks and go crazy! Spread around like wildfire! Sprawl! See:

They know how it's done. Can't even keep 'em in a pot. And they've even sprung up in the rock wall all on their own. Crafty little plants, they are.



In case you can't tell by how much you've been seeing me lately, taking care of you has been a surprisingly pleasant hobby for me. I've never been that interested in gardening until this year when I discovered just how satisfying it can be. Weeding really speaks to the OCD control-freak side of me, and I find that I can spend hours ridding the yard of every little intruder without even realizing the day is flying by. I even bought a gardening hat to protect my delicate prematurely-wrinkly old-lady skin. I knew it was over for me when I actually wore the hat outside of the yard the other day and went to the store in it. I guess that makes it official. I'm either "a gardener" or I've just totally lost all shame in my old age.

So anyway, I've taken some pictures of you so I can watch how much you grow. Just like a kindergartener on the first day of school, I'm capturing your awkward smallness now, so I can look back in a little while and marvel at how mature you've become. I imagine that I'll be so proud of you in a few months. Unless you die- and then I'm just going to be pissed.

Clockwise from lower left: Catmint, Limemound Spirea, Kentucky Colonel Mint, Lemon Thyme, Hebe, and a couple varieties of Heather.


My precious patch of ground cover. Hurry up and fill in! You will be my cozy spot to lay out and relax in the midst of all the bark and cement that surrounds.


We're farmers too! Good job lettuce. So far you've been a tasty shrimp louie and made us some delightful lettuce wraps. Yum! Now get your friends the zucchini on board. It's their turn to shine.


My precious little strawbabies. I can't wait to have you stain my fingers red!

Anyway, thanks garden. You're all right.

love,
lulu

dear earth:

Hello! To show our appreciation for what a great planet and home you are, Mr. Lulu and I have tried to make some simple changes in our life over the last year or so in hopes that you will somehow benefit. One thing that we did recently was install a clothesline.

I am already in the habit of air drying many of our clothes, and we have one of those three-layer accordian-type mesh drying racks. The problem with that is that it only really holds three sweaters. I tend to just stack them up but then they take twice as long to dry.

Initially, I asked Mr. Lulu to install my drying line in the back yard. Then I remembered that wait- we live in Seattle! Needless to day, that was written off as a completely idiotic idea. Sure- it would be great in July and August, but unfortunately, I have to do laundry all year long.

So after a little convincing that a drying line was still a good idea, Mr. Lulu agreed to install it for me inside! In the laundry room! The cement floor and the floor drain will ensure that any drips won't be damaging to anything, and there's very little chance that our freshly laundered clothing will be rained on. Success!

Here's my new line:



The only problem is that I'm such a munchkin I can't reach the lines to hang anything without a stool. That's where this guy is going to come in handy! And so cute! Can't wait. Totally reminds me of the library in elementary school! Only the ones there were boring black or grey, not cute red.

Anyway Earth, we're doing what we can. Baby steps. With any luck, we'll cut down on the number of times we have to run the dryer and that will not only save you a little, but it might just save us a bit too.

love,
lulu