Walking and meeting a friend

Yesterday was still a bit chilly, despite the temperature, because of stiff winds st the shore not so far away, but I went walking, and admiring the views of new foliage against the sky

Then turned a corner of the building to a waft of perfume. The honeysuckle, officially an invasive, still smells wonderful to me, on the first day it's open

Then an old friend, often buried in leaves, showed up

And here in closeup

I've often thought of bringing her home to sit in the groundcover, since the original owners probably left long ago, and she was tossed into the woods. But I think I'll leave her here. There may be other people who like seeing her.

Then home to a lunch of mushroom omelette with a green salad including garlic scapes.

And lengthy discussions with Gary about the rethinking of his patio since the fence changed it. His patio is more like a tool shed than a garden, because of all his projects. 

While we were at it, he obligingly did my Spring task of uncovering the condensation pipe from the air conditioner, and clearing out the winter build up of debris. 

The builders installed it several inches below grade, who knows why, and I have to crawl around every spring to clear it and replace the screening and rocks I put in to keep out leaves and soil. But it's hard to work that way, so I was glad of the help. 

Since we have humid summers the condensation is an issue. Neighbors who didn't realize where the pipe was, or even that there was one, have found water backing up and crashing through the living room ceiling.

We also unearthed a large S hook I'd lost to squirrels, so that's good. I use S hooks to hang plants, and now that I can't hang anything from the fence, it may as well be inside.

This week is also about lab work of various kinds, familiar annual stuff. And this afternoon is a movie, yay. At the library not the lab, I'm glad to say.

Happy day everyone.

Fight on!

Just maybe Spring is arriving.

To wit: a sudden urge, after painting another wall of the studio and moving all the furniture ready to do the next wall tomorrow, then a long walk in a newly opened park with a walking trail, just to explore, then home to riddle out the condensation outlet pipe for the air conditioning system.  One of those days where you wonder where the energy came from.

The last, mysterious riddling rite, is a spring thing that you have to do to make sure that the pipe which for reasons best known to themselves and their yacht builders, the home builders installed several inches below ground, where was I, oh yes, and which is what gets the condensation in the summer outside and not pouring through your living room ceiling,  anyway, that pipe, needs to be relieved of its winter's buildup of leaves and debris.  

This means finding it, and digging enough around it and removing debris so that the condensation won't just try to travel right back along the pipe again, and then back up eventually into the pipe above the living room ceiling, given that gravity is being defied by their design. Neighbors have found this out the hard way, when they've sat in that nice sunny corner and found they were getting a surprise shower. Of water and of ceiling bits.

And it's vital to do the cleanup, but only when the season changes does the urge come over me to
   
1. find the *(*(* thing,now buried partly by wind and weather and partly by the *(*(* landscapers blowing leaves and debris onto the patio as fast as I can sweep it off, and straight into the pipe.
 
2. find the little weed cutting thing that works a treat to pull out debris and you always hope not small dead animals  

3. move all the items that got put on top of that area in the course of moving containers about in the fall, and then 
  
4. actually get down, find the pipe, dig around it and then clean it.  Working several inches below ground level is not advisable for your back, but it's only once a year.

But today there was an instant springtime reward for this virtuous labor -- a couple of the pots in the way of the digging had new green growth.  I tasted, I swooned.  Chives, sharp as only the first spring ones are, now some of them snipped and ready to eat this evening.

Like this:  snipping of chives 

over helping of homemade soft cheese (dead easy, boil milk, sour it with lemon, collect the curds, drain in cheesecloth, put in bowl, save whey in freezer for soup) 

and this is the stuffing for a nice baked potato for dinner.  

Along with a glass of merlot.followed by a strong cup of Vietnamese coffee, current craze, and more viewing of Vicious this evening.  I hope they get cracking and make more seasons of it. These guys are getting up there, seize the day, fellers.