This and that.

[cactuswatcher]

Ding, dong, the lawn is gone! Which old lawn? The wicked lawn! Ding, dong, the wicked lawn is gone.

After my favorite of two trees in the front yard died earlier this summer, I decided to give up on grass in the front. I had a landscaper come in this week and take it all away, cap the sprinklers and replace the grass with a nice pink granite gravel. It probably sounds horrible to anyone from a wetter climate. But, here with high water bills, and drought a continual threat, it makes sense. Eventually, I'll put in some deserty plants, a little more subdued version of my cactus garden in the back and it will look fine. For now I just have to wait till the grass roots are all dead before I start redecorating. At any rate, no more mowing for me!

Condolences to soulfulspike80 whose favorite baseball player just got traded out of town. At least your boy from Grand Forks is playing tonight.

My latest novel is started. It looks like another long and meandering journey to the end. Hope the book doesn't turn out as long as the first one, did!

I got one of my musical instruments worked on this week. My favorite place to buy and look at instruments doesn't know a heck of a lot about setting them up or fixing them. They literally don't know how to tune some of the instruments they sell. But they have a good eye for quality, so if you know what you're looking at they have a good store. A closer music store doesn't have a decent guitar or mandolin in the place, but they cater to a more stable clientel. They give a lot of lessons. I trusted my instrument to them and they did a good job.

Comments

[masqthephlsphr.livejournal.com]

Grass... in the Phoenix metro. Not only is it impractical, it looks... bizarre. JMO. ; )

Grass

[cactuswatcher.livejournal.com]

There is quite a bit of it around Phoenix, particularly in the older areas of town. Most new homes have grass front yards installed by the builder, like mine was. About half the people on my short street have gotten rid of it, now - within six years of when the houses were built. I still need to clean up some of the original landscaping done by the first owner of my house. But, I think when I get it to look a little less Midwestern out front it will look better and more natural as you suggest.