Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM) - Sure Sign of Spring Division

Yesterday, after dutifully spreading weed n' feed all over the lawn and spraying the weeds along the garden fences, I performed the annual ritual of putting up the hammock. And of course, being the conscientious father and husband that I am, I felt obliged to ensure that the family would not suffer any unexpected injuries owing to a lack of quality control in assembling the thing on my part. Sooooooo, while the Missus took the Llama-ettes off to tour a Girl Scout camp the eldest wants to attend this summer, I threw myself into the hammock with a couple of books and a tall glass of iced coffee.

I usually stay away from brand name endorsements, but here let me just put in a huge plug for L.L. Bean, from which our hammock came. I had originally bought one for the Missus the summer before the eldest Llama-ette came along. Two years ago, despite the fact that we were careful to store it every winter, the thing rotted out. Of course, this was long after we'd tossed the receipt and all, so we figured that, despite Bean's generous return policy, we were probably going to have to buy a new one.

Well, one day early last year, the Missus was in our local Bean outlet buying something else and just happened to mention the hammock to the sales clerk. "Oh," said the clerk, "We can replace that - no problem!" And bingo, we had a new one.

All I can say is that is customer service. Thankee muchly, Bean.

So with what books did I break in hammock season? Two new ones that I picked up on my travels last week. The first is Spring Fever, a P.G. Wodehouse novel that, believe it or not, I'd never read before. The second is West Wind, Flood Tide: The Battle of Mobile Bay by Jack Friend, which comes highly recommended to me by a colleague from down there. Of course, I'll let you know what I think of them.

UPDATE: Oh, and not to be totally outflanked by Steve-O, I got the idea of rearranging the Dicentra near my front door (all of which are a foot and a half tall and blooming) in order to spread them out a bit. A few minutes with a spade, however, revealed that the things have incredibly long roots splaying out several feet in all directions. "Bugger this," I said to myself. Instead, I'm just going to fill in the spaces with some new plants. I'm also going to spread a combination of pinks and coreopsis in front of them, right along the walk.

One of the reasons I'm not ready for the Bigs as a gardener is my reluctance to prune things. I've resolved this year to change all that and to be much better about hacking things back and keeping them under control. I mention this here because, when let go, these Bleeding Heart will utterly swamp the hostas trying to come up behind them. Well, not this season......

UPDATE DEUX: And of course, the fact that it's supposed to dip down to freezing tomorrow night here makes me feel a bit better about not having planted or moved anything just yet.......