Sad News

I am very sad to report that our two bonsai tress, a juniper and a Chinese elm, were stolen from their perches on our front porch sometime between the night before yesterday and yesterday morning. I am probably more surprised than anyone at how upset I am about this. Not only is a feeling of being violated (much how I felt the day I walked out of my apartment on Jersey St. in Buffalo to discover that my car had been broken into and rifled through), but also that we really loved these little trees. C. was the main caregiver to them, but we both loved them.

We bought them back in April at Hollow Creek Bonsai in Avon, NY. We took the drive out there with my mom in tow... I bought her a jade tree for an early Mother's Day gift. It was a beautiful day, and we were so excited about our purchases.

Sadly, I don't have any good, close up photos of the trees, just from a distance from when I took photos of the front of the house. Here is one where you can see each, at the right side of the photo. The juniper is at the top of the column on the porch, and the Chinese elm is the one down below. So whomever took the trees actually had to climb the stairs to get to the juniper. They did, at least, leave our four hot pepper plants (now much larger than what you see in the photo, which was taken early in the growing season)... those were probably too big to bother with.



I can't imagine a good end for the trees. Either someone took them who just wanted them and probably doesn't know how to care for them properly, or some neighborhood ruffians took them for "fun" and dumped them somewhere. I am truly worried about our little trees, go figure.

They were an investment for us—and I don't mean financially, though as you probably know, bonsai do not come cheap. We were looking forward to seeing them grow and develop, and nurture them through a long, happy life. I feel terrible that they're out there somewhere...

Good bye, Bungalow Bonsai. We miss you!

Staying put

Ack, it's been practically forever since my last post. The vegetables are nothing to write home about, much less photograph these days. I yanked out the last zucchini plant this morning so that the asparagus plot finally is just that. We picked one watermelon yesterday, prematurely it turns out, but tasty nonetheless (Yay! We can do it!). The tomato plants look terrible but are still producing. I got another eggplant but am ashamed to say that it languished in the refrigerator. The peppers are the darlings of the garden this year for sure. Those and the Earl of Edgecomb tomatoes, which make the positively best tomato sandwiches ever.

So, we're not moving to that non-descript ranch out in the country after all. Among other things, the land tends toward wet which is not conducive to vegetable gardening. Not to mention that the next door neighbors have like three vicious dogs who seem to think that the land the house sits on is theirs... and don't seem concerned about keeping them tied up. My mom loved the place, but C. hated it. I was in the middle and could go either way, but also feel that we could probably get more for our money, maybe? I also don't want to just rush into things. So we've decided to take the winter to get our houses ready to go so that at the first hint of spring, up they go on the market and out we go for house hunting in earnest. A dream house for ALL of us is out there somewhere, I know it.

Anyway. Not much else to report for now. I am just happy to not be quite so stressed out at the moment.

Ch-ch-ch-changes

(One of our tomatoes...)

So, it looks like we're going to be moving house in the coming months, with my mom. We found a ranch duplex out in the country with a couple acres and plenty of sunny spaces for big gardens. It's not official just yet as we still have to get through the bank stuff and having the offer accepted, etc. but from what I can tell these things might just be necessary formalities—dealing with a small-town bank, and buying directly from the seller (I think, my mom is handling most of the stuff at least for now). The house still has some work to be done, but should be ready in a few weeks. As for us and our side of things? Especially for my mom, who has 35 years' worth of stuff to sort, we've got a lot to do to get ready to show and sell our respective houses. Inside and out!

I'm pretty sad to leave the gardens that I've worked so hard to build, even in the short time I've been here. Especially the shade gardens. I really, really hope someone who likes to garden and will appreciate all that our little property has to offer will buy our house. Not to mention, we LOVE our house. Totally love it. It will be hard to let it go after all we went through to find it in the first place. But, I am hoping that the trade-offs we will be making will be worth it in the end. It's definitely bittersweet... but I tell you what, we'll be able to have a veggie stand if we want to... that has to count for something.

It's a fairly nondescript little ranch, but just look at that setting!



Wish us luck that everything goes smoothly, and that this ends up being a good choice. It's so hard to know, to let go of the familiar and beloved for what feels like the complete unknown.