Summertime, and the Livin’ Ain’t Easy

fiction, flowers, Oregon, photography, spring, trees, writing 1 Minute

Warm weather is here, and you know what that means.

Yardwork.

Sucking up my weekends, when I’d much rather be indoors writing. I’m trying to reclaim my back yard from the blackberry brambles this year, and have finally resorted to chemical warfare. I hate using herbicides, but it’s out of control. There’s a play structure in the back that my ex-husband made for the kids when they were small that is now completely overgrown by blackberries, you can’t even see it. The deer haven’t been by in weeks, so I thought maybe it was safe to spray as long as they’re not here eating the blackberries. I wanted to get the blackberries dealt with before they flower and produce berries and (more to the point) more seeds. I still hate the idea, but it’s insane how much yard they take up.

I found this little thing growing up through the ivy. Known as “Stinky Bob” or “Herb Bob” it’s also classified as a noxious weed, just like the blackberries are. These sound much easier to get rid of, if you want to. I left it.

Stinky Bob / Herb Bob
Stinky Bob / Herb Bob

Here’s a shot of my redwood tree. You can see some of the blackberry bushes at the bottom, how tall they are, almost totally blocking the shed/outbuilding. It’s a big building, up on a concrete slab with electrical. Previous owners used it as a woodworking shop, apparently they built  cabinets there. There’s an extra-wide door to get the stuff they built out through.

5-1-16 redwood2

And Buster. He follows me around, meowing. I don’t know what the hell he wants.

Buster
Buster

I’m already sick of mowing.

Published by D. D. Syrdal

Writer of vampire stories and science fiction. First novel, "Revenants Abroad", available now at Amazon. If you like a vampire you can go out drinking with and still respect yourself in the morning, I think you'd like Andrej.

Published

7 thoughts on “Summertime, and the Livin’ Ain’t Easy”

  1. Here we call those pink flowers Herb Robert. I wonder why you use the more casual name there. But they do indeed have a weird odour. They are super easy to pull out though (unlike the blackberry brambles), so I always wait until they’ve finished flowering.
    Buster does not look amused.

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    1. I don’t know. I didn’t even know what it was until someone on Twitter told me. I think I got it wrong, it should be Herb Robert. Apparently “Stinky Bob” comes from the smell it produces if you crush it.

      Buster always looks like that 😉

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  2. Ha! Thanks for showing me around the place! I understand about the blackberries…they get out there of control here too.

    Buster is cute.

    And you know I share your thoughts on mowing! 🙂

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  3. Dang, that’s not a blackberry thicket, it’s a forest. Buster probably wants the blackberries gone so he can get into your shed and wreak some type of havoc.

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    1. That’s just a tiny bit of it, too. These things will take over before you know what’s happening. Granted, I’ve been kind of slack about getting after them since I dislike the chemicals so much. I tried chopping them back, and ripping them out, but that’d be a full-time job. I think Buster likes all the wildness, probably down there catching mice.

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