Spring is, hopefully, well and truly on its way, and with it comes a frank reappraisal of the state of the backyard. It's had a troubled past--we used to dig up half of it on our "holes to China" project (well, we were five) and the drainage is unfortunate, as well as the erosion, leaving the fence we put up twenty years ago, give or take, floating about six inches off the ground most of the way around the back yard. In addition, it is now unevenly leveled, given our renters' propensity for adding random bits of garden plot, and unevely covered, given our habit of keeping furniture out there under tarps for months at a time. Mmm, dead bits. Add the dilapidated garage (now with elm branch on top!), a few collapsing old wooden barrels, about twelve plastic lawn chairs, and general overgrowth, and it was quite the scene.

Nevertheless, I'm making an effort to get out there, even if in a stopgap capacity at the moment. I've been doing a large amount of raking and general brush-clearing. Found some chives that previous folk had planted, and that's good, since it saves me the trouble of having to deal with them from seed. Plus, I can go hack out some bulbs and bring 'em on down to our communal garden plot at the Intervale when we get to break ground.

I don't have to work until two today (compare that with 6:30 the last two days) so I'm going to try to bag up all the crap I raked up yesterday and attack a badly-sagging forsythia in the back corner I'd sort of forgotten was there.