Tree Relocation Followup Report

Last spring, Dave and I moved a young tree that we'd inadvertently planted in the wrong place. We relocated it from the front of the garden to the back corner. Well, it seems happy there, and this year it's blooming up a storm. I'm glad to see it has survived and is evidently prospering. We identified it at some point -- it's a Prunus, but I forget which kind.

(I can't believe that was just last year -- it seems much longer ago!)

Also flourishing this spring are the daffodils (or are they jonquils?) I rescued from Homebase last year when they were giving away their plants just before our first lockdown. At the time they were sad-looking and past their peak, but I knew if we planted them they'd come up again year after year fresh and new -- and indeed they have.

I had a pretty quiet day yesterday -- finished another Newbery book, "King of the Wind" by Marguerite Henry, which I remember reading and loving as a child. It's a fictional account of a real stallion known as the Godolphin Arabian who sired racehorses in England and the United States back in the 1700s. He's an ancestor of some of our more modern champions, including Man O' War and Seabiscuit. It was a good story. I have a vague memory of being somewhat confused when I read it back in grade school. Not only are some of the names are a bit wacky -- the Earl of Godolphin living in the Gog Magog Hills -- but I'm not sure I realized then what siring racehorses entails! (Henry doesn't go into any detail -- the horses merely retire to a distant part of the paddock for some discreet quiet time.)

I've basically given up on reading any adult books until I plow through the remaining Newbery winners. I really want to get this reading project done, or almost done, by the time school gets out in June.

I took Olga to the cemetery and she seemed much more agile than she did Saturday. I guess the Metacam is kicking back in. A couple stopped to watch her gnaw apart her tennis ball, and the man said, "She has beautiful markings!" I never know what to say to that. Should I say "Thank you"? They're not my markings. I usually say something about how she's such a good dog, and she's a rescue, blah blah blah.

I also had a conversation with our upstairs neighbor about the plumbing. They're annoyed because our management company presented them with half of the bill for clearing the drains last week. They question the expense and want to know why they weren't presented with options and bids from different plumbers. I explained that the situation was an emergency -- we had raw sewage bubbling up in the alley and in our bathtub -- and that there was probably no time to seek multiple bids. They seemed unmoved, but they're upstairs and weren't living with the problem like we were. Anyway, it's not my problem -- they need to work it out with our landlord. Ah, the blessed freedom of being a renter!