I need some advice. (also entitled: Please don't think less of me because I over-used parentheses in this post)

I am desperate. I don't know what to do. In a mere 8 weeks, on Fridays, I will share my office with a man sporting terrible BO. How terrible, you ask? This guy used my office for a year while I was on maternity leave. When I returned after Christmas (the office had been vacant for two weeks), the smell lingered.

There is absolutely no possibility of me saying "hey, you stink, why don't you try a shower and some deodorant?" That's just never going to happen. Besides, I guess I should give him the benefit of the doubt that this is some sort of medical problem. I'm sure his wife of 30 years would have tried the "you stink" route by now.

Any suggestions on stink-masking? Scented candles aren't really an option (a scent-free workplace... except BO, apparently), but maybe one of those scent-removing ones would be okay (as long as the fire inspector doesn't catch me). Probably some sort of spray would be better.

Help.

You can finally relax.

Here is the promised photo. Pretty, isn't she?



The rain has ceased. If you need me, I will be in my garden. Summer, oh glorious summer.

Darn it.

While I was pregnant with BB, and in the subsequent months after he was born, I no longer was consumed with that desperate combination of envy and hatred when I looked at another expanding tummy or heard gentle noises coming from a baby carrier. I was able to focus on what I had and I more or less ignored everything else.

Well - it's back, with a vengence. Yet again this thing called grief spins me around and points me in a direction that I don't want to travel. Turns out it was merely a temporary reprieve from the ugliness of my worst emotions. I thought that I had bid that part of me a final farewell.

I don't look forward to continuing on until the end of my days feeling desperately jealous/angry towards those who are welcoming new lives. I can only hope that the reprieve will return with the passage of time. There is no hiding from yourself, not really.

I can't have what I want. He's not coming back.

Pooey.

(photo from website, not my yard)

I bought a Snowball Bush (Viburum opulus 'Roseum') 3 years ago and put it in with my hydrangea. Nice combo, hey? My hydrangea was my surrogate baby for those intervening years... (check the sidebar for 2005 photos)

Anyway, the snowball has either aphids or whiteflies (I just can't decide). I tried treating it organically with a rhubarb leaf tea mixed with soap. Ken Beattie's tried-and-true aphid treatment (though I don't know how it works on white flies). I think there were more insects when I was done spraying.

Every single cluster of leaves had at least one that was curled around an army of aphid-looking things. So I chopped it off. It was only 3' tall anyway, but now I am sad. I don't know. Maybe I should have left it - maybe the ladybugs would have cleaned it up in a couple of weeks. But I didn't want the infestation to spread and I didn't want to use an insecticide like Cygon. I left a couple of branches that weren't really infested and will continue to treat them with the rhubarb tea.

I hope someone out there has pruned a vibernum hard and had it come back threefold. I would love it if you would tell me that story.

Or what do you do for aphids?

Dirty Girl

After 5 years of truncated gardening efforts, my back garden is now getting the attention it deserves.
2004- morning sickness
2005 - built new garden in front as grief therapy
2006 - morning sickness
2007 - 6 month old
2008 - a whole weekend in the back yard, with toddler in tow, and sun on my face - and it's barely June!

I think I spent more time in my back garden this weekend than I did in all of June last year. It feels good. It feels normal.

You should see the new garden accent my husband bought me. I will post a picture ASAP.

Happy blooms to you.