Happy spring!

The evil plum trees have put on their alluring frills. I have a love/hate relationship with them stemming from childhood. For those of you not familiar with these, they are ornamental plum trees that most of the year are covered with nice red leaves. In the spring they bloom with pretty pink flowers. But those blossoms are merely a ruse for they turn into nasty tasting plums that drop and sprout into trees. A number of them are in my lawn, rooted there so firmly it will take a rototiller to rip them out. I have found that if I don't fertilize the lawn and am careful with pruning I keep the plum production down to a dozen a year. If it weren't for the expense of going through a city permit system to cut them down then replace them with other trees, I would have taken them out years ago. But we have come to a truce. They don't bear plums; I let them live.

Why this animosity toward a tree? If you have lived with a tree that bore fruit, edible or non-edible, you would understand. But for those of you who have not I highly recommend that unless you train them on a trellis you not get one at all. Fruit trees attract bugs and birds and leave an awful mess that attract even more bugs like yellow jackets and hornets. Where I grew up, my grandmother gave my mom and dad an ornamental plum tree that under my mom's TLC became a giant 30 footer. All of us kids had the job of cleaning up the plums that fell during the summer off the patio and driveway so that they wouldn't sprout in the yard. By the time it was my turn, the production was increasing to the point of a deluge. It was one year that we had a bumper crop of plums (Mom had had the tree pruned the previous year) that I lodged a protest to management. I would clear off the patio and wash the juice down, then work on the driveway. By the time the driveway was done, the patio looked like it hadn't been touched. I was never so happy as the day I watched that tree be taken out of the back yard.

Some day I'll be rid of those damn trees.

Knitting

The Sirdal is complete!

I'll have to rework the bottom hem because it keeps curling up. That's an easy fix compared to reknitting a section. A little judicious gathering while retacking the edge will undo that curl. Of course it's over 60 degrees F today. Barf.

Another one done for the Knitting from Stash pile!