Dreamland

I woke up early this morning, even 4:30 a.m. is early by dirt road standards. What woke me up other than my 15 year old mix breed Gracie's cough, were dreams. Now this past weekend my hubby and I had worked hard on the landscape of our yard. Every now and again one of us comes up with a brilliant idea to change something and that leads to the domino effect.
I am sure you have all done it. You start with one project which leads to another, then another and yet another. So even the simplest of projects becomes complicated.
It started last fall with a decision 2 years in the making. We had a lovely mulberry tree in our front yard. Over the years it had grown quite large and we had successfully pruned it back fairly hard once. My hubby had come to the conclusion it was time for the tree to go. I took a little longer. It sat in the center of a well established perennial bed. In fact they had both been planted some 25 years ago. But even though the bed was still thriving I had to admit the tree was not. Most people think that trees have an indefinite lifespan. Unfortunately they don't. Their span on this world may be longer than ours or it may be shorter. In this case it was time to remove the mulberry before it became a problem. It was already showing signs of going down that road and after 2 years I was finally able to say we could cut it down.
In early winter of last year we did the major portion of cutting the tree down. Leaving behind a good portion of the main trunk so in the spring we could pull the remaining 'body' of the tree out.
Well that happen a couple of weeks ago. And that was man against all odds type of story. A truck leaking fluids, chainsaws not running, mud, all the elements of a weird thriller.
But it was the removal of that stump that really started the dominoes to fall. First all the plants had to be removed safely to a nearby tarp, stump dug out and dirt on another tarp, stump pulled and removed to another section of yard. Okay we are cooking with gas now. Well then there is the 2 week waiting period for the area to dry out so that just means puttering around the yard for me. Hubby is on hiatus. Then we start to go crazy. 
Well we had this 5 arborvitae next to our walkway near the mulberry bed that had grown quite a bit. Now with the mulberry gone the balance was off. Another decision to be made. In the meanwhile lets move the 6 ft. tall smoke bush from the front of the mudroom out into the main garden. Decision made on arborvitae, move 'em. Then fill in hole from mulberry removal. Move Japanese maple from old location to where mulberry was. Start putting perennials back into bed. Redo rock edging. Oh my, there are still more perennials, how did that happen??? 
And in the midst of this is the constant raking and cleaning up of debris. I am fortunate to have a hubby who is good at digging things up while I do most of the clean up. So it was a long strenuous weekend for us older folk. Then I wake up this morning after (of course) dreaming about all that work (I ache!) to the thought of taking a few of the plants, mostly daffodils and daylilys (the common 'ditch' variety) and sharing them. Not in the sense of dropping them anonymously on peoples front lawns but taking a few and planting them down by my mailbox and taking a few more and planting them by our street sign on the west end of the road. (No place for them on the east end.) 
This thought occurred to me not only because there are many plants but because this coming weekend, May 7th, is Green Up Day in Vermont. Since I started walking on this dirt road a little over a year ago it became obvious that some people don't care about where their trash lands. When you drive down a road in a car you can ignore the problem a little easier. So last year for the first time since my kids were in elementary school I and my hubby joined in on Green Up Day. We pulled out five bags of trash (bottles, cans, plastic goods), 1 rusting a partially stripped mini-bike and six tires. And that was only on 1 mile of road. I have been stopping and picking up trash ever since. I would like to say I don't expect it to be as bad as last year but we are doing 2 miles of road this year and I have noticed a section out a Rte. 35 right by our road that looks like someone just drives up and down the road throwing out beer cans. 
I would like to be a cockeyed optimist and think if people could just take care of a small stretch of road and that would make a world of difference. Just in front of their house, or some area that they walk. But it seems people as individuals seem to think they can't make that kind of difference. I think I can, I think anyone can. There is a lot less trash on my road. I can't stop the idiots who throw it out but I can pick it up. And I can take some of my flowers, plant them by a street sign and maybe put a smile on somebodies face when they drive by and see them in bloom. And I will do this as long as I am able. 
I know it is a little thing in a big world. But it is what I can do, so I will. And if you my dear 'cult' followers or anyone else who reads this blog takes a moment to do something that somehow makes you feel a little better then do it. 
Now, I need to take a walk down my dirt road and scope out those 2 planting spots. It's suppose to rain this week and that is the best time to move plants around. I want to take advantage of nature and it's helping hand.
You know I did title this 'Dreamland'.  My dream was me planting flowers, now how weird was that?