The long hot summer

Say bye-bye

I was too busy and then too depressed to write a post yesterday.  The bamboo abatement company came out in the morning for a consultation. Bruce had a nice bedside manner but he didn't sugarcoat the truth:  It has to go.  

We're long past any possibility of containment. The underground rhizomes have spread over 30 feet from the "mother" plants. It's destroyed the fence and is working on tearing down the walls and floor of our poor old shed.  It is growing under the concrete alley. It's just a matter of time before it pops up and frightens the neighbors on the other side. 

So what does this involve? Needless to say, bamboo removal is an incredibly labor-intensive and expensive process.  But then what isn't, on this property?  Anyway, you'll hear more about that in August when the project is scheduled.  

Of course I want it out of our lives and we really don't have an option, short of selling the house  and moving away to Alaska.  But the sad thing is bamboo is beautiful, like so many other awesome and uncontrollable forces of nature.

Instead of a lovely wall of green shimmering leaves, we'll be looking at houses and garages from the deck and kitchen.  And until we get the fence replaced, the back yard will be completely exposed.  That will be a very weird feeling, like wearing an hospital gown.

OK, enough complaining. What do you expect, when you let vegetation rule your life?   Here's another example.  The (relatively) harmless clematis took over the gazebo this summer. But I still like to sit in there among the vines having a glass of wine in the late afternoon.  It feels like Sleeping Beauty's castle.

As I was sitting at my desk this morning, looking at the falling-down gazebo, this little fellow appeared and hung around for quite a while without a care in the world.  I think he might live under there, so it's still good for something.  Drinking wine and possums. You gotta respect Nature.