planting the flower border

Friday, June 26
Skita is now helping us with the house and yard. I asked her if she could put in some flowers around our yard to fill in the "fence". So she and I went over to Ruthie's and found the most beautiful flower garden! Ruthie eagerly dug up some bulbs and hacked off branches to share with us, and Skita and I came back to the house with arms full of blooms. First, we had to weed some more, and again we drew a crowd of young helpers. About thirty seconds after I started hacking at the roots of the clover, I unearthed a snake. Skita quickly clubbed it to death with a stick, and I kept on weeding. After I found the second snake, Skita hacked a couple of poles off a tree with part of a branch still remaining on the end. These formed a small hook that would catch the bottom of the clover mass. So each kid hooked a branch in the bottom of the clover (after banging on it to scare away any snakes) and pulled so Skita and I could chop at the base. Working together, it didn't take !
us very long to clear away the weeds and begin planting. Skita dug the holes, and I put in the flowers and watered them. Some of the flowers remind me of ones in the States. We planted a pretty purple one that looks like morning glory and a very fragrant white plant that reminds me of gardenia. We finally finished the western and southern sides of the yard. Then Skita asked the neighbors for some banana trees, and we planted a big one and a small one just on the other side of the south border of our yard. Not wanting to get sunburned again, I told Skita that was enough for today, and she came up on the porch to rest. We swapped "custom stories". I read her "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" and she told me a short one (in language) about a mother and daughter that go into the bush together. I got a little excited when I could pick out a few words and catch a little bit of meaning as I typed in her story. I imagine it was her version of "The fat cat sat on a rat", b!
ut it's a start! My triceps and hamstrings are beginning to remind me
that I haven't done any yardwork in a very long time, but by Monday, I think I'll be ready to put in the eastern flower border between us and the ocean.