Mailmanwoman

I got my first holiday cheer from one of my customers yesterday. The card was addressed to

"Bones" my lady mail carrier

Mmm, nothing beats a box of fudge when your shoes are soaked and it's pouring rain. Well, yes: booze beats fudge, but I was driving. In that circumstance, fudge wins.

It's been cold enough this week that I finally busted out my rain pants and snow socks—which I wear with my shorts. Of course. Hard-core delivery people always wear shorts.

E'vil

Didja hear? The Chron says "Berkeley hopes to restore its downtown to life"...

"Berkeley's downtown plan has resulted in a wonderful, vibrant, mixed-use community. It's called Emeryville."

Some things never change.

Turning the Corner

We had friends up from Berkeley visiting this weekend, so I only managed to squeeze in an hour or two in my bad little garden. It was cloudy, but the rain was still just threatening. Where before I had found Old Lady Schneitter's trash-burning area along the middle of the fence-line, where the long raised bed went in, the college students who subsequently lived at the New Vitality Homeland apparently preferred the back corner. As I ripped out more blackberry canes and ivy, I found soda cans, beer bottles, candy wrappers, and one flip-flop buried in the duff.I was a little too far from my original pile of detritus to huck it, so I lined everything up on the fence. And hey! I turned the corner and am now working my way east! 1/8th of the way there!

Princess Pretty Fur

As I've mentioned previously, Vivani Catpants has become enormously fluffy:





For comparison, here she is in Berkeley:



Sweet Orange Gina just keeps getting sweeter and nuttier:

Another Funday

The forecast was for rain today; thought I might end up with some inside time. But when I got up this morning, it was cloudy and windy, but dry. Oh, well. After a couple of hours dinking around I suited up for battle: dug out some blackberry stumps the size of my fists. I got about a 10-by-10-foot section cleared. Positioned another 4-by-6 box and got it partially filled with dirt. Realized I was tired and hungry and slightly soggy from the light rain and called it a day.