blood:water mission

last night i drove to roanoke with my friend tim to meet the ride:well bike tour riders as they are raising money and awareness to build wells in africa to provide clean water. it's amazing. the video explains the mission...

many of you know that africa is a place i feel passionately about. i've been to uganda twice and i left part of my soul there. it's such a simple thing that we take for granted - water - but for many africans, just getting it is often a day's work. i'm sure i have way more to say about meeting the team last night, but for now, watch the video. then go to www.ridewelltour.com to give.

vines

the wild grape vines are taking over my side yard.
usually i ignore them.
just like i ignore the poison ivy on the other side of my side yard.
sometimes i glare at them from a distance.
yesterday, i glared at them up close,
as they appeared to be drowning another tree.

when i moved here, i was told that the trees on my side yard were plum trees.
the drowning tree, however, looks to me like a peach tree.
at least the leaves do.
there are no peaches on it.
probably because it was drowning.

so today, i put on my gardening gloves, picked up my loppers, and headed towards the wild vines.
i started by pulling.
did a bit of hacking.
lopped a couple of stubborn vines.
and did a lot more pulling.
and yanking.
and tugging.

there is a BIG pile of wild grape vines
on the ground in my yard now.
it could be bigger, but i did as much as i could
and cut some off down low,
that way i can pull them out more easily
when they've died.

on the other side of my yard i sprayed the poison ivy.
i sprayed about a month ago and it killed a lot of it off.
it takes about three weeks for the stuff to die.
but i hate it way more than the grape vines.
so good riddance.

after the grape vines, the loppers and i headed to the front.
i have these big, ugly, scraggly azaleas growing in front of my porch.
the flowers aren't even pretty when they bloom.
i want to dig them up and put them in the burn pile
(with the wild grape vines).
but several friends think that's not a good idea.
so i decided to trim them back...
give them some shape...
and give them a second chance.
i don't think their second chance is going to last
more than a week.
they're still ugly.

i want pretty flowers growing in front of my porch.
that's my plan.
it's a good one.