I am incredibly proud to say that I’ve been working on my patio. I know! I didn’t think it would happen either! It came about accidentally, of course, because I’ve been “planning” to do stuff outside for years and it hasn’t happened. In fact, when Anthony read the post that said each year I had planned to work on the patio and he said, “Really? I never knew that.” What can I say? Clearly I have excellent planning and  follow through skills.

It started last week. Isobel wanted to go outside, and the weather had cooled to the point that I was glad to take her. I realized while we were out there that I had the capacity to make myself useful. I could sweep! And do plant-related chores! A revelation. Isobel’s favorite things to do outside include filling a bucket with water and then dumping it out, stomping ar0und in her pool, and playing with birdseed—all things she likes to do independently anyway.

Probably the most wonderful part about hanging out outside together is that she is so entertained she never asks to watch Yo Gabba Gabba. TV-free entertainment! There’s nothing more frustrating than traying to spend Quality Time with your daughter after a long work only to have her constantly request “Babba! Babba!” I’M TRYING TO ENRICH YOUR LIFE WITH QUALITY TIME, CHILD.

In between trying to resuscitate my herb garden and creating some new terrariums, I was also kept busy killing black widow spider eggs and teaching Isobel the basics of plant maintenance. I’m slowly working on trying to salvage some of my plants and get things in order.

Isobel especially loves to watch me water the plants. I need to somehow get a video of this but the other night while she was watering them she made kissing noises over them.

I. DIED.

Although what I really want is to fill my garden with gnomes someday, right now it’s full of Buddhas. I enjoy a garden Buddha or three. So does Isobel. When she saw them she referred to them as “baby” and wanted to play with and talk to all the “babies” I had in the garden. Please add this to your “too cute to be real” and “is she lying?”collection of stories.

I am not lying. I could never make anything this cute up.

Oh, and one more thing—remember our pond? Well, due to extenuating circumstances, we’re taking it out. Actually, our neighbor is taking it out. We’ve worked out a trade: in return for taking out our pond he’ll get to keep the equipment for building a pond in his own yard. Win-win. He’s actually talked about converting the giant pond into a small water-feature consisting of just the waterfall and the bubbler. I would love that because I love the sound of the water and a smaller feature would be safer for the baby and easier to block off.

The pond doesn’t look so good right now though. It looks like a biohazard.

The previous owners put it in and it’s illegally deep. Pond breadth and depth are regulated and this pond is too deep for its overall size (according to our neighbor). Basically it’s an accident waiting to happen. We loved having it and we loved having fish but it’s a bitch to maintain, very expensive, and because things are always going wrong we’re constantly having to refill it to keep the fish alive. Water is going to  be metered here soon and we just can’t afford it.

The bigger reason, of course, is Isobel. We’ve been talking about taking it out ever since the little stick I peed on revealed a plus sign. I would never just let her run around the yard without supervision, but since we have a pond I never even let her get a certain distance away from me. The pond is not exactly easy to fence off, either. I can’t wait till we have this land back.

Hopefully soon it will be scaled back to a modest water feature and I can fill this whole area with plants and a tiny orchard. And more Buddha Babies.