Watching The World Go By

Ben loves to sit on the chair by the front door and watch the world go by. He'll sit there for hours and although he normally chases squirrels, when he's on his 'throne' he completely ignores them.

He got lots of opportunity to sit there this weekend as Leo and I worked outside trying to rid the flower beds of maple keys. Those things are a royal PITA and usually it's Leo's job to clean them up. Since he doesn't have the strength or stamina to work for long, I've been helping and there must be an easier way.

The landscaping company that cuts our lawn did a spring clean up and suggested to me (when Leo was in hospital) that they put a couple of loads of mulch on our front flower beds as there are so many tree roots that hoeing it is virtually impossible. Sounded like a great idea at the time, but I forgot (and so did he) about these blasted maple keys. So, there we are out on our hands and knees picking up handfuls of keys and trying to separate them from the mulch. If the mulch wasn't there, we could simply use the vacuum and suck them up.

I did use the vacuum on the back patio - why do they make those things so darned heavy? I'm sure I have muscles that I didn't have before after lugging that thing around for hours. I have a whole new appreciation for the job Leo used to do on the garden.

Tomorrow I get to tackle the pool - anyone know a cute pool boy?