hard work/yard work

ok, so.....i called upon my crew (relatively willing volunteers) to help me triple-team my mothers weeds.....we were able to finish the front foundation plantings, the bed that used to surround her bradford pear....she had this removed and intends to plant a cherry tree....we also weeded around the redbud...alongside the garage, and around back beneath the sweetgum......yeah, we could have continued through the hostas...and around the roses and the perennials....that can wait for another day......at least now all dandelions visible from the road are gone and i will no longer drive to work with feelings of abject guilt........my mother had a completely neglected plastic tub sort of water garden in front in the space in front of her utility room....whatever was in there had frozen down to mush....and was breeding critters.....so we dumped out its contents, and took what still looked viable down to our pond....her tub had no pump, and was basically a breeding ground rather than a source of beauty......and then i started in trimming back the freeze-dried portions of my boxwoods.....i could have dragged out the electric trimmer, and miles of electric cord, but i opted for manual shearers.....and was able to do 7 bushes before i called it a day.....on to the pond......i brought down 2 garden chairs purchased at a kmart sale years ago...i do believe that ms martha herself blessed them as worthy.....and it was in the positioning of these chairs that i realized that the bricked-in surface is not near big enough for more than 1 person to sit...and so i will have to carry down all the bricks i saved from the chimney demolition and widen the sit-able surface.....so many things to do in a garden in the spring.....i did manage to sit in one of the chairs and read a book....the cat was drawn to the action of the waterfall, the chairs, and the reader....she took possession of the companion chair....and found its textures pleasing...she rolled and stretched, and contorted herself for what seemed like forever......all the while purring loudly as if this was the highlight of her week.....and when my spouse came out to see what we were doing...she gingerly made her way from rock to rock around the entire circumference.....stopping only to take tentative sips of recycled pond water from precisely the point where the fluid flowed over rock....it was a sight to see....a cat drinking from a waterfall.....