things I have learned

Prickerbushes, if left alone, spread like the big vicious weeds they are.

The glove has not yet been made that will actually protect you if you try pulling out prickerbushes by hand.

Overconfident things that they are, though, prickerbushes don't bother growing thorns on their roots. So if you start behind the patch, dig your fingers down right at the base, and then pull, you've got it.

When putting pulled-up prickerbushes in the yardwaste bucket, do so carefully, because it really sucks when the thing gets top-heavy and tips over on top of you. Really.

Hostas look *much* nicer than prickerbushes. This means that It Is Getting To Be Time for another road trip to my favorite Hosta nursery out in eastern Mass. Maybe next weekend...

Meanwhile, some subterranean rodent monster has decided that the entire root system of my apple tree looked tasty; I went out to rake around it and the @!&$! tree fell over. It's trying desperately to make new roots, so I moved it to a new location and gave it a bunch of supernutrient root-encouraging fertilizer, and will hope for the best. Needless to say, it's going to be a while before I feel entirely terrible for the headless rodent corpses my cats keep leaving around the yard.

All sorts of lovely things are flowering in my yard, and I am in love with the world again. Photos soon.