Let the Badminton Begin!

It has been a while since I have posted, so I need to get into the rhythm of posting regularly again. This post is a hodge podge of updates related to previous posts. For instance…

A French Village DVD cover

Remember the French TV drama series I recommended, “A French Village”? It so happens that right now on Amazon Prime, at least in the US, you can watch the seasons 1, 3 and 4 for free. Why not season 2? I have no idea. But you’ll be hooked by the first few episodes, so you’ll either have to snatch other seasons at the public library or you can sign up for MHz at $7.99 per month.

Birdies Take Wing

Badminton court in forest
Early morning sun dapples the badminton court.

Next up, it’s finally badminton time on our new grass court! You may remember a post from last year wherein I described our landscaping adventure. We had a bit of a setback when Bill insisted on re-doing the grass-seeding, because he hadn’t learned that patience is a really important factor in successful gardening. However, though delayed, the court is now playable, very level and green. I do all the mowing, by the way.

Close-up of a badminton shuttlecockWe officially inaugurated the court with our first Badminton Party Day, which we hope to have each first Saturday of the month, weather permitting. Bill and I play pretty much every day. In bare feet! Thanks to the vile clearcut to the north, the wind through the thin forest cover can actually prevent us from playing.

As For the Apocalypse…

Charlie Brown looking at his scrawny tree
Charlie Brown looking at his scrawny tree

So far we have planted one rhododendron, 2 pines and 4 Leyland cypresses. The cypresses are supposed to be the fastest growing evergreen and everybody recommended them as a way to create a green screen quickly. The ones we ordered through a wholesale nursery look awfully scrawny — Charlie Brown’s Christmas comes to mind — but they are 6-8 feet tall. I am not impressed, but we are assured that they will fill out and spread their vegetative arms like tough boy homies soon. I hope so.

We don’t want to invest much money or energy into replanting the Arboretum (as we call it), until we find out if we will be able to buy the strip. It would be too infuriating if the county decided, sometime down the road, that it needed a parking lot or a skate park there or something.

A pellet stove and 2 bags of wood pelletsOh, and we found out that when Pope/Olympic Resources scrapes up even the saplings and trees unsuitable for lumber, they are shipping them to China to be turned into pellets for woodstoves. How many layers of environmental irresponsibility are we talking about here?? Don’t get me started…

But stay tuned for another post pretty quick here. Either I’m going to tell you all about my new electric bike or I’m going to give you a great dessert recipe. Let me know in the comments if you have a preference.

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