Garden of Galadriel

I actually went out in the garden and pulled some weeds today. This is unlike me. I haven't done much gardening for the past month. Summer is, however, more about maintenance than actual work: this is my excuse for not doing any. I deadhead my flowers and that's enough for me. They have gotten big enough so that they mostly suppress the weeds anyway. However, my new asparagus bed was overflowing with volunteer poppies, drowning the poor baby asparagus and I bit the bullet and got it razed. While out there, I picked a variety of bouquets, then took a few snaps for your viewing pleasure.

I'm quite happy with my lilies; they were a new acquisition this spring. I hope they keep coming back. And of course my old favorites, the orange dahlias; what would I do without them? Probably have very sparse flower arrangements. The one you see before you is the pretty much my first dahlia of the season. Oh, and my collection of doilies come from my mother's and grandmother's respective stashes. I love a nice doily.

When I got home from work yesterday I was astonished to see the sofa cushion covers washed, the lawn mowed, and the computer room slightly tidied. For Partner, this is a very big deal. He doesn't normally have this kind of initiative. When I got a full-time job, he promised he would take over half the housework from me (during my part-time years I did most of the household chores). I think he forgot that he ever made such a promise. Or maybe (charitably speaking) he doesn't realize just how much housework there actually is. He does dishes and occasionally sparks up the vacuum cleaner. He used to brush out the toilet once in a while but I think he's stopped doing that. If I ask him to do stuff, he's pretty good about doing it. But it sucks to keep having to ask. It feels like he's doing me a favor when he does it because I ask. It doesn't feel like equal division of labor. So maybe this is the start of a new trend.