I love the intertwined plant and human-made tendrils in the community garden (above).
However, in the yard here (Marz and I live in a small apartment in the house of friends), the grape vines cross the fence and pull themselves up on the lilac trees in the neighboring yard, smothering them as they go.
Many different people live next door, but no one takes particular care of the yard, so every year or two, I go over with monster shears and hack back the vines.
Yesterday was the day.
It's hard fun, but vines are far from defenseless––man-o-man, are they ever well designed to thrive!––and and I came away all scratched up. The vines were in fruit too, so I also came away looking blood-spattered where grapes smeared me. (They're mostly skin and pips, so to turn them into wine or jam would be more work than it's worth.)
But it is done--this morning the bent and beleaguered lilacs are already returning to their upright position.
The tendrils in the photo make good art, especially with your description. Very good of you to save the lilacs and keep the grapevines from destroying their structure for growth. Our back yard grapevine reaches above the old satellite dish (its meant-to-be home) and up into the old apple tree above. The huge tree can take it pretty well, though.
ReplyDeleteI hope the work on your book is going well. I have a writing project to really get started on, and I hope to push past all my inertia and do it soon.
DEANNA: Pushing past intertia is, for me, as hard as hacking through grape vines--they just won't let go!
ReplyDeleteBut it is doable.
Good luck!