so ... Blogger has gone all new format on me and won't let me use the old interface ... sheesh ... i already overused my brain today trying to figure out the math for a border on the quilt i'm trying to piece ... and now Blogger expects me to use my brain again?!?
anywho ... about the dragon in pieces ... once upon an autumn looooong ago (less than seventeen years, but more than a dozen) i stopped at my favorite garden center in longmont (i don't remember the name - and they didn't reopen the next spring) on my way home ... i was on the Pity Pot ... spending money i didn't have sounded like a great idea ... and everything was on sale ... yeah, sure it was ... i wandered around with a credit card burning a hole in my pocket ... i went up and down every aisle, looking for a mood changer ... nothing ... nothing ... nothing ... then i went outside and wandered around the trees and ornamental grasses and patio furniture ... nothing ... nothing ... nothing ... dragon fountain ... nothing ... nothing ... wait ... back up ... dragon fountain?!?
dragon fountain?!? shards!!! he's gorgeous!!!
deep breath ... deep breath ... look at the price tag ... gasp!!!
no way you are spending that kind of money that you don't have on a fountain that you can't even drink out of ... no way, dianne ... no.
i got back in the car without spending one penny and drove home.
the next day i drove back, handed over my credit card, and had the big burly garden center guys load him in my car ... i was ecstatic all the way home ... i backed into the driveway, raised the garage door, popped up the window and lowered the tailgate ... i took out his neck - piece of cake ... and his head - groan - kinda heavy ... started to scoot the basin and realized that i was gonna have to take a break before i tried to lower it ... and then came his body ... Oh. My. Aching. Back.
i managed to scoot and rock and slide all of the pieces into the garage ... i hadn't taken into account that i had no place for him in the front yard ... or the back yard ... and no power for the pump that i don't know how to use ... and no money to rectify any of those things ... so i proceeded to stack stuff on top of him for the next umpty-ump years...
this spring i decided that it was time to start fixing the back yard ... i've waited seventeen summers for it to fix itself and it just wasn't happening ... so i hired a couple of hungry people to hurry it along ... out with the old concrete and in with the new ... stack up some landscape blocks and build a couple of walls ... fill them with dirt ... wire an outlet ... and now we have a little patio ... and raised beds for an herb garden and a vegetable garden ... and power ... so i spent a saturday morning digging a hole and filling it with sand and bricks until i had a level surface for my dragon to rest upon ... i borrowed a two wheeler and rolled my dragon's body into the back yard ... but the two wheeler didn't like the dirt and i couldn't find a board wide enough for a ramp, so i had to drag him through the dirt and then lift him onto his foundation ... groan ... and that's as far as i got before my brain got this message from my back...
No. More.
so my dragon is in bits and pieces ... but he's outta the dark garage ... and that's a start, right?!?
penniless women's paradise
Wow, he's an old dragon! I am looking forward to seeing his fountain working. Your paradise is a very nice place, you know.
ReplyDeletehope it'll take less than 17 summers to set it up, it's gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteThe nearest town here (where I go "fun"shopping) has an elaborate dragon fountain. i pass it every time. The road across town leads under the dragon and i remember how excited I was as a child when we drove there. I can still hear my father announcing the drive underneath as something very special and my siblings and i, faces turned, to see it as long as we could :)
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Drakenfontein2.jpg
I LOVE your yard. Looks so well tended. Mine is so overgrown and no time to rectify that this fall so far, at least. Love the dragon too. Get him up!!!
ReplyDeleteAnd your patio looks lovely, even without the dragon.....Did you give any thought to calling in St. George?
ReplyDeleteWell, that looks very nice though it's clear from the colour of your grass that you don't live in the UK. Our grass is a rich green. Got to be some consolation for all that rain...
ReplyDeleteThank you for your lovely comment, by the way.
That's going to be a very cool fountain once you get everything in place! Great job getting the yard into shape too. I was just talking to my sister-in-law today about trying to make more of an effort next year to get a vegetable garden going. Maybe you need to invite the hungry people back someday . . . and then send them to my house to build the raised planters I'd like too!
ReplyDeleteDid you ever get "The Dragon" fountain up and running? The bits and pieces look heavy, did your back survive? Nice backyard.
ReplyDelete