Backyard progress: adding the landscape cloth and edging

Memorial Day!  What a great day to get up early and put down the landscape cloth and edging!  And that’s what I did. (This picture also nicely shows off the asparagus.)

I love how tidy it looks! It’s so tidy looking that I’m a little sad it will be covered soon. And of course, it won’t stay that tidy forever, so it’s probably good I’m putting other stuff down.

I’m also a fan of the edging. That is the edging I wanted for the side yard project, but Lowes didn’t have enough last fall and wasn’t going to be getting more in until spring.

Dead Relatives Tour 2018

It’s time for another tour of some of the family grave sites.

The Anastases were my grandfather’s grandparents. “What do we know about these people?” I asked this year. Both of them had been dead nearly a decade by the time my oldest aunt was born and I was curious what had filtered down through the ages.

“I know that he just coughed once in the middle of the night, and then died,” my mother said.  “I’m not sure why I remember that.” Good to know.  Other things: they lived in Southeast Portland and their neighbors behind them were a very large family.  That would be my grandmother’s family, the Whitmores, with 15 children.  I asked to see if anyone knew what their jobs were, or such things, but no one did.

That is what’s come down through the ages. If I had more time, it would be fun to research them a little and see if anything comes up.

I don’t know Gene Wesley Hinds, but I do like the pinecone decorations someone used to decorate his grave.

This year’s entry into the Dead Relatives Tour grave decoration.

Then we ate at the delicious Verde Cochia.

Three sentence movie reviews: The Best Years of Our Lives

 

A rather lengthy film* about how coming back from war is tough. Harold Russell is quite good (especially for a non-actor) as Homer Parrish, the veteran who has returned from war without his hands. Given the focus on the amazing accomplishments of the “Greatest Generation” this is a nice reminder of some of their tough times.

Cost: free from library
Where watched: at home.

*Three hours, and I felt each and every one of the 180 minutes.

Of note.  This was my fourth time requesting this from the library.  Normally, I check movies out and renew them as they come due; eventually I watch them. Not this one. Three times the due date came up, and three times I was unable to renew due to holds. The library has six copies.  Who is so interested in this movie (that is not very good)? My theory? There were six other people who also were obligated to watch this for some reason and had no deadline. The seven of us kept checking out, returning, and reserving the same six copies of the movie and we never, ever watched it.  I’m glad to have exited that cycle.

poster from: http://www.impawards.com/1946/best_years_of_our_lives_ver2.html

Though the movie was boring, I find this to be a good scratch off.

This is also a solid one.

Let’s face it, this artist doesn’t excel in the art of depicting faces.

Do you want to scratch your movie poster itch? Get the scratch off poster here.