We went to look at rock today, and I found Arkansas fieldstone that was perfect for my little bird pond. For the record, if you live somewhere that there’s not a lot of rock, rock is expensive! Granted, this is semi-fancy fieldstone, but $250/ton for someone who grew up where you can’t stick a shovel in the ground twice without hitting a rock, it’s insane. I bought it, though, along with four bags of trap (not sure what that means, but its rough edges worked with the fieldstone), which I’ll use for filling gaps between the stones. I had a choice for delivery; $45 if they could just dump it, or $75 if I wanted them to bring a forklift and unload it on the skid. I went for the forklift; I don’t need to have two tons of rock to move in addition to digging a huge hole. They’ll deliver on Wednesday; I don’t think anyone will mind if I leave work for a few minutes. Anyway, rock is expensive!

I didn’t know until I saw the lady at the counter, but the rock place is run by Mennonites. P grabbed this before we left. I like Mennonites and Amish; I don’t believe what they believe, but I like their principles, and I like the way that no one is Amish or Mennonite by force; if you don’t want the Plain People, they don’t want you.

In the Bistro…

I’m not positive, but I think I might see a Lobelia bloom this year. One of the plants I bought has grown up from its rosette, so maybe!

P may call it a baseball backstop, but it’s good enough to make cardinal climber flowers, so it’s good enough for me!

I love the Autumn Colors rudbeckia. I hope it survives.

These are along the fence, but I don’t remember planting them; I thought the only cosmos put there were dwarf orange/yellow/gold. This is not orange/yellow/gold.

Spined micrathena with a fly. I love these spiders with their weird, spiky butts.

I picked the first volunteer tomato from Sarah-Flah’s garden today. Yellow pear, I guess.