Paul's crew of four worked hard all day yesterday, and our "jungle" is no more.  (Yes, I really should have taken "before" pictures!)  Everything desperately needed to be cut WAY back.  Now the orchid and peach tree branches no longer sit on the roof.  All of the oleander trunks/branches that had been pushing on the wall have now been removed (the short south-facing section of the block wall already tilts at quite a serious angle.)  

Of course years of flood irrigation saturating the ground underneath every few weeks hasn't helped the situation any!  

The oleanders should have been pruned back years ago, but someone-who-shall-not-be-named fought me about doing it.  At least it's done now, though until our serious growing season starts up again in a few months it will look pretty bare out there - plus the serious cutback is allowing the afternoon sunshine to stream into all the windows on the west side.

But oleanders grow incredibly quickly, and by next summer I anticipate quite a bit of shade - and peaches where we can actually reach to pick them! More good news is that I won't be doing any more of that endless raking each week, filling up the two green cans yet never seeing much evidence of clearing that section of property of detritus!

I'm sure Pokey was happy to be released from her garage prison after her 24-hour stay (though her emotions are somewhat difficult to evaluate) no doubt helped along by the fact that we treated her to some strawberries for enduring the situation so stoically.   I do wonder what she'll 'think' when she sees what happened to her favorite hiding place in the jungle, which is now fully exposed.

When the guys tackled the hedge in the Back 40 after they had finished clearing the jungle, it was a surprise to me at how far the oleanders (and the encroaching lantana) had migrated into the yard, about 10 feet.  But none of us realized that there was this (ash?) tree growing in the hedge!  When I went out back to admire the continuing progress I thought it was the big lantana tree that had been growing up through the hedge (the one I had hoped Alex could cut down at one point) and wondered how the guys had gotten it to stand up by itself.  When I had Tom come out to see it before it was cut down, he had the same thought!

One of the guys mentioned how many scorpions and spiders they had come across, both in the jungle and the Back  40.  Here's hoping none of them decide their new home should be inside ours!  We also spied a rat scurrying away in the Back 40 hedge, and again I hope he (and any friends he had!) also find new homes elsewhere.

In the afternoon I took Marcie with me to 35th Ave (as a first-timer there she was properly overwhelmed) where I needed to pick up that last 10-inches of fabric, and then I did finish up placemats 7 and 8 yesterday.  A check of my batting cabinet confirmed what I thought, that I just have bits and pieces left over from other projects. That means I will need to make a trip to JoAnn's before I can quilt them.

Marcie had finished the final borders on the baby quilt top, so whenever Irene is done with my spool quilt I can trade her this new one to work on.  

We met Alex for a birthday dinner at The Keg last night.  He was quite happy (though obviously not surprised <g>) with his annual gift, a Season Pass to Snowbowl.  As usual he's really looking forward to snowboarding again this winter.  

However the service was beyond appalling - and at their prices, there is no excuse! As one example (and just the first of several), our waitress brought bread and butter - but no plates or silverware. Service was downhill from there.  Alex and I at least enjoyed our meals (I ordered steak and lobster tails), but Tom's was pretty weak. Though The Keg was Alex's choice, we are not likely to return on our own.  Alex was headed out to Scottsdale afterward for an evening of birthday celebrations with friends, and assume he will sleep quite late today!