Hosta la vista (groan).
August 12th, 2003
I spent most of yesterday digging a new garden for the hostas I brought back from Mum's on Sunday. She has a side garden that was being completely overtaken by goutweed (also known as Bishop's Mantle) and there were some hostas planted there during a summer that the goutweed mysteriously died that were still fighting the good fight to not be assimilated by the Return of the Goutweed.
The side bed is kind of funny, because although goutweed is horribly invasive, this stuff seems to respect boundaries and end right at the margins of the bed. It actually looks kind of pretty all together there but I am glad I don't have any in my garden.
Anyhow, so Mum thought that there were only two hosta plants in that bed, but when I went to dig them out there were about 6 or 7 of them hiding in the goutweed leaves, valiantly waving their leafhands as if I was there to save them from drowning.
I started out with grand plans to dig all along the side of our neighbour's new fence but I absolutely detest taking off sod and so I ended up with a more modest bed, into which I placed both the hostas I brought from Mum's and some I had bought in the spring that were not very happy where I planted them. I still have two peonies to plant but I am too tired to do that right now.
Weener came over for a visit this afternoon, and that was pretty much the end of the day for me. Other than a lot of reading, of course.
Books I have Read Lately:
- Once a Hero by Elizabeth Moon. I decided to re-read this one because when I bought it, I had no idea that there were three books that led into this series (the Heris Serrano ones). It was $2.99 at the bookstore, so I figured even if it sucked it was still ok. Well, I really liked it the first time I read it, and when I sat down to read it this time it made much more sense. I actually knew who most of the characters being referred to were, and why they were important! How novel! This book picks up from the Heris Serrano series and fleshes out the life of Lieutenant Esmay Suiza, and an encounter she has with the Bloodhorde on a giant floating repair ship. Anyhow, on second reading, it is still moderately entertaining, despite Giant Plot Holes of Doom that almost made me commence book flinging this time around, but I still think David Weber does a better job, except for when he goes into interminable discussions about politics. I will probably continue with this series to see how it ends.
- The Eye of Eternity by Maggie Furey. I so so sooooo wanted to love this book. It came out in trade paperback late last year and I was very very tempted to buy it then, but I have this thing where I like to have all my books match, and since the first two in the trilogy I had in mass market, I wanted to wait. I am kind of glad I did. This book is the conclusion of The Shadowleague trilogy, which introduces a world which has been divided into separate habitats separated by magical curtain walls by The Ancients, a race of beings who apparently liked meddling with things. The curtain walls have been failing, and it is up to the members of the Shadowleague, a group of people and things from the different habitats of the world to work together and solve the problem. This book wraps up in the last 20 pages at breakneck speed after a few hundred pages of aimless wandering and strung together scenes. It is disjointed, and all the characters I loved in the first two books are cardboard cutouts in this one. I don't know what happened. I am kind of sad.
(All links go through Amazon.ca because of the affiliate program with The Usual Suspects. I spend so much time on there, that this is the least I can do.)