I don’t think it’s just me, because it seems like all the rest of my personal bloggosphere, from Canada to the Renegade Province, has been laid low by the heat.

Last year, we had drought. It was bad. We were expecting that to continue this year, but instead the resevoirs in our area are filling back up and water restrictions have been lifted.

So… why is that this summer is so much hotter than last summer? Last year, the lawn looked like crap because it was dry as a bone. This year, it’s still dry, but mostly it’s dead and brown because it’s been cooked. Espain?

In other news: We’ve got Roses. Granted, out of the six little plants we put in the ground, we’ve had only two survivors but dammit, that’s about a 130% improvement over the last two years, so I’ll take it.

Deperately do we need to weed. Yeah, verily. Verily. Creeping Jenny is… I don’t even know what it is… clearly it’s not terrestrial in origin.

In other news, the Boy starts Tackle Football Practice next week. I believe we’re going shopping for pads tonight. I think back on summer practice in full pads and I feel a small stab of pity for him.

A real small stab. Mostly I’m going to be chuckling under my breath.

So...

Were you all one of the folks that got letters from the HRHA complaining about the appearance of your lawn this week?

Not that I'm aware of.

Which would be a disappointment. I've been cultivating a relationship with the HRHA carefully based on arrogance (mostly theirs) and casual disregard (mostly mine). It'd be a real shame to lose that momentum because of an off year.

Maybe I can put up a split-rail fence without notice or something.

I observed to Margie last evening that, while your lawn was looking pretty sad, it was by far not the only sad looking lawn in the neighborhood.

Let's not even mention mine.

Largely because, over the last few weeks, we've been running the sprinklers at 12:01 am, 5:30 am, 7pm, and 10pm on the watering days. :P

The brown stuff is still brown, but now it's a rich, vibrant brown.

When I build my house, full of strawbale goodness, conduit for gigabit ethernet and compressed air to each room, I will plant my yard to buffalo grass and clover.

Because I'll be damned if I'm going to throw an assload of money into something so some snoot-snark home owners associate can tell me what color I can paint my garage.

Every tale of HA/NA letter or meeting I hear has me move where I will build another mile out into the country.

Well, as I always say, I live in a town where people have painted their houses blue and orange, in tribute to their football team. A few HOA restructions are probably okay.

I hate those weeds... I've thought about using some sort of weed killer, but that would kill the rest of my plants too.

Here in Oakland people paint their houses with flair. One one side of where I live, it's lime with forest green trim. A couple of houses down on the other side, it's tangerine with orange trim. A couple houses down the other street, it's lavender with maroon trim.

About 7 blocks south, there's a house that's so garish I make a point of driving tourists by it: mustard yellow with ketchup red trim.

I really like the variety of the neighborhood. One orange house: I dunno. One orange house amongst a paint box of other dramatic houses: splendid.

Madeline, I agree with you. When everyone is garish, nobody is garish.