Yesterday I remembered that this is one of the periodic large-item pick-up weeks. The city makes a run on one day in each of these weeks, and the quantity of stuff in the alley decided me that I hadn't missed the day. So last night I put out most of the old cabinets. They'd been in the garage for some time, except the few taken away in an earlier LIP week, and then I moved them to future second vegetable bed when the new cabinets were delivered to the garage.
On that spot, they were meant to act as weed suppressants, but the bindweed didn't get the memo. When the Grinch saw that Christmas arrived without presents, it came without tags, it came without boxes or bags, he realized that Christmas didn't come from a store and maybe meant just a little bit more. Me, I observe that bindweed grows without sun, without air, without water, and I realize this does not make it warm and fuzzy like Christmas but evil and bad and wrong. Like I didn't already know.
Still hoping, I pulled all the weeds and lay the drawers and doors (which I won't dispose of until we build the new bed) over the spot. Since bindweed clearly scoffs at the weight of full cabinets, that of mere parts will not deter it at all. But they'll block some light, at least. Another marker of bindweed's evilness is that despite it seeming like a plant that would photosynthesize, it grows just as green in dark oppression of a cabinet's weight as it does in unfettered grass.
Anyway, the good change there is that the old cabinets are gone.
Inside, another good change is that RDC finished painting the ceiling, just in time for today's good change, the installation of the countertops (and therefore the sink and its fixtures).
Another good change is the yearly miracle. The yellow storksbill is beginning to flower, and the large mats of thyme are about to burst into a mass of tiny bluey-lavender blossoms, and the vinca, which is spreading just as aggressively as I hoped, is the flowering kind. Only one plant, from the first planting last May, is so audacious as to flower, but eventually the easement will be a riot of lavender blooms in deep green foliage. (Yes, most of my garden is lavender and blue. I do have some yellow and white for contrast and emphasis. A change from that color scheme would not be good.) It's doing so well I will transplant some to the other easement, where it won't have the advantage of mulch and rototilling but won't have to compete with bindweed.
Another fun romp, but as with J.K. Rowling, Jasper Fforde concerns himself more with the romp than with integrity or sense. (I eagerly await the end of Harry Potter so Rowling can prove me wrong.) Anyway, I like this, but only for the page-to-page fun, because the internal inconsistencies drove me batty. Following are spoilers for Great Expectations and Of Mice and Men. For instance, although both Miss Havisham and Lenny die in their books, Miss Havisham is gone forever while Lenny can spend his free time on Watership Down. The mcguffins and self-aware plot device grenades are fun.