Before and After

Since I have spent the better part of the week teaching Japanese high school students English prepositions, I seem to be thinking a lot about "before and after." Ironically in Japanese  the  location comes first and then the preposition and finally the object (and after that the verb). English prepositions seem backwards to those who grew up speaking Japanese. Thus the simple sentence- The chair is under the table, becomes something akin to - The table under the chair is, in Japanese.

Anyway as I looked at my most recent camera downloads, I realized that none of the pictures that had stored up in my camera represented the way things look now. Things seem to be in a constant sate of flux. So I am uploading a series of pictures that show before and after. Of course this is before and after before you read this and after you read this the after will be the before of the next time you log on. It all is relative and temporary I guess when you start to think about such things. So why should prepositions have a particular order!?

Here is how things stand with a variety of on-going projects:

I was SO proud of the way my pink garden was developing and I loved the new petunias that I had put in amongst the perennials so there would always be visible pink in a garden that seems to ebb and flow in terms of blossoming.

 

Well, it was great while it lasted!

 

As we know, Grasshopper, attachment is suffering and I was visited by the Anti-christ of gardening known as Rabbit.  But I have a detective on the case now.

Arbogast has settled in and is on the alert. (Let's hope it works better than it did in the movie Psycho.)

 

The back garden with the new lantern has changed a bit too since I last blogged about it. Here it is not too long ago.

You can see those tiny little impatiens peeking over the log. They have really spread and are now blooming beautifully. It wasn't a space I had planned on using for flowers after this year, but knowing what grows well where beats all the esoteric plans in the world. I suspect there will be impatiens and asters there for some time to come!

I also bought a large azalea for the back right and planted it along with my very small conifers that grow extremely slowly.

So here is closer view of the impatiens. (You can also see the new grass and part of the peony behind the lantern.):

 

I've labeled some of the changes below.

From outside I want to turn to inside. I am frustrated by the gaps in my ceiling. You can see that the joins are not smooth and tiles do not line up correctly. This is the picture from before.

That was before caulk and a little bit of paint. I'm still working on it, but I now have one side of the ceiling completed.  (3 more sides to go!)

 

 It still isn't perfect, but I think it is better. I'm hoping people don't really pay much attention to to the surfaces above them. I'll have to do some outlandish decorating to attract the eye away from the ceilings.

Here is the little round garden in the front, but when I looked at the picture, I realized it doesn't look like that any more.

 I'd finally managed to get the last pavers for the garden in back. It took just a few minutes to lay the last 8 pavers in place. That garden is developing nicely.



Of course, I purchased a few extras while I was at it. (You know about me and garden centers!) These extras I used to help define a couple of island gardens in the front yard.

 

Of course I now have seven pavers left over. You realize that this means I'll have to go back and buy a few more so I have enough to do something with. It seems to be an endless Karmic circle.  I must have really neglected my garden in a previous life!