I will not have a bad word said about my mother-in-law. Not a single solitary one. She came over yesterday and spent three hours planting things in our garden. This is after she went out and spent her last pennies at the wholesaler buying us plants. Buying me bamboo! Because we cannot afford to buy another single thing for that garden. No furniture until the sales at the end of the summer and quite likely not even then. Fortunately, we have Joanne and Conal's wooden chairs that they brought to a party a good four years ago and never managed to get returned. I am sorry about that.

I love bamboo. In the old house we have a lovely patch of bamboo and sitting right in front of it was my laughing Buddha. I got the Buddha from my good-bye lunch at Universal. I thought it was a nice twist on the garden gnome. Alas, one night rampaging kids left a path of destruction through all of the neighborhood gardens and took my Buddha. So I went back to Benihana's. Got another drink. The second one was picked up the child and then dripped. I am buddahless and I don't know if anyone would like to buy me lunch in LA and get me a replacement Buddha. I and my garden need it.

I think we need a greenhouse. The H disagrees. He thinks that the dining room is a fine substitute. I am a little annoyed by the pots and pots of chamomile everywhere. You turn around and it has split into more pots of the stuff. Now, I know it will get planted outside but the peppers (and there are a fair number of them) aren't. It would be so much easier with a greenhouse. Then it would be easier with a gardener. And I would love a window cleaner. But too broke for that. And too much construction still.