My Heart...Crushed, Like My Hydrangea

We have really been trying to work hard on our yard this spring so that we could sit back and enjoy it all summer long. Last weekend Derrick trimmed all along my fence row (he will do anything if it involves a chain saw) and tried to get it all cleaned up. We finished planting most of my vegetables and the last flower had been potted.

Sadly, it is always something. We planted 3 oakleaf hydrangeas on the side of our house. I have been checking on them everyday and could not wait til they bloomed! It has been a nightmare because our little pup, Maggie (who really isn’t little anymore) had been using these bushes as a go to for perfect chewing sticks. I wouldn't trade anything for my latest baby, but nothing would fire me up more than when she would bring me a branch off these lovely bushes. I even had Charlie on my side. My middle bush was the smallest of the three, and he would lie down beside it and almost like he was protecting it. I almost think he loved it. Kinda like he expected it to grow and offer him some shade over the next couple of years. Here he is smiling by his baby bush.

I had to go to New Orleans last week and Derrick called and told me I wasn’t going to be happy but I needed to try not to freak out. That always goes over well. I was so relieved when he told me that he was only calling because our Bradford Pear had split (again) and messed up the gutter. No biggie. It can be fixed. Then I got home and found out that it had also landed on my new oakleaf hydrangeas. Not a happy girl. We are having someone come and cut the tree down this morning and it cannot happen quickly enough. I cannot find one single shred of evidence that there was ever a middle bush. One is completely fine and I think the other will pull through. Sadly, the middle one is buried.

This is where the middle bush was...still is...somewhere.

Charlie, the sensitive fella that he is, is a tad depressed. He is trying to hang out beside the other bush but it’s not the same. He is obviously not going to smile about it.

As for the girls, Maggie and Annie think this is fabulous. It is a huge toy. One big pile of fun. No sense in getting a stick from the edge when they can dive right in the middle and help themselves to a branch. Charlie and I aren’t talking to them.

Charlie is at the far right corner. Watching in disapproval.