Marvelousdammerung?

For much of this winter it appeared as if Fenrir had broken his bounds and Ragnarok was loosed upon the land.

As the mighty Poetic Edda attests:

Brothers will fight

and kill each other,

sisters' children

will defile kinship.

It is harsh in the world,

whoredom rife

—an axe age, a sword age

—shields are riven—

a wind age, a wolf age—

before the world goes headlong.

No man will have

mercy on another.

Luckily, however, it now appears that Vidar has smoteth the mighty wolf before he could swallow the sun and that life will return to the world once more.

Today was day one of the recovery following our deep, snowy winter. Just as Yggdrasil the world tree shook and shuttered at Ragnarok, so too did my mighty plants endure a horrific beating from the mass of snow dumped upon them.

Above are pictured my formerly majestic Hydrangeas. The glacier-like snowdrifts have flattened them as if they were stepped on by the Jotunn Ymir.

And here are the pathetic remnants of what was once a fine Purple Leaf Sand Cherry. As you can see, it may have received too cruel a blow from whence it can not recover, much like Thor after he did battle with the Midgard Serpent.

Fortunately, this destruction presents me with an opportunity. As readers of this sublime blog well know, I have long contemplated moving my hydrangeas from the front of my house due to the fact that in the high summer of July and August the afternoon sun is too strong for the hydrangeas. Given the destruction wrought upon the hydrangeas I decided to put this plan into action today since they would not look very good this summer anyway.

One of the hydrangeas is going to take the place of the sand cherry on the northeast side of my house where it will mostly get shade on hot summer afternoons. The first task was removing the sand cherry.

This poor bastard really did take a beating. I'm not sure it can be saved, but I placed it into a pot with a lot of very rich soil.

If I can pull a Florence Nightengale and nurse it back to health, than maybe I can find a place for it in the front of the house in the area soon to be vacated by the hydrangeas.

Next, it is on to preparing the spot for the hydrangea. I am going to put the smaller of the two hydrangeas here since I still need to have room to get into the back yard.

Now, comes the hard part. Removing the hydrangea without damaging too much of it.

Midway through removing the hydrangea, my shovel gave out. I have been expecting this for a while. Much like a nautical equipment in salt water, the marvelousness of my garden slowly corrodes the various implements that I use to work in it. This necessitated a trip to the hardware store for a new shovel.

Overall, this is a fine new shovel. Hopefully it can be as powerful as the hammer of Thor and sustain the stress inflicted upon it from my garden's marvelousness. Once I went at it with the new shovel, the hydrangea was quickly out and ready to go into the new spot.

After the addition of some soil to get the level right and the addition of some blood meal the hydrangea went in, ready to make this side of the house even more marvelous.

You can see how things look in front with the hydrangea gone. The one on the right will be coming out soon as well. I have yet to decide exactly what I am going to do in front. Whatever it is, have little doubt that it will be marvelous.

Lastly, before leaving you to await your next glimpse of my paragon of horticulture, a few shots of the backyard, which, though it slumbered deeply under the layers of snow, appears to have come through unscathed.