In addition to the twelve rounds of golf, I’ve used my first month of retirement to work on some landscaping projects that have been percolating in my head for several years. Although it’s a smallish area of our lot, the revisions called for some 12 yards of top soil, 1400 pounds of boulders, and dozens of new plants. That’s in addition to clearing the random old-growth of small trees, sallal, ferns and weeds. The result has been great, however. In a couple of years when our youthful rhododendrons, heathers, flowers and grasses mature it should be quite a spectacle of color and texture. The area in this photo was just sallal and rocks a couple of weeks ago. Now the little mound is planted with pulmonaria, various ferns and beesia. The section below the boulders (all new) is home to three rhododendrons and chocolate colored Corydalis. On the other side of the mound is a new heather garden with red, lavender and yellow colored heathers as well as a few perennial grasses. I’m also very pleased with the new hand-made cedar bench.