The VIB – probably feeling neglected – has been given us trouble lately, we have busted glass and crumbling mortar. But this post isn’t about that. its about success! ha, take that house gods. even though its not technically house. regardless, our roses are blooming!

after what looked like a fairly successful winter for them, we cleaned up and trained the bushes and they have really taken off. However, no sooner did the buds appear, myriad of squirrels did too! they just chomped down on all the young buds like it was cake. I was not about to be on the losing side of this project though. out came the cage. and out went the squirrels (about a dozen so far) to various DC environs –I am not naming neighborhoods for a reason…

I have also added compost from our pile, fingers crossed we will have flowers this year.

Sergey’s brother Nikita also did a lot of work to clean up our, and our neighbor’s yard. We will be replacing the chain link fence between the two yards with wood this summer.

rolled up fence, squirrel cage and dug up tree trunk from this beast (long gone!)

so now we have this:

Sometimes we come outside just to look at these – it feels good to be doing something right.