OilMan's World

When we moved here, we found ourselves with an acre of land, mostly on a steep hill with a flat spot for the house and a patio, and at the top of the property, up 25 steps, a flat spot with raised beds and some olive trees. This has become OilMan's world.  We added an arbor for some shade and a garden shed onto which OilMan can disappear.

We planted pots full of roses and a fence covered with sweet peas, trained the wisteria to grow up over the arbor. Abandoned at the very back of the property, we found some bulbs that looked like they had been thrown away, and some aging half wine barrel planters, and put the bulbs into them. The first year, nothing happened, so OilMan moved them into a sunnier spot and the second year they burst forth with these incredible bearded irises in the most amazing colors….there is another pot with yellow and brown ones. We can see these flowers from the house.

I decided to go up and attempt to photograph them today. In order to do this, I moved a weed whacker, four buckets of dirt and a bag full of potting soil, a shovel, OilMan's "irrigation kit", a canvas bag full of tools and irrigation hose and a roll of chicken wire. I couldn't move the dirt screen, a large mesh filled frame through which he sifts the rocky soil, and stepped around a big hole he had dug from which to take the soil he was sifting .I tried to work around the larger pile of…what?…covered with a bright blue tarp.

I wasn't totally happy with my shot…the light was wrong, and the composition was still cluttered, but I did capture the iris which was what I set out to do. When I uploaded the picture to my computer, what should I behold, just beneath the best blue iris but the cardboard box labeled "Irrigation parts" which was last seen sitting on my kitchen counter. I had to move it (along with a number of other random items) in order to photograph a lemon pound cake a couple of weeks ago. Oh well…I'm not going to go up there again.

Maybe I should have photographed the profiteroles I'm making for dessert instead…at least I wouldn't have had to move the box….