It was too nice a day to sit inside, so I sat outside instead. I pulled up blackberry bushes for awhile, but it was draining work, out in the hot sun, so I gave it up. It wasn't too hard to convince me to spend my Saturday afternoon reading on the porch and sipping spring water. I'm not the most ambitious person in the best of times, but the weekend takes away any incentive I might have to do anything resembling work.

Besides, I wanted to discourage the finches that were eyeing my porch from making their home there. I'm resigned to having birds living under my eaves, but I don't want them walking back and forth on the beams above my head while I'm trying to relax.

They did it anyway. I was sitting there, finishing Anne of Avonlea, when two birds landed just above me. Not wanting to startle them, I spoke gently. "Are you sure that's where you want to be?" They reconsidered and flew off into the trees, but I suspect they'll be back.

Every so often as I was sitting out there, I'd look out over the yard and note how much it's grown since I had it mowed. It seems such a short time ago. That's because it's been less than a month. It's not quite ready for another full treatment, but it would be awfully convenient to have a gas-powered trimmer, like tomorrow.

After the air cooled off enough, I watered the side yard. I space out my watering chores, so that I don't have to stand out in the evening air being eaten alive by bugs for more than half an hour at any one time. So it's been a few days for the side yard, during which time the blackberries have developed white blossoms. Many, many blossoms.

As I was watering along the side of the house, I noticed dozens of large spiders crawling up the wall. I'd water in one spot, then move on, and as soon as I did the spiders would be scrambling upwards from the area I'd just finished. By the time I got to the end of the house and started working my way back, they'd disappeared. Somewhere. But I'm not nervous.

Not to batter anyone with baseball references, but Barry Bonds (who figured prominently in yesterday's entry) hit three more home runs tonight in Atlanta. This is such a rare occurrence that it's only the second time he's done it in his career, despite the fact that he's now hit 514 homers and only twelve players in history have hit more.