This means war

We have 2 wars going on at home right now. They’ve turned into hard core, knock-down, drag-out battles – there’s no mercy. We’re lookin’ a little beat-up, but I think there’s an end in sight.

One war is against mould; the other is against this vine. They both do their sneaky little dispersal, spreading everywhere relatively unnoticed. And then one day there’s mold on the ceiling and on those leather shoes you haven’t worn in a while and on the far side of the couch and all over that straw hat. Then you go outside and realize that cool tree in front has turned into a carpet of vines, and the backyard bushes look like a massive tangle of string.

So we’ve been tackling the vines for a few days, now, and the battle culminated with a massive attack on all fronts today. The good news is that the vine (at least the visible portions) is pretty much gone. The bad news is that in our vicious attack, we had some civilian casualties: the bushes. It kinda looked like an elephant had come through and munched our backyard – there were frayed, broken branches everywhere. So because it looked horrible and some of the bushes needed thinning anyway, we took some clippers to it. And now it looks like a black rhino came and munched everything, instead. I think we have about the most pathetic looking backyard. I know we’re related to some really good green-thumbs, but we apparently didn’t get that gene.

I can’t tell where we stand with the mould battle – some days I think we’re winning, and then I discover that the box of dog biscuits has turned into a box of blue fuzzy stuff. Seems like most Sydney-siders are in the midst of this battle now – wet cool winter weather with no A/C or central heating to dry things out. Makes me miss Dubbo! But now that I’m working at home, I can race out and stick things in the sun when it decides to show up. And we’ve gone through a lot of bleach and mould remover in the last few weeks. So hopefully we can return to a peaceful home, soon.