May 2006

So a few weeks ago, this green furzy cloud appears under the Japanese maple in my garden. At first I think it’s a fern, but then it sprouts these tiny pink pearl-flowers, and all in all, it’s so pretty andfills up the space under the maple so sweetly and undemandingly that I decide to let it grow for a while.

Last weekend, I ask this visiting horticulturalist to name the plant for me. “It’s a wild sweet pea,” she says. “You’d better pull it out or it’ll take over your whole garden.”

Oh, don’t let’s be hysterical! I’ll just rein it in a little, that’s all. Except that little bastard has already spread about three times further than I realized. It’s doing a headlock on the tulips, choking the life out of the azaleas, strangling the Japanese anemone … it’s even climbing the damn maple.

The moral, I think, is obvious: Never speak to visiting horticulturalists.

Hey, THE PALE BLUE EYE is coming out this month! Be sure to order your copies now! And check out this space in a few weeks for a bookstore appearance near you … or at least on the same continent … maybe.