rosemary reinforcements

I powered through phone calls this morning after the boiler maintenance, one of which was to amex to follow up about the hold they placed yesterday. I have plans tomorrow and didn't want to wait another 24 hours. I was connected directly to "Account Protection Services", who opened by asking if I had been trying to use points. When I confirmed, they asked to call me back while I was still on the phone, which made me wonder if I actually was about to be defrauded. I wasn't fortunately, at least so far as I'm aware, and the person I spoke with was able to lift the hold and make the exchange in the same conversation.

I went to buy rocks. Back in the spring, after the squirrels devastated the rosemaries with their digging, an acquaintance suggested a barrier of river rocks, which are too heavy for little hands. They're not so heavy that a group of socializing squirrels probably couldn't work together to move them, but their individualism might work to my defensive advantage, so I have to share the secrets of communitarianism with them in a different way. I thought to replenish my sunflower seed stock while I was out, a daily gift for the birds and the squirrels. I also grabbed a small bag of millet. Everybody loves the sunflower seeds, but some of the smaller birds were especially enthralled with the millet the one time I had it over the summer. I was effectively paying with points, which seemed an extension of spending I had previously done. Whatever dollars had been expensed for my own groceries and hoarded collection of stuff have now also afforded extra treats for all of us, a rippling of surplus that I might have achieved earlier and with fewer abstractions and transformations had I only bought the food instead of the hoard. I guess this way the credit card company got a cut, too, the offering to them less obvious than seeds in a feeder but categorically the same. Plus I created demand for the work of both people I had to spend time speaking to in pursuit of the gift card. Really I'm a job creator, and nitrogen has taken longer routes to the plants.

I think I'm happy with how it came out and how the line of rocks is adding shape to the garden. The Roman chamomile is now situated under the anise hyssops after moving those, and I think in the spring I might replace more of the mulch that's there with that ground cover. Then the rocks will be protecting the rosemaries that shelter the anise hyssops shading the Roman chamomile that trims the bed of clover where I lay to rest and reflect on my role in the combustion that produces those shapes.