On the Road--er, Sidewalk

Tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the publishing of Jack Kerouac's On the Road. I was probably too young when I first read the book to grasp every nuance, but it was still an eye-opening experience. I have long meant to go back and read it again... but frankly there are other writers of the Beat Generation whose voices and writings I enjoy more than Kerouac's. (Maybe "enjoy" isn't always the right word--sometimes gut-wrenching would be more appropriate a term--but you know what I mean.)

In honor of this influential novel, and spurred by a recent flurry of "A Long Walk" posts from chuck b., I thought you might like to take in some of the sights that I see while giving my Garden Assistant her morning and evening constitutionals. This morning we just did the short block, as it was already hot outside and Coco has no way to take off her heavy fur coat:

Gnarled tree roots from a badly positioned treelawn specimen. In some places, they are more than 8 inches higher than the sidewalk, and you can often see where the bluestone squares were lifted and the tree roots cut in order to relevel the sidewalk.

The guy who put this front bed in is a renter, and his landlord paid him back for whatever he purchased to put in this front bed. I know this because he bought most of it at the small garden center where I worked in 2005. The lilies are amazingly fragrant in the late summer during our evening walks.

The older couple next door to him has a thing for old-fashioned annuals, which they start from seed and use to fill the bed in front of their foundation hedge. The nicotiana on the right opens up at night, but its scent--if it has one--doesn't travel far enough to reach us on the sidewalk.

This used to be my favorite landscaping. Where the new weeping cherry is on the left, a stately, dark grey, completely dead 20ft. tall tree resided for the last two years. It was surrounded by various grasses and it looked so interesting that I didn't realize that the center tree was dead until late July one year. I was encouraged that they left it up all last summer as well, but unfortunately they "fixed" the "eyesore" this spring.

This lion could easily kick my lions' butts. (And I bet he's cranky enough to do it, too--I would be if I had to balance my hulking frame on such a relatively small pedestal.) I love how he's licking he's paw, and I'm glad they planted him a riot of petunias to admire. I think he needs some savannah grasses, too, though.

Beware of Dick helping Jane cross the street with their attache cases in hand?

This is my new favorite landscaping on the block. What perfect landscaping to have in front of a bungalow... and they are obviously foliage fanatics with all of the coleus, purple heart, and window boxes of fancy caladiums. In the winter, the most adorable clumps of snowdrops pop up in random spots within the stone border.

Very neat, very clean, very all-American. I like the simplicity of this, but last year they used salmon pink geraniums and that looked nicer with the tan brick and light green upper story siding IMHO.

The shrubs that started my August impulse buying... tree peonies on the Western side of an old house on the walk route! There are 4 of these monsters here (the fourth is on the back corner, out of camera range) and they have to be amazingly old. I have admired their gnarled, knobby branches during the winter months and their handsome foliage since I moved here, but I never quite knew what they were until I saw smaller specimens at the Cleveland Botanical Garden. The owners cut them back each spring, unfortunately, so I never have seen them bloom.

This is the front bed of the same house... I think of it as the Prairie House because of this planting and the dark-wheat color of the siding. The three tall plants in this bed all bloom at different times: Yarrow first, then Monarda, and now some sort of perennial sunflower.

"Why do you always stop and smile over this self-sown alyssum? Simple fence, simple flowers... no tomatoes or beans to steal or lemongrass to chew. Move it along, woman--it's hot! Time to get back to the house and share a frozen fruit bar!"

Blackswampgirl's house, as seen from the corner of the nearest cross street. Bob would not approve of that messy edge, but then my humble foursquare is nowhere near to estate status so I suppose I'm okay. (And if I get up the gumption, the rest of that grass could be gone by the fall anyway... but more on that later.)

Hope you all enjoyed the mini tour. It's nowhere near as entertaining as chuck b.'s, I'm afraid, but this is the first ever walking tour post so you'll have to cut me some slack. I have a few other neighborhoods to show you, too, so I'll see if I can't step it up for those!