the mazel tov tree and other landscaping

I'm a godmother! Or whatever the Unitarian Universalist equivalent is. (We haven't quite figured out the best language yet. I'm open to suggestions.)

Two of my very dearest friends welcomed their first child into the world last night. When I got their call late yesterday afternoon that they were on their way to the hospital, I was walking through the grounds of a nearby garden center looking for a tree to go in a big new planter I'd bought at Ginter Botanical Gardens (and that another dear friend helped me wrestle home in her partner's truck). I instantly decided that we'd plant the tree in honor of our soon-to-be godson.

So what's with this "mazel tov tree" thing, you might ask? Here's the story:

Back at home with my new Japanese maple, I started preparing the pot, with my friends in my thoughts and a candle burning on the deck in their honor. (Many of us were burning candles last night. We had a whole phone tree thing set up to notify folks that labor had started so they could light a candle and send good thoughts and/or prayers for a smooth delivery.)

For drainage at the bottom of the planter, I put in a few broken bricks left over from construction, and shards of broken clay pots. Some of the shards were initially more like giant hunks, though, so I started hurling them down into the planter to break them up. They shattered festively as they hit the bricks and other clay pieces. There was something really celebratory about the whole experience, and this noisy voice inside my head started shouting "Mazel Tov!" each time another hunk shattered. (My brain was obviously making a connection to the old Jewish wedding tradition of breaking a glass at the end of the ceremony.) So I decided to let the voice out of my head. More hunks were hurled into the pot, and each time I'd shout "Mazel tov!" People driving by must have wondered who the crazy lady was, breaking things and shouting.

Bob arrived home just in time to help me lift the tree into the planter. We initially decided we'd name the tree after our godbaby, but somehow we just started naturally referring to it as the mazel tov tree. Someday, though, when little Eli is big enough to understand, I'll tell him the story of how we planted the tree in his honor.

Here's a photo of the tree in its new location. (The garden center lady tells me we can leave it in the planter for three years or so, and then we'll need to move it. Perhaps Eli will "help" us move it to a more permanent location in a few years...)

I was also excited to get some other work done in the garden over the weekend. Did some weeding, some mulching, and some serious digging to prepare and plant this bed that features a smaller planter to match the one that is now home to the mazel tov tree.

The yard is just beginning to lose that construction site look now. I'm eager to continue restoring order before mosquito season gets into full swing. But meanwhile, here's one more definite sign of construction recovery: our new hummingbird feeder. The old one was accidentally broken by workers when our deck was being built. Hanging the new one somehow felt momentous. Heck, everything felt momentous yesterday. Mazel tov!