I love the intertwined plant and human-made tendrils in the community garden (above).
However, in the yard here (Marz and I live in a small apartment in the house of friends), the grape vines cross the fence and pull themselves up on the lilac trees in the neighboring yard, smothering them as they go.
Many different people live next door, but no one takes particular care of the yard, so every year or two, I go over with monster shears and hack back the vines.
Yesterday was the day.
It's hard fun, but vines are far from defenseless––man-o-man, are they ever well designed to thrive!––and and I came away all scratched up. The vines were in fruit too, so I also came away looking blood-spattered where grapes smeared me. (They're mostly skin and pips, so to turn them into wine or jam would be more work than it's worth.)
But it is done--this morning the bent and beleaguered lilacs are already returning to their upright position.
