It started with the palm tree out front. The branches were overhanging the walkway to the front door. I figured if I was hitting my head on the fronds everyone else was too. What should have been five minutes outside today turned into almost two hours for both Bob and I.

While Bob worked on the camera by the front door I cleared the walkway of the overhanging palm fronds. Then I thought to trim the bush by the garage that scrapes Bob’s car every time he goes in and out. Then I decided to chop it really small – it was a little unwieldy and things grow insanely fast here. Of course, if I cut the bush by the drive, I need to cut back the hibiscus that was way taller than me. Of course Bob mentioned the bush on the property line so we went to cut that one back. This left the two bushes that were overgrown around the air conditioner. None of this sounds like much but once we actually got to it … It was way more work than we anticipated when we originally started today.

This is a lot of vegetation. A lot. Hopefully the county will take it all away this week.

We also started working our way through the Savor Sarasota restaurant week this week. Tuesday we decided to try The Melting Pot. I’ve never done fondu before and it was a nice change. I loved the cheese fondu and the chocolate but the main course was okay. Not my favorite, but still pretty good.

We also could not wait for our cheese box next week so we headed down to the cheese shop and created our own little cheese plate. Since I usually pick out the cheese I let Bob pick this wee’s cheese. We went with a French goat cheese, a French cow’s cheese, a Kentucky cow’s cheese and a Swiss cheese from Switzerland. We really loved everything and opened a nice wine to go with it. I also broke out the Inna blackberry jam that is pretty perfect with cheese.

This was the nice way to cap the busy week that started with graduation and ended with FCAT scores coming in. Very busy week. Now I just need to sleep off the yard work from this morning.