I did something Saturday afternoon that most people aren’t aware that I’ve ever done.

I trimmed back both the rhododendron bush next to our front door and the big leafy shrub that’s been taking over the bend in our walkway for the last three years. The rhodie is in pretty sad shape, limbs and leaves all over the place. I cut it back pretty drastically, but at least we can see out the window now and get to our front door. Yes, it was that bad. Over the last few years I’ve done very light trimming to keep the rhodie out of the doorway, but this is the first time I’ve made a serious effort to rehabilitate the little shrub.

As for the other bush, whose name I do not know but probably should, we’ve been letting it grow unchecked since we moved in. It used to be no taller than I am, and was neatly contained in its bed on the inside of the walkway curve. Over time it’s grown upward and outward to the point where you almost have to walk in the grass to get around it. While I did make pretty good progress on that plant, I expect to make a few more passes at it with the pruning shears over the next few weekends.

For grins and chuckles I also got the neighbor’s grape vines the hell out of our tree and off our house, did a tiny bit of trimming on the other, better-grown rhodie at the corner of the house, and removed what looks like some ivy vines that wanted to climb up the drainpipe.

You didn’t know that I sometimes get a kick out of pruning shrubbery? See what happens when you assume you know everything you need to know about a person?