When the trumpet sounds, it will be Diana Ross singing us home. No. lie.
I only have a blurry picture but that’s really Diana.
I’m on a 3 day weekend. Yay!
It started with the hula woman:
She hula’d for at least 2 hours straight.
Then there was the very long coal train that partially interrupted Neko Case:
The weekend is just getting started.
Back in early May, Nut 2 and I worked on some gardening chores in exchange for a honking Lego Friends Cruise ship thing. She came over three times and we mostly pulled ivy and random spindly trees out of flower beds. The last gardening day we planted a flower bed.
The flower bed is in front of the house and is the former site of an oak tree. We don’t know if the tree was damaged in a hurricane or if it just got sick. We’ve seen some old photos when the tree was massive and healthy and some when the tree looks terrible. At any rate, the people who sold us the house had it removed and the stump ground. It was overrun by weeds and mushrooms.
The better-half tilled it and added composted manure and top soil:
Then Nut 2 and I planted some bulbs (a lily mix and Dutch iris) as well as some plants from Lowe’s. I don’t remember what they are called but they are all perennials and will likely clump and spread out. I can describe them as purple, violet and red/orange. How’s that for technical names? I plan on filling in with some daffodils and crocus this fall.
Finally, yesterday after work, I removed all the encroaching weeds and dug a trench around the bed with a hoe. ‘Ho on hoe action! Then I put down 11 bags of hardwood mulch. The bed looks so much better now that it has been weeded and mulched. I fully expect this bed to be something that just gets better in the coming years. Right now it is the little flower bed that could:
The other day I mentioned to the better-half that we needed to try some new dinners. We’ve been in a lazy rut. Cooking, but not trying too hard.
Tonight we made planked salmon and haruki turnips and Israeli couscous salad.
The turnips were from our last veggie box from the green grocer down the street. We’re taking a break from them so we can hit the local farmer’s market.
We had the best raspberries from the market over the weekend. That’s the good thing about summer in VA…lots of fruit and vegetables.
Today I saw a colleague’s inbox. She has 527 unread messages. Let me say that again because it is so important–527 UNREAD messages.
Pro-tip: do not do this.
Just picked our first serrano pepper. The better-half will be very pleased when he gets home.
In contrast to the state of the garden in late April:
This garden contains all of the herbs. We realize some of these plants will eventually need to go in the ground. We’ve always had luck with sage and rosemary so they will probably get moved into an actual bed later this year. The chives we brought from our old house, and I thought they had died. The thyme lived in a pot for most of last year waiting for us to move. It is so much happier now that it’s in a more permanent place.
We also have tomatoes and a passel of peppers, including the serranos.
Our other container holds a cucumber, a grape tomato, acorn squash from a squash from the old house and several green bean plants. There will be more green bean plants soon as we planted another couple of hills this past weekend.
We’re hoping for a good outcome this year because, as you know, vegetable gardening hasn’t really worked out for us in the past.
This little critter has been spotted all over the backyard:
I’ve complained about how there is a lack of flowering plants in our yard. The peonies came up and were a brilliant display of white and pink. I didn’t know peonies were ever white. Apparently, I’ve been under a rock.
We have some sort of privet hedge and it’s slightly out of control in spots along the city sidewalk. It has spread all over the yard and we’ve been digging it up because, dang, who needs all of that.
This week some of it has bloomed. It smells a little like heaven in our backyard. I cut some branches so the inside of our house would smell as good.
I started with this one (new album in 4 days, btw):
Then I went to this one (oy):
Ended with this one (B-R-U-C-E):
We did the Komen walk on Saturday with some family members. For the purposes of anonymity, we’ll go with this: one of the people in our group is currently kicking breast cancer’s ass.
A trolley slowed down on one of the hills as we were taking a break and the CKBCA person said, “I don’t need a ride; I’m going to finish this.” The trolley moved on.
We did finish and it was great.
We have owned our outdoor table set for years. This is the first time it has ever had an umbrella.
I’m looking forward to being able to sit at the table without frying like heat-lamp chicken. Next up is comfy furniture for the patio.
