Category Archives: yard

Apr20

Scenes from the front door

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Late this afternoon, I was getting ready to run down to the grocery store to get a few items. I heard terrible thumping on the roof and heavy rain and opened the front door to find hail!

It was really pouring! I was hoping the bleeding hearts seen here were still intact.

And for the heck of it, I took a photo of the pond out the dining room window. Not much happening there and this shot makes it look tiny-there’s a little waterfall piece at the top there. We need to build up the sides a bit as they are collapsing on us. Next shot will be the pond at night as the lights look neat-like a little landing strip, so Bri says! I even have a floating ball that lights up at night.

Apr20

Yard clean up

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We had that extremely summer-like day on Saturday (over 80), so Brian mowed the entire lawn (we have over an acre). It looks so much better-all nice and neat and velvety green! I know I’ll have to get out there with my trusty weed whacker sometime in the coming week. Not to say I don’t have some hand weeding to do and to place out my 4 crates of lawn decorations! The little gnomes and fairies take up a couple, so don’t think I’m one of these woman you see who has decorations you can’t poke a stick in between! And I know some have seen better days, so they will get tossed. Also if I buy something new, something old and worn out goes in the trash can. I wasn’t good for much yesterday, I was fatigued and it so isn’t like me to not do stuff outside when Bri is doing stuff. But I did a lot of yard work on my own a few days ago too. I will report that my irises and lilies look good. The iris bed will be getting mulch in it (making mental note) as it just gets too overrun with onion grass and weeds in general. And when I was admiring the pretty double red tulips, I see that the allium did indeed come up again! Around the base of my big evergreen, on the other side (not pictured below), I noticed some mums have really naturalized and spread at least 5 feet! Love my birth month’s flower!

So as we get the yard tidied up, we need to work on tidying up our own diets. Brian is really stubborn. He was raised with the option of eating all that was on his plate and getting seconds, which he still does. Only 3 people in his house growing up. I grew up getting what I was offered and making sure there was enough for all 6 of us. I rarely take seconds here. I have to work on simple sugar consumption. I am pleased to say I can eat the yogurt cheerios again with rice milk for breakfast (lucky me). Cereal had been bothering me when the vitamins were upsetting my digestion. I’ve only taken a few of the new vitamins, and every other day, so I hope I can handle them. If not, I’ll have to get more in touch with bunny foods. Luckily, one of my favorite restaurants makes awesome salads, a few award winning ones. : )

Apr18

Tip toe through the tulips

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I was telling my other pals that I wanted to ‘dance in the street’ because of my good report on Wed, but that was too dangerous! So I was more than happy to tip toe through the tulips and brought my camera along….

Bleeding heart-I have 4 plants in my front garden, but this one on the corner really took off. It’s one of the neatest plants ever! My mom has a white one blooming.

This is the scented viburnum. It’s loaded this year.

Close up of a pink hyacinth

and finally…the giant, double tulips! The deer munched on them last year! Sadly, the allium, also in this garden is gone!

I cleaned out my front bed under the big evergreen. Not a lot to see, but I did add some Johnny Jump-ups my mom gave me.

I was outside a good 2.5 hours. Tomorrow it will be pushing 80 here! That’s kind of warm for April.

Apr10

Google streets

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My brother showed me this today and as I type this post, it’s a subject of a news report. Now this is what I found:

There’s our two vehicles in front of our house. I made sure you couldn’t see our license plates on the original post! This isn’t the entire view of my house, that big evergreen is hiding two bedrooms. Wow-that’s a lot people would know about us if they had our address. I have a few more screen captures of our yard:

(I blotted out things for privacy)

Apr5

A new obsession

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Yeah, see my blogroll and look down at #6-thanks to my childhood friend Chris, I joined Facebook last night and have been playing with it off and on from late last night until now! We didn’t have internet access until around 2-3.

I decided that the mosquitoes had all moved in and were getting cozy in my water features, the pond and waterlily garden, so I went out and hooked up the one pump for the waterlilies-nothing-no whirl, dead. Then Bri came out and took it apart and it started to work. Finally. Then it was a terrible task with the pond. We couldn’t get the pump to sit flat so Bri bailed out all the nasty water, I got it situated and it started to work. He had to disassemble that one too and now I can report, clean water and a nice splashing fountain! It wasn’t really warm, but we didn’t have jackets on. I heard my mom had her menfolk cleaning up around her yard today-gets me off the hook a bit! I like to do her lamp post garden though.

I haven’t taken vitamins for two days now and my tummy seems calmed down. I really hope the ones I get for sensitive tummies will be okay. If not, I told Bri we’ll be eating lots of salads and produce. I’m hoping the blood work will be ok, didn’t hear anything after 3 days…so far.

Back to Facebook-it’s actually a fun place! If you want to join, be sure to click my link and hook up with me there.

Mar15

Photo Hunt-I spy

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So gang, this was a hard hunt! I went outside and took over 20 photos and narrowed it down to this, which is photoshopped to make it more interesting, plus my guys liked this one best. I should say this is a bush under my bedroom window and there’s a wee friend hiding!

PSHunt
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I spy a little guy!
Here are a few others I took just for fun:

(a police car drove by when I was taking this, I guess he wondered what I was doing!) It’s a faux stone that says ‘tranquility’.

What’s that?

Hi there!

Mar14

Watch this space

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I hope by the end of today to get the zebras finished and posted-AMEN! What a chore they were, and I so dislike XS to be talked about in those terms. If I had just thought to do the darkest color first in the bodies, I would have saved myself much grief. The grass wasn’t easy either. I think they will be a nice addition to the quilt(s) for the twin boys. I can’t wait to do a few Christmas ornaments soon.

Yippee! Finished!!

Sean and I enjoyed our afternoon shopping, though both of us have been ‘off’ in the tummy dept. Wonder what that was? We did go to Fridays for dinner as my friend Karin had given me a gift card for that restaurant. We are sitting there and a large group of people sit behind us. One guy said, ‘Save a place for Mike D!’ That’s Karin’s husband’s name! What a coincidence!

We got some nice things for Brian (can’t say what as I see him looking here) as his birthday is on the 24th. Need to look for one more thing.

I treated myself to a few things at Michael’s crafts and Kohls as I haven’t been to these stores for a while. Shopping is fun!

Update-no stitching today-yet. I decided since it was near 60 degrees I wanted to rake out a few more areas/gardens. I created about 6 huge piles and Sean helped me pick them up. I was so happy to get his help!

Then I was trying to do the Photo Hunt for tomorrow (I finally picked a few I will use) and took some extra photos for your viewing.

I took off the netting that was over the pond and thought this leaf looked interesting:

Leaf on screen

Part of my neighbor’s huge wood pile. Notice the older wood next to the newer.
Logs
These are wings from an angel lawn ornament that I was trying to take an interesting photo of. This is next to the pond and I photoshopped it. Notice the reflection of the barren trees in the water:
Wings

Mar8

Photo Hunt-Different

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I so miss my flowers! I was out this past Monday raking around my little box hedges and irises as they looked so forlorn. So this photo hunt had me thinking about how I love different colors when it comes to choosing flowers for my various gardens. I really like a rainbow effect, but these green hued flowers are so unusual! They are easy to grow and not hard to find. The lime color zinnias are Envy and the greenish irises are Kiwi.

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Lime green zinnia

kiwi.jpg

If you like my floral photography, many are available on neat merchandise at Cafe Press and Image kind (links at the top on the right).

And… Sean arrived home safe and sound about 3 Friday afternoon. He looks good. He gave the security deposit for his studio apartment today before he left. When his dad got home, he gave his boy the biggest smile I’ve seen in ages. : )

Mar4

The clean up begins

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I was outside raking on Monday. It was close to 60 here and a bit breezy. My circular iris garden was all overgrown with field grass (you’ll see the pear tree in the background which won’t be looking that green this year). I am confessing to you all that I will mulch that garden this year! It would probably save me a ton of work. I have little box hedges around the perimeter of this garden and two or three of them are missing. I think Bri cut them down with the mower! So they will have to be replaced eventually. I also got out most of the old sunflower, zinnia and cosmos stalks next to the irises. I have a big blister from my raking- I should wear work gloves!

Made little turkey meatloaves and oven fried red potatoes-inspired by Everyday Food magazine. Yep, I was thinking about my post below and handled the turkey gingerly. : )

I’m on a roll with ATCs. I made 9 of them in the last few days. Making some gifts helps. Cutting up new books and having pretty papers is also a bonus I received a giftie ATC from Tootie over at <—-Honey Girl Studios (see above).  Tootie has lots of her St Paddy’s and Easter art for sale right now.

I watched the show on the Royals last night. I have to say that I just adore William and Harry. They turned out so nice, their mom would be proud. And I watched them grow up as they are only a few years older than Sean.