Tag Archives: Yard

May Growth

We are in the greening time of the year which also means it is mowing season.

Our red peonies are bursting forth and we’ll have many bouquets to enjoy.

I was sad to see one of our 90 foot trees is dying. You can see the one that looks brown. That tree will be coming down soon.

The buds on our White Peony. I really need to divide this plant up.

Our deep red peonies. We have 5 bushes of these.

Irises grow well here and grow wild and multiply!

We are ready for Memorial Day, Flag Day, The Fourth of July and more!

On Sunday we had some severe thunderstorms with gusts of wind, downpours of rain and hail, too. The noise of thunder and the flashes of lightning kept me awake from 2am on. We had some minor damage but nothing serious. We have never had storms this intense. Exciting to watch. They predict more excitement into Monday. The bonus is that I do not have to water for a few days. I had to mow twice last week things are growing so quickly. All of these photos were taken last Thursday and Saturday.

Happy Victoria Day to our neighbors North of us, O Canada!

A Week of Mosaics

Weekend last we had some precious time with our grands and kids.

On Monday the electric company sent tree trimmers to top some of the trees in our backyard that were encroaching on the transformer and wires.

On the first day of summer I took a walk about our country bungalow to document the plants that are growing and blooming.

These are the last of the pink peonies we have in our yard. The crystal vase on the left was a wedding gift from my little babushka. Some of you might recognize the Princess House vase on the right.

We can take no credit for planting anything you see in the collages/mosaics. We are enjoying the fruit of someone else’s labor in the planning and planting on our property. What’s left to us is weeding and pruning in the future.

Linking up with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf for Mosaic Monday.

Do you have any traveling plans for the summer? Lord willing, we plan to take some day trips into Canada and around our area and we are hoping for visitors to our country bungalow. This is Dear’s last week of his part-time contracting job so he will be officially retired come Friday afternoon. I told him I’d like to celebrate by making an appointment for a massage for myself. He questioned my logic since he’s the one retiring.

Front and Back and the Shop Pad

I took some photos while Dear was removing part of our fence to get ready for the work force that would be prepping the area for his future shop.

The equipment arrived bright and early on Tuesday the 28th of May.

The pad is ready for further preparations for Dear’s shop. The structure will be next and the concrete floor is the last thing you do. We are really open now to the street on this side of our property. We haven’t seen any deer in the back acres yet with this new open invitation. They are creatures of habit and coming into our backyard hasn’t been part of their habit…yet.

I’ll be linking up later this weekend to Mosaic Monday with Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.

Nesting at 60 Something…

Is there such a thing as menopausal nesting? This Memorial weekend seemed like a non stop nesting event for both myself and Dear. We organized, trashed and reorganized a lot of our junk. We made trips to the metal recycling sight and now have more piles of stuff to get rid of. Good times. We had some sunshine, some mist, some rain, cold mornings, warm afternoons. We enjoyed good company and our time with each other. Some of our motivation to clean out is the fact that we are getting ready to finally replace our well worn floors in this old house.

All of these spaces will be hardwood by the end of July. Once the hardwood is added we will choose and plan the timing to have carpeting replaced in our bedrooms and living room. Makes me tired just thinking about it. I took some time to walk about the yard with my camera for some relaxing distraction.

The Camellias are at the end of their glory.

I’m excited to see my 5 Peonies that will soon burst forth into their full bloom. Last year I only had one.

My Rhoddies are dropping their blooms.

As some blooms are fading we have the promise of more blooms to come.

I ended my walk about the yard by looking up. It’s good to remember to keep looking up!

Psalm 121: 1-8 (ESV)

I lift up my eyes to the hills.
From where does my help come?
My help comes from the Lord,
who made heaven and earth.

 He will not let your foot be moved;
he who keeps you will not slumber.
  Behold, he who keeps Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.

 The Lord is your keeper;
the Lord is your shade on your right hand.
  The sun shall not strike you by day,
nor the moon by night.

 The Lord will keep you from all evil;
he will keep your life.
  The Lord will keep
your going out and your coming in
from this time forth and forevermore.

Hope you had time to look up, too. Blessings.

Summer Fullness…

I love this time of summer when everything is still lush and green and full.

Soon enough things will dry out and wither.

Tonight we’re having a party on the deck. Our Bible Study small group is getting together since we haven’t met since May. The weather sounds like it will cooperate for us.

Dear’s vacation starts tomorrow. We have some fun things planned before just like an American he has some work on the house planned. Why is it we Americans use our vacations for work? Europeans really know how to take a holiday. I think I’ll dub 2013 early as our holiday year! I declare that 2013’s vacations will be vacations. Now Lord willing we’ll be granted that desire…

Have a great day everyone!

Just Out My Door…

for Outdoor Wednesday hosted by Susan at A Southern DayDreamer.

 

I found these fun metal star stakes in the clearance section of my grocery store. I’ll be putting them away for now and pulling them out next year for Memorial Day and the 4th of July. Some of my flowers are still blooming.

 

This spider has been busy and was content to sit while I took a photo.

It’s a beautiful sunny day here in the Puget Sound area of Washington today. The nights have turned very cold, though. I’ll be bundling up to head to Qwest Field for the U.S. Soccer Cup Final between the Seattle Sounders and Columbus Crew tonight.

Hope you are having a great beginning to your Autumn!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

A Walkabout…

…the yard.

Merriam Webster defines “walkabout” as a 1908 coinage that refers primarily to “a short period of wandering bush life engaged in by an Australian aborigine as an occasional interruption of regular work”

Well after being sequestered in my garage all day working on boxes, boxes, boxes, I decided a walkabout the yard to see what’s blooming was in order. For the record I emptied lots of boxes and haven’t even gotten to the dishes yet. Oye Vay!

 

Two of my rhododendron bushes are blooming. I have to get some expert advice on pruning them this year because they are growing higher then the roof…

 

The Rosemary bush is at the end of it’s bloom. When the blooms are fresh it’s fun to use sprigs of it to garnish platters. We garnished our lamb at Easter with the sprigs but I forgot to take a photo.

I don’t know what this is but I like the color of the blooms.

Two of my Azaleas are blooming profusely. The two pale pink ones are just budding.

 

My garden gnomes are being overgrown…

We had some interesting changing skies yesterday and some fun visitors to the apple tree.

 

Mr. and Mrs. Duck spent a good portion of the day resting under our tree.

I’m linking up with Sandy at The Reluctant Entertainer this week. Here’s her theme for this week…

What flowers are in your yard right now, or in your kitchen window, or on your counter tops? Do you have any dinner plans to use them as a centerpiece?

Click on the image to get to Sandy’s to join in the fun. Today is Cinco de Mayo and I’m still working on those boxes so Dear is taking me out for some good Mexican food tonight. I won’t be setting a table till this weekend or bringing fresh flowers in till then. I’ll just have to take another walkabout to enjoy the blooms outside!

Photobucket replaced all my photos with ugly black and grey boxes and they are holding my photos hostage until I pay them lots of money. I’m slowly going through all my posts and trying to clean them up and replacing some photos. Such a bother.

Seattle Blue Mosaic Monday!

If it’s almost Monday it is time for some Blue and some Mosaic fun. Visit Mary at The Little Red House for Mosaic Monday and Sally at Smiling Sally for Blue Monday.

On Friday I took a walk at Juanita Bay Park and at St. Edwards State Park and the Robins were very active. Some were busy gathering nest material.

Seattle Blue is very well represented by our Seattle Sounders F.C. team(Soccer!) Bottom right photo…our wonderful son Josh, an amazing photographer and friend Jeremy Leffel, Our friend and computer programmer extraordinaire Beau, and our favorite family doctor Dave. Beau, Josh and I have a total of 5 season ticket seats together. Fun times. We were so happy we beat the Kansas City Wizards 1-0 in the 2nd to the last minute of the game. Sheesh. Keep us on the edge of our seats!

If and when my daughter gets married her wedding date will depend on whether Jeremy is available to take photos!! Yes, he’s that good!

Do you notice anything missing in the photo on the right in this mosaic? While my son and I were at the soccer game Dear and Katie chopped down that pine tree. Dear tied the tree securely to Katie’s trailer pull, made a precision cut angled just right and Katie pulled it down with her car. I was so sorry to be gone while this took place. I would have loved to have gotten photos of it coming down…

And before any tree huggers come after me, we had to take it down because it was damaging our roof and allowing rats free access to the garage!!

Friday’s Fave Five ~ Outside & In…

It’s that time of the week again to travel to snowy Springy Alberta to visit Susanne at Living to Tell the Story and join in with your favorites from this past week.

Here’s Dear surveying his new wall… It should be finished today with a few more levels of block…

Here’s what added to my joy this week…

1. Getting the dreaded boxes from the attic project done. Whoohoo it feels great!

2. Having work done on our yard. Grading and a retaining wall. Work should be done today.

3. Enjoying pretty fancy tulips that only cost me $2.50.

4. Bringing some of the Apple Blossoms inside to enjoy.

5. Having a good meal fresh off the stove.

Psalm 63: 3-5

Because Your lovingkindness is better than life,
My lips will praise You.
So I will bless You as long as I live;
I will lift up my hands in Your name.
My soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness,
And my mouth offers praises with joyful lips.

Have a great day and weekend everyone!