During a break in the rain yesterday afternoon, Speedy came over with some mounding geraniums she had dug up from her garden for me.  I love this kind of geranium and am excited to have it in my perennial bed.  These plants pretty much complete the perennial bed, except for the bulbs we need to put in in the fall.  I am pretty excited about it.

The geraniums however, were not excited to be moved and pitched quite the fit!

But now the garden is complete until fall.

See the stepping stone Nature Boy made for me ten years ago?

I also was very, very excited to see sprouts in the vegetable garden.  The radishes are up! The amazing thing is that they were not up the day before and then yesterday, they were up and had their little leaves!

My peas have sprouted too (as evidenced by a couple that had floated to the top in all the rain). They aren’t up out of the ground yet, but if today is sunny as promised, then I expect the peas will pop up.

Still no robin chicks.

And the robin momma is pretty sick and tired of me visiting her nest!

On the agenda for today:  yard sales, nursing my strained ankle (I turned it really hard on a walk last night), enjoying the sun, and who knows what else.  It’s Saturday….I don’t have much on the agenda.

Another gray and rainy day.

Nature boy only has two weeks + one day of school left.

No robin chicks yet in the nest.

My flowers are wet.

Have you seen balloon flowers?  As they go from bud to flower, they are closed and get big and look like a balloon.

Then they open into a beautiful star shaped flower.

And they are purple! I love purple!

I went to Costco yesterday…It was super crowded.  I didn’t understand what caused such a busy store and such long lines in the middle of the day on a Thursday.

I had lunch with dh at his office too yesterday.  I love to park in the paid lot by his building because they installed this new machine to pay for the parking. You put in your money and if the machine needs to break a five dollar bill it gives you back dollar coins.  I love dollar coins!  So, I use 5s just to get the coins.  It takes ten dollar bills too….Imagine all the dollar coins I’d get as change for just one hour of parking!

Rain, rain, rain.

	Today Showers. Highs in the mid 50s. South winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
	Tonight Showers with a chance of thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 40s to lower 50s. South winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
	Friday Showers with a chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the lower to mid 60s. South winds around 10 mph. Chance of rain 90 percent.
	Friday Night Cloudy with a 50 percent chance of showers. Lows 45 to 50. Light and variable winds

They did put partly cloudy on Saturday, but then it looks like the rainy weather picks up again.  At least my garden is getting a good soaking.  And maybe we’ll get a thunderstorm out of all this…I love a good thunderstorm!

Yesterday, I wasn’t feeling well so I surfed the couch most of the day.  Don’t worry, I can’t ever sit and just be…I always have to be doing something.  I pulled out some supplies I had bought the other day and some titanium earring wires I had bought months ago and made myself some dangley earrings that I am not allergic to.  Woot!   Mind you, I only had the most basic of supplies on hand.  Tuesday, I happened into a bead store and bought some of the wires to run through the beads and the heart beads…The other beads were some we had kicking around the house. 

I am pleased with the heart earrings as they perfectly match a pullover shirt that I have been wearing all the time (I love the shirt!). 

Now, I have a bit of the earring bug!  I have one more pair of titanium wires and then I’ll have to order some more.  I have to use titanium due to a chronic metal allergy. I was also reading that some earring wires are made of niobium and also are good for folks with metal allergies…So, I may order a few of those and try them too!

In the afternoon yesterday, dh and I wandered down the the garden and admired how wet the ground looked.  (Like I said, the garden is getting a nice soaking!) We also cut some rhubarb and made the first rhubarb pie of the season.

It’s also possible it will be the only rhubarb pie of the season as my rhubarb plants have been small.  However, one of them is really taking off this year, so we might be able to get another pie out of that plant and a few cuttings from the others.

Today I need to run errands.  We are out of lettuce and kitty litter.  Both are pretty significant in our household, so I need to replenish our supply.  I might zip by Michael’s and drool on beading supplies while I am out. 

Sometimes I am just thankful for my friends.  In the past week I have seen or emailed my friends quite a bit.  It is such a nice difference from when I was so busy and overwhelmed in school.  I don’t have many friends (meaning I have a few near and dear friends vs. a ton of friends) so it is nice that they all weathered my being too busy to visit or call for two years….Okay, okay….I did see them a few times, but it was precious few and far between. 

Anyway, between last week and now I have seen most of my friends and the friend I haven’t seen, I emailed.  It has been delicious!

Now…on to the garden…..

I have gotten the flower bed pretty much done.  I needed one more Asiatic lily to balance out my bed and when at Lowes buying said lily (the very last one!), I discovered they were having all perennials in quart buckets on sale for $2.  Needless to say, I bit!  I got two balloon flowers, two dianthus and some petunias (no…not perennials!).  Nature Boy picked two salvia.  I’ve got all but the salvia tucked town in my flower garden (the salvia is going to go up by the house).  I guess now my garden is a perennial bed!  I also filled in my row of petunias.

Here’s a map of my garden.  The arrows point to bulbs that haven’t come up yet (gladioli and freesia) and bulbs that aren’t planted yet (tulips) because they are fall bulbs.  The x spots mark where I am putting that kind of mounding perennial geranium.  Speedy has some that she is going to give me (that were started from a piece of plant from my parents’ house).

Right now, the bed is pretty sparse looking, however by the end of summer I am hoping it fills in nicely and after a year or so, I think it will be quite lush.

The vegetable garden is coming along too.  I keep finding potatoes in the flower bed (leftover from potatoes we planted 3 years ago! Must be they kept reseeding).  I have found enough that I made a patch in the garden and am dropping them in there.  These are the fun purple potatoes….I hope they grow!

Some of my tomatoes did get frosted, even under the sheets.  It didn’t kill the whole plants, but they definitely will lose some leaves.

What else?  We are due for days of rain….Good for my peas and bulbs, but disappointing as I’ve been enjoying the sunny days.  I started studying for my exam yesterday.  I started really applying myself to healthy eating and exercise yesterday too.  The robins haven’t hatched yet.

K…Guess that’s all the news for now!

Yesterday was so pretty! It was perfect for the Memorial Day parade.  Here’s a snapshot view of our small town parade.

It started with the American flag and the veterans.

And then there were lots of kids, baseball players, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, a preschool, a church group and a handful of 4-Hers.

There were horses (minis).

And a tractor.

And the fire department.

And all sorts of fire trucks.

All in all, it was a good parade. 

And we had some friends come sit with us to watch.  Other than the fact that it was cold, (We were in the shade and with temps in the mid-sixties and a good wind….We were chilly!) a good time was had by all.

I did get to the garden too.  I got the flowers in.  I planted gladiola and freesia bulbs.  I moved some lilies and planted one (need another for garden symmetry!) and I even had two lily bulbs that I popped in.  I filled in some of the blankness with petunias.  I think I will get some ground cover to fill in too.  I also am thinking of getting/making some paving stones/stepping stones for the garden.  It is smallish and there’s not too many good places to put my feet. I thought maybe I could use the stones to step on.

Of course, last night we had a freeze warning. <sigh> So, right before bed we went out and tucked in all the plants!

I can’t tell if it actually frosted or not…The grass is white in spots, but a good heavy dew can make it look white too….But it sure isn’t warm this morning!

Well, today will be a quiet day with dh at work and NB at school.  I am planning on studying, getting in some exercise and then mowing down by the garden. That ought to keep me busy!

Wanna see what I’ve got my eye on down by the garden?

Tucked away in a honeysuckle bush….

I found them a week ago, so they should hatch in less than a week (they incubate for 10-14 days).  I will keep you updated!

I’m a gardening madwoman!  I spent hours out there yesterday and I have pictures to prove it.

Remember my “Before” garden? The sorry tangle of grass and mess?

Well, feast your eyes on this “After” garden!

I’ve got the vegetable garden on the right side.  It is now planted with sugar baby watermelons, cantaloupe, tomatoes, radishes, broccoli, and peas.  I am on the hunt for brussel sprouts and a couple of other things yet to plant too…Plus I still need some marigolds to plant down there.

BTW….in the foreground towards the left is my flower garden…Clearly, it is flowerless at the moment.  But I have bulbs and some annuals to pop in it.  I just need to do some more work to clean it up first.  My goal is to have this be a cutting garden.

On the side of the vegetable garden is the chicken run. We got some new tall fence and I put it up around the run yesterday morning. Unfortunately, we can’t have free-range chickens.  Or a short fence.  We live next to a park where many people take their dogs and don’t control them properly.  Last time we had chickens and we let them in the yard (or they flew out on their own) we lost some chickens to dog attacks.  So, this time we have put up a good fence and will actually likely top the garden with bird netting to keep the chickens in.

I also got tomatoes planted up on the deck.  You remember the “Before” deck picture?

Well, here’s the “After.”

Down the side wall:

The back corner of the side wall:

Along the edge of the deck:

Please note the wooden frame in front of the orange pots….Remember the bench in the previous pictures of the garden?  That was a pretty glider bench I picked up for a steal at a yard sale a couple years back.  After we’d had it a while, the wood cracked and the glider part didn’t work.  So, I took the glider mechanism off the bench and took the bench down to the garden.  The wooden frame is the support for the glider (it fit under the bench).  I am going to take the skids off the legs and put a top on the frame and use it as a small table or bench on the deck.  So, I am getting a two-for-one deal on repurposing the bench!

And not only did I get all that work done yesterday, but I even took a nap for an hour and a half.  And I was so tired, that I was still able to fall asleep at my regular bedtime with no problem!

I don’t know if I have gardening on the agenda for today….It looks like it could rain any minute!  Besides, we have UU this morning, so I guess outside chores will have to wait for the afternoon.

Ugh…I really did not sleep well last night. My mind is too fuzzy for meaningful blogging this morning.

I did get work in the garden done yesterday…But I started later in the day then I anticipated and so didn’t get as far as I planned.  I am going to finish off the work today.

So, yesterday, I got the garden fenced and the flower bed fenced the way I want.  Then we zipped off to Lowe’s to get some taller fence for the chicken yard, which borders the garden.  They share one “wall” of fence and that will be the taller fence. Today, I will run the tall fence around the chicken run thereby finishing off fencing both the run and the garden.

I also will edge a bit the flower bed and put down that plastic grass-blocker edging stuff. 

And….I will be able to get some plants in the ground (well…actually, I will check the weather first and see if we are due for any frost in the near future).  At the very least, I’ll be able to get my bulbs in the ground in the flower bed.

Then later today, I think I will sketch out what I want the chicken coop to look like.

Oh..and likely an afternoon nap is on the menu too!

Not too much to say today….I think I will get into the garden again. I have an appointment first thing this morning and on the way back I am going to get some tomatoes and whatever else I see that I want to plant.

Here is a shot of my new profile pic which is a daisy plant I have on my deck.  I wish you could see it irl…It’s gorgeous!

And a marigold.

And some gladiola bulbs to plant in the flower bed by the garden.

Did I tell you what I did with the rest of my gladiola bulbs? I planted them in some pots on the deck.  I planted the bulbs in the back and then pansies in the front. I am hoping the pansies will fill in the front and then the glads will shoot up and fill in the back.  We’ll have to wait and see how it works.

While I am down in the garden today, I may cut some rhubarb. One of the plants has finally taken off this year!

Funny…You can see I’ve got a rhubarb barely growing and then they get progressively bigger…Actually, I have two other small ones too….I wish I understood how to make all my rhubarb happy!

So…my official to-do list for today:

• morning appointment
• get tomatoes and other garden plants/seeds
• get fence for garden (and a couple more fence posts)
• put garden fence up
• plant stuff in garden (today or tomorrow…it all depends on how long it takes me to get the fence up!)

That ought to keep me out of trouble for the day!!!

It is supposed to be a scorcher here today!  Highs in the mid 80′s…I think I am sweating already! Actually, not yet, it is still nice and cool.   It’s not like those summer days when you wake up hot and just sweat through the whole day.

Yesterday was quite the switcharoo kind of day.  The medical appointment that I was accompanying my parents to got all switched around.  It was supposed to be a noon and be a two and a half hour procedure starting at 2….But they called my mom at 7 inquiring why she wasn’t there. Evidently, they switched her procedure time to 7:30, but neglected to tell her!  So, she call me and we all scrambled out the door at the last minute! And then the doctor did a different (shorter) procedure…So we were only at the hospital for four hours (instead of the six or so we were anticipating).  Honestly, it was nice to get it over with early…Then my mom didn’t have to think about it all day! 

That left me home in the afternoon to do some cleaning up.  I even did kind of a deeper clean than usual in the living room and kitchen.  I am pleased to say they both look great!

Today, I have a friend coming over in the morning.  I plan an hanging laundry (it’s already washing) on the line.  I need to run to the feed store and order the chicks and I have a couple of other errandy kinds of things to do. I am hoping to get some more stuff for the garden.

That reminds me….I do have some pictures…..

Here’s the deck in winter mode:   (and if you couldn’t guess my political leanings…Well, now that cat’s out of the bag!)

I cleaned it all up and organized it. Then my dad built me some benches for my pots and I was able to raise some of them up and have tiers of pots.

I do have some things planted now…But no pics yet.  The pots and window boxes all look kind of sparse until the plants fill in a bit.

Oh! And our lilac off the deck is just covered with blossoms!

They smell so good!

And here’s the beginning of my work on the garden. We tilled too, but I don’t have a pic of that yet.

Before:  (Yikes!)

Then cleaned up a lot:

I’ll have to get down there for more pics today!

So, now you can see what projects I have been working on outside! I’ve been a busy lady!!!!