I Know What I Did Last Summer IV

The crowning achievement, THE NEW WALKWAY! Dali & DoubleNN found me in near tears in the middle of the dirt patch and pretty much took over.

I Know What I Did Last Summer III

My new C.E.P.U (Cooking Ember Preparation Unit), because I would NEVER flaunt the law and build a firepit. It is a keyhole fireplace design with a new register grate grill.
Rock garden in progress.
Rock wall finally about done thanks to Dali.
New Swing got on a deal from the Jewel Heart yardsale
Birthday rock from El Poquito!

I Know What I Did Last Summer II

Raised me a bumper crop of morning glories. Originally purple they've now decided they want pink.

I Know What I Did Last Summer I

Porch Gardening

A big pile of.....

I’ve been spending the early mornings out in the yard. It’s good before it gets too hot. The cats get to hang, I occasionally get some yard work done, a good time was had by all. I even fertilized my gardens yesterday. I figure “let’s get this party started”.
I have this crazy collection of seeds that I have gathered and been given over the years. I am trying to get things in shape for a good planting next year. I’ll be adding a lot of humus and peat, as well as garden soil for the top eventually. Continued adding of the nitrogen/phosphorous etc. Then a nice fallow winter season and we should be ready for spring. I am hoping to lure some of the Devas from next door by my attention and efforts.

Gigantor

I am the garden destructor. I do not plant the garden (yet) but I ream and reap the wild weeds. So far this year I have filled 3 compost trash cans and 10 compost bags with yankings and prunings. I am in opposition to the evil invasive honeysuckle. I have encroached upon the neighboring lands in my quest to limit it’s domain. Even the gorgeous but insane forsythia has felt the brunt of my curtailment. Soon, very soon I will spread the lovely lilac, the inimitable iris and plant the peony of destiny in all their destined places. I am slating all around the fire pit, (oops, I mean euphemism BBQ). I am pleased to relate that it is lily world yet again.

Rockin’ the Mock

Last year Dali planted a mock orange bush for me. He kept asking what I wanted in the yard and most of my desires can’t be met in this climate. I suppose I could resort to an indoor lemon tree, but I’m betting I’d kill it. I’d also like an almond tree, I don’t think that’s do-able either. And the weeping plum in my imagination? Well I’m not sure it actually exists on this plane.
So this year the mock is bigger and covered with flowers. They’re dropping now but man oh man was it bliss and de-lish for the last 3 or 4 days. We used to have a big ass one in Ithaca. At least it looked so to my small child self. The scent is amazing. Subtle but oh so incredible. They’re somewhat old fashioned so you won’t have the opportunity often but if you ever run across one in bloom sit yourself down and just bathe in it awhile.

I love the smell of old canvas in the morning

Oooh, the cicadas are out now, to me that is the sign of serious summer. The sound is both nostalgic and foreboding. On the one hand, it causes me to instantly recall growing up in Ithaca and sleeping out in the yard in an ancient, funny smelling tent. Brownie watching, (shooting stars, if you haven’t been exposed to that particular colloquialism) and the first time I found an abandoned exoskeleton of a cicada clinging to the sticky sap of the Gaylor's massive blue spruce and being fairly freaked out by it.

Then again, it also reminds me of laying awake, drenched in sweat, not being able to sleep for hours. Or having to crawl way down into the roots of the privacy hedge and sit there with the spiders just to get some deep shade.

There is a god awful black and white polaroid of me, about age 3, bent over in a bucket of water, having stripped off my offending wet bathing suit (which I’m told was my wont). It was taken there in that yard which had been (in my view) ruthlessly re-landscaped the last time I nosed around there. I guess that's OK, I guess it has to be, the cicadas are here too.

Note: Not the exact picture I was lookin' for but damn close