A Good Weekend

This was another Sunday when I wondered what I was going to blog about. And, again, I found all kinds of "little" things.

The first are a couple of things that came in the mail this week.

These are little painted metal pigs from Gardener's Supply Company. As a nod to Gershwin, they are named Porky (striped) and Bess (flowers). I'm very pleased with these and ordered their siblings - Sparky (snowflakes) and Gidget (polka-dots).

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This is not my house (would never have slate-grey siding!), it's a picture off the Gardener's Supply web site and it is called the Tomato Tower! It's 74" tall and holds 40 quarts of soil and 3 full grown plants. It's in a box in the garage at the moment but next week I'm going to put it together for a dry-run. I'll bet you're wondering why, with all our property, I don't grow tomatoes in the ground. Except for the Main Garden (perennials), there isn't enough full sun in any of the gardens for successful tomatoes. So I'm going to try this - the only reservation I have is that it won't be on a hard surface. We don't have a patio or deck so this will be on the sunny lawn - I'm sure Steve will be able to figure something out.....

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This is the grave of our late cairn terrier, Buckley-Rose. Steve chose these pretty rocks especially for her and dug the hole in our back garden. And I thought the fat dog statue looked like her.

This is Claire, our late cockatiel's grave . Claire died in the winter and the ground was frozen then so we kept her in the freezer until the ground thawed. Actually, we forgot she was in there (wrapped in a piece of pretty cloth in a box) and didn't bury her until two years later! Ashley never stops reminding me how "rude" that was.

This is the last resting place of my sister's "wonderful, sweet, and special" cat. She called crying asking if she could bury Darcy in our yard. Of course we agreed and Steve went around the paths with Sherry trying to find just the "right" place. Darcy was really big for a cat and most of the ground along the paths is rocky so it took him a very long time to dig a deep enough hole (we didn't want Sherry to visit and suddenly see Darcy hair scattered around the yard because some animal had dug her up!!). Steve is so thoughtful he even planted a wild phlox from the garden to make it special. You want to know how many times Sherry has looked at or even mentioned the grave??? You guessed it - - Never!! But at least Darcy has a pretty spot for the Big Sleep.

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That's it with the graves. Hopefully, it will be a very long time before we have to bury any more beloved companions.

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I'll bet you can't tell that this is a rather weather-beaten pig statue that has been toppled by a nasty digging squirrel. That's his snout at "six o'clock".

I righted him and as you see, his ear was broken off in the tumble. The statue is pretty fragile because he was only rolled over - squirrels aren't that strong.

This is the stump from a black walnut tree Steve cut down. Since the roots and leaves of this type of tree produce a substance that kills any other plants around it, this one had to go. The day lilies and daffodils nearby were slowly fading away so we decided it would be cut. I counted the rings and it was 20 years old. What a shame. But not far from this stump is a full grown, 40 foot tall black walnut raining down hundreds of nuts every Fall.

A dumb thing I did. I left this terra cotta bowl with twig handles outside all winter. The sides just flaked off. It is still quite thick so I guess I'll clean it up and leave the shells in there for one more Summer. Sierra loves to go through the shells.

Aren't these neat trails that some insect left under the bark of a dead tree. Looks like modern art.

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This is pissing me off!! The dark spots are deer tracks and they have eaten nearly every tulip in the Main Garden! There are tracks on all three levels of the garden and we've spotted them (3 does) close by when we come home from work at night. Ugh!! I thought that I had it made when I realized that the voles were gone. Nope - just much larger, long-legged voles have moved in. We didn't get the Hinder sprayed in time.

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After surveying the damage in the Main Garden, I vowed to notice only the what was pleasing during my "walk about". And I think I succeeded.

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Begonia Update ! ! !

I felt the mildew problem would be solved if I brought all the begonias up into the breezeway. There is natural light and more moving air. Look how big these two varieties have gotten - red and white ones blooming!

The "Cool Whip Lite" variety of begonia ("Braveheart") compared to my favorite violet. They both have fuzzy leaves.

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Weight Loss Update ! ! (Again)

Total of 26 pounds vanished as of today! !

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You know I just realized I seem to post the same things every few weeks. I should call this blog "Variations On A Theme"....

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I must get going because I want to play "Elder Scrolls: Oblivion" on my XBox 360 tonight and I've still got to take a bath and fold clothes. It was a good weekend for me; I did some shopping, had Ashley over for a few hours, worked in the vegetable garden, listened to some good Stan Getz, cooked a nice chicken dinner, took care of my seedlings, bounced on the rebounder, and played video games. Doesn't get any better than that!

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The real secret of how to use time is to pack it

as you would a portmanteau, filling up the small spaces

with small things.

Sir Henry Haddow

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Bye for now,

Alyssa