Life Goes On

The updated Pond has been complete for awhile now, and all the plants have grown back and flourished. Except one... The Elephant Ears. Heartbroken, we assumed it was gone for good. However, today life was found! Scott noticed a small pair of ears rising from the original spot. So glad to see it coming back.

You can see it was taller than Scott when he had to move it to re-do the pond last year.

Here is the updated pond. One waterfall, no more moat. The Pompus grass at the head of the water fall is growing just as planned. The decorative grass that overlooks the pond has grown beyond all
expectation and looks beautiful.   

Another return from the dead is the Banana Tree. We have had it for almost 3 years and it didn't grow much taller than 2 feet and never looked healthy.

This spring it just started sprouting up. It looks very sturdy now.

The little Pompus grass planted in another corner of the yards, was suppose to become a screen for privacy from a back neighbor. Again, this too, sprang up like a 17-year old teenager. It is gorgeous to look at. 

Summer is full blown!

The Hole is Under Construction... AGAIN!

Scott has decided to re-do the Pond. The liner had some leaks where he had spliced it. So while he is fixing it, he decided to make it a little smaller and less complicated.

The "moat" is going away! YAH!

There will only be one water fall now.

He is hauling a lot of broken concrete in which is actually looking pretty nice.

Of course Sasha is supervising as usual.

A co-worker gave me a Christmas gift of Sweet Pea's. I sure hope I dont kill them.

Planted them along the East side of our property line. They will get the morning and some afternoon sun.

Now just have to wait. I hate waiting, dont you?

Pond Re-Do

The pond is officially in RE-DO mode. Scott finally got tired of the leak in the spliced liners.

 He is taking out the "mote" and making the pond a bit smaller.

 The entire water fall and pool above it is being reconfigured.

The yard is not a pretty site right now. Between piles of leaves, piles of rocks and piles of liners. I just close my eyes and look the other way. I know the finale will be worth it.

Waiting patiently.

Trying to Hide a Tree

There is a huge rootball and roots shooting out from around this Mulberry Tree. Plus the lawn slopes down toward the house at about this level.

So decided to create a visual point.Maybe a little garden box around the tree. We seem to have no problem locating broken concrete, so we started stacking today.

  

Well, I should say, Scott started stacking and I directed. Really, I did want to help more, but he said there was thinner and thicker peices and I could not tell the difference, so that sort of kicked me out of the placement job.

They are pretty close to sitting height. We will fill the middle in with dirt then put some shade growing plants, probably baby's tears and such. Actually we cheated a bit. Scott had piles of leaves around the yard, so I threw that into the hole for a start :-)

Cant wait to see the progress!

Our Friends

The back room of the house, our office/craft room is one gigantic wall of glass. The bottom portion is glass blocks, the top portion panes of windows. It is a bright room and wonderful see outback to watch the plants grow, weather change and birds fly by.

However, sadly, on occasion, a bird will go off his radar and fly into the window. I will be typing on my computer and hear a loud "THUMP", which sends me to the ceiling at first. Then I realize it was a bird and not a ball or bullet.

The past couple weeks, I have been bugged by all the bug muck on the window (bugged? HAH! I made a pun... get it?), so I wanted to get some of the windex cleaners out and get it cleaned up. But, I guess for the birds, it is clean enough, as today I had another one hit the window.

I'm typing away on the computer and SMACK! I knew right away, guess I am getting used to it. So went outside to check, and sure enough, a bird is sitting under the window looking dazed. Poor baby. So I got a little shovel and moved him to higher ground (safe from cats). I noticed it already has a growth on it's beak, so I wonder if it has flown into window's before. There are some blood spots on the growth, so he probably hurt it again. Poor thing. But of course, I think, "This is a BLOG POST!", so I run and grab my camera and add to it's humuliation and take a shot. To redeem myself, I grab a crust of bread and little cap of water and come back to leave for it, but it takes off in flight.

Guess all is well in the bird world again, as I notice about 10 other birds flying about the yard.

I come back in to share this on the blog, and I hear a lot of chirping out back. I will accept that as my...

THANK YOU!

Fruits of Our Efforts!

The Harvest has begun!

• First 2 cucumbers, taste GREAT!
• Tomato's (Celebrity and Early Girl) are finally starting to ripen. Have already enjoyed a pasta salad and a capri salad. YUM!
• Strawberries are still a bit small, but still worth tossing into a vanilla ice cream concoction.
• Basil is hanging in there. The leaves arent as big as Trader Joe basil, but enough to add flavor to my salads!
• Garlic was harvested on June 22 (2nd day of summer) as instructed. Very puny cloves, but have tried in salads and on homemade pizza and just as flavorful as the store bought big cloves. Not sure if we will harvest again, as it is not expensive to buy throughout the summer. They were a bit of a dissapointmnet when we pulled them out. Looked more like green onions than garlic.



The Reveal

Remember when we started?

I was the inspiration for this nifty gadget to hold the spa lid when spa is being used.

Our new new oasis!

Step inside and check it out...

Tonite we CELEBRATE!