The Patio

I think this one is my true favorite. I just have a soft spot for shade plants....maybe from living in the "part shade" of Washington for so long. Or that they just seem to all come in the best color palate ever.

This one was actually planted this year, when my patio was almost finished.

Everything has bloomed and grown and spread just like I wanted it too.  The ferns are running behind a little. Next year.

All of my stolen sedums are growing nicely.

Soon, my chicks will be overflowing, just like my Mom's.

Vegi Garden

The "Food Garden" belongs to Anthony. It's a boy scout project I'm helping him with (by forcing him to do it), but he loves it. How could you not? Growing food is so fulfilling. We've had a lot of fails in the past, so Anthony's garden went in the front yard, where the sun and water are. It's just two 4x4 raised beds, but we're milking that space for all that it's worth.

So far, we've harvested...

...broccoli....

...our adorable baby cauliflowers....

...grew up (and were mercilessly eaten.)

Anthony said he was going to take one to Lily and tell her, "I grew you a delicious cauliflower." (You have to picture that being said in the best Napolean Dynamite voice ever.)

We're still waiting on brussel sprouts (please!), zucchini, cucumbers, and peas.

...and, on the far right, sunflowers, which it's impossible to get an up-to-date picture of, because they grow so dang fast.

Now that the broccoli and cauliflower are out of the way, it's time to plant tomatoes!!! Yay!

My Flowerbeds

I'm going to do a little garden update this week, so everyone can see how the various projects are going.

They're all still "in the works", as you can see from my front flower beds/flagstone storage. (I have big, big plans for that stone. I've had both the plans and the stone for nearly a year now. :)

But, progress is progress. You just have to pat your own back and appreciate how far you've come. Sadly, I don't have photos of the weedy jungle that was here originally. Picture stoney corner x 10.

Last summer I weeded it down to this:

...planted a few things...(the iris is big because we inherited at least a couple nice plants among the weeds.)

...and now it's this:

...and, just around the corner...ooo-la-la!

Isn't it fun when everything comes back bigger and prettier in the Spring! ...or almost everything....only one of my mexican blankets survived.

...and on the other side of the front door, this:

...blossomed into this!

The flagstones I threw down to curtail leaky-faucet-erosion...

....are covered in blossomy thyme!

My theory with flagstones is that stuff is going to grow between. It might as well be stuff you like.

...and that's it for the flower beds. They make me happy.

Planted anything lately?

My New "Tree"

I finally found another tree for the front of our house...and planted it right between my future driveway and future flagstone landing, covered in mother of thyme. (It doesn't hurt to think ahead, right?)

What? You can't see it? ....how about from this angle?

Yep. He's just a little guy, but I've been wanting a Japanese Snowbell for years.

The flowers smell just heavenly.

...and I'll limb him up a little as he grows...so he doesn't end up shrubby.

Planted by Odie and me. We had a great time digging up sod and making a big hole. Little does he know, I have much, much more of that planned. Bwa-ha-ha....

With Friends

There are things you can manage with friends that you could never do on your own.

For now, with my little, running in every direction children, going to the Air and Space Museum is one of those things.

I'm sure I couldn't have done it without lots of big people to give rides to tired walkers....

...to get the "little princess kitty" into her stroller....

(Cozy would do anything for her "red friend"! It took her a while to get everyone's names down, so she mostly called them by the colors they were wearing.)

....to keep James and Cozy from falling off of the platform and onto the tracks....

...and give them a nice view of the trains....

...and keep littles from getting lost in the crowd.

Oh, and we looked at a lot of airplanes/space shuttles/space station and learned cool things about space.

But the best part was that we got to do it with friends. That makes everything better.

Mulan

Sofia's play debuted on Thursday and run thru Saturday, making for a fairly busy weekend (especially for Anthony and Sofia, who were actually involved.) Anthony was in the pit. Sofia was Lao Zhi, chief ancestor. They both did great!

I love this picture of Sofi being a stoic ancestor while Mulan and Mushu take a victory leap behind her! Hee hee.

...and all of those soldiers in brown tabards - I made those tabards. I know, that is some fancy sewing.  My contribution to junior theater. :)

On Saturday, some friends of ours drove up from VA to see the play and....to play!

We sure love those Hetricks!

Future Ninja

I think I figured out why Jonny has such awesome abs. He watches tv like this:

 James wanted to join him....

...but this was as high as he was willing to go....

....until he got a boost.