Before and After: The Garden

The day after a storm, we had beautiful blue skies with gorgeous clouds. 

This week I made it my mission to get some yard work done that I have been putting off for many weeks.  I did not take a before photo of this but just imagine the grass and weeds covering this entire space that were reaching as tall as the window air conditioner.  The bricks were rather loosely thrown down on the ground and I had to dig then down to ground level so we can mow over them.  

I had three of these containers full of the tall grass and weeds by the time I was done. 

The super moon was coming this week and I kept an eye on it as it was arriving.  It is a shame the moon is so hard to get a good photograph of. It loses a lot in the photograph and looks all blurry.  

It took two nights but I finished the edging and part of the mulching.  I left some dirt open for Baylor to play in but he has not been too much into swamping since he discovered bicycle riding.  

After the garden was done on the back of the house I turned the corner and started going around the other side of the house.  The grass is starting to take over and I had to pull out the plants I wanted to keep in there so I could untangle the roots from the grass roots otherwise all my weeding would be for naught.  The grass is a real bear because it comes right back from any rootlet left in the ground.  

The garden is full of color and I shopped to enjoy what was going on.  The catmint is always stunning right now with its mound of light blue flowers that attracts tons of bees.  

Of course the bees love the bee balm as do the humming birds. I put out our feeders too late and I think they nested elsewhere this year as we have not seen any at the feeders or in the garden.  

Some Queen Anne's lace in with the bee balm.  

Butterfly week in brilliant orange.  

Cone flowers are blooming and the bees love them as well.  When they go to seed, the finches love them in the fall and winter. 

Back to weeding and finding out what survived the construction since this was all part of the garden at the back of the deck.  

By Friday the super moon was here and I was glad it was a clear night so we could see it. 

Before and After: My Hair

Saturday morning Baylor and I headed to my parents house.  They were not home yet from their vacation in Germany but I wanted to surprise them with us being there and the fridge filled with food so they would not have to run out for groceries right away.  It looks like Eddy was happy to be home as well.  

Well, Mom and Dad were surprised to see us and grateful for the food.  I even made them a light dinner and had a nice breakfast and lunch planned.  They had a nice visit with Ute and made a lot of new memories.  

 Back to the before and after.  My hair is definitely getting lighter and not it a good, summer bleached way. But rather a gray over mousy brown kind of lighter.  So I asked Mom to give it a color boost.  

Too bad it washes out in a month and with us swimming, it won't last even that long but it does look better for a while!  

Happy Fourth of July!

On the third Gloria and Baylor went to Meme's to pick up Eddy.  She had been on vacation since the Monday we left for the beach.  While we know she loves her Pap, we did miss her and were glad she was home with us again.  

We spent a quiet day at home just doing stuff around the house but around 8:00 I brought out the fireworks I had bought last year after the 4th when they were 50% off.  We went through most of them but still have a few for the rest of the year. And we have tons of sparklers for the rest of the summer also.  

I was not very dark until after 8:45 so we tried to hold off on some of the bigger ones until them but we had plenty to entertain us until then.  

 

In between we did a few boxes of sparklers. 

We did a few boxes of snakes which are a bit weird but fun.  

And we finished the night with another box of sparklers.  

We Like Pina Colada!

Last Friday, after vacation, I stopped at a local produce 

farm for some fresh corn for dinner.  Baylor usually gets ice cream there and today he tried Pina Colada and loved it.  The sun was right in his eyes when I took the photo but you can see he had it horked down by the time we were at the car,  I had a split dish of coffee bean frappe and divine chocolate.  It was amazing!  

I am not sure what they do with the kids all day a day care but it was only six miles home and he crashed!  It was the third Friday in a row he fell asleep on the way home.  

Saturday morning was the Aunt's meeting at my house.  I had to do it all by myself because Mom and Dad  are on vacation in Germany visiting Ute.  There was a lot to do but I got it all done without stressing myself too much.  

I wish my life was more like Grimm's: sleep in the sun, eat, get some lovins and go sleep some more.  

I stocked up on cleaning supplies and spent the day we got home from the beach putting it all out in the garage.  

I made an angle food cake black raspberry cake roll for me installment of a year of cake rolls.  

I made bread to serve with our jellies and jams, cut up melons and green grapes, and a couple trays of assorted olives and pickles.  

I made blender salsa, black bean dip, and pimento cheese dip and had various dippers.  I made mint tea with our own mint. We had coffee, orange juice and 1/2 and 1/2 tea and lemonade.  And clean the house or hide all the crap!  Everyone loved the addition and how the upstairs is set up now.  We had a nice visit and Baylor and Eli even went swimming!  

After the Aunt's meeting Baylor and played together outside.  I had been so busy the last few days getting ready I really just wanted to spend some time with him.  The girls came over and invited us to go to the pool at 5 because it is only $5.00 after 5 PM.  We ended staying until close at 7:45 and we had a really good time.  

Yesterday when I got in the car the temp was showing 100 degrees.  I know that is just from sitting in the sun but it was a shock to see.  

In  a few minutes it cooled down to a refreshing 91 degrees. I think it will be another hot summer! 

And since it is hot and summer and we love ice cream, we made Pina Colada at home!!  It was awesome!!  

So awesome, he ate it off the ice cream scoop.