Little projects and a wee harvest

It was a lovely weekend, the weather was fresh and smoke-free. We did bbq and go see the new Batman (wow, I like it!) with some friends. Other then that it a great time for a few little projects around the house.

The first of which being the other front yard shrub that we decided needed to go - the overgrown camelia. We were slightly more reluctant with this one, as it was quite healthy and had probably been in that spot for 20 years or more. But it's placement was poor...it overgrew onto the porch, rotting the porch railing. And to be honest, I'm not a huge fan of camelias (we had tons when I was growing up, as our land was fairly shady - and I tired of them) and would not turn to them willingly unless I had a very very shady yard to work with. And we are planning on putting a new garden window in the kitchen window above it.


So out it went. And once it was gone I felt less bad about it. The best news is that DH has finally completely come over to the dark side. Or the green side as it were...he came in the other day after raking the front yard and said "I'm so f'n sick of lawn". YES. He's seen the light and has agreed to let me rip up the front yard and replace it with a garden. I've been plotting and will start drawing plans soon. We are waiting until after the windows and paint, and just before rainy (crosses fingers) season so it will take less to get it established. The only argument now is fenced vs. not fenced. I prefer the former, he the latter. We had a rental house that had a wee picket fence around the front yard, and I liked it.

In other projects, I decided to refurbish some old patio chairs my gramps made a long time ago.

They were pretty rough, so I washed and sanded them thoroughly.

I've managed to get one of them painted and I think it turned out pretty nice. I still need to fashion some cushions for them:

I also took an early morning trip to Home Depot, only for a bag of mulch, and found just the right chairs to go with my patio table...on sale! For 13 bucks each. Holding out for the right deal is the way to go. Finally I have an actual patio dining set. It inspired to me rearrange my patio set up. See my new dining room? I just need the umbrella...which again, I'll wait for the right deal to buy one:

What better way to enjoy a new patio set then with a bbq? And for the bbq we enjoyed a wee harvest. Other then zucchini and lettuce, my garden has not yet been a big producer. But it is my first real expiriment and so I'm enjoying what rewards I'm getting. And though this harvest was indeed wee, DH and I both thought the corn tasty, and the cherry tomatoes and carrots were amazing...in my humble opinion. The carrots especially!

Heehee...that's almost my entire corn crop...I have 4 or 5 more ears that I can pull off and then its done. I don't think I'll grow corn next year. I'd need to plant it much differently to make it healthier and in order to do that I'd block sun from other beds. Or perhaps I'll sneak some into the front yard? I'm planning on a mostly ornamental, drought tolerant cottage garden for the front. But I do plan on throwing in some edible perennials in the spots of brightest sun and leaving some small spaces here and there to plant veggies and annuals each season. Yay!

Well well, here we go back to another week of working. BLECH! I so wish I had a couple more days off. It will be a long week. And then a weekend away (visiting mom). Then next week DH is traveling for work! He'll be in the Boston area (jealous!) all week. Poor thing is so nervous! But I am too...a whole week w/o him! I'm going to be lonely. Perhaps I'll paint a room to keep myself busy.

Cheers, everyone.

Wee Things...Ginormous things....

What do you get when you plant sunflowers in a spot that gets not even a fraction of the sun that sunflowers need??

Wee sunflowers:

Can you see it? It has a few wee sisters as well. Wee, Wee, Wee.

Now, perhaps only to make me feel better about how wee my sunflowers are, my zucchini are ginormous! I'll check a little zucc one morning and then go look at it the next day and it's quadrupled in size!

Mmm!! I love zucchini, one of my very fave veggies. I made a delicious zucchini cheddar bread that we took camping with us, and we only brought a sliver back, it was a hit! Now I think I'll have to make my famous zucchini casserole for dinner one night this week with these bad boys.

I'm feeling very very tired. For no good reason I suppose other then stress. I sure was sad to have to come back to reality from camping this weekend. Camping was great as usual, though a tad smokey. Driving through Mendicino was alarming...you could see the road and that was about it! Luckilly it wasn't so bad up in Humboldt, although I was sad to not be able to see the moon and stars at night. It was great fun though...terrific company, magnificant trees, spending time in the river, night hikes, rum drinking etc. I took almost no pictures because I was too busy having fun.

In house news, the windows are pretty much a sure thing. DH's buddy gave us a professional quote from his company and when we researched it we realized it was a very good deal. It's still hugely expensive, but we've socked away for it, so fuck it! Windows it is! I'm excited. I'll have to take some before and after pictures.

Hmmm...what to do for the fourth? Anyone have any interesting plans?

Cheers