almost four months...

Hey, look at me GROWING right before your eyes!

almost professional...

Don't you hate when there is just that little piece of a project that for one reason or another is not getting done? Me too. So after much delay (a full 6 months or more), plus, a wasted Saturday afternoon looking at refrigerators, the decking around the pool is almost complete.

There's not much you can do at 4:30 p.m. on a Saturday except pose for this picture and plan for the next day.

And, when the next day is hot, but overcast with 20-30 mph winds, you just put your nose to the grindstone...

And, be thankful that the wind is blowing all the paver dust away from your house -- and your neighbors' houses too!

Thanks to our wonderful brother-in-law for lending us his tile saw -- this was done in record time!

Now, just a little bit of sand filler and I think we're probably good to go.

dor-o-THEEEEEE...

Now, this is just messing up my Sunday...

...and the pool!

it doesn't hurt to ask...

I spied a great flag at the garden center during one of my visits there prior to Memorial Day. It was being used as a display -- hanging at the entrance of the garden center. I liked the flag so much, I put it on my shopping list for my next visit there. During my next visit, the flag was no longer hanging -- so I searched for it in the store -- but it was nowhere to be found. Sigh... I put the other items on my list in the shopping cart and went to the register to pay. As I was checking out, I mentioned the flag to the person at the register. She looked in a pile of things she had next to the register and found it. She gave me the total for my items, and then she handed the flag to me -- and I looked it over -- it seemed fine. I told her I would take it. She had already printed out a receipt for me to sign, so I anticipated that she would print another receipt for the flag. She didn't. She just handed the original receipt to me -- which did not include the price of the flag. I signed it and she said "have a nice day" and then left the register to go work somewhere else in the store.





I think it is looking very happy displayed here at the front of our home. What's that saying...one man's trash is another man's treasure...

did'ja see my lilies...

I was thinking that my lily garden was not living up to my expectations this year. Maybe all the surrounding plants have just gotten bigger, so, the lilies aren't standing out the way they did when they bloomed during their first summer here. The solid yellow lilies in the picture were brought from our home in NY. The others we have been adding year by year. Sofia mentioned last year that the lilies always bloom at the end of the school year -- and true to form, this is what happened to my lily garden within the past few days.

Even though you can't see it in the picture, there is an empty space that "needs" something to fill it. I would like to find a pink lily plant -- so I'll be off to the garden center, maybe later today. :-)

P.S. If you looked at this post on its original day (6/4/10), the white flowers were not in the picture. Those bloomed on 6/5/10 and I updated the picture for you to see them! The plant in the left corner of the picture is getting ready to bloom also, so I will update the picture when that happens. Sofia thinks that those flowers might be orange -- I am not sure because we planted it last year and it didn't produce any blooms.

am I allowed to do this...

This morning I needed to fix the plant by our mailbox. Somehow part of it was pulled out of the ground and left laying on top of the rest of the plant. I am annoyed that someone would do this -- do they know that this is the first plant I purchased for my garden here? Apparently they did not think... "am I allowed to do this?" Perhaps now that it's replanted it will just go on being happy where it is. As I was replanting it, I also decided to take some of the grass away that is surrounding the mailbox, and, I also transplanted some morning glories from the backyard. As I was doing this, in the back of my head was a little voice asking..."am I allowed to do this?" I did not have the master gardener with me and was wondering if it would meet with his approval.

It took me over an hour to finish this little bit of gardening , and, while I was doing this the winds kicked up and Ozzy had decided he didn't want to sit on the porch any longer to watch me. So, we went inside and turned on the air conditioning -- because Mr. Ozzy DOES NOT LIKE THE HEAT. Now if it were just me, I wouldn't turn on the air conditioner until the kids came home from school at 3 p.m. because in the back of my head would be a little voice saying... "am I allowed to do this?" If I was all by myself a cool breeze outside would be just fine.

Those winds decided to bring some thunderstorms, so I did some inside chores and then I looked around for something else -- creative-- to do inside. AHA! I thought. I can take the candles that have been sitting on the bench and put them way up there on the shelf in the master bathroom where they belong. And, then, I'll go and get those tree branches that I painted to match the candle stands and put them up on the shelf too.

Here is the result. Am I allowed to do this...?



Apparently so, everyone here thinks it looks nice! :-)

ready, set...

...wait for it...

...still waiting for it...

summer!