well, it's a start

So. last night, we went out....first time in a long time. We went to zoo lights (totally fun), and then out to dinner......We didn't get home until about 10 or so, WAY past our bedtime. Imagine our surprise when we got a phone call this morning from a guy saying he would be here in 15 minutes to fix our deck. Good thing we were up......

They've been working on it all day, taking the boards off, cutting them down and putting them back on with a larger gap. It actually looks better than I thought it would. This is great, because now, this spring,  we can pressure wash it and stain it the way it should be. It will also drain when it rains, and not turn into a giant mud puddle. YEAH!!!!
One problem down.

Now we just need to see some progress on the floors, and I'll be happy.....

On another note, we planted 3 new things today, a black hellebore, a large pink peony, and a fuschia for the hummingbirds. We also put up two different bird feeding stations. Progress!! Now I just need to find that feeder that we stashed somewhere when we moved.

Next up......goals for next year

I'll leave you with some cool zoo lights.

 

 

 

 

snow day!

It snowed here this week.....just enough to make a mess

 

It was all gone in the same day, and luckily, we didn't really have to go anywhere. Makes the doggies, crazy, though.....

There's not much going on here....all quiet for the holidays and the like. Soon, we'll be going to the flower show! Yeah!!! I've already started to try to win tickets this year, we'll see.

Y'all know I'm not much for the holidays here, so instead of visions of sugarplums, I'll have visions of new plants.......I can hardly wait till the weather cooperates.

The cold spell is finally over....

But the yard looks like someone took a blowtorch to it.

I was out there chopping on the frozen things yesterday, and there is some hope......you can see the little red buds of the peonies, a few daffodils and crocus are poking their heads up,  and there's some perennials that actually survived. We'll just have to see what comes back in the spring.

This week, I succumbed to the hellebores at the garden center, and brought home a pretty cool single black one.....they had some really interesting ones there, yellow with pink accents, one called raspberry splash.....I might have to have a couple more before winter is over. My new acquisitions are hanging out in the (warmer) garage for now. They'll go out officially sometime in February...
I'm also looking forward to cruising the bare root stuff at Costco this year. Last year, we couldn't do it, because we didn't have a yard, and didn't know when we would. There's some great deals on bare root stuff, and by the time summer's over, they're just as big as the things in pots. I'll be looking for some grapes, and a couple more fruit trees and shrubs to add to our empty back yard.

I also got a really cool thing this week to add to our dragonfly theme.......
drunken dragonflies!

 

They fit right in, and they're really cool! Thanks Pam!

 

This week, it's supposed to be warmer, with a few dry days. We're on vacation AGAIN, and hopefully can make more progress on the list than we did last time. (which was pretty much none).

There are a couple of holidays in there, but that doesn't really matter.....

 

I'll leave you with my view from the porch this week. I LOVE living here!

 

I think I like the rain better.

This week, it's been bitter cold here. Now, we can handle some cold, but 17 degrees day or night is too much for anyone. I was SO looking forward to how beautiful my garden was going to be in the spring, and right now, it looks devastated. Everything is frozen, the ground is frozen, the plants are frozen, even the hummingbird feeders are frozen. (yes, we defrost them every day, poor things). The only thing that's not frozen are the hummingbirds themselves. They're zooming around, fighting for the feeders and eating like crazy.

It's supposed to defrost by the end of the week, but not before a potential bit of snow/freezing rain/ice that will shut this place DOWN. (good knitting weather, I guess).

The clearance bin at the nursery yielded a nice, 5 gallon peony this week for half price. I was afraid to buy anything else, since the pots were mostly frozen solid. I'll go back in the spring and see what still has some green on it when it thaws. Right now, the peony is hanging out in the garage, where it's not frozen, and hopefully it'll still be alive to plant in the spring. It's probably going to be the only plant out there after this......

See how everything just looks like it's burned???? it's just frozen.
:(

snow?? seriously???

Although it's 50 degrees and raining here today, we're supposed to have a very drastic change in the weather tomorrow. A cold front is coming in, and with the rain hanging around, we are MAYBE supposed to have some snow. Hate it, hate snow. It looks good, but the driving possibilities suck around here, since no one knows what to do. (personally, I know what to do - stay home).

Actually, if we do get snow, that will be good for the garden, because the sub freezing temps are expected to stay all week, and the snow will act as an insulator. Poor babies, I hope they make it.

This week, the clearance bin at the nursery coughed up a hardy fuschia for $5. I'll be going back at the end of the week for more (unless it snows). They also had some nice itoh peonies, more fuschias, and some other goodies that would love to spend the winter in my garage for half price. They'll all be just fine in the spring, no worse for the wear.

In house news, the report is back from the flooring inspector. Guess what?????  They installed the flooring wrong! Coulda saved them some money by just saying "I told you so". The next step will be for our contractor to get his own estimates, he doesn't like ours, and take them to the installer's insurance company. This is going to be long, drawn out, and ugly by the time it's done.....
UGH!!