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!!

if you feed them, they will come.....

I love hummingbirds, love 'em. I was quite disappointed when we moved from the old house with all it's nice birdy food and hiding places where we saw and heard them nearly every day, to the new house with nothing but dirt. I spent the summer planting things that I thought they would like in an effort to attract them over here. We saw a few during the summer, and got buzzed a few times, but nothing like we have now.

You see, there's not much food out there for them, and it's really cold, so they're absolutely addicted to the feeders on the porch. In fact, there's a daily hummingbird turf war going on and you have to be careful in the back yard because they zoom around chasing each other off the feeder. They're so hungry that they've drank the feeders dry twice now.

There's one in particular that sits on a big pine tree in the neighbors yard, you can see him if you know where to look. He protects his turf with an iron wing. He's there right now. It drives miss kitty NUTS to see the little birds fly by and she spends a great deal of time sitting in the window "talking" to them.

They'll be here all winter, and so will the feeders....

A year ago......

 

It's hard to believe we move in just a year ago.....These pics were taken while we were still in the process of moving. As you can see, cinnamon brown had already made herself at home.

Everything looks so new and fresh. We've done our best to maintain it, and I think we've done pretty well. There's some wear and tear in a few places, but nothing that can't be fixed or lived with.

We really love our new house and we're looking forward to working on the landscaping even more next season.

 

pump house - check

This week, it was all about working on the pump house.....We found some leftover siding at the local Restore....just enough to finish the garden side. It doesn't exactly match the other stuff, but, who cares?  Once it's all painted the same color, no one will really be able to tell. The next step with the pump house is to build a door, and then paint. We'll  work on putting a pump in it in the spring, before the garden is planted. That was the whole point, after all....to water the garden with the rain water runoff.

The next project will be gates and fences in the back. The fence builder is going to be on vacation for a couple of weeks here soon, so we're hoping to finish the gate over by the old house and the fence next to the dog kennel. HOPEFULLY that will deter the deer from the back yard.. We'll see. They're pretty determined devils and eating machines.

We're also planning on making a list of things we want to accomplish next season. Some of those things include more landscaping in the back, maybe another dry stream bed, a firepit and stone patio of sorts, cleaning and staining the deck, building a chicken coop, and, I'm sure, a whole bunch of other stuff. We're down to the fun projects now that can be accomplished in a weekend or two, and a whole lot of maintenance.

On the floor scene.......Friday,. we had a flooring inspector here to check it out. Our contractor made an appearance too (surprise!). You could just see his stomach sinking as the inspector did his work. We're pretty sure we may be getting a new floor, which is not as great as it sounds. They'll have to tear up all the old flooring, scrape it down and prep it, and install a new one, re-install all the baseboards and probably repaint the walls....all while we LIVE here. What a mess!!!!!!!!

We should know something this week..Although I'm looking forward to it getting done, I'm not sure I'm looking forward to getting it done. It has the possibility of being very, very bad.

The good news is, he also "promised" to fix the deck, so next spring we can hopefully clean and stain it. We'll see.....

painting away

Last sunday the fog broke enough to get out and finish my paint the shop project. It's all done, except a bit of trim and a second coat on the back door. Monsoon season has started now, so those last bits will probably have to wait until spring when it warms up and dries out.

In the bulb front, they're starting to get marked down now, so I took advantage of a couple of sales and bought 50 more crocus to finish my front yard project - there's 450 or so out there now - and some bulb iris, just for fun. A marked down huchera also followed me home from the depot. Most places are pretty much done with outside plants now, so it's all about waiting out the winter and starting again in February or so with the flower show. In the mean time, we'll be working on finishing the fencing in the back, building gates to keep the deer out, and generally winterizing things so that they'll make an appearance again next year.

We'll also be making our list of projects to finish and work on for the next winter and spring....I'm eying that fire pit that Lowes is going to have on their black Friday sale. It would be great to put away for next summer. (we have a plan)

This week, it's supposed to rain all week, so probably not too much outside stuff will make it on the adjenda.......