various pictures

More pictures when Melanie came for her birthday- yes many of them are on her blog, but I decided to put some of the ones where I look cute up since it doesn't happen very often....



Dinner at Out Back-which turned out costing each of us a buck. Yay for gift certificates!!!!










Me in front of the playhouse. Too bad didn't get a picture of Melanie :(



Here is Melanie before the play started, in our original seats (not good, but then they moved us to great ones).








Here is Melanie and I on the couch talking to mom on Mother's day. We even sang a song, but probably should've practiced first :)

Melanie sharing the bounty from her garden. My zuchinni are still seedlings... (notice screwdriver for comparison)

Melanie sure helped me out a lot so I put up this cute picture again of her helping me.

Here is a before picture of the patio, plus the stray cat that I'm feeding in an atempt to keep it from stalking the bird feeders.... not working yet. (her name is nanguo-rhymes with mango means sad in chinese, the idea is stolen from Allison, but this cat really is sad...no tail)

So here is the after picture, don't know if you can tell but the gross carpet is gone. Thanks Melanie and Kate for helping with that!

Here is a picture of the lime merangue pie I made. It set up after Melanie left and was pretty good (if you like that sort of sourysweet thing).

So enough of that. Yesterday and Friday I got things pretty caught up in the garden. Kate helped by mowing the front lawn and most of the back (i got the second mower out and did the edges). I still need to 1. mulch and weed barrier around the trees and then 2. use a bio degrading mulch on the berries. 3. is expanding window gardens to include the stepping stones, and 4 is to start the flower gardens starting with the front shade one, moving to the front sunny, stump, and tree gardens. Wow that sounds like a lot of work still!

I did get the misters set up in the patio, but when I turned them on they are more like small sprinklers..... hmmmm not what I expected. I'm not sure what to do at this point and I'm rather discouraged.

Anyways I treated myself to a fancy lunch at P7-12 since I was working hard. They have really good pizza. I found that if I'm going to dine by myself I need to remember to bring something to do. Its a small restaurante and there is only so much people watching I can do before it gets awkward....

I wore myself out yesterday and still needed to get my primary lesson ready. I learn something everytime on how to do better for the next lesson. Also I tell myself to start on the lesson earlier each time, but that has yet to occur.

Today I made cornbread (a favorite lately), cut up a pineapple, and made what i call an asian stew (like american only with ginger, garlic, soy sauce, and black and rice vinigers) and served over rice and noodles. Actually turned out pretty good.


In keeping with my various picture theme, here is a picture of my garden plan... I only stuck to part of it because I kept buying extra things like tomatoes, and had extra room....

Here is a bit of my letuce. This was a couple of weeks ago. Its lots bigger now ever though I pick a small salad's worth everyday. I just eat it alfresco and its very tasty (if the leaf has lots of dirt I do wash it off, usually). I love the different kinds. The only problem is in a mix I don't know which is which and so I won't know which kind to buy next year. Since this picture I've had two more plantings in an effort to get more crops. I'm going to try and find some shade cloth to see if that helps it last longer into the hot summer.

Here is a stand for 6 pots that Angela got me from Grandma Ritchie's house. I put shade plants in it and its pretty cute out on the patio. I sure hope I can figure out those misters and make the patio really pleasant to hang out in.... its going to get really really hot in just a couple of weeks. ugghh i don't like the heat.

two sundays ago I had some friendly visitors. After I gave them a treat they thought we were best friends and went everywhere together. I think the one closest to the door is a border collie mix, I don't know what the one was in the back but they were both cute, friendly and makes me want one.

On a pretty spring evening, but kindof cold, Cathy invited me to UVU baseball. She had picked up a baby somewhere, and apparently her tallent is putting kids to sleep. I like having inside hookups. Cathy led us to a box seat which was way nice as the wind was cold.

To close, here is another mountain picture taken while headed to court in Spanish Fork a couple of weeks ago. The snow is mostly gone on the lower peaks, but there is still on the tops.

ashamed

I bought 4 extra tomato plant. ... I am ashamed. I already had a Roma, early girl, lemon boy, jet setter, pik rite, celebrity, and cherokee purple. I added to that a goliath, beefsteak, pink brandywine, and Mr. Stripey. I also got some free seeds for a trip-l-crop that I started but aren't very big yet. All in all that makes 12 varieties. believe me although it looks like a lot of varieties I did use some restraint. Do you have any idea of how many varieties there are? I figure I can try these kinds out and whichever ones I don't like I can try a different kind next.

I don't think I'm really that fat, but I probably am!- here we are planting tomatoes (the first ones I got).



You probably already saw picture on Melanie's blog but I think its cute.

I've been sick. Its been nice to not go into work, but I was pretty miserable and got behind in my yard. Thanks to Melanie for coming to visit me for her birthday! I wore her out good. This actually made me happy because I caught up on things, and it means that my yardwork is exercise, so I'm not completely sedintary.

I also got a couple more sweet peppers (bananna, and an orange bell) and another hot one (serano), bought some butternut squash (since mine from seeds are really small), another zuchini, and a pumpkin. I want a water melon but haven't found one of the "ice box" varieties. In writing this I realized I planted my zuchini over where I had planted my sugar pumpkins. OOPS. I guess I'll move the zuchini to where I have space for the water mellon and see if I can get the sugar pumpkin seeds to come up... if I can find them.

Aren't these so pretty? they are all over my yard. The blades are just starting to die. In two weeks they will be completely gone. I want to start my front shade garden but will wait until these flowers are gone so I can space things out right.

potatoes are coming up, I am covering them up a little bit at a time as they come up.

Here is the front side yard, I dug up and turned over, here is the picture of the sort of finished look. I moved two of the bushes from the side yard (they were in the way of the trash can and wheelbarrow), and the plum tree in the corner of the garden. One of the bushes is really sad, the tree and other bush looks ok. I'm still not sure what to do with the hole. I've been putting weeds, sticks, etc there as I want to fill it in, not real safe though....

The third pictures is the back side yard which is still messy, but I put down weed barrier and mulched with leaves (they are free :) I hope the grapes and bushes do ok there!

I have moved some strawberries from the old patch to the new bed, but overall most of the 50 plants made it. I'm worried about the blackberries. One is definately dead, and the others aren't doing anything. One of the saskatoon berries isn't doing anything, and a couple of berrie bushes. I accidently weed wacked one so I don't expect that one to be ok. All of the raspberries came up, but one got run over by the lawnmower so I might buy a new one. The boysenberries didn't get sent so I have to decide if I will buy something to fill the spot this year.

Here are some pretty pictures of my spring flowers that are just about gone.

These last three are just pretty. The first is a bargin buy that I got from Home Depot cause it was half dead. It sure looks pretty this year. The next is one of my pretty geraniums that overwintered, and the next is a bright yellow pansy that sits in a pot on the patio. Whoo hoo for flowers. I will post again later with a few pics from Melanie's visit and some other garden projects.