Today's Money Shots

The wood piles are almost gone!!

First bloom on the old fashioned rose by the big rock.

Nature's perfection in motion.

Mom is sitting on the nest. I later checked when she was gone and no eggs yet.

Red Rhodadendron.

Okay Mom, time to stop taking my picture.

Today's Wonders

Sleeping beauty or Beauty sleep, either way bliss for all.

Wood, wood beautiful wood, how we love your heat in winter time, and you save us tons of money in this sometimes nasty winter clime. "Ode to Wood" by me

It's a chickadee nest. No eggs yet, but finally caught a glimpse of the future mom and dad.

Delphinium getting ready to set blooms, I think this one is blue

This was one of a kabillion big bumble bees, I only found on little honey bee type.

The Rhodadendrons are in bloom!

Boys at Work

Today was quite productive for it being such a scorcher - my thermometer hi 89 degrees in the shade. The Whip got me going at about 7:30 am watering plants and wandering around the yard; it was evident from the get go that it would be an outside day. Brett had taken the day off to begin the long process of splitting up all the wood from the felled trees. He was saved from this task by Dave needing some assistance; as their day fell apart at each turn, they returned with the rented log splitter sooner than later and began to do their guy thing with grunts of ecstasy as a particularly difficult log was split with a loud crack. On my end, after the watering and wandering, Caroline and I dug out the little blow up pool from last year. We spent an hour scrubbing the crud from the pool and for all our efforts once my lungs were drained from administering CPR to the thing, we found two holes that were actually slashes and non-reparable. I made some calls to local stored; they didn't have them in yet. Fortunately, a friend called and I relayed my sad tale. She just so happened to be at Target and offered to pick a pool up for me. She has a son that Caroline plays with regularly and when they showed up with the pool there was no separating them. The kids had a great time in the pool and I had a nice visit with Jenni. Cheryl popped in for a quick visit on the way to the dog park which was nice as we hadn't gotten together all week.

I Got The Camera !!!!

After watching for this camera to close on ebay at 10:15 pm Mon night, I was so excited I couldn't sleep. Then over the next couple of days buyers remorse set in...will it really work, is it the right one, blah, blah, blah. Well, I received it today and it is the easiest digital camera I have EVER used; it is truly a point and shoot. Yippee!!! So here are some examples of the product. Caroline is showing off a bug on her thumb that she captured and walked around with for about 10 minutes.

Nothing New

Truly not much has been happening. Just dealing with the long hard work of tree clean up. What is so bad about it is the length of time it seems to be taking, mainly because of Brett's work schedule and weather. So we plug along. Most of it is cut up, it now needs to be split, which will happen next weekend, yippeee, I'll have my front yard back. Caroline and I finished the planting today in the front gardens with 60 gladiola (sp?) bulbs. I'm so proud of her, she is really paying attention to where she is stepping and sitting. Not one squashed plant today. I have an appointment at a local nursery school to check things out. I'm not planning on enrolling her immediately, just keeping options open for the near future. I've heard many wonderful things about this place, but I'm going on a fact finding mission with no opinion and will go with my gut and heart when I make the decision.

The Grand Opening

Yesterday was the beginning of the tree removal. I had left the house before the guys got here and returned to find almost all the trees gone. I didn't get a picture of the huge Norwegian Spruce that was to the left of the house. It was so big that of course that is what I first noticed and came pretty close to shock. I have been wrestling with the whole project all along, but finally OK'd it. It is hard to put the vertical world into perspective when we are on the ground; the big shocker for me was the vast openness, therefore increased vulnerability, as well as the poor little birds who were displaced and screaming at me. Anyway, I'm used to it now, and actually excited about having a clean slate to work from, and the gardens I planted will get plenty of sun, although probably more watering. We'll figure it out as we go.

We'll See How This Turns Out

Thanks to my dear wonderful friend, I can show you the fruits of my labor - no not Caroline. Obviously I still have some work to do, mainly finding rocks to put around the edges, that should be an interesting search. I just got some really good news, the guy we hired to cut down all the trees in the front yard will be here Thursday. Yipee!!!! Before anyone flips out on me, they are all scraggly old half dead maples that are actually pretty dangerous, and a huge norwegian spruce thing that is too close to the house. I wrestled with cutting them all down until the ice storm this past winter when one tree came inches from crushing our pull behind trailer, and another couple lost large branches too close to the power lines for comfort. My father-in-law is walking a wheelbarrow full of hand me overs tomorrow am so I'll have to figure out where all that stuff is going, and pass along some as well. This trading plants thing is so cool; depending upon who gives them to you, you will always have a part of them in your garden, I especially like getting plants from people who truly enjoy the nurturing of the plants and beauty they bring to our lives.

Getting So Big

After gardening again today for quite some time, Caroline had a crying melt down which quickly led to a nap for her and a breather for me. During that time watching her so peaceful in sleep, I began to truly see how big she is getting already. So that is what sent me to find various pictures at different stages. Boy has she changed !!!

Caroline is a Slave Driver

Oh what a beautiful morning, Oh what a beautiful day. It started at 5:30 am. Caroline awoke at 5:32 am, so no time to even take the morning pee before Mom duties (no pun there) began. I could tell she would be feeling better today because of the early (normal) wake up time, so I was actually thankful for the early start. We were both showered, dressed and ready to go; Caroline to the in-laws for a little reprieve for Cheryl and me, and me for my morning out flower hunting, YIPEEEEE!!!!!! Cheryl arrived promptly at 7:20 and off we went, dropped the baby off, got a coffee at the Wagon and down the mountain. I hadn't been to Meadowview in 7 years so imagine my surprise at the vast rehab to the green houses and the expansion they have done. There were soooo many beautiful flowers to choose from, but I fortunately had brought a list and really stuck to it, except for the Mandavilla (I actually want the pink ones of which none were to be had). On the horizon are those lovely golden arches and I had to satisfy one of my many vises and get a breakfast bagel, another coffee, and of course the hashbrown. Yum Yum and I didn't have to share with Caroline. Tee Hee. I felt free although there was a niggling guilt, because she would have really enjoyed all the "bloooooms". Cheryl and I parted ways, I picked up Caroline on the way home, and we went to task. For 5 hours straight, she had me digging, pulling roots, putting in edging, and finally (to her joy) planting some flowers. She refused to nap, so when she fell head first out of her stroller she had been standing in cracking the whip, it was time to go in, grab something to eat, get a bath, and FINALLY get her cranky butt to bed. I CAN"T WAIT TO DO IT ALL OVER AGAIN TOMORROW - I really mean it; she is so interested I can't squelch that. Here are some of the before pictures Cheryl took this am.