Being that I love P. Allen Smith and record all his shows and watch them faithfully, four years ago, I planted New Dawn roses at the base of an arbor.

In the opening of his show there is always a picture of an arbor with these roses that is so magnificent I can’t stand it. I wanted one of my own. I have learned so much from his show. Slowly but surely my house is becoming my garden home. I’ve made lots of mistakes such as the time I pruned my hydrangea and didn’t realize that I cut off all potential flower clusters. No blooms that year. I’ve planted and replanted. I’ve dug up things I planted. I move things around to find that perfect design a lot.

I have dreams for paths and focal points and areas of mystery and whimsy. Maybe one day I can achieve that but for now I just want to share my New Dawn roses.

They were just starting to bloom here. Now, it is covered. I have to figure out how to prune this beast though. The thorns are treacherous and I have trouble guiding the branches to where I want them to go.

In time.

Thanks P. Allen Smith!

I love when things like this happen.

Running out this morning to do some errands and I glance in the flower bed in front of the house and I see eggs. About six hatched and then crushed egg shells. It has nothing to do with Easter either. These eggs were buried in an obvious hole and then something hatched out of them. Turtles? Snakes? Any thoughts?

I’m walking with extra caution for some reason now. Too many episodes of Fringe I guess.

What do you make of this?

I’ve seen about a zillion pictures I needed to take just because I don’t have my camera. Poor me. I’ve been sitting by the phone waiting for Nikon to call me. Do you you think they forgot my number?

These next two shots were taken this month but last year. My forsythia just burst open this week. It always reminds me of my Gram. She would always cut branches of forsythia before they bloomed and put them in a vase of water on her dining room table. The first flowers of Spring would be seen in her house. I miss those days.

That is what I love to do.

Outside.

Working in the yard.

Getting my hands dirty.

 Making things look better.

All of that is good for my soul.

All of a sudden someone wasn’t too fond of grass:

The kids played,

and played.

and played.

and did a little ham’n it up.

I even got a snappy of me and my sweets. Thanks Honey!

Sad to say that my camera is off to get serviced tomorrow. Ack, what will I do?

Because his lips are so lushy lishy…

Late night hunting with Grandpa in the yard:

Monsta was complaining that his tummy hurt and this morning woke up with 103 fever. I made chicken soup with alphabets in it and he is pretty much just dozing on the couch all day. Poor kid.

I have mentioned before that the Monsta is pretty much over the whole camera thing. If I ask for a smile, I get cheese. If I don’t ask, I get cheese. So, I end up not asking and letting him do whatever he is doing and if I would like him to look up, I try to make him laugh somehow by asking him something funny. That works for about a minute and then he is back to cheese. After the cheese though, there is the annoyed phase. If I’m lucky, I can snap a few during this sensitive stage. If I click one too many, then we move into full on tantrum. I’ve been timing it pretty perfectly I must say. Here is Ben with the “annoyed” face. I love these shots just the same. I could eat up those cheeks and lips in one bite. They are THAT cute!

Switching topics over to our bee friends. They LOVE us and our deck. We keep saying we are going to seal the deck with an oil based stain because the bees don’t like that but it is not high up on our to do list. Until then, we live with them. Get rid of them. They come back. We get rid of them and so on and so on. Here is a sweet little guy that is working away. They like to build under the railing.

He is doesn’t live here anymore.

We have been outdoors every chance we can get. Last weekend was no different. Craig decided to take out all the stones in the path I made leading from the deck to the pool. I made it right after I gave birth to Monsta, four years ago. During this time, I had the intentions of planting some low growing thyme inbetween the stones to make it look all purty. It didn’t happen and the  weeds  grass took over and on top of that I didn’t make it all that level so when it rains we get some nice looking puddles.  Craig dug everything up and me and Monsta helped dig out the growth.  He laid down a barrier to prevent weeds from coming through this time.  He placed everything back but now the fun begins trying to level all the stones.  These are really  crazy stones, some really thick, some thin…  I remember it was really difficult.  Ugh….not looking forward to that task.  What makes it tolerable is when I can look over on the grass and see this…

It makes my heart sing. Can Cubby get anymore of his hand in his mouth? He is teething and can’t help it the poor babe. Look at the Monsta? You know we call him that because he is the exact opposite right? He loves him so and Craig and I are the luckiest people in the world.

kisses, Marina

Craig purchased a new retractable hose thingie last week. I love them. We have had several but eventually they break. It is so easy for me to just go out and water all my plants and then just push a lever and the hose automatically gets put away neatly. How can you NOT  love a thing like that? He and the Monsta hooked it up this weekend.

Some highlights:

My handsome guy

Goofing Off is a must!

Actually back to reading the instructions

The installation.  In the end, it worked beautifully….I  just didn’t get a shot of that part.  Don’t you just love how that boy loves to work with his Daddy?  I love witnessing moments like these.

Six months have gone by and let me just tell you, they went by super fast! My sweet, little Cubby is a champ with one tooth already breaking through his gums. I feel another one right behind it too. It has been a sickly winter around here. Monsta doesn’t ever seem to get over these dreaded colds. He has been sporting a lovely cough for over two weeks now – good grief. I feel that the better portion of my day is telling him to cover his mouth or don’t cough in the baby’s face. It gets tiresome. The sun being out though makes us happy. We have been outside for days. I have successfully weeded all the beds, replanted my blueberry bush and replanted my herbs from the garden into pots on the deck. I have repotted ALL my african violets to cheer them up. I feel terrible for them….I just don’t have enough windows in my house to put them in. Poor little guys. What is left on my priority list is to plant some bulbs I picked up and some peas and some cosmos. Then I can move on to my regular ongoing list. It never ends but I love it!