Side Yard Update

Hi! 

I've been slowly working on the side yard this week.

Here's how it looked last year.

Here's how it looked 2 weeks ago.

Here it is last Friday.

And this morning.

Notice there's a little fence running from the playhouse to K's office. 

Here it is from the other side.

It used to be our table!  See it attached to the breezeway wall?

 Back to the side yard.
Here are the raspberries last week on the left hand side.

Here they are two days ago.

And now. 

The raspberries were spreading so I moved a bunch of them closer  to the fence.  Now they're only out about 2-3 feet from the fence instead of 5-6 feet with lots of empty spaces.  I hope we get some berries this year!

The well area last week. 

And today.

I got all the trellis up and transplanted the honeysuckle.  Beside the well is a cedar shingled piece of plywood that's going to make a cover for the well.  On top of that is part of a fence that will run in front of the well.

Here's looking from the front.  I'm in the middle of moving our woodstove over.  It's on the handcart behind a stray piece of trellis. 

Here's a closer look at the corner.  I dug up a bunch of tiny spruce trees to put in pots here until we decide where we want them. 

The spruces came from the "hill" beside the sail boat.  Since we need to flatten out this hill of fill, I've put plastic on part of it to kill the grass so it's easier to dig up. 

After I removed the fence  behind the electric pole last week,

I felt it needed a little something there to block the guide wire.  Here's what I did.

 I put up some trellis.  (It should actually be attached to the wall..)

Here it is from the other side.

In the front yard (on the pond side) the grass I planted a couple weeks ago has started to grow! 

It's very nice to see all this green!  As usual, I can't believe how much everything grows! 

Have a great day! :-)

Front Garden/Side Garden

Hi!

I did some work on the front garden last Friday (May 22).  Mostly on the right hand side behind the side stairs.  But look at the very front gardens by the front steps. This is the right side.

  And this is the left.  

 Look how much that front plant has grown!  The same plant is on the right, but you can't even see it!

Here is the left side of the garden last week before I started moving things around.

 Here it is now.  I moved a bunch of plants around- Some just a little bit over and I split one Hosta go go on either side of the bird fountain.

Here's the corner before.

Here it is now.  I planted the little Globe Cedar that I got on sale for $14.99 (regularly $19.99!)  It should fill in the whole corner.  As it gets bigger I'll have to move some plants.  

Again, I moved some plants around.  I moved the two little plants to the right of the Globe from the back yard by the fence on the pond side.  They were in front of the clematis but it was too hard to keep that area weed free, so I'm letting it go back to grass.  And maybe moving the clematis, too!

  

Back to the front.  Here's the left Before.

I didn't really move too much around over here.

Here's the whole thing Before.

And After.  I can't wait to see how everything grows in! 

Here's the garden at the end of August last year!  Those plants grow so much!

I did some more work on the side of the courtyard. 

This is looking toward the neighbors' by the side of the courtyard.

I tore down the fence! 

And moved some plants around.  It still looks like a mess though, doesn't it?  Oh, well! It's getting there!

Have a great day! :-)

Foody Friday

Hi!

Another week has passed.  I found it a bit hard to cook just for 3 people this week- especially since the things I usually cook seem to be liked by only 2 people (and one of those people was gone this week!).

Here's what we ate:

• Fri- Cucumber Sandwiches (just C and me- N went to birthday party)
• Sat- Out for Chinese with FIL
• Sun-Spinach Pizza (eaten in tv room while watching "The Wizard of Oz")
• Mon- Chicken Tenders and Potato Wedges from Super Store (eaten in car on way home)
• Tues- Egg, Fried Rice, Broccoli with Chinese Sauce, Corn on cob (eaten in kitchen- Finally!)
• Wed- Cucumber Sandwiches, Melons, Dill Pickle Chips (eaten outside!)

• Thurs- Frozen Cheese Tortellini with garlic tomato sauce, Green Beans, Ciabatta Bread (eaten in kitchen with K home!)

Have a great day! :-)

Front Room/ Yard Work

Hi!

Today K is going with his mom to Ontario to see his sister.  They'll be back next Thursday. It will be quiet without him around!

We made some progress on the front room locker/cabinets last week.

See how the middle door doesn't open?

Here's the other side....

Still waiting for some work to be done!

I'm still working on the side yard cleanup. Here it is now, looking from the back toward the road.

And here's the Before.

Here's a wider shot now, where you can see I moved a bunch of stuff over to the left side. 

There are raspberry canes and a two overgrown honeysuckle plants on the left by the fence. Some stuff on the left is good, but most will go to the dump.

Our well was under all that junk.  It's a mess and needs a good clean up, too. 

I think we can use up some "junk" to fix this.

I leaned the trellis up on the side of K's office.  I may move the honeysuckle over here.  It's getting a bit overgrown behind the raspberries and it'll look nice for the neighbors if they look over into our yard. 

Notice Paris in the window? ;-)

Here's Lilly, outside with me!  

And more junk to take to the dump.  The pile on the right is trash, the other pile is good wood.  Not really sure what we'll do with it.  I hate to just throw it away, but we don't have a project in mind to use it up (except for the well...) Here is the area before. 

So, we're slowly making progress! I think I'll take down that little section of fence behind the yellow thing on the guide wire for the electric pole.  Then I can divide a Hosta plant to put there.

We had some excitement at the pond Wednesday night. 

We think the Fire Department was training new fire fighters. 

It was so pretty to look at since the sky was dark behind the pond and the sun was out, setting, on the other side. It lit everything up so nicely. C took some really nice pictures on her camera.

I'm off to do some yardwork before it rains.  I bought a new little globe cedar that's going in the front garden.  I need to plant that and also do some more work on our junk piles.

Have a wonderful weekend and Happy Memorial Day to those in the States! :-)

Foody Friday

Hi!

Another week has gone by!

Here's what we ate:

• Fri- Tortilla Pizzas
• Sat- Leftovers
• Sun- Frozen SlowCooker Beans turned into Chili
• Mon-Victoria Day- Dinner at In-laws- Lobster and Hotdogs
• Tues- Something with leftover potato salad from Mon...
• Wed- Frozen Adobo Chicken made into Chicken Enchiladas (I used canned lentils, so that's what I had in mine.  I made the Sauce, but found it to be a bit too salty.  However, when mixed with the enchiladas it was ok.  But if I make it again, I think I'll decrease the salt since my chili powder has salt in it.
• Thurs-Macaroni and Cheese, Raw Carrots & Broccoli with Ranch

Have a great day! :-)

Victoria Day Weekend Update

Hello!  

How was your weekend?  Ours was good.  It was a long one due to the Victoria Day Holiday yesterday.  (Usually, Victoria Day in Canada and Memorial Day in the US happen on the same weekend, but not this year...)  We went into town to have dinner at my in-laws yesterday.  We finally had some lobster after the late start to lobster season.

They started plowing across the road- all the snow is gone there.  But you can still see snow in shady places in the woods on the drive to town.  I wonder if it will still be there in June?!

K got the sailboat out this weekend.

It's all ready to go, but the water is still a bit too cold to go out.  

We made some progress on our junk pile. 

Can you see the difference from before?

 Here's a closer look.

And here's before.

It was .23 tonnes of junk!  

 Below is wood that we're going to keep.

Except for the long 1x4's in the front.  Those are kinda rotten, so I'm going to put them in the front by the ditch to finish decomposing.  There's also a pile of little pieces of stuff (not pictured) that will get fed into our waste can over the next month.  We have waste pick up every two weeks, alternating with compost pick up. Actually, some of the trash is just wood, so it could go into the compost.  This week is the Spring Cleanup Compost pick up, so we can put out extra compost for the Waste Watch to pick up.  I'm not sure if you can tell in the above photo, but there are a lot of branches under the lumber.  Those are invasive weeds that I've dug up and need to get out of our yard. If there is a branch lying on the ground, it will root and start to grow and spread. I've already filled one big compost bag with branches/roots and just need to get to this pile...Perhaps this afternoon.

Have a great day! :-)