May -- A Time to Plant

Well, Thomas is gone, planted in Orlando for four months of BMW STEP training.  Fernando surmised that Thomas would not be home again, that this was a finality.  That's as it should be, of course, but that was a hard thing for this mama to fathom--her baby in an apartment far away, not easily accessible, probably not coming home.

My thoughts now turned toward Fernando and his employment situation.  He has had three different companies express interest in him, three different phone interviews, and three time to wait answers.  I then turned toward the warmer weather and my garden outside.  As long as Fernando was home, we could both go out and plant something and watch it grow.

Fernando is such a generous worker; his heart gives of himself and he willingly works in my garden for me, especially at planting time, shoveling compost, doing the back-breaking work so that I can focus on getting little plants and seeds into the ground.

I scaled back this year, planting just a few tomatoes, a bed of green beans, another of carrots.  The garlic sprouted up from seeds planted last autumn, which I love because it's such a no-nonsense gonna-grow-no-matter-what kind of crop.

I planted two little cherry tomato plants, hoping they'd do well in this particular corner of the plot.

Herbs went in this bed below, with green beans in the middle, and carrots on the left side.  I am hoping like mad the carrots turn out well like they have in the past!

After letting this back bed rest last year, I planted my four tomato plants here.  My choice was Arkansas Traveler, an indeterminate variety that produced well for me last year.  Here's hoping for another good harvest this year!

In my front yard flower garden, I basically ignored the wild oregano growing like a bush in the front.  It's not the best herb in the kitchen.  But I planted a few more French sorrel plants, hoping to have a few harvests of sorrel for my delicious French sorrel soup.

French sorrel in the center.

The hardy English thyme was already a nice sized little bush (on the left in the image below).

Now it's time to wait, to nurture, to watch things grow, to hope.  I was hoping for more than vegetables, and herbs.  As I watched Fernando go through phone interviews, and one Skype interview with a company based on the East Coast, I hoped to watch seeds of change grow, to watch something new sprout, to see the Lord guide our path once again down a new road.


Back to life,
Christine

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Hawk in the Yard

End of May.

Just as the title suggests...

Danny spotted it first, as he looked out of the window in the breakfast area.

The hawk perched on the post long enough for me to attach the (stinky) telephoto lens to my camera, sneak outside, and snap some pictures as I snuck around the side of the pool.  He looked right at me!

A few long seconds later, I saw him turn, then lift a claw, and the next thing I knew, he was gone.

But I did manage to get the escape on camera!

Back to life,
Christine

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Summer in My Special Place

My special place at the back of our back yard is, well, special.  Correction--it will be special, just as soon as I figure out how to "decorate" it.  For now, it's a pile of weeds, surrounded by a half-built brick wall.

Today, I went out there with a yard waste back, a shovel, and a pitchfork.  I wanted to clear out at least a little spot.  I'm tired of weeds, and I want flowers.

The above is where I ended, which was when my back couldn't take any more.  I'm hoping that later this summer--most likely autumn--my guys can mow down all the weeds, and we can lay down some landscape fabric to control the weeds and mulch to cover it up, and I'll be able to plant some flowers.  Here's hoping!


Back to life,
Christine

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Early May -- Assessing My Gardens

May 4.

It has warmed up nicely here--not too warm, but warm enough for the dandelions to pop up everywhere (yeah, that's my back yard above...).  While Fernando started mowing the back yard...

I went to check on what plants have been growing in early spring--rhubarb, garlic, and strawberries.  I started with my rhubarb, because there were strange stalks I had never seen before growing out of the one large plant!

My rhubarb plant had actually flowered!  I cut them off at the stems so I could still harvest the rhubarb.  Yum!

I'm always late to the game when it comes to chives.  I always forget to use them in salads, burgers, and other dishes, and they end up budding and flowering by the time I finally remember.  See?

I just hack them down and wait for them to regrow.  Next I checked on the strawberries.  Amazing--there were blossoms everywhere!  I'm hoping for a huge strawberry harvest this year!

The front yard garden gets an assessment too, since I've got some herbs growing there.  I'm not much of a flower gardener; my philosophy is that if I can't kill it and it's halfway pretty, it gets planted in my flower gardens somewhere.

Here is my brick garden, as I call it, with flowers and herbs.  That huge bushy thing in the front is oregano, growing like a weed--which is good, in this case!

Another angle.

My English thyme (below, left side) also came in like gangbusters!  I love running my hands through the plant, then sniffing my hands.  I'm sure people walking and driving by wonder what I'm doing.  But I don't care.  Next to the thyme below is a green leafy lettuce-looking plant called French sorrel.  Yes, the English and French are coexisting nicely.  I found a recipe for sorrel soup which I can't wait to try.  Also, sorrel has a lemony flavor with a little tartness and it's really good chopped up in a raw garden salad or on top of fish.

English thyme.

My last stop is my front porch garden, with its little blue brunnera (Siberian bugloss) and the multi-colored coral bells (I think I have five varieties in there!).  The woodland hydrangea bush anchors this garden (that taller bush in the back), and there's also some astilbe still hidden there, along with a few hosta plants that keep coming back even though I've dug them up a few times.  Ha!

It's always nice to make a pre-planting trip around my gardens.  It gives me an idea of how things stand and what space will be available for this year's plants.  Now it's off to plan my veggie garden!


Back to life,
Christine

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Flying Things

May 26.

Here's a quick post about flying things.  Yep, it's totally random.

Our resident Mama and Papa ducks came back, even with our pool their pond destroyed.   They didn't stay to build a nest, unfortunately, but we spotted them a few times probably trying to figure out what happened to their awesome private pond.

Mama Duck flying away.

Amazingly, on the same day, we saw these flying by.  We're only a couple blocks away from the local airport, and they have an airshow every year, but it was a few weeks ago.  Sometimes I hear the drone of an unfamiliar engine, and I'll run to a window to check it out.  These, I believe, were the Lima Lima flying group, flying T-1 Texans.

That's it.  Two flying things in one day.  :)


Back to life,
Christine

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April in My Vegetable Garden and More

April 18.

After I watched the guys get out all the yard stuff, I wandered into the back yard to check out my veggie garden.  Here's the overview:

The rhubarb is growing nicely!  I'm always amazed that within a week or so it grows from just a pearly red nub pushing up out of the ground to this!

I also have a number of purple onions coming up from last year!  This was a treat, since I decided I wouldn't plant onions this year.

Here are the three beds in a row.  You can see the strawberry plants coming up through the remaining straw.  Yay for delicious red fruit!

Behind my veggie garden, way in the back point of our pie-shaped yard, waited my special place.  It's really just a bench, a kidney-shaped pile of dirt, and a few flowers that manage to grow up without any assistance from me.

Sitting on the bench, I can look out on my veggie garden beds.

Here's the view from the back-most corner of our back yard.

You probably know by now I stand on the deck of our pool to take pictures of my veggie garden, and my special place, below.  Now you can see what I'm talking about--pile of dirt and all!

Every year I say it, but someday it'll be done, and it'll be my outdoor sanctuary, my thinking spot, my garden oasis just steps from our door!


Back to life,
Christine

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Warm Weather at Last!

April 18.

It was finally warm enough that we figured it was time to pull out the bikes and the backyard furniture!

Joseph carried the tote of pool stuff around to the back yard.

Joseph was stuck, gate wouldn't open.  Danny peeked over the fence.

Fernando passed the shovel over to Danny to dig out the grass that had grown up in front of the gate.

Lawn chairs!

Back in the garage, Thomas pumped up bike tires.

Danny dug out the gate.

Success!

The guys got everything out, and we were really hoping the warm weather would stick around for awhile!


Back to life,
Christine

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