Hold Dear

H a p p y 4 t h o f J u l y !

Yee-haw! Happy 4th of July and happy day off in the middle of the week! Gotta love that! Not only is it a day off in the middle of the week, but it's also a Saturday night in the middle of the week. I SO enjoy just puttering around the house, working on projects, reading, or watching TV on Saturday night. No pressure of having to get up to the alarm clock the next day.

I wanted to show you a couple of pictures of my raised garden beds. They're going bonkers!!! Here's the post that shows what they looked like when we first planted them. If you scroll down, it's the last picture in the post.

Here's what they looked like mid-June, when Glen put up the trellises for the sugar snap peas and pole beans.

And then here's what they looked like this morning, three weeks and three days later! It's a bit hard to really see since the sun is so bright (oh darn!) but trust me, BONK-kers!

Great googlely mooglely! We've been eating from the lettuces almost everyday. We have six plants and unless we get sick of leaf lettuce, we probably won't have to buy any lettuce from a market this whole summer! I'm SO excited to see that there are flowers on the Anaheim chilies! That's gonna be fun!

Also, in the backyard, I have a tub with some herbs. The oregano and chives were left over from last year and I planted the rosemary and parsley new this year. Isn't that cascading oregano gorgeous??!

Oh yeah, and here's a couple pictures of our other kitty cat, Tommy. And my feet.

I often share pictures of our dear little Atticus, but I hardly show pictures of Tommy. He's our sweet 15 year old little old man. He is SO sweet and SO loving. He's an active cuddler. Anytime he is near us, he'll meow at you as if to be saying, "What cha got there? A lap? Can I have it?" And then once he's in your lap, he doesn't just lay there. He licks you and will paw at your hands for you to pet him. And funny thing too. If you're sitting down, he's "sneaks" into your lap. Very stealth. I don't know how he does it but I'll be watching TV or talking and then there he is, all cozy and happy.

Okay, I'd better get! Off to the market to buy provisions for the 6th Annual CUL-DE-SAC 4th of July Party I go!!! Always fun. I'll take some pictures to share. None of my family is here this year. (Who's turn was it!) I think this year's drink is going to be rum and pineapple juice. I was tempted to do double margaritas, like Simone and I had the year she was here! LOL! But it's gonna be hot hot hot and I tolerate rum REAL good when it's hot! Or threatening to be hot. Or warm. Or snow. Or day. Or night. :-)

Hope you have a fantasticly fun and safe holiday!!! See ya on the flip flop!

i am a pool of calm blue water i am a pool of calm blue water...

So I took a vacation day yesterday. Just wanted to get a few things done: run a few errands and prep for this weekend's neighborhood garage sale.

I also made a visit to my happy place. You know, that calm blue pool of water that some of us have to visit so we stay calm when crap happens. Yep, I went there yesterday.

The day started nice enough. I got up, poked around in my craft room for awhile and then headed out to hit a few of my neighbors garage sales. I'm only doing it today but there were others who did it yesterday too. (In case you didn't know, Friday is a very big garage sale day here in Oregon - I still find that very weird.) After the garage sales, I headed out to do my errands...and that's when it started...my car...it started making a terrible rattling noise. At first I could not believe it was coming from my car. Keep in mind we just spent lots of money replacing the water pump and timing belts or chains or tassels or whatever you call it. I pulled to a side street and confirmed that noise was coming out of my car. Popping, shaking, and making some plain "not good" sounds. I looked down at the temperature gauge and my sweet car car was also overheating! So I spent the next hour and a half of a precious vacation day dealing with getting a tow to the dealer. SUCH a hassle! The good news is that Glen met me at the dealer and took me to lunch so it ended up being an adventure and got to spend some time with my knight in shining armor. What a guy! Thanks again sweety.

So blah blah blah, crap crap crap, I had to go to my happy place several times today. I am; however, extremely thankful that this all happened while we were in town and I had the time to deal with it. We're going camping next weekend so holy moly this would NOT have been a good scene if this happened next weekend!

So back to the garage sales...I found a few fun bits...all for $1.25.

The label maker is really cool. I already have one but this one uses 1/4" tape. Do they still make that? For .50, I was willing to risk it. :-)

Here's a shot of the inside of the book...it's a surveyor's notebook so it's just blank pages with grids. Way cool.

I also wanted to share some pics of the garden. It is absolutely in it's glory right now.

And then there's the irises. Love these. And they smell like grape kool-aid. :-)

 

Oh and then there's the raised beds...tomatoes, basil (LOTS of basil, lettuce, anaheim chiles, carrots, squash, sugar snap peas and pole beans.

I dug around and saw I posted a picture of these beds last year but cropped out our neighbors yard because it was just a bunch of overgrown bushes. Well, they thought our raised beds were so cool that they built some too. And they used the exact same wood so it all matches. LOVE that!

Monday evening.

So I had the evening to myself. Glen's off on his business trip, Miranda was out hangin' with Casey and Amanda at their new place, so Atticus and I took a little tour of my garden. Oi vey! It needs some attention! She's goin' nuts! It's primarily full of perennials that I've planted over the last ten years and I think it's time for a serious haircut. I love when things grow in but between the "bullies" trying to take over and the "volunteers" growing in all the cracks, it's lookin' a little shaggy! I have GOT to take charge!

I promise you; however, that I will NEVER yell or shake my fist at these little ladies. They can go anywhere they want. Purple irises. I am inspired just being in their presence. Aren't they just the most amazing color? This, dear reader, is what purple wants to be when it grows up.

Oh and yes, this is a distraction because I'm NOT spilling my beans just yet! Hang on, little tomatoes! :-)