How You Feeling?

Hot, Hot, Hot!

What a scorcher! Pheweee! Today Zach and I went to my parents' house to help them remove several trees that fell down after the storm last week. It was soooo hot, I can't even describe it. But we made some progress in the yard, so it was at least worth the sweat. Zach dined us with a fabulous pork recipe. As always, his meals are scrumptious. Makes we want to have them every day, instead of on special occasions. Ah well...

Happy Memorial Day!

Random

I think I have more than a few posts titled "random" because sometimes my life is pretty boring and uneventful. (And yet I still feel like sharing.)

- Despite an initial thought to work on my wedding scrapbook all weekend, I made absolutely no progress on it. I think I'll need to take a week off work to get it done. We'll see...

- We found Otis has been chewing a lot of different things lately - our cell phone cords, my barrettes, the cat's hair brush. I wanted to find a safer alternative to this odd behavior, so I took a trip to Petco, looking for teething toys or nylabones. I found what I was looking for in the dog aisle, but thought I'd double check the cat aisle to see if they had anything similar. To my surprise, they actually had a catnip-infused wiggly worm teether! So, I bought it. Otis was quite interested and played with it for a little while. Later that night, we started engaging him with it again and he really went at it. He chewed and chewed on that thing and in less that 15 minutes, Otis has chewed it apart in two places! Thankfully he was being supervised, otherwise we'd be dealing with foreign body ingestion! This cat's crazy.

- Our vacuum cleaner has not been working and despite Zach's best efforts, we were unsuccessful in repairing it. We brought home a new vacuum yesterday and tried it out. I literally emptied the waste canister four times!! I have never seen our carpets this clean. And the amazing part is it picks up Wilbur's hair, which is so fine it always evaded our other vacuums.

- We found a new Memorial weekend activity this year - Flavorfest at the PA Ren Faire. Free admission, free parking, free music, free wine and food tastings. It was a lot of fun. We will officially boycott Artsfest. Who charges admission for an event where you buy stuff anyway?

- It is way too hot! Ugh...enough said.

Update

Here is an updated photo of our house front, compared to the picture in this post, taken a year ago.

Flower Gardens

Heavy Rains this Week

Growing Older

Lately I've been surprised at how grown-up my thoughts and actions have become. Things that as a kid, I just could not comprehend.

- Having to write things down in order to not forget them. (I'm talking simple things here - stop at the bank, take work keys, etc.)

- Working in the garden. I used to think my mom was crazy and hated helping her when she asked. Now I think it's pretty darn fun and a nice work-out to boot!

- Growing grass and watering it with a sprinkler. Ha! I seriously couldn't get over this one when it happened. Growing grass was just something my parents did at their house, not me!

- Doing easy do it yourself project and small home repairs. The bathroom makeover was such an accomplishment! And the other day I fixed some hoses that had holes in them. I was so proud of myself ;)

- Thinking "where has the time gone?" over and over again. Along with that - not remembering how many years have passed since starting at my current job, when I graduated from Wilson or PSU, how long I've had my car, etc.

- Hating winter snow storms. This one started a few years ago when I was working full time at a job that is alway open, despite the weather. I admit the snow is pretty to look at and it does give me a warm and fuzzy feeling when it's picture perfect, but I can't stand the stress of driving in it.

That's all I can think of off the top of my head. It's funny how my mindset has switched from young and naive, and has taken on a more grown-up perspective. Ahh...I'm getting older...

Soon approaching the 2 year mark

May 23 will mark our 2 year anniversary. Follow this link to our slideshow of wedding photos:

http://www.daniellevennard.com/#/laura---zach/

Thank to Danielle Vennard, our photographer, who did a fabulous job. If you're in need of a great photo shoot, you won't be disappointed with her.

Face lift

House front, before

Ever since we moved in, I wanted to change the look of the gardens in the front of the house. The prior homeowner had left a few choice perennials, but they were nothing that looked good on their own. The shrubs had taken a beating from the heavy winter snow and had not been well pruned. So, this spring was the time for a face lift. I had been working on the shrubs for a while, starting last fall, actually, but now it was time to get serious.

Flower bed, before (July 2010)

Here's what went on this weekend:

1. Mom and I met at Ashcombe's for an intense strategic meeting on what I should buy. I'm completely new to this gardening thing and my successes have been rather limited to a few random pots of annuals grown on the roof of my past apartments. I wanted to create a perennial garden that could manage on its own if I forgot about it every once in a while.

2. I purchased several foundational plants and included several of my own transplants from other areas of the yard and Mom offered a few plants from her garden.

3. I removed all of the existing plants from the garden to rearrange or remove completely. This included #3/4 shrub root, which was successfully removed with the strength and determination of my husband. The last remaining shrub still stands, naked without its branches, awaiting its demise at a later date.

Bare naked house front

4. The garden on the right side of the house, near the driveway, is completely planted minus the daylillies that will fill in for the remaining shrub. I'm still undecided if I will keep the grape hyacinths as a border. I like their color in the early spring, but the remainder of the season, I think they look kind of pathetic. We'll see. (Click on photos for larger image)

Full view of this garden

Close-up of left side: In back, row of Russian Sage. Front, Left to Right: Rose of Sharon, Coreopsis, Dusty Miller, Bell Flower, St John's Wart, Phlox

Close-up of right side: In back, row of Russian Sage. Front, Left to Right: Phlox, Flax, Geranium, Dusty Miller, unknown spike plants, Coreopsis

5. The garden on the left side of the house is partially finished. I added all the plants that I own and wanted to transplant, but I'll be receiving the remainder of the plants from Mom.

Variety of sedum, coral bells and Rose of Sharon, far left.

In addition to the front garden, I was also able to get the grass seed started in the backyard just minutes before the day's rain started. Can't wait to see how everything grows now!

Totally unrelated to this gardening post:

Congrats to cousins Brad and Sarah, who welcomed their first baby girl into the world today!