Wednesday, March 25, 2009

oh i wish...

...that this was my gardening shed. (i'll take the sweet little kitty too!) instead though, i've been thinking of building a worktable in my garden. i have a large area along the brick wall that is too shady to grow veggies and i think it would be great to be able to transplant so easily. instant clean-up is just a hose blast away! since our fence is brick, i was thinking of using a lattice propped behind the worktable where i could attach tools and supplies. i was also thinking of painting an ugly old bookshelf and using that to store extra soil, pots, and my watering can. i'm hoping it will be a functional and enjoyable project. :)

Sunday, March 22, 2009

tea for two (hundred)

on saturday i took my mother-in-love to our parish's 11th annual annunciation tea. the flowers were beautiful and the food was amazing. so many of the ladies worked hard to make it such a wonderful time to visit with one another.


my mil and i before the tea.


chamomile and jasmin blossoms.


dear maria and her mom.


yum!!!

Thursday, March 19, 2009

...TA-DA!


our baby grass seed was put to bed yesterday and we were finally able to bring out our new patio furniture (sans umbrella) and firepit! yes i know that the concrete needs sweeping, it still needs happy sunflowers, the grapefruit tree needs pruning, and the shed and house both need painting... but isn't it beautiful???

Monday, March 16, 2009

dinner is served.



here is a baker favorite, meatless meatball (trader joe's brand, of course!) sandwiches with sweet baby ray's BBQ sauce and side salad. it's a favorite of ours even when it isn't lent. mmmmm, (drool!)

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

groundbreaking.

happy march!

deciding it was time to finally start on my veggie patch, i made a lot of progress in the past few days by tilling the soil and cleaning out the trash. many milk bottle caps and very annoyed earthworms later, here are my results. :) i dug down nearly two feet because i wanted to be absolutely sure there wasn't anything down there to taint the soil. at one point though i'll admit that i was pretty nervous as i pulled clods of dog hair out of the ground. i thought for sure i was digging into some forgotten unmarked pet gravesite. fortunately, it turned out to be what i think was an old dog bed. (whew! narrow miss!) it's strange digging into a yard you're not familiar with and finding odd objects, it's almost like taking a course in anthropology. (i can't tell you what fabulous things i deduced about the previous owners because i'm not a certified anthropologist. i can tell you though that for some reason they liked to rip the labels off their water bottles. hmm... discuss.)


here is the result of my efforts so far. i've already had a casualty in the form of an ancient hoe that michael's dear grandmother gave me for my birthday. fortunately it only snapped in the middle so it's still quite usable.



joey approves with the improvements so far. i had to clean the dirt off of his curious muzzle this morning and spotted the dirty evidence of digging on his paws a few times now. he's done a good job of keeping me company. :D


here is my comfort during my breaks. homemade iced tea and the second half of the half-blood prince, (...which by the time this post was published, i had finished and almost cried at the end even though i had read the series once before. oh dear).