Time to Build a Deck

Tony has plans to tackle a very big project this next month. A new deck! I snapped a picture of the plans before he ran off to the DPD Office today. Hopefully he'll get the permit by the end of the week and the building can begin! This is the largest house project he has taken on yet so wish us luck as we dive in :)

Garden Interloper...

A few weeks ago I noticed a squash plant growing in the midst of the Fairy Garden flowers I had planted from seed. I'm thinking there may have been a stray seed in that packet, or perhaps it flew in from a nearby garden. In any case, it was doing quite well in the little corner of our yard despite the fact that the dogs seemed to favor that spot for potty breaks.

My Fairy Garden flowers are starting to die down now and I just noticed today that we've got a rather large green pumpkin. Not really large relative to the pumpkins you can pick up at the grocery store but it is big for me to just now be noticing that it was growing. (I guess that's how gardening goes when you have an infant :))  I'm rather pleased about the whole thing. I bought three little pumpkin starts on the day I ended up going into labor so they didn't make it into the ground for about a week. They've never grown and I thought we would be pumpkin-less again this fall. By the looks of it we are assured at least one!

Check this out! Shrubs

Blueberry thyme shrub with soda water.

I recently heard a Seattle blogger discussing shrubs (or drinking vinegars) on the radio. I would highly recommend trying them out! Both the recipes listed in the blog post linked below sound delicious.

As it is currently berry season I tried her recommendation of strawberry basil and blueberry thyme shrubs. There isn't an explicit recipe for those versions but it is pretty easy to switch out the fruit in the recipes provided with two cups of whatever you like. I'm thinking a cranberry version of this would make an awesome gift around the holidays.

Check it out! http://www.cooklocal.com/2011/04/27/make-your-own-shrub/

Dried Apples

This time of year...right before the apple harvest begins, I like dried apples best. Even apples that have been in storage for a year are pretty tasty when dried :)

Decision Time: Fireplace Tile

 We went to the tile store yesterday and checked out some samples. We need to pick a tile color and style and make some decisions about a pattern as well as which decorative tiles we want. It's a lot of pressure because the fireplace will be the focal point of the front room of the house. We've been gravitating toward earthy, greenish tones. Here are some photos of the samples we are considering...

For decorative tiles, I like the 2x2 in the upper right corner of this board.  It is a floral design.

My favorite for the main tiles is in the middle of the three swatches with 2x2 and 4x4 tiles. It is a greenish gray with some rusty brown around the edge.

Saying Good-Bye to Some Old Friends

Tony is putting the final touches on plans for a deck. Assuming all goes well, this deck will be built this September. Today I decided to tackle the pile under the existing deck and get it organized in anticipation of the new addition. I cut down the tall weeds and grass and removed three unruly rose bushes in the area the new deck is planned to go. (Big thanks to Grandma Julie for watching Iris so I could actually spend the time to do this!)

I felt a little sad taking out the rose bushes because the previous homeowner, Mrs. Shellman, planted them and I'm sure she took a lot of pride in them. People in our neighborhood still stop to tell us how nice the Shellmans were and how happy they would be to see us fixing up the place. They lived in this house for over 40 years and I often think of them raising their family and growing old together in this house. I'm sure that Mrs. S. kept those roses beautiful throughout those years, but they were diseased and sickly when we moved in. I think she would have been disappointed to see them in such bad shape. So I'm taking them out in hopes that she would prefer it that way. I cut the good flowers this morning and they are brightening our living room one last time.