National Night Out

Well, I have recovered from the shin-dig that happened last Tuesday night! We had the craziest party and there are still remnants of it on the front lawn...
The ingredients:
800 water balloons
50 paper lanterns (painted by the neighborhood kids)
pinata
scavenger hunt (for the shredded water balloons!)
72 beach balls (for the biggest dodge ball game EVER!)
Yummy food
And good conversations

Its just cool to have everyone together, putting aside all the tribulations of the block, and hang out...

Went camping last weekend. As a kid I remember how fun camping was, running through the woods, climbing on fallen trees and searching for new and unusual bugs. We would spend the mornings canoeing through quiet waters looking for beaver damns or birds catching a snack. In the evening I loved sitting by the fire with the family, talking to each other and watching the stars. As a kid I would forget all the troubles at home and just live in the moment of those fun days and peaceful nights. Last weekend my kids experienced everything I loved about camping and it made me feel like I am doing okay by them.

After a long day of caring for the children, household chores, running errands, doing algebra homework and four and a half hours of math class, I am done. I pull up at home, on my bike, ready to spend a quality moment with Charlie.
And this is what I am greeted with-



The maturity level around here astounds me sometimes.

Garage sale score!

Well they weren't really a score but what I wanted.... I have been meaning to plant up the boulevard, but with 30 some kids on the block who seem to converge on my front lawn every night, having plants out front is flora homicide. And with these box we all win, however I am the only one who imagines them as plant boxes- So far I have seen them become ships in the high sea, surrounded with sharks. An arena for gladiators to battle till the death. A trapeze so thin and wiggly that imminent death is just a tragic slip (or push) away. A bunker to ambush the enemy with water guns. An archeological excavation to uncover a rare and extinct breed of monster trucks. And a nice place to sit and eat popsicles on a hot summer evening...

My mini rain garden

I finally got this in, only two months after the Metro Bloom rain garden class- I'm quick like that...

The plants I choose :
long headed coneflower
heuchera villosa "caramel
blackberry lily
columbine
2 avalanche feather reed grass
and good ol' karl foester

It will collect the water via gutter off the southeast corner of the house. The only problem is over a year ago we pulled off the gutters to paint the house with plans to put up new soffits and gutters, and the project is moving right along at slug like pace... We almost have the soffits up but no sign of gutters yet! Summer is so hard, you finally shake off that awful thing that is winter and you are set free! but the projects hang over your like a ton of bricks, totally dampering the whole skipping through the meadows image I have of my summer...

The moment one gives close attention to anything,
even a blade of grass, it becomes a mysterious, awesome,
indescribably magnificent world in itself.
- Henry Miller

My grass is finally here- And it is nice...

Popeye the Sailor in Gopher Spinach

I got my letter from the U, I am officially a gopher!

I promise to think of the gophers when I am a landscape architect... We must learn to work together for a more sustainable environment for all the people and rodents of the world.