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.

The sun has finally warmed up the Midwest enough to venture outside again, and I have been taking full advantage of it and gardening like crazy.



I love mulch, especially free mulch that the city provides! I would mulch the whole yard if my tribe would let me, but they like grass for some reason- waste of good planting space and water in my opinion. But I am attempting to reseed the small patch left of my nemesis. No little fluffs of new green grass yet, but I guess it has only been 7 days. Still my patience is being tried...


I thought I had lost this Clematis to morning glories but they came back with a feisty spirit and next year should fill this trellis. The sooner the better, as copper is a hot commodity here in Minneapolis and I was terrified it would be ripped off before I got something growing on it!


Silly grass- grow already! I hate you.

Me and Peggy Lee

This is a photo project I did. I wasn't sure which peggy lee quote to use. It baffled me to the point of not using anything for the showing...

What do you think-

I can scoop up a great big dipper full of lard from the drippins can
Throw it in the skillet, go out & do my shopping, be back before it melts in the pan
I can rub & scrub this old house til it's shinin like a dime
Feed the baby, grease the car, & powder my face at the same time
If you come to me sickly you know I'm gonna make you well
If you come to me all hexed up you know I'm gonna break the spell
If you come to me hungry you know I'm gonna fill you full of grits
I can stretch! a green black dollar bill from here to kindom come!
'Cause I'm a woman! W-O-M-A-N, I'll say it again.....

Or-

Is that all there is, is that all there is
If thats all there is my friends, then lets keep dancing
Lets break out the booze and have a ball
If thats all there is