Monday, May 31, 2010

Gardening, Grilling and Games

This could be the title for my summer, not just this post! We had perfect weather for Memorial Day and after three days in a row of going out for a mix of fun shopping and chore shopping, it was fantastic to be at home. On a day like today, it was very nice to be living on an island to experience the cool sea air and, often, that coastal, misty appearance of views, even just to the end of the backyard, but even more apparent looking beyond our perimeters.

Today, I mowed, planted flowers around the patio, clipped a hedge, watered, washed up the patio furnishings, rolled a vintage chaise out of the barn that is very comfy, but needs a wire brushing and new coat of metal paint. I think there were a few other tasks too, but I forget!

I want to get a few more geraniums and impatiens and maybe another hanging basket, but here's how it looks today. The herb bed is in the foreground.


I post a lot of flower pictures, but there are even more plants that I haven't uploaded pictures of! Probably 8-10 more flowering at the moment! Here are some flowers in the very wild butterfly garden. Knautia...

Poppy...

Here are some in the island bed including salvia and hardy geraniums.

Foxgloves and Jacob's ladder...

Since I've been taking all my pictures of the veggie garden facing west to show the peas best, I thought for once you'd like me to take some pictures facing more or less east! Here's one of flowers, zukes and yellow summer squash.

I will be planting in the plastic mulch this week.

And an overview shot taken in later in the day, early evening. You can see that despite all the flowers, I do keep a lot of yard open for the dogs to run in.

Once we did all our activities, we filled the new pool for the doggies and let them at it. They were SO excited at the first dip of the year. Saffy ran to the backyard at top speed. Look at this picture and you will see her back foot is actually ahead of her front foot! It's astonishing that her legs can keep up with that momentum! Her ears almost look like cat ears here (Lion cub Saffy!!).

Jeff threw the tennis ball for Silas countless times. Silas is very demanding about having the ball thrown a lot. His part shepherd breeding really shows in this shot.

He has a powerful launch and Saffy and I definitely tried to stay out of his way to avoid any collisions!

Every few laps Silas would settle into the water to cool down. He quickly made the pool water gray! He is shedding quite a lot now.

Saffy stands and twirls and bites at the water.

In the evening, we grilled up a flank steak to have with some asian cabbage slaw. Here is the 'grill master' at work.

We have our technique for getting from kitchen to patio all worked out from years of experience!

Jeff loves grilling 'mega fauna'. (The dogs and cat love it too because they get morsels.) I am planning to prep some ribs a couple times this summer so he can really go to town with the grilling and brushing on my homemade BBQ sauce.

Well, that's 'all' I took pictures of today! Hope you had a fun virtual visit with us!

5 comments:

2paw said...

Wow, it's definitely Summer at your house!! What fun those dogs are having playing and in the pool!!I loved your virtual tour of the day!!

Ann Flower said...

What a beautiful garden! I would have loved to walk there, and see all the gorgeous flowers! Thanks for sharing

Kristen said...

Your yard is a beautiful haven for people, dogs, and cat! I've got to plant poppies one of these days, they are unbelievably beautiful.

You've probably heard that those misty views yesterday were caused by smoke from wildfires in Quebec. I thought at first that it was just from all the grilling going on in our neighborhood!

knitseashore said...

You have a lovely summer oasis in your back yard! The dogs must love that pool for a quick dip when it's so hot!

Is that the poppy we transplanted from my old house? It looks beautiful. I'm sad mine aren't going to make it.

Sarah said...

Knitseashore,

I started those poppies in the picture in 2004.

The seeds you gave me didn't come up true to color of your plant, which you said was pink. They were orange. Sometimes that happens, seeds revert to a 'parent' plant.