Great weekend

Sometimes a weekend happens where nearly everything goes well. After a day of splitting wood and weeding the garden, the neighbors were having a party. I wandered in the opposite direction to get away from the noise and ended up at another neighbor's house for a visit. After catching up on all the news, he mentioned an anvil he was willing to sell and we went out to look at it. Easily twice as big as my son's other anvils, this is it:

This is the first one he got from my parents and cleaned up:

The wood pile we've been working on:

Making good progress:

The garden still seems stunted for the end of June. The potatoes have just begun to blossom and are the only thing really looking strong.

Other good news: my son had a job interview today. It will be a couple weeks before he hears more, but is hopeful.

Waiting....

For the delivery of 4 cords of firewood. After last winter of picking up and hauling one pickup load of wood at a time, I was so excited to find a craigslist ad for delivered wood!

While waiting I'll post some pictures I haven't used yet.

 The view from the back of my yard:

Roses! I don't understand roses, so when some bloom it's like magic.

Pots on the deck; it may sound funny, but I quite like the effect of kale in a flowerpot (and munching on the deck).

I don't know what this plant is but it keeps coming back every year and seems cheerful, so it stays.

Viva Hostas!

There is something lush and gorgeous about hostas that I love. They are so forgiving; many of mine were planted under a tree which died, leaving them in full sun.

I'm tempted to buy more. :)

Black walnut trees

And why the squirrels love me:

Growing chicks

It's tricky getting pictures of such active creatures, but you can see how much they've been growing.

I caught the second to the last in mid-scratch. :)

What a weekend!

After a stretch of hot, dry weather I was looking wistfully at my emptying rain barrels. Then, Friday night the storm didn't miss us and dropped off an inch of rain. The cool morning and sodden ground sent me to the driveway flower bed and I pulled massive amounts of weeds and grass that were choking the peonies and hostas.

For afternoon fun I made this recipe for rhubarb cream pie. Delicious! Although mine didn't look quite that pretty, it tasted great. The evening found us at the movie theater watching Monsters Uni. Even with an audience packed with little kids...very fun.

Another storm rolled through on Saturday night with another inch of rain. Unfortunately, this one also packed some serious winds which dismantled the polytunnel and spread it across the garden. My son helped wrestle it back into position and I crawled under the muddy canopy to reconstruct the frame. This time I put the extra effort in to get it tied down to anchors. This little adventure took all afternoon and left me exhausted and filthy. Ah, the joys of gardening...and mud.

on deck

Keeping busy here. We had one beautiful day with sunshine and dry enough to work in the garden. I'm not finished, but much closer.

 Today, I thought I'd share some of the beauties on the deck.

Still no sign of hummingbirds or bees. The cabbage butterflies are in full force though. Ha!

Eggses!

The hens have been hard at work as you can see. This is today's bounty with evidence of our rainy days in the number of mud marked eggs.

All thirteen chicks are still doing fine and growing. It was fun watching Duchess pick up a piece of rice, drop it, and cluck for a chick to eat it...over and over.

One day of sunshine and no wind! Busy busy busy.

I got the new cover on the polytunnel and planted the rest of the garlic.

The little garden is planted with eating pumpkin, zucchini, and a few tomatoes.

This honeysuckle bush is in the chicken pen and today the chicks were playing in the branches. So cute.

I would write more but I'm beat. Good nite.

Small to large

Tiny but powerful. The lilies of the valley next to my back door are blooming. Such dainty and fairy-like flowers emit a very strong scent.

Other news: the fedex truck brought a box containing a new mattress! It was folded in half then in accordion style and vacuum-packed to make it shippable. It was so cool to slice open the bag and move out of the way quickly as it seemed to inflate itself. Though more firm than I'm used to, it's comfortable and I like it.