Jen's Backyard, part 2

Jen's yard has lots of textures.
 





Jen's yard has lots of textures.

The pond has lots of plants to shade and hide the fish.

 And there are those little surprises peeking at you.

 

 Sunflowers!

And the windblown lady...

The patio is pretty and playful.  And I love the containers here too!

 

 And every garden should have a pooped chicken!  Who would have thought!

 I told you, Jen likes snails!

I'm working on my 2nd mock up on the infamous pattern today.  I'd better get started!

Jen's Backyard!

Lets go walk in the garden!



The grape arbor

 See all the rocks!  There is a great story about them.  Lets just say they are "not indigenous to the area".  They look so neat as a stream bed.

 My daughter believes in "live and let live".  Carrying it to snails is a bit far for me when I see them eating my new plants!

And of course, she always puts a bit of her whimsy on her garden treasures.  You decorate your snails too, I'm sure.








And then there are the egrets.  The story goes.....the egrets kept flying in and having goldfish breakfast in the pond.  Ok, Jen figures fight egrets with egrets.

 Since she has put her egrets around the pond the other egrets haven't shown up for breakfast.

A little surprise in the grasses

 Succulents!  My latest passion.  I am loving them for a reason though, actually two reasons.  1.   Sow water use,   2.  Weed supression.  We have a fairly large yard and I am thinking ahead of how difficult it is as the years go by and arthritis gets worse.

Lucky for me succulents are IN!  We bought quite a few of them when we make our little pilgrimage to Annies Annuals.  These are a few of Jen's:
















 I just love the one on the left with large flat leaves with burgundy on the edges.

Don't you just love these containers!










 And then there is a sea serpent

and this little rose hiding in the corner.

 And this is only the first half of the back yard.  Tomorrow will be the 2nd half.

As far as the sewing goes....I tried figuring out how much I had to enlarge the pattern and cut out a mockup but it is way to big so trying to do a smaller version today.

Oh, I did want to add this picture the the veggies I roasted last night, they were so pretty.

And they were yummy too!

Yesterday it was probably about in the low 90s.  Last night the wind came up and blew gales!  And the morning, there were clouds!




 I know that back east this is no big unusual deal, but here it is.  It is probably about 52 degrees or so.








 The clouds came closer and now, they are overhead!

Aren't they beautiful!

Jen's Gaudy Garden

 
Just so you know, Jen lives with hot summers, late afternoon winds, clay soil and water restrictions.  The heat in the spring dries the clay soil to cement!  So the only time she can dig in the garden is in winter and spring before the heat.  She tries to be very careful with water use so her garden is mostly of native or plants not requiring much water.  To heck with lawn!  She got rid of that a few years ago! 

And there are lots of little surprises in all her gardens.

A little walk through Jen's Gaudy Garden today:

I love her pots!

I recognize these little guys!  They are from Annies Annuals and are brothers and sisters of the ones I planted.

Is that just not the cutest!  And, do you have a gargoyle in your garden??

I have arrived!

I'm off to stay with the grand-animals today.

And I have arrived!

Grand-doggies are waiting!

This is Otis, I call him Otie.

Otis is a big lug of a honey.  He just loves all kinds of attention and is my watchdog.  He is so loyal he is always with me when I take care of him.  He will chew up anyone he thinks needs chewing......just kidding, but he certainly will bark if he thinks there is someone is trespassing within his detection distance.  Otis loves water and has been known to wallow in mud puddles.  Otis is an adopted doggy and a real sweetie. 

And this is Isis.

Isis is very timid, loves loving but only by certain people.  She came from Taiwan as a rescued dog.  She had had an injured foot that had set very badly and made her limp.  When she found her forever home, Jen and Robert had her operated on and now you would never know she had had a problem.  Her early life left her with many fears so she is very cautious and takes a while to give you her friendship.  When you have it you feel very special.  She love to run the hills! 

B.B.

And then there is B.B.  BB is a rescued cat.  She has only 3 legs, lost one as a youngster before she was adopted.  She used to be so fiesty when she was young.  For only having 3 legs she could certainly give it to any of the other animals, including people.  I still have a touch of fear with her, even though she is not like that any more.  She is old and age has brought on sweetness.  She sleeps on the Master Bed, on any heads around, but has to be lifted off and on now.  She still like to play and purrs up a storm.  Needless to say though, the dogs leave her alone! 

 Jen and Robert have great yards.  This is part of their pond in the back yard.  I love the water lilies.

 

 

 And of course, the fish!

 Jen has all kinds of little treasures, like these sunflowers and toadstools.

 I had thought Jen and Robert would be gone for 10 days but turns out only 6!  I sure brought a lot of projects with me so I had better get started.  I'll share more of Jen's yard tomorrow!

We need to do lunch, then I'm taking out the 1903 pattern and try to figure out how I am going to take it up a few sizes...from a size 24 inch waist.

Weight Watchers!

I like to keep this blog really light, but......... I have been fighting the up/down syndrome for over 6 months now.  I have shook it up the last couple weeks and today I better see more than a .2 loss!  Details at 1 PM news!

UPDATE!!!!!!!
Well, finally!  3.4 lb loss.  My usual is .2 and then I got on the up/down merry-go-round since last August, so frustrating.  But I do have to pat myself on the back for not quitting.  Talk about patience, when I actually looked it up and saw how long it had been....well, I really had hung in there.

 I had been tracking really well and had really up'ed my activity and still not sticking those minus numbers.  Last week it dawned on me that maybe my particular body needs less than the 26 points per day, maybe I was on maintenance for my body.  So I lowered my points to 24 per day for every day last week except last night (28 points) and drank 8 cups of water a day, walked and did my exercise class, and tracked what I ate.......and lost 3.4 lbs ...finally!!!  Rejoice with me!!

Purple/Blues are leaving

A continuation of my garden journal:

Purples, goodby!

Can you see the bumblebee?

Pinks are in!  And they last most of the summer.

These are sort of lavender-pink

The Reds are popping out!

Yellows are not out much now.

Princes Di

And Samuel's and Cassidy's Roses are in full bloom.

And the bees are settling down to a little less population in their hive.  George says about 1/3 of the hive leaves in a swarm usually.

Friday, I will be traveling up to my daughters to dog sit for 10 days, I wonder just how the garden will change in that time.  We are in for a hot period so hope my baby plants can make it.