Blue Man

I saw Paul Karason (aka "the blue man") today. He was recently interviewed on Oprah so when I saw him walking I knew exactly who he was. With a TV crew of 7-10 photographers, assistants and a host (who I didn't recognize) he was interviewed for about 30 minutes outside a local mall. I'm thinking it might have been for a network TV special but I never got close enough to ask anyone.

Finished Product

Here's a photo of our finished yard. Of course it's not really finished... I still have a short list of shrubs I'd like to buy and there are parts of the design I want to tweak, but the hard work is done for now. It feels great to look out the windows and see green grass, planted shrubs and woody bark. Now let's hope everything grows!

Flying Friend

Today when I was out in the yard this little guy flew over to me. I've seen dragonflies in our backyard before but this one had such an unusual pattern on his wings I wanted to get a few shots before he flew off. He posed for quite a long time and I got plenty of photos of him from different angles.

The Plants Are In

We successfully got the plants in the ground this weekend and the bark shoveled over the soil. Thanks to help from our neighbor and especially my parents we finished 90% of the job yesterday. Chad and I finished up the small easy section we left for today in about 90 minutes this afternoon. I'll put up a new photo of the yard later this week.

Yard Status

These past two weeks I've stocked up on tons of plants for our yard. We have a quarter of them planted and hope to get the rest in the ground this weekend. Chad is the hole digger and I'm the designer, planter and irrigation installer. We make a good landscaping team.

Our long-awaited and much-needed bark was delivered this morning. Tomorrow Dad and Mom are coming with a wheel barrow to help us get it spread around our back planter area. I hope we bought enough!

Yosemite

To escape the especially warm weather this weekend Chad and I decided to visit Yosemite. We drove up early yesterday morning and had plenty of time to enjoy the scenery, waterfalls, rivers and meadows. The big event was hiking to the top of Vernal Falls - a strenuous 3 mile hike that I didn't think I was going to finish - but I did! The views from the top of the falls were well worth the pain, fear and drenching we got along the way. I'm thankful Chad encouraged and convinced me that I wanted to finish the hike. Anyway, here are a few photos from the day.

Garden Update

Here's the 3 week update on our garden: The plants are growing well, the seeds have all sprouted and Chad and I have enjoyed watching the progress. I've included close-up photos of thecarrots and corn. Scroll down the page to see the comparision photos. Quite a change in three weeks, huh?

Irrigation

Our backyard trees are now hooked up to the automatic sprinkler timer. The landscapers installed a water-saving drip system for our trees and plants and I finally installed the hoses and connectors to each tree today. The plants will still be watered by the hose until we plant them, but hopefully that'll only be for a few more days. Now I have to figure out how much water everything needs.

Plant Shopping

Today I began the big (but fun) task of plant shopping for our backyard. Fortunately everything was on sale at Lowe's so it wasn't as crazy expensive as I thought it was going to be. We've decided on the the purple and green color scheme for the backyard which I think is going to look really pretty when everything is planted and growing. Today I ended up with twelve purple flowering plants, two of each variety, because that's all I could fit in my trunk. Here's what I chose:

East Friesland Sage Salvia
Pincushion Flower Scabiosa Caucasia - Butterfly Blue
Erysimum Bowles Mauve
Bacopa - Great Blue
Felicia Daisy - Blue
Blue Freesia

Little Trees

This weekend Chad and I bought and planted seven new trees for our backyard. We ended up with six Japanese maples of different varieties and one cute fig tree. The next step is the get the plants in and that may take some time, but at least the hardest part, the trees, are in.

BBQ

My parents got us a fancy new BBQ for our birthdays this year. We wanted to wait until the backyard was in before we brought it out for the first time. Today was the day. Actually, Chad did the BBQing and I watched. We had filet mignon and I made corn on the cob and tomato/cucumber salad to go with it. All in all a good dinner and I'm already loving the BBQ.

I'm a Winner

Early last week I entered a blog contest and won! The generous blogger held a random drawing for a handful of card-making supplies and lucky for me my name was chosen. I can tell you I was pleasantly surprised when I saw the package in the mail today.

Here's what I got:

A duck stamp & light blue stamp pad
Organdy ribbon
White Magic Mesh
Thank you note set
Homemade embellishments