Is That? Can It Be? Is It? It IS!!! It's GRASS!!!

See it??? See the new baby grass?! Yay!!!!!!

Extreme close-up :-)

This is the amaryllis & the "little plant" that used to be hidden under the monstrous "big plant" - both the big & little plants came to us together in a little dish garden - the big one tried to take over, but I think it's finally gone.

Daughter's garden, coming along nicely.

The bouganvillea. This is a single plant, we planted as an experiment (to see if it would live). It had its first flowers a few weeks ago - I didn't get to take pictures, but they were a pretty raspberry color. There were 3 of 'em. We only planted this within the past year, so there should be more next time around. I'll get pics then. :-)

Nothin' Yet...

No new grass yet, that I can see...
Although the little bit of existing grass is looking quite pleased with all the watering!
Daughter's garden is growing very nicely, and the bouganvillea is doing well, too.

Saw "Pirates" 3 this past weekend - we liked it much better than the 2nd one.

Nothing else going on - the kids are settling into summer, I'm settling into work - it's different there in the summer - lots to do, but quieter, and the girls & I are making plans to do fun things every so often. And I'm still playing Guild Wars. :-)

I Did It! Really!

I finally started the grass seed, this past weekend! Had to rake first - got the blisters to prove it! I tried to take a picture of my hand showing the blister between my thumb & index finger, but it didn't work. LOL That morning, after I raked, I used a hand-held crank spreader to spread the fertilizer, then watered that in, and then in the afternoon I spread the grass seed, and watered that down really well. I'll water every day this week, I think, and then a little less often. I only did half of the big side of the lawn, to see how it goes, then I'll do the rest, also in patches. Easier to water it that way - I don't think I could water the whole lawn enough all at one time.
I also cleared out that huge palm thing by my porch - I think I finally killed it. Now I can see the little plant that I like, that was under it. And my amaryllis is growing, and so is the bouganvillea along the other part of the porch skirting. I'll post pics of those later - forgot to take any.
I have a couple packets of seeds that I got from somewhere - one of moonflower, and 2 of morning glory, so I may plant those along the skirting as well. We'll see!

Here's a picture of the grass seed getting its first watering:

Cross your fingers! :-D

Mystery Solved

Remember the lamp-post that was lying pointed away from its house?

Later, it was up (sort of) for a little while, kinda tilted, and supported by a stick, but UP.

Then it was down again, pointed the other way, and later still, it was still down, but pointed away from the house again.


Anyway, yesterday, we discovered the reason for all that lying down -
it must have been on bed rest!

Look!



It's a baby light-post!!! :-D

Yard & Garden "Before" Photos

Here are the pictures I promised to show the garden & yard progress. There's no real "before" one for the garden, but it was your standard 2-years neglected, dead garden patch before my daughter dug it all up & set up her new veggie garden.

Not sure if you can see them, but there are plastic forks all over the patch. We "planted them to try to keep our dog out of the garden. It didn't work. But see her little bean plants in the middle? :-)

The front yard. Before grass seed, obviously. And I still haven't done that part yet.

This is the side yard. It gets the most sun, and the most "dog-traffic". I'll be seeding it last...

TMI (I've been tagged)

Janet tagged me with the "7 Random Things/Habits About Me" meme.

Here goes.

1.
I always keep kleenex nearby. Well, not exactly kleenex - usually it's a roll of toilet paper, but I use it as kleenex. There's a roll in every room in my house... plus I keep (actual) kleenex in my purse, and in my car, and on my desk at work. What can I say - I have year-round allergies.

2.
I blow on my food before I eat it. Every bite, whether it's hot or cold. Even ice cream. Cracks my best friend up. I was never even aware of it until she started asking me "is it hot?", with that evil grin. ;-)

3.
I hate shopping - any kind, for any reason.

4.
I don't watch TV. However, I do watch a couple of TV shows, on Netflix. And lots of movies. I do love movies.

5.
"Midnight cookies" is a real, actual item on my grocery list. I wake up in the middle of the night pretty often (I have definite sleep issues), and I like to have a glass of milk & a cookie before I go back to bed. Supposedly something like that can help you go back to sleep, but I just like 'em.

6.
My bird has me totally trained. I respond to him automatically, either by repeating the sound he makes, or answering what he says. Kinda backwards, huh?

7.
I have post-it notes & scraps of paper everywhere. I have to write stuff down if I need to remember it, so I've got notes of things to do, notes about my Guild Wars characters & what part of the game they're in, notes of events I want to make plans for - just everything. Sometimes I use a notebook, but mostly it's just little pieces of paper. Meh. It works. :-)

I can't really tag anyone with this one, because any of the people I would tag have already done it. Yeah, I just don't know (or keep in touch with) that many people. Kinda non-social, am I.

Garden & Yard Update

Well, I helped my daughter dump the soil into the garden, and she spread it and then planted the rest of her stuff, along with a whole mess of plastic forks (handle up) to keep the dog out of the garden (don't worry - he doesn't jump in, he steps over the little fence), and we set up the sprinkler to water it. While that was watering, I cut down that crazy huge plant by my porch, so now we can see the little one that was under it. I trimmed some trees (eye level branches, not anything extreme), cleared out some brush, and mowed the lawn. Then it started pouring down rain, with thunder & lightning, which I never mess with. So the fertilizer & grass seed will have to be started later. But we did get a lot done today, so I'm happy.

Still Around

I'm still here! The birthday party went well - the girls had fun, and I enjoyed watching them be crazy. :-) Other than that we've just been busy with regular life, and the end of the school year (and in my job, that and preparing for next year, with scheduling & stuff), and finals and such.
My older daughter has started a garden, which is pretty cool. So far she's got carrots & sweet peppers and beans growing. She couldn't plant anything else until I got more soil - I had no idea we needed that much, so the first batch only covered about 1/3 of the area she had cleared & fenced.
Now we have enough, so she'll be working on her garden, while I mow the lawn (weeds) & make my first attempt at growing some grass in the yard. I'm only doing one area of the lawn at a time, to see if it takes. Wish me luck!