Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Maura performs-
Her school had fine arts night on her birthday. She performed several times tonight. In the Percussion, in Choir, She showed off her Destination Imagination skills, her LAD fair entries, and Public Speaking too. There were several kids showing off their talents in various ways tonight. There was an art auction and I won a lovely print done by a middle school student.


Birthday Girl-

This is what 13 looks like now. She's busy being thrilled about her new earphones for an MP3 player. Of course, later she got a new MP3 player and was excited over that too. She's planning a sleep over this Friday with a few of her friends.



Saturday, May 05, 2007

Gardens-
I've been spending most of my free time now working in the garden. I still have quite a lot to go, but today, I planted the impatients we typically have growing along our wall seperating the upper back yard from the lower one which is close to our house. My husband also planted the seeds for the nastursims that we have trailing over the wall in the summer. It's usually a nice combinations of the cooler purple colors I favor and the bright, warm colors he does.
I love how the columbine I planted one year created volunteers of so many different shades. This photo is one such plant.
I love the columbine flower. It's so complex in it's structure. You get a different interesting view from each direction and each stage. Take a look at this photo and see if you don't agree with me.
We've been doing a bit of home improvement lately, mostly in terms of outdoor improvements. My husband has been building decks. The neighborhood have been watching the proccess with great interest. Here's why.
We moved into this house about 11 years ago. The house did have a small deck running the length of the house in the front. It was in horrible shape, rotten in places and after having our toddler daughter sneak out onto it (where she could have fallen to her death quite easily) we decided to tear it down. Of course, finances being as they were, we couldn't afford to build a new one, so we just baricaded the sliding door and vowed to put a deck back on when we could. Well, then I got pregnant again, so besides not being able to afford it, we comforted ourselves with the idea it probably wasn't safe to have a deck at this point anyway. Then, our son broke his arm, then we had water problems, then we had septic issues... It just seemed that whenever we had any available cash, it had to go to something more pressing.
Finally, we were able to really consider building the deck. But, it's a matter of principle for my husband to do it himself and to make it interesting. He built a small deck onto the back of the house, just to practice his skills on something that wasn't so high. It makes for a great place to enjoy the garden too, so I'm pleased and he seemed to work out any of his issues there.
So, he began on the front deck and he got most of the hard stuff done last Fall. But it stood all winter, half done, until he could work on it once more. So, Now, it's mostly done, just a few more boards and final touches, but it's safe to go out on and very pleasant. Of course, this is just the first part of a 3 phase project. The next part will be a smaller deck running next to the house and having stairs from the ground level. The next part will be another large platform of the far end of the house, perfect for viewing the lake. By the time we do all of that, it will probably be another 10 years!
It's fun to contemplate the planting schemes once things are getting done. We have all sorts of ideas running through our heads of things we'd like to do. Just a matter of time and money.
Isn't it always?