Up close and personal.

Making magic.

The garden fence is almost complete. It feels so fancy and sharp compared to the reed fence that we've had up the past couple of years. While we work I have to keep pausing to take a look around and soak it all up. This is my magical garden and yard! I'm so lucky.

French radishes!

Our Clematis vine has probably 100 buds on it. I'm giddy!

A grackle proof bird feeder! I went to the farm and feed store down the street and the character of a man that owns the store dug through his pile of junk and found this cage that we put around a regular bird feeder. He was really nice and gave it to me for free! My little songbirds and I thank you!

Here's Chris putting in the stones for the entrance to the garden.

Mixing concrete for fence posts.

Chris got really far on the fence yesterday! Only a few slats left to go up on the backside.

We are making a lot of garden progress lately. We have definitely thought BIG. But after we do all of this really hard work of putting in the raised beds and building the fence the next years in the garden will be a breeze. All we will have to do is haul a load of compost and a load of mulch. Easy peezy. Well, until we come up with some other huge project.

Kitty loves to drink out of the pond.

Oh yeah. I decided to take out the straw and put in mulch for the paths. I spend so much time in the garden, I might as well have it exactly how I want it. I think it looks so much better. Don't you?

Saturday night feast

Our six month anniversary of Foodie Club was this past weekend. We had a blast! My friend, Michael, generously gave me an obscene amount of morels that he foraged. What a treat! Everyone brought a variety of toppings and we made 3 different types of pizzas. Leah made a huge cake and Depal made a really great chicken caesar salad. It was a beautiful night so we sat around the fire pit outside and enjoyed our collectively prepared feast. Yum!!!

These are dried figs soaking in red wine which was later reduced and put on a pizza with blue cheese and prosciutto. Mmmm...

Shoveling

This week was a doozie. Wednesday night I unloaded a truck full of (really heavy) soil into the wheel barrow, up the hill and into the raised beds. Chris hurt his back so I was on my own and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of my hard work. Thursday night was another night of unloading but this time something a little lighter. Mulch.

I had to get a running start to get it over the stairs and up the hill.

Ahhh. Only 3 more to go...

We went with straw paths this year instead of mulch and I'm not so sure that I like it. I suppose it will look better when everything is green and lush.

Unloading gig #2.

Taters all nestled down in their trenches. They get covered up a little and then as they grow you mound the dirt on top.

Radishes!

The peonies are shooting up fast!

Poppytalk's Spring Colors Week 2011: white

Today is the last day of Poppytalk's Spring Colors Week. It was really fun looking back at old photos and taking some new ones from this spring. Hope you enjoyed it too!

Poppytalk's Spring Colors Week 2011: lavender