Glorious Green and Blue

Green thumbs and blue skies are making

 for many happy hours 

in my garden. After 24 years I am overhauling parts 

of it once more, and hopefully for the LAST time. 

If you click on my sidebar pic of my yard

 you can see it as it was in 2010.

I realized I've never really shown

 the two largest beds?

Wait for it, they're coming.

I'm adding a huge used brick patio

 and pergola and redoing all the beds

which had begun to look sad and done in.

I've got tomatoes, peppers, cilantro, parsley 

and basil going so far, plan to do more.

The brick walkway runs along

 the north side of the house

and I have concentrated the majority of vintage pieces

 and small pots all along here.

I had a huge pile of giveaways that

 my friend Paula came and rescued.

They filled her car. Yay!

 Years ago she had said "IF you ever get rid of

backyard stuff I want first dibs."

Nearly everything  out here I've had over 25 years,

and it has "aged" thru sun, rain and snow.

It's all a bit compacted. We'll see if this works or 

perhaps more will go.

The brick topped table you see with

 the granite bowl sitting on

it is my potting bench. The bowl is for 

the throwaway bits as I plant.

The lidded box holds tools and such.

My aloe you see here is an example of sad. 

It was in the ground and looking so pathetic, 

so I'm giving it one more chance at life.

Cindy, I ended up with one of the skulls...See?

The trunk is from our beloved ash tree we had to cut down

in the front yard. I have photos of each first day of school 

with the kids standing in front of the tree.

I had to save a part of it.

The other part is under the sundial

in second photo.

This is the keeper pile I am moving 

around the side of house until 

we are done with the beds and patio.

 This is the condition currently of the back bed.

I've ripped out 85% over the past 2 days.

 I hope to finish today. All the "keeper" pile stuff was

 once along here. Howie rubs against and under all

the bushes and then scratches for hours in the evening.

Making him wear his sweater stops most of it. 

 I had planned to paint the walls

but the cost of that threw me way over budget,

and I'm not up to it to do myself just now.

Once the beds are simple and clean I can go back 

in and do it later, or not.

I've been absent for some time.

I just could not deal with the 

mess of our government on here,

and the rest seemed too trivial for me.

 I preferred to take action,

 make calls, donate and write letters

 rather than just vent out to the universe.

I have set goals for myself of how much to do 

each day to stand up and take action.

I will not be silenced, I'm just choosing

to directly impact if I can.

This has made me feel better, and

now I can enjoy once more the simple

days I prefer. I've gone through

 another author's complete series

 in the past two weeks. 

Elizabeth George.

Started Friday on the complete

series by Deborah Crombie.

I'm on my fourth.

I'm still searching for another Robert B Parker.

Sadly there is no one so far for me.

Wishing you blue skies

Z