"They Do It With Mirrors!"

Summer is advancing.

It has been a curious one. Very warm and humid, yet, with very little rain.

     Summer has, also, been a bit off balance because of the many projects that we've had going, this year. They are too numerous to mention here. They, happily are getting ticked off, one by one. Last summer, I had been warned that it was the "year of the dirt". Indeed it was!!! It seemed like all twenty acres were torn up - definitely our yard was a complete wasteland.

     This year has been the "year of trying to put it all back together again". It has been the year of the weeds and rocks and hidden pitfalls in the lawn. A year of puppies and their enclosure ruining our lawn and keeping our front porch in a state of complete disaster. A year of trying to reclaim our home after the hectic previous spring. Hardest of all, I've had no garden because it cannot be put in until the completion of the stone wall.

     We still have no kitchen table (the puppies' crate takes up all of the room) and no place to sit or eat outside. (Don't worry, though, we're not eating on the floor - we do have a beautiful dining room.)  I cannot wait to regain some sense of normalcy!!! What pictures shall I show you? There is usually disaster lurking in the background of every one! So far, my photos have been accomplished with mirrors - angles, redirection and illusions.

I wonder how many of you remember this post.....

 Well, here are "the making of" photos.....

Oh, it's going to be soooo beautiful when it's all done! Can you just imagine what it will be like when there are raised vegetable beds down by the barns and hollyhocks and roses just outside these windows?

     Well, there is hope! The wall has been completed! Tom has added composted dirt from a lovely pile that he found hidden in weeds in the barnyard. He's weed whacked our lawn and evened out the ground and reseeded it. I will do a bit more soil amendment in August and, then, when it's a titch cooler, move what plants I have left from the old house. Finally! I must say that I have been living vicariously through all of your posts about your gardens and blooms and outdoor gatherings!

Just a note: for those of you who have been following along for a while, now, Tom is not Mr. Toad. I realized, after my Father's day post, that it was a bit nebulous who I was talking about. Going more from the Disney version of the characters, my own Dad is Mr. toad, I am Moley (with toadlike tendencies), my mother is McBadger and my husband, Tom, is the very responsible and upright Ratty. Well, my beloved Ratty has been extremely industrious. I just want you all to know how very impressed and grateful I am for my husbands stoic stubbornness and stick to it gumption. In a contest between a large boulder and him - the boulder will be moved!

 In the midst of all this are the puppies.

 We realized, after a few days of trying to come up with official names for them, that they're stuck with their original nick names; so, "Chubbs" and "Una" it is.

Chubbs was tentatively exploring the pond when Una came barreling into him and, into the black muck they both went!

Then, they both got to experience their first bath.

For Chubbs, "ignorance is carefree bliss"!

 

Chubb is playing "The Ghost and the Darkness". (Do you know of those famous African lions, now stuffed in the Field Museum in Chicago?)

 Proving that Chubbs is only a little bit fat but, really, he's "foofy"!

Fresh meetings after the ordeal, and.....

..... a cookie!

 (Since this photo, I've started thinking about the two of them as "Beauty and the Beast".)

 

 As for the rest of the summer? Well, I do have a meadow full of flowers,......

  

 ......there has been plenty of local fresh fruit and berries and vegetables at the store,.....

..... we've finally had a few smatterings of thunder storms,.....

..... and the summer is mellowing and cooling.

 Love,

Katy Noelle