Weekend post...

Summerish weather is here! It has been a lovely weekend and is supposed to stay nice until the 15th or so (knock on wood). There has been a flurry of activity which is going to make this a longish post which my wife thinks is a bad thing. (Too much word makes bad mojo) Yet in spite of all the warnings I am going to brave the risks. I think that lots of pictures means good luck so we'll hope the offset will end up in our favor. 

One last warning to my public: this is an "i love me" post. At least that is what I call them. In the navy I went to a friends house for a bbq and in his "office" he had lots of framed letters of commendation, recommendation, and other good stuff. He also had pictures of him with high ranking persons. A few of us immediately started calling it his "i love me" room. Every once in a while, bloggers get really happy with the way things are going in there yard and post lots of pictures with comments like. "Here is the rose garden. It is looking a little better this year." It lures most of into commenting "if that's a little better, then I'd like my garden to look a little better too! absolutely amazing!" and such comments. Another example is (the older bloggers among us may remember the movie) in It's a wonderful life, when Jimmy Stewart sees the pretty girl, not Mary, and says something like my that's a pretty dress or something like that. The young lady replies, this old thing? I only wear this when I don't care how I look." We all know that ain't God's honest truth and snigger. Well, I am not going to attempt such subtle subterfuge. No, I am not going to do that. I'm going to show you all of the good stuff I can and hope you think I'm alright. The thing I'll tell you, and this is God's honest truth, is that for every nice thing, there are about 2 dozen things I'd like to fix, but haven't gotten around to quite yet. When my neighbors see those spots, I have some clever line like, "I'm letting those areas grow the native washington plants to see how I can work these elements into future projects." Or perhaps, "don't you love the lush look of oodles of dandelions and butter cups covering that portion of the lawn?" Most of them don't bat and eyelash, but I can tell they are thinking, "I've got to remember that when I'm showing off my garden."

All of this persiflage aside, lets get on to the good things happening.

1st is our new squirrel. About two years ago, I tried to attract the little buggers and they refused point blank. Noblesse did not oblige. They returned the kind invitations and some even sniffed. However this cute little critter decided to come after all. I told him it was a little late, but he produced his invitation and pointed out that there was not an expiration date. Then he went on about his poor mother and wife and kids, and I tearfully asked him to stay. I'm not sure if I won't regret it later as I've heard horror stories about them eating all the bulbs, but for now I'm going to be happy. They bring back such wonderful memories from my childhood. We would feed them peanuts out of our hand. Then one day I thought I'd be clever and pretend like my thumb was a peanut. The squirrel was tricked and bit my thumb. See, squirrels teach us all kinds of good morals and stuff.

It was pretty hot out so the birds ate most of the food and even took a few baths.

Here are a bunch of blooms. You probably know what they are in general, but I don't know specific latin names. (I keep the tags on the plants so I can look if anyone wants to know, but I forget my keys sometimes so I use the plant latin name space in my brain to help me remember what my kids names are and where I put my keys instead of remembering those things I have written down)

Alyssum and alstromeria 

asiatic lilies

Here is my favorite pot so far this year. We had orange asiatic lilies in it last year and some violas in a pot next to it. Somehow the violas wheedled their way in and since there isn't much room for them, they are spilling out the sides. All accidental, but still nice.

alliums

flowering elderberry, the dark foliage it nice contrast even when not in bloom.

The girls wanted to feed the birds, so we put bread in the box. Then they couldn't decide if they wanted to eat the bread or give it to the birds, so they decided to do both!

Here is my garden. It is finally looking how I wanted it to. Everything in neat rows. Not a weed in sight. The only things harvestable are the lettuce, spinach (trying to bolt) and radishes and carrots, but the beets, peas, squash, peppers, tomatoes, beans and potatoes are all well on their way. It is supposed to be pretty hot so I'll do a bit more watering this week. Behind the main beds corn is starting, but only about 2" tall. It should take off here pretty soon. I'd like things to be a little further along, but I guess we'll have to keep trying and if anyone says anything nice, like violet, I'll just toss my curls and reply, "This old garden? This is how it looks if I don't care."