hellooo ~ this & that

Hello and happy July! I recently finished repainting the little table on the porch. I've this table for at least 30 years - a cast off from a neighbor. It's been several colors. The last few years it was yellow and it was fading and peeling. I was tired of the yellow anyway.

The Chicago area has been hit hard with the smoke from the Canada wildfires. I took this photo last week, when the sun was trying to peek out through the haze right before sunset. That was the day we had the worst air quality in the world.

My little veggie garden is doing great. There's two tomato plants on the left, then red onions, and purple beauty bell pepper. 

Exciting to see the first fruits.

This beautiful purple flowered perennial has turned out to be one of my favorites. It's in the geranium family (geranium pratense); more commonly known as Meadow Cranesbill. I purchased this plant at least 25 years ago with my then next-door neighbor, Thanam. She had recently moved here from Malaysia and didn't have a car. I took her to the garden center with me and we each bought one of these plants. For some reason, she thought the name of this plant was Heavenly Death. That's what she always called it. Did it have that name on the plant tag? I don't remember. I've Googled to see if any variety of Meadow Cranesbill has this name and don't come up with anything. But to this day, I still call this plant Heavenly Death because of Thanam. It reminds me of her. (She moved back to Malaysia 20 years ago.) 

Another interesting thing about this perennial is that it's been moved several times and has always done well. It loves where it is now, nestled in-between coral bells. It gets a nice mixture of sun and shade.

Our new(ish) next door neighbor never did cut down the mulberry tree like he told us he was going to. We even left him a nice note on his gate last month, offering once again to help him pay for having the tree cut down and to let us know if he needed any help finding a tree trimming service. We left our phone numbers and also told him he was welcome to stop by and talk to us. Never heard from him. *sigh*  

So, you guessed it, we're once again having to deal with millions of mushy mulberries falling all over our patio, in the hostas, and all the other plants that run along the privacy fence ~ not to mention the walking path to the patio and in all the fresh mulch we lay down in the spring. We haven't been able to use our patio in for three weeks, so far. And when the mulberries are done falling, Brian will then have to power wash the patio to get all the stains off. Have I ever said how much I hate this tree? 😜

INDOORS:

I got tired of looking at this squished space in "my" room. (I never know what to call this space. I have several names for it: Phil's room {used to be my son, Phil's bedroom}, the guest room, my room, my office.) 

I cleared the space out, including the bookcase so I could move it.

I started by moving the bookcase underneath the mirror. Clementine immediately took up residency on the chair moved to the side. I stashed my yoga and exercise equipment into a basket in the corner.

In this view, you can see the opening to the room, as well as how the wall next to the door juts out, creating a little nook next to the bookcase. 

I decided I didn't like the basket of exercise equipment in the corner. The corner needed some height. So I moved the exercise stuff into a smaller basket, tucked the yoga mat and bolster next to the other side of the bookcase (as seen in photo above), and put a stool with a plant on it in the corner.

Took the framed cat art print from the kitchen and moved it to this wall. 

I think this space looks much better now. Less cramped.

The white chair got moved into the living room across from the couch. The chair has become Clementine's new favorite napping spot. Funny, because she rarely napped on it when it was in "my" room.

For those of you in the US, have a happy and safe 4th of July. (Clementine doesn't like fireworks ~ and neither do I.)

front and back yard tour

The weather here continues to be "perfect" - in the 70's and 80's with low humidity.

We had one rainy day this week, but we really needed it. I worked in the yard for a 

little while this morning, went to physical therapy, came home and worked in the

yard for a few more hours. It feels so good to be outside on days like today.

This little area in front of our house has always been my "sore spot". It's right there 

when you're walking up to our house and is against the garage. It only gets partial sun,

 so the plants and bushes that we've tried along the years have never thrived. 

We had hydrangeas for a couple of years, but that's as long as they lasted. We've tried 

growing clematis up the "trellises" - fail.  These "trellises" are actually the side

pieces to an iron arbor that we used to have. Until one harsh winter where it fell over

and broke into pieces. Instead of putting the two side pieces in the trash, we decided

to upcycle and use them as trellises.  The two green plants in front are some kind of

native prairie plant. Can't remember their name. In July, they produce the most 

beautiful flowers. Anyway, for now I'm sticking with some potted flowers instead

of sticking more bushes in the ground.

 So here's what it looks like as you're walking up to my house. The walkway to the

patio is on the left.

 In the back yard, the butterfly garden is really starting to take shape. Nothing is

blooming yet except for the columbine (back, left) and that's so short-lived. I tried

to fill in some bare spots today with a few zinnias - they add such a beautiful

pop of color, too. Looks like I need to find something else to plant in the bare spot

in front, but I don't want to spend anymore money on annuals. I'd love to plant some

bee balm, but that really spreads. I'll think of something! Oh - one mistake we made

when making the border out of wine bottles, was to not soak the labels off the bottles.

We thought that the rain and snow would soak them off naturally. Not so! Stuck on

forever. We'll have to replace those ugly labeled bottles with ones where we've soaked

the labels off. I've seen other garden borders where people have used glass jars

and have even glued marbles and stones on top of the jars.

Speaking of columbine, I got a good close-up shot the other day. I just love these

flowers.This one had a cottonwood seed stuck to it, too. Those suckers have been

blowing all over the place lately.

 This little circle garden in the back yard has two plants that were divided from

the butterfly garden (the two tall ones - and of course, I can't remember the name -

they will have beautiful purple flowers on them soon), straw flowers, rhubarb, and a

new rose bush (thanks to my mom!). I still need a few more rocks to complete 

the border.

About 13 years ago, Brian and Phil planted these arborvitae trees when they were only

three feet tall. I'm so glad we chose to do this instead of installing a privacy fence. The

trees are much prettier! And give a lot more privacy than a fence, too. We're trying to

 disguise the compost barrel...Brian transplanted day lilies around the barrel last fall. We 

also put down grass seed a couple of times last month, but there's still some bare

patches in that area that needed tending to.

My little veggie garden against the back of the house...tomatoes, zucchini, 

Brussels sprouts, (half dead/live hydrangea in the middle), and peas

climbing up the upcycled crib springs trellis that aren't doing so well.

I didn't get a photo of my entire herb garden...I planted two small rosemary

plants today. But I got a photo of how the lemon balm and mint are taking

over. I always have to dig some out every year, otherwise it would consume

the entire herb garden.

Have a great weekend!