A Minty Afternoon

Yesterday marked the beginning of the Backyard/Patio Garden Project (I'll come up with a better name for it later). It began with a gift. Jonathan's father surprised us with a patio table and four chairs. Yipee! Then, completely unplanned, we all headed to his place. He generously gave us many plant starters from his own garden. After the entire car was filled with plants, Jonathan and I headed home with big smiles on our faces.

Since all the plants were freshly dug up they needed to be put in the ground as swiftly as possible lest they perish. However, before the planting could begin I had to pull out a ton of mint! It must have been a well tended herb garden at one point because I even found chives buried beneath the mint, but now it was obvious some sort of revolt occurred and the mint declared dominance over the realm.

So, I dug the mint up (although I know it will continue to show its head for a long while) and planted hostas, coneflowers and daises!

Currently, the plants are a little stressed out. They just went through the dramatic experience of being ripped from the ground and placed somewhere else entirely. So far, they seem to be holding up and feeling better.

This is Part One of the Project. Part Two will deal with another section of dirt behind the apartment which I will fill with perennials. Finally, Part Three will be the filling of pots and ornamentation!

Enjoy the pictures below. . .

Before
(Behold the Mint Explosion)

After

Shasta Daisy

Hosta

Purple Coneflower (Echinacea)

Black-Eyed Susan

Don't Try This At Home!!!

Jonathan had a sudden urge for sangria. We had two bottles of Cherry Wine Sangria from the Chateau Grand Traverse. We'd gotten the bottles over four years ago, so it was probably time to use them. Excited for some fruity goodness, we poured all the ingredients into our lil' decanter when we realized our thin spoon simply wasn't long enough to stir the sugar until it dissolved.

So, being the industrious lad that he is, Jonathan attached the spoon to his power drill...


And away he went...


I was completely and totally worried that he was going to break the glass, but he didn't!

And the sangria was yummy!

I've also been wanting to get started on gardening our small backyard. Of course, when you move, money gets a bit tight at the beginning. Lots of expenses, etc.
The thing is when you need to get your hands in some dirt, you need to do it! So, to assuage my desire to garden, I painted some ol' cans and turned them into pots for impatiens (I bought the impatiens at the hardware store for 94 cents).


I guess the lesson is don't be afraid to use a bit of imagination to solve your problems and to trust that your husband knows what he's doing! Well, I don't know about that last part... :o)

Peachy-Keen

I walked into My Daily Grind yesterday to discover...
...my own signature drink (look in the upper right hand corner of the pic)!

It all started with a bit of experimentation. Normally, they offer a delicious raspberry lemonade. I've enjoyed it many a time, but one day I decided to ask for a different flavoring. I asked for strawberry and, of course, it was tasty. After that rebellious act (which wasn't actually very rebellious), I decided to try all the fruity flavors (there was even a brief discussion about trying one of the non-fruit flavors, but we came to the conclusion that while hazelnut tastes great in coffee, it probably wouldn't work in lemonade. :oP) Thus began my pioneering adventure in extravagant lemonades. After the strawberry, it was pomegranate. That was followed by passion fruit. All yummy but not quite a taste explosion. Then I asked for peach and I LOVED IT! So, I've stopped at the peach for a bit because it's super tasty, but I will be heading on in my search for crazy, super-flavorful taste combinations.

So, if you're in downtown P-burg, stop at My Daily Grind and have a Princess Peach Lemonade!
Oh, and eat a chocolate-covered frozen banana bite too!!