It’s a Jungle Out There

Heat in the 90s. Humidity at 80%. Rain and storms nearly every day. It’s kind of rough on us (well, rough on the dog), but our yard and garden are loving it.

We’ve got some serious green going on in our backyard.

Plenty of room for fetch AND a lovely garden.

Peas and tomatoes fighting for space.

Insane squash. In the span of a week it has jumped out of the raised bed, threatened to take over the strawberry pots, and begun to take on a life of its own. Even though Jack runs laps in that corner of the yard, the squash is resilient. I’m amazed.

A tree transplanted from Regan’s parent’s yard thrives.  And the rosemary, oregano, and cilantro growing in pots on the side of the garage are each starting to take off. 

After figuring out how to keep the squirrels at bay, our lettuce has started to come back. 

We have a ways to go with our landscaping along the back of the house, but what we have is a pretty good start. All the plants are courtesy of Regan’s parent’s yard. The rain barrel is courtesy of a workshop at Keep Indianapolis Beautiful. Of course, with all the rain we’ve had lately we haven’t had to tap into our supply, but I just like that it’s there.

Now I’m just daydreaming about razing the abandoned house next door and establishing a community garden there — taking our little jungle of a garden to the next level. How cool would that be?

First Harvest

Sometimes you just have an overabundance of basil. And sometimes you just have to make pesto.

The first creation of the season made from fresh picked garden goodies made me eager for more. I can’t wait to see how our garden continues to grow.

Birthday Weekend in Pictures

I love weekends that make me not think about real life. This was one of them, thanks to Regan and all my friends (and my parents who got me a camera… as you can tell from the documentation).

Here’s how it all played out:

1. Baked bread, made muffins, cleaned house, generally took back my life on Friday night.

2. Saturday morning woke up, played with Jack, headed to Talbot Street Art Fair and the Harrison Center Arts + Craft Exchange. Good stuff.

3. Ate Sushi

4. Went to the Flying Cupcake, which is awesome.

See.

So sweet.

… and delicious, which made me kind of crazy. Proof here.

5. Headed to Avon for a massage for both of us. No light and fluffy massage. A serious, heavy duty, deep tissue, therapeutic massage. I think I might just be healed. It was wonderful.

6. Home, played with Jack, nap.

7. Out for pizza at Jackamo’s with Erin and Andrew, then out for drinks with more people + some friends in town from D.C.

8. Sunday morning breakfast and CBS Sunday Morning at Andrew and Erin’s with out of town guests.

9. Errands, laying in the sun (me), yard work (Regan), housework, listmaking for the coming week.

10. Admired our lovely Cosmo that we grew from a seedling!

11. Ritter’s for ice cream to cap off a spectacular weekend.

12. Now we are enjoying Season 4 of Weeds and ramping up for the coming week.

Outstanding.

Here’s hoping your weekend was just as good.

Oh, Deer

Last weekend Regan and I headed 90 miles north for a quick visit with my parents. As soon as we arrived my dad led us over to the creek and showed us a fawn who had been in the same place for two days straight. It was so well behaved, staying in one place, waiting for orders from its mom to move. It would glance over at us, skeptical of the crowd that was forming. It stood, ate leaves, rested, slept, and then started the cycle again. My parent’s house is complete zen.

Hunkered down and staying safe

Look at all his spots!

Regan watching our Bambi.