The Shed Walls

 We're plugging away at the walls. It's slow going but will speed up as we develop technique for laying mortar between logs. We love it already. Neighbors are making positive comments, too.

Working on top sections first

Added one of my face mugs to the wall 

Not quite finished. Notice box for electric outlet!

Parney's cotoneaster and PrairieFire crabapple 

Trees, Walls and Things

We start working on the walls of my studio!

Exterior view

Interior view

 Here is a very lucky toad that managed to avoid death today. The poor thing got wedged between the tines of my pitchfork while I was moving manure. I thought it was a goner. What the heck was it doing in the manure pile?! I wonder what the ducks would have done with it?

Signs of Fall: Loons are congregating along the coast, geese are flocking in the fields.

Our girl relaxing in the shade. She's looking quite gray these days.

Let's hope I have the good fortune to live long enough to see my trees grow to maturity. I'm putting in various maples, crabapples, pines, Arbutus (madrone and strawberry tree), and Pacific wax myrtle. Also have a hairy manzanita and Parney's cotoneaster to plant somewhere. Sales are starting this week and I'll be buying more!

Flowering crabapple (PrairieFire) in the back yard.

Douglas or Rocky Mountain Maple in back yard. 

Another Douglas Maple in the west side yard.

Small Madrone. They grow fast if they survive the transplant.

Shore pines to be planted on the east side.

Wax myrtle and Arbutus unedo to screen the south side.

Small vine maple on west side.

Large vine maples to join the small one later. 

Our Walk to the Beach

More pictures from our walk to the beach. I'm tired from yard work this morning and not up to writing anything. Buying and planting trees and shrubs is keeping me busy now. There is a mountain of compost to move.

Driftwood creation

Woodpecker's work

'Shrooms

The lagoon

Float collection

Bridge to the "goat trail"

We Buy a Mower

Our new John Deere lawn tractor reminded Tux of the Rhino so she took a swing around the yard in the cart. Not as much fun as racing around the desert, for sure. 

Busy Days

With rain and cooler days ahead we've been busy in the yard. Bob wants to get the walls up on the shed (which is now going to be my studio) and he finally found someone to buy the wood from. He started cutting slices this morning but needed a new chain for the saw so didn't get much done. I stacked them in one wall to get an idea how many pieces are needed.

We're buying trees to plant next month and working around the gardens. I fired the guy who maintains our lawn after he whacked my beautiful new smoke bush, which was the last straw. We drove to Poulsbo and bought our own lawn tractor. What a neat little town with a Viking theme. Hope to visit again for fish and chips.

The amazing massive sunflowers

That's Bob's bald head, kind of looks like a sunflower

Rainy Days

Making pesto and staying out of the (much needed) rain today.

Keeping dry

World Dog Day

I don't know who determines these things, but I'm all for a World dog Day. Do something special with your pup today and every day.

Tux, wondering what a dog day is all about.

I want a World Duck Day, too!

Happenings in the Yard

We've had a pretty successful gardening season considering our lack of experience. We're thinking of ways to improve the soil over winter and making plans for what to grow more of and try new next season. Bob's been busy building things. Besides working on the shed he made a compost bin and enclosed the veggie beds with wire to exclude the voracious duck-girls who were helping themselves to everything.

Compost bin

Artichokes, more of these next year!

Lemon cucumbers - tasty, but take too much space in the greenhouse. Next year none.

Squash - no more than one plant! I have enough to eat for years to come. 

Duck proof beds

The ducks are a delight. They are crazy for tomatoes now that the raspberries are gone. We have so many Cherokee Purples that the cherry tomatoes would be going to waste if not for the ducks. I tossed one into the garden and tried to get pictures as they fought for ownership. 

The winner!

There is still a ton of work to be done in the yard, but ever so slowly I will add shrubs and beds and trees. This stunning red shrub is Cotinus coggygria 'Grace'. It will grow to eight to ten feet high and wide and I've planted it near the new patio. I want to put a purple or golden Cotinus next to it, maybe both, for contrast. 

More beautiful than the picture can show.

The scrawny own-root roses I planted a few months ago are growing like crazy. This is a New Dawn climber growing next to a clematis. 

This is a garden developing on the east side of the house where I'd initially thought of doing roses. It's going to be a peony garden instead. No peonies planted yet, they won't be ready to pick up at the nursery for another month or two, but there are irises, cone flower, grasses, and crocosmia keeping the little fig tree company. I'll plant tulips this fall and peony poppies (if the seeds grow) next spring. Flowers in shades of red in this garden bed. 

Here is one of the beds in front of the house that I started last fall. It's not apparent from this angle, but there are color groupings of various plants along the row. I'm still pulling out unwanted bulbs and am moving things around until happy with placement.

Here is Tux at the memorial garden where she spends most of her time. I've planted a rugosa rose, compact strawberry tree, ceanothus, lavender, sea holly and four different irises so far, in honor of Tag and Hoop. Oriental poppies and tulips to be added, and maybe mock orange or red flowering currant in the background, close to the fence. When the shed is finished we'll make a spot for a bench where we can sit with Tux and remember the border collies.

The Shed

Still waiting for wood to be delivered before construction of walls can begin. In the meantime the doors were made. Tux seems to think it's hers.

Neighbors gave us some apples so it was time to try making a pie. It's been many years since I last made one. Here it is, just out of the oven.