It's been quite a while...

We haven't been doing much lately as far as home renovation. This summer is kind of a wash as far as that goes for a few reasons...

1. Budget. We are being much more conservative about spending and borrowing for obvious reasons. I am proud to say that we have paid off all our credit card debt in the middle of a recession.

2. The house is in decent livable shape! Woo hoo! Oh, there's always something to do and we have a long to do list still on the fridge, but none of it feels terribly pressing.

3. I broke my elbow in June from a tumble off my bike and Steve hurt his back in July. Note: This did not stop us from enjoying some nice hiking in Manistee National Forest this summer we are now both pretty well recuperated.

4. Busy with the Glenwood Sunday Market.
5. Busy enjoying the fruits of my labor in my new vegetable garden. Think homemade pesto, simmered greens, lettuces that practically melt in your mouth, etc... (We built a raised bed early Spring this year.) And we yes, my vegetables are in a cage! When it comes to squirrels, we don't play around!
6. Just enjoying summer. Plus it's been too damn hot to work much anyway, right?

I sometimes miss working on projects and get restless about doing something, but mostly it's okay. I do hope this isn't the end for us though. I think we still have a few good years in us for DIY. We aren't that old and tired just yet!

Anyway, I just wanted to check in and say hello and happy summer to all my houseblogging friends. Thanks to blogging about our work, I will never forget those days. So many good memories of working outside in the sun and fresh air, in the moment and focused on a specific goal and craft. I absolutely loved it. And I love working side by side with Steve.  So, I am sure we will get back to it at some point. We have some BIG plans for the backyard that are percolating for next year possibly.

Fall is falling

We took a trip to the Chicago Botanical Gardens last weekend. The wind was brisk but it was a beautiful day.

I've been pretty busy with shutting down the garden for the season (digging up cannas, mulching, transplanting and tweaking, bulb planting etc...). Steve has been finishing up the chimney cap project which I will be doing a post on very soon.

For now, I'll share some more photos from our field trip. With all the rain we had this year, the fall foliage has been so pretty.

How about these mums for some color therapy?

This is from the prairie section of the garden. What you can't get from this picture is the sound of the grass in the wind. There's a reason why "The Wind in the Willows" makes a great book title.

Of course, we often get ideas when we visit places like this. Steve saw this evergreen container garden and said this would be his garden project for next year.


Speaking of evergreens, I realy liked these in the Conifer section of the garden.


Not sure what this is, but it reminds me of some kind of thistle and we both thought it was very cool.



One last look at the fall foliage...

I guess I kind of hope that life follows the cycles of nature. If so, the autumn of life should be pretty great.

Parkway Expansion

I took advantage of the long weekend and I am about 90% done with our parkway project.

Ingredients:
2 trips to Buy the Yard to get river rocks
400 pounds of rock
4 bags hardwood mulch
3 bags of soil conditioner
1/2 day Saturday
1/2 day Sunday
one achey elbow

Here is the view from the south side. The bed has hostas bordering it, iris, roses, sedum, some alliums, our slowly growing pine tree, and one hardy shrub (seen on the far end).

I plan to add a bunch of daffodils and muscari for the spring.

This is the view from the north. On Monday I saw a little boy walking along the rocks and I thought that was kind of cute.

Here is the last section, which I will be wrapping up this coming weekend.

The worst part about this whole project was removing the grass and also digging out the very compacted and root filled soil.

Anyone who has excavated a city parkway will know what I am talking about. But what I kept telling myself is that this is a "one time" job and as long as I do not plant grass again- I will never have to go through this again! Kind of like stripping woodwork- don't paint it and you won't have to strip it again.

I am super happy with the way this project turned out. I didn't have to buy a single plant either after dividing up the existing hostas and relocating a few others from various parts of the yard.

Blissed out day

Today was one of those oh-so-very sweet days of summer. Just an ordinary Saturday for us really. Steve was cutting and installing the trim for the new screen doors and I was putting a second coat of paint on the front iron railing and I washed the windows on the first floor.

But this morning when I went out into the yard to have a cup of coffee, the sky was so beautiful and the light so perfect, I decided to take some photos of the garden.


I've posted pictures this year of the backyard, but it's at it's peak about now, although the lilies are all gone. Sunflowers, Phlox & Black-eyed Susans are all blooming. I like this photo because Mojo was looking at me.

Here is a shot of the frontyard- no grass anymore as you can see. Once you get perennials established, they are so much less work than a lawn. They bring birds and butterflies and compliments. You just don't compliments on a lawn the way you do with flowers. At least not in my part of town.

Here is the parkway, which I have taken over about 50% of the way. This fall I am going to remove the remaining lawn and divide those massive hostas to I have a complete border of them.


And here is what you see when you leave our house. I guess you could say my garden is therapy for me. It sure puts me in a good mood. And so does summer. Tomorrow, we are headed for the lakefront and the beach. I hope you are enjoying your summer too.

Please sir canna I have another?

What is it with me and the bad canna jokes anyway? I guess it's because I feel like a real die hard out in the yard in November chopping down 7' tall canna plants and then digging the bulbs up to store for the winter in our basement.

It's a job, that's for sure. This year I had expanded my canna beds and had planted them in three different locations- two in the backyard and one on our parkway. Why do I mention this? Because the thing with cannas is that every year that you plant them, you get more.

If only I could make my money grow that fast. Then I could afford to pay someone to take care of this mildly backbreaking garden chore.

Seriously, they probably at least tripled in quantity this year. As I was digging them up, I just laughed with amazement at these prolific plants and the abundance of healthy bulbs I pulled from the ground. Kind of a delirious laughter if you know what I mean.

In past years, I've given some to my Mom for her yard, and some to a few co-workers. My neighbor and many other noticeably sane people don't want them "because they are too much work."

Now who else can I give them to? Do you know anyone? Who do I know that isn't afraid of hard work?

Oh, I know!! Next March, I am going to offer them up to you housebloggers. I am going to propagate my cannas all over the globe. World domination through cannas, that's the ticket.

Okay, I'm going to rest now. I have a massive turkey dinner to cook this week. Thanks for sticking with me.

p.s. 2nd coat of primer put on garage door Saturday. Two more to go before Thanksgiving. It wouldn't be so bad if we could work indoors, but the oil paint is way too stinky for that. Also, we have some red color (tanin or some stain embedded in the wood) bleeding through the primer on the door so we have to do a coat of stain blocker. Yes, stuff happens.

As the grass grows...

The lawn is coming along nicely. I mowed it for the first time this season today as we had to give the grass a chance to take.

Its funny because Mojo insists on walking along the "path" where the conduit was buried last year. I think he likes the feel of baby grass under his delicate feet.

I've been remiss on blogging I know. I was in Las Vegas for a trade show for a week and that was fun. Las Vegas is such the opposite of everything I deal with in my every day life, I actually find it refreshing-funny.

I got some "me" time and saw a show, had a nice dinner, and went shopping, which I rarely do. I bought myself a pair of those $150 Seven jeans and it felt good!

I have been mainly working on my gardening. Here's a shot of the front parkway, which I plan to completely take over with plants eventually.

Steve's Mom planted our little pine tree a few yeas ago and we look forward to the day when it's 10' tall. We give it an inordinate amount of TLC, but there is something so cool about planting a little tree like that and having it grow into a big tree.

I'm sure you have experienced where you go back somewhere and see a tree that you remember and it's become a giant.

Plus, we love love love pine trees. Mark my words,we will be planting more evergreens before this season is over!


While we are on the subject of plants I adore, take a look at the utter perfection of this one- a lily of the valley. The fragrance, the perfect bell shape of the flower, the beautiful green foliage the toughness of this plant cannot be beat in my opinion. It does need to be controlled though as it can be invasive.


I saved mine from a teardown site in my neighborhood. They now line the fence along the sidewalk where they can't take over my yard, but soften the sidewalk.

Steve is going to put the 2nd coat of paint on the front door trim today. We still haven't worked on the door itself. I am holding off on photos for now. More on that soon...

Serenity Now!

I have vowed this year that I will relax in my backyard. I will not work all summer every weekend on wood. I will invite some people over to enjoy the somewhat nice backyard. In the city, many don't have a backyard and so those that do should share sometimes.

We need to repair the concrete (see photo) to make this space more usable and that will happen within a month I'd say. In the meantime, I am going about my plantings and am awaiting the grass seed to take.

I've gone with yellow this year in the pots and some texture: ferns, vine, white marigolds for their hardiness, and one yellow flower whose name escapes me.

In front, I planted some forget me nots, Prince William phlox in a beautiful purple, some coleus for color in the shade and some rosemary. The garden has been somewhat delayed this year because of late frost, but things seem to be growing well now. I think some bulbs decided to wait until next year, but that's the way it goes. If it was the same every year, it would be dull I suspect.

Who doesn't love a mourning dove in the morning? I saw a titmouse too this morning.

Winter surprise: a (short) bird story

I know many of us on houseblogs seem to like bird stories, I know I do. For that reason, I'm going to share my little tale.

A few weeks ago, we were experiencing record high temperatures for January. All the snow had melted and daffodils were popping out of the ground in confusion.

One morning I looked out front and saw of all things a robin! Now to me, a robin is a much better omen than a groundhog any day.

I don't know how many of you recall the scene in the film Blue Velvet in which Laura Dern talks about robins. I guess it made an impression, because it's kind of stayed with me all these years.

When I saw this robin, I said to him, "fella, you are definitely confused."

Weeks passed and now the temperatures here in Chicago are at record lows. This morning, it was 7 below zero and that doesn't even include the wind chill.



So on Sunday morning, when I saw this little guy hanging out in my neighbors yard by the holly bushes, I was concerned.


This is case in point why having birding books handy is a must for me. Steve and I looked up robins in our "Birds of Chicago" reference book and found out that some robins do actually winter here. But these aren't the same robins you see in the spring.


These robins are from the north- think Canada. This weather is balmy to them. I can sleep better now. I'm going to be keeping my bird watching eyes on him now too.