Julember Treats

I know - it's not really a word, unless you live in Seattle and for those of us who live here we know exactly what month, or months, Julember includes! Despite the ridiculous humidity, clouds, rain and then sporadic sun we've enjoyed lots of yummies from the garden. We have bagged a bunch of sugar peas, snow peas, even a few carrots and gallons of lettuce. Still waiting for squash, tomatoes, cucumber and eggplant. We did find some unusual pink flowers on the sugar pod pea plants that are so pretty! Not sure if they cross pollinated with the nearby pink/purple potato plants or what, but they are very pretty to see.



The other big news is our patio is 3/4 done!!! They finally finished the stones and gravel, there are just a few more things to add - sod up to the patio edge, pergola and flowering pots. Then a backyard warming!!!
Day 1:

Day 2:

Day 3:

Happy Julember!!

Life is Just a Bowl of Cherries

I know, the saying isn't quite correct, but seriously when you are sitting in a chaise lounge chair, envisioning the new slate patio going in on Thursday (July 7th), the sun is shining down, the breeze is caressing your face and a huge bowl of cherries is sitting between you and the love of your life - life IS just a bowl of cherries.
Summer (dare I say the word) has FINALLY come to Seattle. It seems as though the last few years have pushed Nick and I to our max with being able to stand staying in Seattle, however, with our fantastic new backyard in, the roses blooming and first harvests from the garden coming in we have managed to survive the season that we will call "Sprinter" in Seattle. Here are some lovely shots of the last couple weekends in our little green paradise!

From our garden:



Market and Festival Goodies:

Our lives from here on out will be referred to as two different time periods BP (before patio) and AP (after patio). BP life is not as fantastic as AP life - as evidenced below:

Yep, all you need is a patio, some sunshine and a bowl of cherries and other goodies. Life doesn't get much better than that!

GREEN!!

This blog post is brought to you by the color green!

First green item - our garden, which is doing beautifully and VERY green.


Second green item - a backyard, six years in the making. It's been six years since Nick and I first moved into our house. The backyard looked something like this:

The backyard was surrounded by rock drives (they were too wide to be called paths), badly built gardening beds, horribly diseased plants and trees and a Koi pond with badly planted bamboo. Nick and I have attempted to "remodel" our backyard multiple times - we've rototilled, moved hundreds of wheelbarrows of rock and dirt, ripped out the stupid/disgusting Koi pond, graded, planted grass and so much more. When we finally "gave up" we had hauled out over a ton of trash out of the backyard. We finally made the decision to have someone else come in and do the work for us. We started saving our money and hired Matt, from Form to Function to come and put in a backyard for us. Money well spent!!!

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

Every time we look out a window or stand on the back patio we both just sigh with happiness. Nick and I both keep saying that it's like being in a dream and we're going to wake up and it will all be back to weeds and dirt. We are reveling in the backyard beauty and enjoying tiptoeing through the new grass.

**Anyone in the Seattle area or surrounding areas, Matt McAuslan at Form to Function is the guy you should go to first!