Bird Bath Herb Garden

Oh hello apple blossoms!  How pretty you make the back yard!

As much as I love my little condo with it’s even littler deck it’s sure nice that the boyfriend has a big house with a big yard.  Of course, a big yard means maintenance but as long as he doesn’t ask me to mow the lawn I’m pretty in love with helping him keep it all pretty.

Chibi likes to help by eating the grass.

Michael loves the idea of having an edible garden, as opposed to just pretty flowers that die off each year.  The majority of his property has either relatively mature fruit trees, or perennial berries and flowering shrubs and such.  So as he adds to the landscape he’s looking for tasty ideas to do it.

They aren’t perennial but herbs are always my first choice when someone says edible garden.  As we browsed around the garden center he came up with the idea of putting this defunct bird bath to use so we grabbed a few potted herbs and I put this together for him. 

Italian parsley, onion chives, dill, rosemary and oregano.

It came together easily, held just the perfect amount of dirt and even has a drain in the bottom.  The best part?  He has automatic sprinklers and one of them hits the herb bath just perfectly.

He doesn’t really have garden space for many veggies (yet!) but was eager to get something edible into this long garden along his fence.  We somewhat randomly decided on a variety of greens which should fill in very nicely over the next couple of months.

Kale, romaine lettuce, and mixed green, red, and purple leaf lettuces.

After we planted everything we covered it all with deer netting to keep this bugger out.  He’s a hungry boy!  Sometimes we think Burl is a vegetarian.

The yard also boasts blueberry plants and a ton of ever-bearing strawberries. along with a couple of apple trees, a cherry tree, and oddly enough two varieties of currants.  Next up we are hoping to find hanging tomatoes and cucumbers.

Does anyone know if there are special varieties to put in hanging baskets?  Or can we just chose some yummy looking cherry tomatoes and hope for the best?  (He has regular hanging pots, not those upside-down things).

Meet Timmy!  The newest member of our doggie brigade and Michael’s homestead.  Nothing says manly like a pug-chihuahua-x!  :)

This little dude is super fun, friendly and soooooo freaking cute.  He’s taken to his new home very quickly and keeps the other dogs on their toes. 

Here’s hoping he’s not a vegetarian!

A Lovely Friday

This afternoon I discovered that my hair has grown out enough to finally get into a french braid again.  Not enough to stay there through any major activity, but it’s getting there!

For lunch I put together a cold snack plate: carrots, yellow peppers, tomatoes, marble cheddar, deli turkey, some new crackers, and the last of the spicy hummus on the side.

After work, which I promptly finished right at 5pm tonight I went downstairs to see if I could help FH out.  He had spent the afternoon cleaning and scrubbing the back deck, and had moved on to sanding.  He had it all under control though, and was heading out front to start sanding the porch and railings.  I wanted to help but we only have one sander. :(  Seemed like a fun job for such a beautiful evening!

So I mowed the lawn instead.  And weed wacked.  And cursed the number of freaking weeds in the yard again.  Can’t keep up!

Before I went out I had a little snacky of cherries…

After sweating up a storm in the yard, I had a glorious shower, then made dinner.  Super easy…leftovers and homemade potato salad!  Deeeelish and Summery.

Leftover grilled turkey sausage and steamed green beans…

To finish up such a hot and lovely day, we decided to go for ice cream.  Unfortunately we waited too late and when we got to Pinky’s at Dingle Park they had just closed.  Booooo.  So instead we had to settle for Dairy Queen.  It’s yummy but it’s just not the same!  (small Smarties Blizzard)

And the sun will come out….TODAY!

Mid-way through my day I had to come home and change out of the jeans and t-shirt I started out it because it got too HOT. Yippeeeeee!

The day started out with a call from Farm Girl letting me know that we’d received an email from Heather cancelling our make-up Booty Camp session today. One look outside and I could see why…still foggy, wet, and disgusting. Boooo. My sore back thanked me though. It doesn’t seem to be getting any better…I guess an extra trip to the chiropractor is in order. Gah.

So since I was already up, there was no sense in wasting the morning. I quickly got the coffee brewing and curled up on the couch with my Sookie Stackhouse book. After my first cup and a few chapters I made a light breakfast to get me moving.

Another yummy cheese scone warmed in the oven, 1/2 banana, fresh strawberries and a dollop of almond butter.

After breakfast I got dressed, got another load of laundry in, and headed out to another mall looking for luggage. On the way there I got a call from some friends asking if I wanted to meet them at the waterfront to check out the Tall Ships and get some ice cream. Boy did I! So I quickly got my luggage and then raced downtown.

Ugh. Traffic nightmare. It took me 30 minutes to travel what usually take 15 minutes, then when I got all the way to the water it turns out that all of the public parking lots are closed to the public. Ya, so after another 20ish minutes of driving around (at a snail’s pace) trying to find street parking I gave up. I was already 30 minutes late meeting them and I still had no hope of parking (THIS is a major downfall of not really knowing the area!!). So no boats or ice cream for me. :(

By this time the weather was scorching hot and I wasn’t dressed for it so I headed for home. Stopped for a McD’s ice cream cone on my way…and decided to try their new Blueberry Raspberry Sundae. Yummmmmm. Just the right size.

Once home I was glad I made the decision to leave downtown. I got so much done!! Put on my shorts and bikini top (and sunscreen!) and spent the whole afternoon outside. Planted some flowers that I’ve been waiting weeks to plant. Pulled a month’s worth of weeds from the back garden and part of the lawn. Mowed the lawn. Generally tidied up.

In between the weeding and the mowing I stopped to eat and enjoy the rest of my book. Snack plate consisted of organic old white cheddar, carrots, yellow peppers, hummus, raspberries, and Kashi crackers.

And today was the perfect day to crack open my Blueberry POM and make myself an icy spritzer. 1 part POM to 3 parts club soda. Perfectly refreshing!

After mowing the lawn (even after waiting until 6pm to do it) I was sweating like crazy so had a long, cool shower then decided that using the oven would be the worst idea ever. I reasoned that the dinner I had planned could be completely done on the BBQ so set to work.

Enjoyed my first Coke Zero of the Summer season…

Fresh beets..scrubbed, quartered and simply tossed with EVOO, sea salt & fresh pepper.

Beet greens…trimmed, chopped and tossed lightly with a smidge of EVOO, lemon juice and salt.

Fresh Atlantic salmon…seasoned with a little lemon juice, dill, salt & pepper.

Yummy yellow tomato salad with boccincini cheese & fresh basil.

All together….deeeeelish. Perfect meal for a hot day…and there’s leftovers!

After dinner and a bit of TV I cleaned the downstairs bathroom, dusted the entire downstairs, polished the dining table and chairs, Windexed the coffee table and end tables, vacuumed the whole downstairs, and Wetjetted the living room floor. Whew.

So by then I was ready for dessert…I bought more of those incredible fresh local strawberries so chopped up a few of those and topped with organic vanilla yogurt and a handful of seeds & almonds. Perfect end for a perfect sunny, productive Sunday.

Dandelion Love

It’s love/hate really. 

I’m loving the new weed removal tool I bought last week.

I’m hating having to use it a bazillion times.

When we got up this morning I made coffee for us and our overnight guests.  Due to too much booze last night, two folks declined the coffee…so more for me!  (yaya, I know I just said I’m supposed to be cutting back but I refuse to believe it’s an ulcer and I’m not in any pain…yet!)

For my breakfast (no one else was hungry…haha) I crumbled up one of my banana coconut oatmeal muffins and mixed it with a few scoops of Liberte coconut yogurt…deeeeelish.

 

After my big bucket of weeds were dug out (took about an hour and barely made a dent!) I ran to the store for yeast.  I grabbed one of the oatmeal chocolate chip bars on my way out the door.

Then I came in to prep the pizza dough for tonight’s dinner (stay tuned…you are gonna LOVE this!) and then made myself a little lunch to keep me going for our walk in the park.

Salad contains: mixed lettuces, matchstick carrots, cauliflower, orange pepper, chickpeas, raisins, and sunflower seeds.  Drizzled with grapeseed oil and s&p.  Served with Mary’s crackers.

I love raisins in salad!

Workin’ Hard

Considering that I had no significant plans for today, it wound up very productive. Thanks mainly to another beautiful day, a handy neighbor, and a desire to be active.

After posting this morning I made myself a pineapple spritzer (pineapple juice and seltzer) and sat on the front porch reading in the sun for a bit. Eventually the bug for coffee hit me so I took myself out to Starbucks for an iced coffee with skim milk (note: these are supposed to be sweetened with their classic syrup, but mine wasn’t…what a shock taking a big swig expecting sweet and getting bitter!)

I perused a few garden centers while I was out. I literally pass five on the way to Starbucks. No one really has much in the way of annual bedding plants yet…I’m holding out for impatiens for my planters, but I did get two lovely hanging baskets for the front porch. Purple Calibrachoa…which look like tiny petunias to me!

I brought my iced coffee home (to add sugar!) and made lunch. Turkey and avocado wrap with chips and salsa. Deeeeelish.

In the tortilla: light mayo, grainy mustard, deli turkey, avocado slices and grated light cheddar.

Still wanting to tackle the weed wasteland that is our lawn I asked my neighbor if I could borrow their mower until FH gets a chance to look at ours when he gets home. She suggested her hubby have a look a mine, so I took them up on that. After a few minutes poking around and several pulls on the rip cord, he got it to start! He didn’t do anything different than I was doing, so his guess is that there was some old gas in the line that just needed to be flushed out. Nice!

This was awesome because I was then able to tackle the dead spots on the front yard like I had wanted to early in the week. Three bags of lawn soil and I could have used at least three more…but I raked it out carefully, sprinkled with a ton of new grass seed, raked a little more, and watered it carefully. My new pet project will be to watch and see if it works!

The back yard is a huge task, so that will definitely be a Summer-long project for FH and I to worry about a little later.

Three hours out in the sun made me a little hungry so I came in for a bowl of Liberte Svelt vanilla yogurt with a handful of Organic Daybreak and some of the leftover fruit from last night. This gave me enough energy to change my clothes and head to the gym.

Run + full body strength training…

Treadmill: 2 minute warm up, 18 minute run, 3 minute cooldown

Upper Body: 2 sets of 12 reps (I upped my weights and went for fewer reps today)

- Tricep pulldowns (17.5lbs)

- Bicep curls (30lbs)

- Military presses (30lbs)

Lower Body: 2 sets of 12 reps

- squats on upside-down bosu

- stationary lunges with 2 x 10lb weights (each leg)

- hamstring curls on the ball

Core:

- 30 regular crunches

- 30 bicycle crunches

- 30 reverse crunches

- 30 second plank

- a few yoga stretches for my lower back, legs, etc

When I got home I walked up the block to get the mail, then came in and immediately made dinner. Stuffed a chicken breast with a smear of light herby cream cheese and leftover spinach and sprinkled it with s&p and fresh parmesan and baked it in the oven.

Served with a simple tomato salad (just added a smidge of minced red onion, a little EVOO, sea salt and ground pepper to a whole chopped tomato), fiddleheads, and two mini slices of baguette leftover from last night (thanks Lynn!).

All that has led to this crazy long post and now I’m zonked. I just got out of the shower and plan to give myself a little mud mask action before relaxing with a cup of tea and a few more Butterfly cookies. It will be a reasonably early bedtime tonight so I can be bright eyed and bushy tailed tomorrow….because FH IS HOME TOMORROW!! Weeeeeeeee!!