Yesterday

After three weeks of rain, cold, raw weather, we finally had a nice day, just in time for my meeting with my rose club and the open garden. It was a pleasant day and the turn-out of folks was nice. There was more than enough food to go around for everyone. I was pleased, but as usual, even with both Bob and I working the room(s), it didn't seem like enough. We were both kept very busy. But I think everyone got out of the event what they really wanted to.

Later, after everyone left, just as evening was coming, a beautiful rainbow made an appearance. Actually there were two, but by the time we got the camera, only one was left. What a wonderful promise after all the nasty, unstable weathr we'd just experienced.

We also got some shots of the pond about 1,000 feet from the property and the lovely mist that was rising from it in the evening temperatures.

During the gathering, while walking around with one of the guests, Bob was able to snap this shot of the opening flowers of one of the viburman, All That Jazz. Very similar, except for the leaf structure to the Blue Muffin viburman (which I have two), All That Jazz also gets blue berries after the flowers that the birds will strip before they have a chance to drop off the plant.

The Blue Muffin viburman are only a year old, not very big but are producing an abundance of fower heads already. Something that All That Jazz waited to do for about 3 years.

One of the Finishing Touches

One of the finishing touches to the hardscape of the property is a path that I've been wanting from the patio to the driveway, so guests don't have to walk in wet grass and mud to get to it from the outside.
I hired a handyman team to help with the initial digging of the pathway. They dug a hole 4 inches deep, 30 inches wide and 80 feet long and did it in only a few hours. I was impressed and very delighted with the work! Husband, who argued with me at first was so impressed and glad that we had done that. It saved him a lot of time and backache. They also dug up the rest of the grass between the path and the rose garden, giving me an area for favorite annuals and a serious punch of color.

Husband actually did the rest. He laid down the weed block into the hole. Covered it with 2" of rough stone chips and began laying the pavers with three inches between them, cutting the ones on the curves. This took about a week with good weather. Finally, with this done, he filled with the decorative stone pebbles I had gotten as a finish. During some breaks, we went to local flower nurseries and bought four flats of colorful annuals, mostly snapdragons (one of my favorites), marigolds (Husband's favorite), summer saliva in different colors, Gerber daisies, stock and a few other kinds of annuals.

The flowers have been in a week now and this morning I headed out to give them their first dose of fertilizer and saw several hummers busily working through them. I think this will be nice.

This is one thing I've been wanting done for a number of years - since we put the patio in anyway.