♪♫ Hot Child in the City... ♪♫

Okay... we went from 65* to 95* in under one week.  That. Is. Just. Wrong.  HOWEVER, and you know I always have a "however"... However,

WE HAVE OUR NEW GARDEN POOL! 

Oh if only I could get the video of Cap'n Jack getting in the ICE COLD WATER for the first time!!!  That was PRICELESS... it totally took his breath away!  But today... today it was PERFECT.  It cooled me down and I was so relaxed after sitting in it for just ten minutes after work today.  Ah-may-zing!

♪♫Hot child in the city...♪♫ NO MORE!

Let's rewind a bit, shall we?  

This weekend The Homemaker got a little HomeBakery and a little HomeCraftery.  First, there was MamaMia's birthday!

She turned 66!  I baked her a little carrot cake!  

With a little real cream cheese filling (may as well use that last bit up that's in the fridge) and just your average, every day Betty Crocker can of "WHAT THE *^&^%$^*(($#@! (no, The Homemaker kept it clean... but one of these days I AM going to actually shout "ASTERISK! UP ARROW! AMPERSAND!...") WHY IS THIS CAN OF CREAM CHEESE FROSTING OPEN, HALF EATEN, SMOOTHED OVER AND PUT BACK IN THE PANTRY UNREFRIGERATED?!?!"

Yep, The Girl.  Her logic... "I USED A SPOON!"  Riiight.  

That makes sneaking it and putting it back without 'fessing MUCH BETTER.  Off she and Cap'n Jack went to the grocery store... and she had to go in all by herself, find the same frosting and purchase it.  I know.  Doesn't sound like much.  But her little 13 year old heart that doesn't like doing that by herself... yeah, that heart was going THUMPITY THUMP big time!  Anyway, once the frosting arrived...

I thought it turned out rather cute in all its little rectangularness!  

The next day, I ran out of plant tags.  Off to Home Depot we went!  PLASTIC?  I'm sorry, plastic plant tags?  Um, no no.  That just won't do.  OH!  But look at this plant!  And that one!  Oh we need that one too!  So, no plant tags in hand but we did leave with a nice little assortment of plants... (please note, at this point, my toe still fit in my new "garden shoes", aren't they cute?!!?...)

And here is the little vignette I worked on... the double stack galvanized steel planter!
 
Cap'n Jack cut out the bottom of the top pail, stacked it on top of the full-of-soil bottom pail and TA-DA!  HUGE planter!  Okay, so all I did was add all the little flowers and the clay pots to zhuzh up the joint!  (yes, his job had more sweat equity.)

After Home Depot, though, I still hadn't any plant tags!  I headed off to Goodwill... PRAYERS ANSWERED!  Well, the supplies for said answered prayers anyway!

So Saturday evening, with the Mockingbird going through its repertoire, I poured out my treasures onto the potting bench and began to create... stuff.

Copper tags, some random forks, a sharpie marker and a piercing tool...

 Then, with the spoons... a sharpie marker and some clear nail polish (totally borrowed that idea off of some random pic I stumbled on when browsing Pinterest!)...

So, that all happened AND (rewind a bit to when I made mention of my cute new garden shoes...) I got bit by a bug on my pinky toe... and it swelled... and it SWELLED... to the point that by Sunday night the pinky toe was PINK/RED and the welt was growing whiter and BIGGER AND WHITER by the minute (YES, I itched it, okay!)... so I took two antihistamines and called it a night... then I CALLED IN for the day... then I napped some more... 18 hours later I came out of my antihistamine induced semi-coma.

Stoopid antihistamines.

Whew.  What a weekend for The Homemaker!
And all God's children and The Homemaker, too, said Amen.

'maker, 'maker, how does your garden grow...?

I am NEVER going to reference another children's story AGAIN!  Yeesh!  The whole "Mary, Mary, quite contrary" is horribly descriptive in wicked detail!  That's just awful!  So, from there, I must say, I am rewriting the little ditty to be happy and light...

The Homemaker, Oh Homemaker, 

How doth thine garden grow?

QUITE SPLENDID INDEED!  

Oh the petals and the leaves, they do sweetly plead, 

Water and Speak kind Love upon thy row!

There! Enough with all the doom and gloom of the yucky children's limerick. 

Honestly I wouldn't have EVER thought that gardening would be so much stinkin' fun!  I mean, really, watering and weeding and planting and tending... None of that SOUNDS fun until...

Until you press upon that lovely little gate latch, step into the sweet surround of the reclaimed picket fencing given new life, hear the soft crunch of the pebbles beneath your feet (note to self, find some garden clogs and overalls ASAP), and then hear the click of the latch behind you... behind you... the same place the day's worries and cares are left... behind you.  It is just no wonder at all that it all began in a garden.  God wanted us all to know how much He loves us by starting us out in such a place of tranquil peace, joy and beauty... What a blessing.

(insert sound of screeching brakes here)

And theeeennnn, apparently gardening is an "older people" thing.  That is, according to... The Girl.  As we were sitting out on the back porch last night enjoying our potbelly stove and roasting marshmallows (after enjoying crostini with garlic sauted mushrooms and a cucumber/red bell/shrimp cocktail - YUM),

she turns to us and says, "What's with this whole gardening thing with older people, anyway?"  As if it is some sort of disease or ailment!  We chuckled until she said, "What about the POOL?"  Uhhmmm, yeah, see funny thing... If you do the math, a pool is going to cost right in the same ballpark as a car.  In two years, The Girl is going to be using one of the vehicles we currently own and that will leave us with the need for a third.

HOMEMAKER GETS A NEW SET O' WHEELS, I SAY!  Champagne in color, two-seater, sporty little roadster, 5 speed, convertible, she will be christened "Betty"... Er, whoops.  Sorry.  Back to the story...

The Girl doesn't get that nowhere within the garden we have planted, nor any other garden in the world, GROWS A MONEY TREE.  Not to mention, she does indeed believe that a certain upscale, mass-producing, highly caffeinated establishment will pay her so well at the part-time job she plans to just simply acquire by her sole decision, that she will have money to burn on a car, the insurance, clothing spending money, etc.  While I am certain they are a fine employer that pays generously, I do believe The Girl has done lost her mind on how real world finances turn!  Anyway, she wasn't at all amused with the concept of a water trough for a pool.  Welp, she can just sit and sweat whilst we dunk through the summer months of triple digits!

As for our belle petit jardin, it is just simply splendid!  I know, I know!  I already used the word SPLENDID, but honestly there isn't any other word that could describe how that little patch o' fenced in dirt makes me feel!  Seriously, I can not explain it.  I have the picture below (there's the spoiler alert - too subtle?) saved on both my work and home computer desktops as well as on my cell phone for a wallpaper!  Talk about PEACE.  Just looking at the photo brings me blissful peace.  No worries.  No rush.  No fretting.  No fussing.  Just.  Peace.

Now, before I share the photo with you (yes, I know you have already scrolled down and taken a look, but I can PRETEND like I'm building anticipation here!) the plain ol' dirt you see all around the sweet little fence is going to be brick and cobble and pebble and sweetness within the coming weeks... SO YOU HAVE TO STICK AROUND!  Okay, here goes...

There is now a little basket hanging from the front gate.  We added a shepherd's hook to hang a hummingbird feeder from and another one is hanging nearby on a hook on the back fence.  The gladiolas on the left side of the yard are in bloom and BEE-UOO-TEE-FULLLL!  Yes, that IS a cute little birdhouse on the left back corner post.  And just over the arch of the gate if you look closely you will see a precious little lantern hanging from a mini shepherd hook.

Small changes here and there will be appearing daily.  Please, grab a cup o' something, come back, sit and stay a while with me in mon jardin belle petit, won't you?  I pray that your day, wherever you are, God breathes peace into your heart.

All God's children and The Homemaker, too, said Amen.

Today was NOT a day of REST!

What! A! Day!

We took the morning off from the garden... BUT WE WERE STILL WORKING!  We were invited by some really fantastic friends (thanks for the scrumptious breakfast burritos that warmed not only our tummies but our hands too!) to serve at a 1/2 marathon water stand... THAT WAS AWESOME!  All those amazing athletes running their hearts out!  Gotta say... It will never be me.  I will always be MORE THAN HAPPY to hand out water and gatorade, though!

After getting up at 5a, I was a bit wiped after lunch, so I took what felt like a three hour nap (Oh my, I hear Gilligan's Island in my head... do you?  You're welcome!) but it was just a thirty minute power nap and I felt FABULOUS all over again!  So I was up and at 'em out with the Cap'n instructing and supervising the install of the recycled fence sections...

SERIOUSLY... IT JUST CAN'T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS!

The two front panels were installed at the point this photo was taken with the sun shining down on it like it was a little slice o' garden heaven!  I believe when dusk set in, there was one other section installed along the right side. 

Okay, I said it couldn't get any better.  I lied.

MY FIRST PLANTINGS!!!

Basil, meet Oregano!  These little darlings were the first planted!  I took a break to spend some quality time with a few fantastic young ladies at our church, but when I got back I had about an hour of planting left to do and my STAYcation is officially over.  I didn't want these beauties to sit in the sun and run the risk of losing all my sweet flowers and veggies and fruits (garden trivia: did you know eggplant is a fruit?!) to the blistering sun.  Let me just tell you, I WAS FLAT HAULING MY PLANTING BUTT ALL OVER THAT LITTLE GARDEN!  All but 2 seed packets got planted and a couple items that will have to find homes just outside le petit jardin since I didn't realize I bought a $.99 PONY PACK of tomato plants! 

The highlight of my gardening day was when I asked The Cap't his opinion on the fencing.  His reply melted my heart. 

"Whatever you like, honey.  I built this garden for you." 

♪♫...once was lost but now...♪♫ have found... THE BEST GARDEN STORE EVER!

TRACTOR SUPPLY CO.! (this is the link... You're Welcome!)

HolyMotherOfAllThatIsGardenGlorious!  That place is AWESOME!  Every single garden thingy you can think of at all for really affordable prices!  Oh. My. Galvanized Steele Heaven!  You should totally go out there and just browse...

AND WAIT 'TIL YOU SEE WHAT WE HAVE IN STORE FOR THE REST OF THE YARD NOW THAT WE HAVE DISCOVERED OUR GARDEN MECCA!  The honeysuckle pots have taken on a whole new-and-improved design!  There will be all kinds of wonders tucked in every inch of our havre petit jardin.

Of course, finding the place took us all over God's creation... at first Cap'n Jack was a little annoyed that I really didn't know where I was going.  So first we took city streets that ran out into the country then dead-ended then detoured us onto a freeway that then dead-ended in the middle of nowhere.  So we stopped and asked if there was a feed store nearby.  YES!  Nope.  Wrong one.  Then I looked much farther down the list on my handy dandy internet phone and found THE ONE I was thinking of.. A-1 Feed.  So we pulled up at 412p and guess what!?!  They CLOSED AT 4P.  Oh I thought Cap'n Jack was gonna need some rum, lots o' rum.  So we got out of the truck to peer in the windows to see what we could see and LUCK OF ALL the sweet little country boy worker person steps out and is oh so helpful with information!  They actually didn't even have what we were looking for but he gave us the name of two other stores, their locations and their hours!  WHODA THUNK IT that we'd hit pay dirt at the very next place (um, yeah, two hours later - insert therapy smile and an apology to Cap'n Jack here)!  But alas, they had only 1 of 4 items and so our other 3 are on raincheck... so the garden is in a pending status this evening.

Anyway, we found what we were looking for and so much more... but ran out of day.  So this is my closing for today.  Have a fantastic Saturday Night!

S.A.T-U-R.D.A.Y... HEY!

Yes, Saturdays are a wonderfully uncomplicated kind of day, aren't they?  We sat, talked, coffeed, newsed up, loved on our fur family and then... HIT THE GARDEN!

Such a glorious day out there!  I *helped* add some gravel and then before you know it, it was 11a and we hadn't eaten!  Without a stove/oven, options are slightly limited for breakfast... so I nucleared up some oatmeal complete with chopped dates, dried cranberries and a drizzle (fo shizzle) of honey... and sat out on the back patio with my Cap'n Jack.  God gave our morning a skwunch!  (that's "hug" in Peter Pan speak)

At one point, I looked over and here I find our middle child, Lola, in the ivy - all crashed out!

Oh what a splendid little diversion in my day... 

Que Sera Sera and Niecie Britt stopped by with some MOONSHINE!  

No seriously, that's what it's name is!  Moonshine Yarrow.

In all sincerity, my very first... un cadeau petit jardin réchauffement!  

 Such a blessing - thank you both so much for your love, friendship and garden guidance!!!

As I was waiting for Cap'n to freshen up, I found a VISITOR in my jasmin, just by the Brewer's Blackbird nest... BIG BAD BART THE HAIRY SPIDER!  And HIS TWIN BRUNO was hanging out last night over by the stack of fencing along the side yard... They have taken up residence!  In all my garden hours (so far, not that many) I have NEVER SEEN a spider as big as these TWO I encountered in the last 24 hours!  With giant GOOGLY GREEN EYEBALLS and everything!  Great, just when I thought it was safe to go out in the garden...


In order to soothe my skeeved out heart, we are off to do a bit of retail therapy!  The big giant HORSE TROUGH FLOWER BUCKETS for our backyard honeysuckle bushes!  In the meantime, here is the garden THUS FAR!

Simply put... Blessed.  Catch ya later!

FriDAY5, post2

 The greatest gift of the garden is the restoration of the five senses.  ~Hanna Rion

This will be short and sweet... starting out with the sweet...

While Cap'n was diligently working to finish up the planter boxes before the soil and pea gravel arrived, I noticed he was slowing a bit... Which is a sure sign of hunger for him!  I'm not much help in the heavy moving department, but I can feed people!  So lunch was something of a pretty little event with my grubby Cap'n.  A couple tomato sandwiches with mayo/salt/pepper on some yummy multigrain whole wheat bread with a little pile o' love of fresh strawberries and dried dates... and mason jars (with lids to keep the bugs out) full of healthy ice water!

What a treat to sit and enjoy the beautiful weather and a nice little meal with my guy.  Thank You Heavenly Father for such an amazing life leader.  He is wonderful and I appreciate both You and him.  Amen.

Ohhhhhhh so absolutely crazy excited I can barely contain myself!  The soil has been going in since 3p this afternoon!!!  Rich yummy Earth smellin' dirt!  Although not all the dirt and gravel is in yet, it will be by tomorrow noonish!  Then MY FUN BEGINS!  So here it is, as of just moments ago!!!

I just can't wait to get the little picket fencing hung all around it!!!  It is gonna be so ADORABLE!  And the space between the two inner beds... yep, *just* big enough for a little bistro set to have morning coffee with my man or a little tea time with a girlfriend! 

I bid you good evening, folks!  See you in the morning light!

It's FriDAY5 of our STAYcation!

Okay, so this week has been AH-MAY-ZING!  I think I caught a glimpse of our retirement life and me likey!  However, until then, I HAVE A WONDERFUL JOB THAT I MISS!  With that said, I am still having a blast at home with The Cap'n (does that make me Tennille?) and enjoying all our tasks, projects and chores!

Yesterday I forgot to mention that he and I stopped at Panda and this is what my fortune said:

It says "YOUR LABORS WILL BEAR SWEET FRUIT"!!!  Ha!  God sent me my own personal message!!!  How stinking cool is THAT?!?! 

After that, this is just a smattering of the items I snagged at Goodwill...
(all books and sheet music, BTW, no trinkets or chotchkies so as to continue with the "'beach cottage calm', with emPHAsis on CALM" vibe we've got going here)...

Yep, 60's & 70's antique (oohhh, that smarts a bit) books that are so book musty and beautiful I could just giggle with giddy girl excitement!  (have a li'l martini and say that a couple times fast - that would be a funny youtube, wouldn't it?)

Oh. My. Word were we up late last night!  The Girl had some major homework to complete and so I went and spent a major amount of time checking out this new fangdangled PINTEREST.  I have a confession... I have to admit, I am rather smitten.  No more tearing out pages of ideas, letting them stack up and then having to stand and state, "Hi, I'm The Homemaker and I'm a magazine page hoarder."  So The Cap'n and I spent a little extra time over coffee this morning...

BUT WE (that would be the HE part of WE) are up and back at 'em again today!  Here is this morning's accomplishment... (wait for it... wait for it...)

TAH-DAH!

Yep!  Them thar's a planter box smack in the middle of le petit potager!  AND SHHH, LISTEN... That's the sound of the drill MAKING THE SECOND ONE! 

And theeennnn the soil and pea gravel will be delivered!  And THEEENNNN we will put it in the beds... AND THEEEENNNNNNN I will GET TO PLANT STUFF!  Okay, I'm getting ahead of myself... 

For now... 

HIM: build. Oooohhh, aaaahhhhh, cooooolll!

The Homemaker: laundry.  Meh.  Just not all that "glam" when said out loud, you know?

I'll keep you posted!