Expansion!

I apologize for not posting for a while. I've had my mind on other things, namely our new expansions. I know they sound thrilling, and for me it is, but what I am referring to is the expansion of my garden and a new patio on the back of the house!

I had hit the maximum capacity of my current garden this year (only took 3 years). Because of this fact I was able to get my handyman (i.e. Jason) to extend the borders of my existing garden. This may not thrill most of you but to me who has very nearly an obsession with flowers, this was sooooooo exciting. Of course, with the new garden expansion I couldn't leave the space empty so I had to hit the local garden centers to fill up the space with perennials. I'll include a link to some photos for you!

Now onto the patio. This is something that Jason and I have been pondering for a while now. We got a few quotes last year and this spring but decided it was just a little too far out of our price range. That was until Uncle Sam decided to give us a lovely rebate check! Even with this extra money we would have had to get some extra funding so Jason looked into what it would take to do the project ourselves. Lucky me, after conferring with some friends who know concrete, he decided that we could do it ourselves within the budget that the US government had given us. So while everyone else was enjoying their AC this weekend Jason and I were outside sweating while digging, forming, staking, shoveling gravel and much more in the more than 90 degree heat. All that is really left to do is to get the concrete poured, I believe that the target date is Saturday August 2nd.

Click here for pics of garden and patio expansions

P.S. Here are some recent flower photos I took!

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth on Bee Balm

Back from the Outer Banks

We spent two leisurely weeks in Nags Head this year. Mimi, Boppy, myself and the kids were there the entire time with Jason and Thom for just over a week and Carolyn, Scott, and the boys for only four days. We didn't do a whole lot this year, besides reading. We went to the beach each day for about 2 1/2 hours, went to the aquarium, toured two lighthouses, shopped (of course), and went putt-putting. There weren't any exciting incidents, thank goodness, besides some smoke from inland fires (depending on the wind). Ella and David did make friends with two children from across the street who are permanent residents of the island. Not much else to say so I'll post some pictures. Email me if you want to see all 344 photos and I'll send you the link to our Kodak Gallery with our Outer Banks 2008 photo album. Enjoy!

Patting the stingrays at the NC Aquarium

My favorite photo of Emily (she's grown up, huh?)

Fun in the sun

While visiting Currituck lighthouse

My favorite photo of David

We are empty nesters

We knew the day would come and it finally arrived on Saturday May 31st. We went to go peak in at the babies and they were gone!!! I had been wondering myself how in the world they would be able to fly up out of their nest but they figured it out somehow.

Last picture of the babies taken on Thursday May 29th

Now we'll have to find something else to do with our time!

This post is a double post. I'm including the past Memorial Day weekend AND the baby bird. First the birds.

I took a picture of the babies on Tuesday morning and I plan on going out again tomorrow morning to check on them too. Here is what they looked like two days ago!

They are really starting to look like their momma!

Now for the past weekend. I hope yours was as relaxing as ours was at "The Land". If you enjoy campfires, napping in a hammock, marshmallow wars, walks in the woods, finding crawdads, riding quads, playing horseshoes and cornhole and singing "Tom Sawyer" by Rush at 3am then you missed a great time (I'll explain in a minute)!

This year's weather couldn't have been more perfect!! Friday night was a bit damp but the rest of the weekend made up for it. We had about 15 people join our family and Mamaw and Papaw for the weekend. The younger kids had a great time playing together and so did the bigger kids. The popular activity was to play Rock Band, courtesy of Shane Beverly who brought his X-Box, big screen tv, speakers, and a tent enclosure for it all. We provided the generator to make it all function but the guys had a blast playing till the wee hours of the morning. At 3am on Sunday morning I was awoken by someone, who had a bit too much to drink, singing "Tom Sawyer" by Rush and by Shane himself whooting and hollering. It's a good thing that there aren't many people living around there! Another new addition this year were marshmallow guns! Mamaw and Papaw had purchased these cheaply and they are made of painted PVC pipe. You load in a mini marshmallow and use it like a blowgun! Jason and I had a great time sneeking up on Emily (and being video taped by Mamaw) and pelting her with the tiny sweet treats!

Anyway, here are some pictures from the weekend (yes, Emily and I were there even though we are not pictured).

Ella being Ella, need I say more?!

David found a rock, "Isn't it cute?"

Jason with his personal quad fixing assistant.

A Trio of Quad Riders, does that make any sense?

Baby Bird Update

Our baby birds are growing quickly. I'm including a few photos here from this past week. We'll be away this weekend (at "The Land") and so I won't be able to take new photos till next Monday at the earliest. I hope your Memorial Day weekend is enjoyable, we're supposed to have excellent weather here, I hope the same is true where you are. Now onto the babies!

The babies on Tuesday morning

The babies on Thursday morning

BABIES!!

Well, we have baby birds! We discovered them yesturday. As you can see they still have their eyes shut and barely have any downy feathers. Momma was off getting food, I guess, when I was able to snap this photo. There are four or five of them, I couldn't tell exactly. When I whistled at them they opened their beaks but didn't make any noise. We'll try and keep tabs on them because I'm sure they'll grow up very quickly, as all babies do.

Also we had a rare sighting of peacocks this weekend! We were at Emily's soccer game, in which she did an excellent job, showing off some great skills, and Ella and David decided to become peacocks. Here they are. Hope your week is enjoyable!!!

PEACOCKS!!

Enjoying springtime!

We are enjoying the fact that it's springtime and that the weather is getting warmer. I'm particularly enjoying watching my garden grow, adding flowers and pondering my next spot to plant something else. While Jason was out tending to our yard the other day he made a discovery.......

There used to be a cow pasture out back of our house, once upon a time, and all that is really left of that fact is the old gate post that is left in our backyard. We tore out the remainder of the fence after we moved in but decided to leave the gate post because it was big, old and added a reminder of what the land used to be. As Jason was weedeating around the yard he decided to investigate the gate post, which has a hole in the top of it. He was very surprised to find a momma bird! Needless to say she was not too happy at his discovery of her and she proceded to squawk/hiss and hit the inside of the post with her beak.

Jason shared his discovery with me later that evening and I in turn shared that discovery with Ella and David the next morning. When I took Ella and David to see, momma bird flew off as we were approaching and we were able to see her five speckled eggs in her tiny nest. We shared this with Emily that afternoon, she was afraid to peek in for fear of momma bird flying out at her!

I think she is some type of chickadee, probably a Black capped or Carolina, they both look VERY similar. My bird book says that the eggs incubate for 11-12 days so hopefully we won't have to wait long for babies! We will track their progress and keep you up to date on them.

I also had to show off a rose that I got for Mother's Day. On Monday I was walking by it as it sat on the kitchen table and the morning light was hitting it just beautifully that I had to take a few pictures. My favorite one is below!