Backyard Project - update 07/26

Only worked on the backyard on Sunday and only a few hours. It was kind of hot and I was kind of tired.

Got the rest of the day lillies out. Anyone want some? They are the standard orange ones. Some are double blossoms from Virginia.

I dug the hole for the water feature. You can just see the black water tub to the left of the oak tree.

I filled up the raised planter bed with just the grass I had already taken up and the dirt from the water feature hole. Don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of the grass and dirt to make the area level.

Pruned the red currant bush. Big big pruning. Also discovered that there were two baby currant bushes. Dug those out. One went to Amy. Anyone want the other one?

Minneapolis Aquatennial 2009

This was the final weekend of this year's Aquatennial events. I missed the sand castles and milk carton boat races. They were last weekend though I thought they were this weekend. Rose went and said it was disappointing this year.

Rose, Amy, Bunny, Loretta and I went to Chang Mai Tai to celebrate Rose's birthday. Afterwards we walked over to Girard Street between Lake and Lagoon. This big ramp with water at the top and bottom was set up.

Don't know if you can see and it is difficult to describe. But these water boarders...I called it water boarding because it was snow boards on water...were pulled down the ramp into a big pool of water. There was really only one "good" ride while we watched. It was a lot of work for a very very short ride.

Christine, Rachel and I went down to the Mississippi River to see the fireworks that are the official end of Aquatennial. I bought a new digital camera. It has a bunch of different settings. One is "fireworks" so I set the camera on my knee and took the following pictures.

Am I getting used to it

It is in the mid 90's this week and, especially today, it actually felt kind of balmy. There was just a bit of cloud cover so the sun was so intense.

I walked to and from the car without burning up and then sweating for minutes after getting indoors.

Still a temperature that would be considered very very hot in Minnesota.

Way too coincidental

Flight to Dallas this morning. Tom at the American Airlines gate bumped me to first class...very nice.

The American Airlines in-flight magazine, American Way, comes out twice per month so a new one came out on 15th. It generally has interesting articles and I like to do the Sodoku and crossword puzzles. But this issue was way too coincidental.

Yesterday, for Kay's month-past birthday she wanted to have a game of croquet. Check out the article in the American Way magazine....Man With A Mallet.

Backyard project

As many of you know my plan for the backyard is to put in a stone patio. When the big maple tree had to come down last year, it seemed like a good time to re-do the backyard.

I've put in the replacement oak tree and reshaped the perennial garden bed slightly. I've also removed the pressure-treated wood border. I didn't want to just throw away the wood so I built a raised bed where the compost used to go.

I figure there is going to be a lot of dirt from the patio area and this raised bed provides a place for all the soil. It kind of looks like a coffin and is about that size.


The hostas have all been taken out from in front of the back porch. Some went to Sari and Mather across the street. A new planting bed was dug out in front of the garage peonies and hostas were put in there.

More hostas were moved to along the north side of the house. It is technically the neighbors yard but I've been putting hostas there for a few years.

I dug out the three large stones that were the path to the perennial garden. It was amazing how much of the stones had been grown over with grass. They are a good size and really flat. Just the kind of stone I'm looking for.

You can see them in the picture to the right.

My first clematis

I bought this clematis several years ago. I had two. One died a couple of years ago and I'd never seen either bloom.

Except this year! There are two small blooms. This is picture of one near it's end. The flower is much more than an inch across but very brightly colored.




And my tiger lily is in full bloom. I have to keep it "fenced" in the Spring to keep the rabbits from eating it.
The fence is visible in background. It is now protecting the white...can't remember name...which is being eaten by the rabbits.

Enough about the heat

I know I go on and on about the heat in Dallas. But it really is kind of phenomenal. It was probably 102 when I left this evening...with a heat index around 106.

When I was driving out of the Minneapolis airport, the time and temperature said it was 66 degrees. That is a 40 degree difference!

They are predicted cooler weather next week in Dallas....the mid-90's.