Eeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!

There has been so many new and exciting things happening in my life these days I can barely keep up with it all. Perhaps that is why you haven't been hearing much from me. I have just been too busy to post. Now I am kicking up my feet and will take a few minutes to fill you in. First, we got a new kitchen island. Which, if you are familiar with my kitchen, you would know that I desperately needed some extra counter space. Whoever thought that a kitchen only needed 42" of counter space was obviously a man who only ate T.V. dinners and was most definitely not married. Or it could just have been the village idiot...any who, I am now the proud owner of this small kitchen with no counter space. So to lessen my suffering we decided to invest in what I like to refer to as my new best friend. Meet Delilah, she is beautiful, spacious and everything I have ever wanted on wheels for my kitchen.

It is amazing how disgusting the floor looks next to a perfectly white new piece of furniture.

It didn't take me more than a couple of hours to fill all of the shelves and drawers. Perhaps I have become greedy, because now I want even more space.

Oh yeah, that is exactly what you think it is. A granite cutting board in the top of my island.

I could go on and on, but there is much to explore, so on we go.

I also managed to weed my planters and lay down bark to hopefully help with the weeds in the future. What you are about to see is disgusting. It is what my planter looked like right around the thick of winter at the beginning of this year.

This was before the weeds completely took over, but you can see the absolute state of neglect based on the dead leafless plants that were begging to be pruned and loved up. This is what I was able to turn it into after a couple hours of weeding.

It's amazing what a transformation a few weeks of sun can have. Then, just to top it all off I decided that I would try to prevent the weeds from invading so ravenously. I fell in love with bark when we began re-doing the parkway in front of our house. (That is the funky strip of lawn between he sidewalk and the street just in case you were wondering)

And this was the end result.

OK, so the picture doesn't do it justice. It is better in person. It makes me smile everyday when I walk up to the front door. Anyway, on to more bark adventures...oh wait, I forgot to introduce you to my new Spider Flower.

It is amazing to look at. I think I may need a few in my growing plant collection. It really nicer than it appears: I thought I took more pics of it but this was the only one I could find.

So, back to the bark adventures.

We finally finished shoveling out our parkway and filling it with bark...well except for the little square around the tree (which has almost been finished since I took these pictures).

And best of all, look what we discovered under all the weeds and the 3" of dirt.

Who knew we had a cute little path that lead right to our walkway? Actually I do vaguely remember finding it once in the past, but I had since forgotten all about it. It really was like discovering it all over again. I just got some amazing plants to put under the tree and can't wait for some nice weather so I can get the area prepared and planted. What else has happened...I can't come up with anything right now, but do I have a treat in store for you. I have been waiting for almost a year, and finally the time has come! This weekend, me and the fam will be going to the Peony farm in San Jose! You can be that I will be posting a short novel all about Peonies when I get back, along with many pictures and I will reveal my final decision on what Peonies I came home with. My list has been narrowed down to 9, which is good since they have over 200 to choose from. Well, until then I bid you adieu.