Little Yellow House Day and Another Full Weekend

Yesterday marked the nine year anniversary of the closing on our house, affectionately referred to as Little Yellow House Day around here.  I'm happy to report that we've had another fantastic weekend, and we're starting to get quite spoiled by the weather in these parts lately.

Get ready for another long post, y'all.  This weekend was almost as big as Memorial Day.  :)

Saturday morning included a trip to the county treasurer's office to pay
our property taxes.  Of course, they're not open on Saturday, so we
stopped at the square to pay them at the bank instead.  We were
pleasantly surprised to realize the farmer's market was going on,
and we took a nice walk around after freeing ourselves from all
that pesky cold, hard cash. :)

From there, we headed to a city park for a bike ride and a playground tour.
Here's The Princess, waving hello before shooting down the slide.

Swings are always a hit.  Always.

After all that activity in the morning, we got hungry.  A picnic at one of our
neighborhood beaches was just what we needed, followed by some
relaxing time in the water.

So, here's the thing: we're really tough on grills.  I bet it has something
to do with the fact that we leave them out in the snow all winter.  Weird.
We're gonna plan out and build a brick or stone BBQ pit eventually, but
for the time being, we decided to just cook over the campfire pit.  It
worked out really well - made a dozen burgers and some smoked
sausage with cheddar in it, and the food was very tasty.

I know a certain puppy who's ready for her close-up, Mr. DeMille.

For once, Bubbles didn't totally hate being outside.  Sizzling meat close
to the ground = instant attitude adjustment.  She was perfectly happy
to hang in the back yard with us while dinner cooked and we ate.

The view from my patio chair as I waited for the coals to heat up.

Dinner was awesome.  The Princess annihilated a burger, a sausage, and
a whole bowl of sweet potato puffs...not to mention the four cups of iced
tea she drank.

Now for Sunday.  This morning I realized I hadn't really posted any garden pictures yet this year, so get ready...here they come.  :)

We had a really rough winter here, and I was afraid I had lost a few of my
favorite plants.  I was absolutely delighted to go outside this morning and
find that my rhododendron is blooming and the other has new growth.
They will probably never be the same as they were, but they're
survivors.

Veggie garden: top section is tomatoes,
center is euonymus and vinca as a barrier
(mostly because I haven't figured out where
I'm going to put them yet),
bottomish is cucumbers, and
against the bottom fence is chives.

Begonias and hosta.  I spent a good amount of time yesterday morning
weeding between the hosta, and I'm amazed at how full they actually
are.  Totally worth the work, because they're beautiful.  The best
part?  Never paid a dime for any of 'em.  They're all from the gardens
of family and neighbors who were thinning theirs out over the years.

White begonias in a planter along the driveway.  I love these - the
petals look like they're made of sugar.

This is Amos.  Grumma rescued him late last summer and gave him to me...
at the time, he had been sorely mistreated.  Someone had painted him up to
look like he was wearing a wrestling uniform and KISS makeup.  $1.52 at
Walmart and a couple of coats of spray paint, and he's looking much
happier these days.  In the background are my coffee can planters,
just like the ones I gave to the mommas for Mothers Day.

My bicycle planter in the front corner.  Those are begonias in the baskets.
Pay no attention to the weeds surrounding the bike...gotta leave something
for me to do next weekend, right?!

This is the rhododendron that really scared me.  I'm so happy to see
this new growth.

More begonias.  I got mixed flats this year, and I love all of the colors.

Hosta, begonias, rhododendron and Amos. :)

Side garden - eventually there will be no grass
here, but it's a work in progress.  Roses are up
against the fence in back (badly damaged from
winter, but coming back, thank goodness),
day lilies in the middle, tiger lilies along the
left fence line, and begonias in the wagon.

It was late May before I saw any new growth at
all on my rose bushes.  I was absolutely
heartbroken, thinking I had lost all three.

Not sure if you saw my roses from last year or the year before, but they
were huge and wild and beautiful.  This is all that's left after our long,
brutal winter.  I'm thankful to have anything at all, and hopeful
that they will be back to thriving in short order.

Red begonias in a planter by the front door.

Okay, okay.  Enough of the garden for today!

Before heading out this morning, we took The Girls for
a short walk around the neighborhood.  Sookie is
with me, so you can't see her in this pic...but
trust me: she's there.  :)

After dropping the doggies at home, we took a short hike in one of our
favorite little forest preserve areas right up the street.  The Hubbs
was kind enough to assist today with my phone so I could
be in some of the pics.

These pretty purple flowers were all over the forest today.

And so were the dandelion poofs.

Me: Smile, Princess!
And this is what we get.  Good golly, I love this kid.

Unfortunately, our hike got cut short, because the bugs were out in force.
Rather than get eaten alive, we took the short loop and headed home
for lunch.

After another excellent picnic lunch at the lake, we hung out for a while
as the clouds moved in.

Our little bathing beauty is never happier than when
she's in the water.  This picture was taken a split
second after she was waving and grinning at her Da.

My kind of summer.  :)

And I'm never happier than when I'm outside with my family, enjoying the
beautiful weather, getting some exercise and playing my uke. And yes,
that is a Lilo and Stitch towel.  And no, it does not belong to The
Princess.  That baby is all mine.

This is right about the time we started hearing thunder,
so we headed home for a bit.

Oh, and I finally bit the bullet and got a brace for my
wrist.  It's been killing me for over a month, as it tends
to do on occasion.  It's weird, and I don't particularly
care for it when strumming on the uke, but I'm gonna
be a big girl and suck it up.  Hopefully it helps.

As I sit here typing this post, the birds are singing and the sun is shining, though the sky all around us is the color of gun metal.  It hasn't rained yet, but I have a feeling it won't be long.  Sounds like a good time to think about frying up some chicken for dinner.

Have a good one, y'all.  See ya soon!