Happiness Hill: Days 135-138 In the Garden

Another work week has come to a close.

(I will admit that that makes me happy, but don't tell anyone.)

Hopefully I can get back to Family Fridays again next week. My screens have been otherwise engaged this and last week, but next week's looking good!

I'm finally feeling close to 100% after being sick and I've enjoyed getting back to walking and jogging and singing in the car.

I've also really been enjoying my garden. I'm afraid that this post will contain more about my garden than you may care to know, but here I am, typing it up and posting it anyway!

The past few evenings were perfect for getting my vegetable garden up and running and I'm very excited to see how it turns out this year as compared to last. Last year was the first time I attempted to grow a garden and I felt it was a smashing success, but even so there was room for improvment. This time around I simplified it a bit by planting less variety (more of what I know I liked and less of what didn't grow so well), which also meant I was able to time and space things out better. At least that's my hope!

Day 135

I'm not the only one enjoying the garden. I'm thrilled to say that it's a very popular hang out!

Well, it's very popular with the neighborhood cats.

And the neighborhood dogs. And birds. And very recently a small rodent. I'm not sure that poor little rodent made it as most of the time the neighbor's cat Simba (below) was tossing it around and "playing" with it. I didn't stick around to see what happened.

Day 136

Half the garden is now planted! Below are a pepper, tomato and cucumber plant.

It's amazing to think of what they will (or could, Lord willing!) become by the end of summer. They're so cute and tiny now.

Day 137

I may have actually taken this on Monday. Or Tuesday. But I'm going to assume

I took it on Wednesday because it fits so nicely right here and I have no other pictures from

the mid-point of this week.

We've been experiencing lovely, lovely, sunny, blue-sky days here in the northwest.

May has always been one of my favorite months, second only to August, but it's been an exceptionally lovely one so far!

Day 138

I know I took these pictures last night. So no cheating here!

It was another somewhat sunny day and as I was eating dinner I noticed this rainbow pattern on the side table. So of course I got up to get my camera.

And that made me look outside and decide to take a few pictures of the current state of our garden.

This was my garden in April, a crazy mess:

Actually, it looks kind of green and somewhat full, but it was full of weeds and spinach from last year's seeds. But I pulled it all out, added some new dirt (thanks to auntie Susan) and compost and now it looks like this:

I planted the pepper, tomatoes and cucumbers mentioned above, plus onions, spinach, carrots, peas, swiss chard and the sweet basil (in the blue pot below). We're hoping the basil makes it this year as last year it didn't. Sad.

The chives have returned from last year and are looking very pretty now.

(Does anyone else have Martha Stewart's voice go through their head

whenever they hear the word "pretty?")

These are some of the stepping stones in our garden. I've had as many successes as failures in attempting to make them. I didn't set the stones deep enough in most and they've knocked loose over the past year, except for in these few. And I didn't take care while installing them in the yard and broke a few. And I set them all a wee bit too deep into the ground.

I guess that means I get to make more this summer!