old suziebeezieland

thoughts from the great outdoors

Did I tell you our butterfly hatched last week?  Her name was "Squirmy" when she was a caterpillar, but became "Fluttery" after metamorphosis. Kind of a Saul/Paul thing.

It was very exciting.  In this photo, you'll see a remnant of the caterpillar skin, and then the crysallis, and then the Painted Lady butterfly.  The pink stuff is meconium.

She was ceremoniously taken outside after Bob got home from work. 

And then we released her into the backyard. 

She flew right away as soon as we let her out of the box -- two huge big circles over our house and up in the sky -- and then flopped down on top of our pergola for awhile to dry off and, I'm sure, catch her little butterfly breath.  Then she was off again. 

Fare thee well, Painted Lady.

Then, because we missed the butterfly, we got that Target bunny weathervane for the porch, because (as previously mentioned) we love bunnies.

And all kinds of things are growing around here.

homer & the birdbath

Here is my cousin, Homer, who also has a birdbath.

a few more garden things

Mel had asked to see a shot in our backyard from this perspective.

This is the area of the driveway just outside the gate to the backyard.  I'm trying to make it feel like a little courtyard.  It's hard with all the concrete and stucco . . . yuck.  But it's getting there.

This is the new little solar-powered fountain.

And here are some bunnies. We like bunnies. :)

I got three of these windowboxes hung up on the windows along the driveway.  The first one was horrid, but when I quit being lazy and went and bought the correct type of drill bit, it went much better. :)

And this is the front of the house right now.  I had pulled down the broken shutters a few weeks ago, and wanted to leave them off since you're not supposed to have decorative shutters anywhere you wouldn't put real shutters, like on a bay window! So Bob repainted the front, and we like how clean it looks.  The roses should grow up on the right and add some interest there.

I stuck a little birdbath out front, too, so that we can see birds from inside the living room.

nierembergia

I'm sure you know violas, which are the little guys in front.  Do you know cupflowers (nierembergia)?  They're the taller purple guys in back. 

I love this plant.  I planted it in this pot last year and when everything else died it just thrived.  And I thought it was an annual, but it came back this year, boom!  It gets full morning sun and then partial shade in the afternoon.

tea for two

I love having tea parties with Claire because she thinks up such good names for tea. 

Yesterday we had "Strawberry Blueberry Cream Tea," "Sweet Sugar Honey Tea," and "Butter Tea" (which sounds like something from Harry Potter, I think).

Yum.

comment of the week

"Anyone who loves olives and coffee is certainly a dear."

--Lisa SP

friends

Remember when I told you last year how much I love it when the roses outside lean against the window as if they're trying to get inside and visit with my houseplants?

They're doing it again. :)

outdoor beautification project 2007 -- the backyard

Those of you who have been with me through outdoor beautification project 2006 might remember that last year I did a lot of "ripping stuff out," and if you were with me through outdoor beautification project 2005, you might remember I did a lot of "trapping."  

I get goosebumps just remembering those guys.

Anyway, for a quick review, this time last spring my backyard had this stuff growing on the walls. I ripped it all out.

When I was done ripping, I planted bareroot roses, and it looked like this:

I also planted some clematis etoile violette.  This year, it looks like this. 

It will be a few more years before the wall is completely covered, but those rose bushes are covered in buds, and it is going to be real pretty in a couple weeks.

The clematis is also coming along. 

The other wall looks like this now. Again, maybe not too exciting to anyone but me -- but boy, it's so exciting to see these roses grow and grow.  (I still haven't had the heart to get the peach tree in the corner taken out.)

You can see a peek of that walkway I laid last year.

These are hydrangeas under the window. It's shady and wet there, and they seem to like it. They'll be blooming soon, too.  I was able to get more of the willow edging put in this year.  I like it because it hides weeds! And keeps the mulch and whatnot from spilling into the grass.

The dryer vent is the white thing hiding just to the left behind the camellia. It blows hot air and torches anything I try to grow there, including grass.

I'd also like to stain the concrete patio area, but that makes me tired whenever I think about it, so it probably won't happen this year.

I put in some new perennials this year.  This one is napeta (catmint), which will grow up tall and which Sally Cat will probably like to nap in.

Here are the new green Cost Plus adirondacks.  The dead-looking plant behind to the right is my lovely ficus tree, which threw a fit and dropped all its leaves off after our hard frost. 

Here's my little potting area.

And finally, I hung this up last week.  I'm sure something besides impatiens can grow under our shady pergola, but when I find something that works, I tend to stick with it.

outdoor beautification project 2007 -- the driveway

 

Claire likes to help.  She also likes to dress herself, but I have to say I was quite charmed by this particular ensemble.

 

I really love geraniums and daisies.  And Claire really loves duckies and bunnies.

All the green plants are the seedlings we had sprouting in the window. Remember them? Marigolds and zinnias. (But not dahlias, which grow from tubers . . . thank you, Mel and Stacey, for teaching me neat stuff.) 

We have strawberries in the strawberry pot that says "herbs." :)