Garden Tour

So I've been busy in the front flower bed for the past couple of months. Since our house is new construction the plants they provided were babies when we moved in at the end of last summer. This spring there were 5 known plants that didn't make it, and even then the bed seemed sparse and not too colorful.

This first shot are perennials that made it, there were 2 more bunches for 5 total. I think 5 of these were a little over kill, so I put in a different flower.

Hello sunshine. I put in 2 of these in those empty holes and then squeezed in another for good measure. I always like to do plantings in odd numbers, 3 or 5 for the most part depending on the project size of the plant.

A close up of a pretty bush, I think a false spirea, and its purple fuzziness.

I also added some Lavender right next to the door/window. Every time I step out I can smell it.

We have a little bench in the bed with a side table, perfect for sitting on when the boys are playing out front.

The spoon was a gift from our dear friend Stacy, check out her blog. "It all began in a garden" is stamped on it, a perfect little message with a dual message. I'm still waiting for those "moss roses" to really open up...I had to move it the cute little caddy to a different location as it was leaving rust on the glass. I will probably have more updates throughout the season as the flowers bloom (or die and are replaced) and I find more little treasures to add.

A couple of great friends brought me this pot for my Birthday last week...it fits in perfect with the rest of the flowers/colors I have going on.

This long planter sits right below with my cute little frog chillaxing in it...

allowing the gnome to do all the work with the flowers.

One of my huge pots, I planted two identical ones, that welcomes you up the sidewalk. The second one unfortunately didn't like all the water it was getting. Our sprinklers go off twice a day for 15 minutes each...so does our neighbors...and my flowers were buried at sea. I am still looking at a soggy mess, some were salvaged and were welcomed by sister planters, but some are still soaked in while I come up with a better plan.

Well this ends today's garden tour, stay tuned as I continue to enjoy the sun and making this temporary house our home.

Flowers from Mother's Day

I was very lucky this Mother's Day. J returned from his "trip" the Friday before. He got in early, 3:30ish and we were home in time to eat supper together and happened to be home when I got a delivery from FedEx.

These Pics are from 2 weeks later, they arrived in bud form and also had blue iris that looked fresh when they arrived. I just threw out the last of the Stargazer Lilies yesterday...they were beautiful and smelled wonderful!

J ordered them from proflowers.com, I also order flowers from time to time from them for my family. We have always had good luck with them and are reasonably priced.

Birthday Surprise

So on Sunday we celebrated another Birthday, mine. The power was out in our neighborhood for repairs, so we headed to Roseville to see a movie and check out the Galleria Mall. We took the boys to see Rio, which they enjoyed and headed to the food court of the mall. The boys were being nothing less then a handful, I think they left their listening ears at home...so we ate and left. However, we stopped on the way home at a Verizon store and I got my Birthday present of the new iPhone 4.

Later that afternoon my good gal pals came and kidnapped me for a movie, Bridesmaids, and brought me these wonderful flowers and a gift card so I can (and did) buy more flowers.

After the movie they dropped me off and unknown to me they had made plans to "fork"our yard.

"Yard Art"

The boys thought it was hilarious that adults would do this to each other.

N was excited to help mom out and pick up all the forks.

They are still in the bucket in the garage, because I like to recycle...and I know where my friends live...duh right. So don't be surprised if there is a post coming up with my own "Yard Art".

Sneak Peek of Flowers....

So I have been busy planting some flowers around here to replace those that were provided, but died, and to add some more color compared to those they provided. We were semi-lucky that they at least put our larger bushes in the back, some houses ended up having bushes in the front and little plants behind, remind me not to hire the landscapers they used :) In all about 5 of the provided perennials were dead come springtime.

I found these Lilies at the Bx (kinda like a Walmart for base), for super cheap. I think they were $4/pot and off base they were selling for $7. I ended up not knowing what color they were since they were in bud form, but I ended up with 2 orange and 3 that remind me of a sunset, multi-orange.

These pics were taken pre-planting and they have been in for over 2 weeks now and have lost most of their blooms due to their age and the wind we have been having, but I will look forward to them blooming again next year. I am now working in putting some creeping phlox for some ground cover in the same beds. It seems like once a week or so I have to go and check out what they have and work it into the flower beds, pots and baskets. I am still toying with the idea of making some hip high elevated beds for behind the fence to put veggies in....by the time I actually get around to doing it I might not end up with anything, but then I would have them for next year :)

My Lil' Funny Man

Thought I would share some great recent pictures of N.

And back to drinking some sprite, which caused all the funny faces.

More Hwy 1 Travels

On the last day of our quick vacation we drove up Hwy 1 some more and hit a beach for the boys to dig around in.

We enjoyed our trip and hope to have the time to go down Hwy 1 again while here. Maybe next time there won't be a rock slide and we can get the full experience. It was a great time of year to see the sights and not too much traffic.

Hearst Castle/Ranch

After the long day on a road full of switchbacks we finally made it to our destination. N was very happy to be out of the truck and was glad to get some hugs from daddy.

We bought some tickets to tour one, there are five different standard tours everyday (and some special ones added occasionally), and found out we just got there in time for the last group out.

We loaded up on the bus that took us from the visitor center up to the top of the hill were the main complex was built.

This is about half way up, view of the visitor center and view of the main complex on top of the hill.

You can sorta see the switch back of a road we went on. If you were really a visitor of the Hearst family you would travel these same roads, but would be greeted by his exotic animal collection. Today they still have a variety of animals on the property. We managed to see the Zebras, cows and deer. He originally also had camels, deer from Europe and Africa, Kangaroos, Emus, and a variety of Sheep. They would feed the animals next to the road so visitors would see them, otherwise they would be anywhere on the 270,000 acres that the ranch once was. They also had a caged section for a variety of bears, tigers, lions, monkeys and much much more.

The main complex also housed beautiful artwork and gardens throughout.

N taking in the view from one of the many terraces.

The property was originally just a ranch of 48,000 acres that was purchased in 1865 with funds gained from mining. After the senior Hearst passed on his son, William, decided to start building, but had to wait another couple of years before doing so do to his his mothers desire not to overbuild. The architect, Julia Morgan, was one of the first female to graduate from UofC-Berkley and then waited 2 years in Paris before being allowed to study in Paris.

The Neptune Pool, with marble statues and columns was a beautiful sight. The worker even told us that workers are allowed to swim in it during the summer months for parties....as long as they don't touch any of the marble and only use the new plastic steps :)

Details on even the guest houses were elaborate and were inlaid with gold.

J tried to count all of the lions depicted on the property, but lost track pretty quickly.

Beautiful detail over the door.

Inside one of the guest houses, this one had 8 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and was just over 2,000 square feet...just a little guesthouse compared to the 3 houses on this part of the property.

An Egyptian Sarcophagus, he bought many relics from other countries before there were laws against it.  He wanted his estate to be a living museum were anyone could come and see things from all over the world. These pieces were anything from little statues, doors/gates, to whole archways installed inside the "big" house called Casa Grande. Casa Grande at 60,645 square feet is the main house.

The main sitting room in Casa Grande, the fireplace was HUGE and the walls were paneled in benches from some monasteries.

This is the dining room, again HUGE...some of the rooms are bigger then houses...just amazing! Interesting artifacts are all over the house as well.

The indoor Olympic pool...again just spectacular! The yellowish/gold...again real gold tiles mixed in with Venetian glass tiles and highlighted with alabaster lights and marble statues....you know what everyone has. The guide told us that this pool wasn't used much, since it wasn't attached to the house itself, but was constructed under the double tennis courts just off the house.