monarda

These guys have been getting better and better each year. Finally bloomed this week! Do they come in other colors? Somehow I just ended up with so much pink in the garden. Not that there's anything wrong with pink. It's just a lot of pink.

just 6 weeks left

I'm huge. And there's progress. Yesterday I came home and the baby room has a door! It doesn't have windows (or a whole bunch of other stuff), but it does have a gorgeous door, in a fun kid-friendly red orange. Yay Steve!

Now the question is what color to paint the baby room to match that door. I'm going for either a paler orange, or a blue. Pale -- we want his room to be bright. Opinions?

Bees, endangered? Not in our backyard.

In a fit of backyard organization and nestification (more on nesting later), I was trying to string up the new lights when one of these guys got me on the inner arm: big honking bumblebee. Apparently it's the females who sting, and they don't leave their stinger in, so that out-of-focus bug you see there well could have been the one. Ouch. It hurts. No Steve, I'm not allergic, and it's not a problem for the baby...

Meanwhile, a little afternoon before and after. Long term project: the white salvaged cedar is someday going to be fencing. Meanwhile, it's propped up, and the chain link rolled back. But what I really hate is the plywood on top of the big plastic garbage can. There's still more to do, so not really an "after," but here's progress so far. Put the refuse brick (which is what filled the grey tub) in the bottom of a galvanized old-school can. Then turned it into a planter by separating with landscape cloth (to prevent the roots from getting into nastiness), filled with potting soil, and replanted cucumbers. And rearranged the cedar. And best of all, moved my old college welding project so that it doesn't get lost in front of chain link, but can be a trellis for some of my many nasturtiums.


I'm really liking the backyard right now. Here's a macro shot.