Category Archives: Flowers

Mid-May in Spy Garden

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Monarch Caterpillar

Monarchs are my favorite!

This makes me want to add more milkweed to the garden!

One more shot!

Toad- love the iridescent green eye lid!

This Christmas decoration has become a permanent fixture in our landscaping! It is so large to store in the basement and somehow it just fits in all seasons, right?!

Woo! The cotton is popping up!

Bolting kohlrabi

Garden view with Dexie

Love-in-a-mist (Nigella)

The end of the year festivities at Forest school included a project culmination; the kids planned and cooked a meal entirely outdoors for the parents. After the delicious meal we had:

S’mores!

Mmm!

Forest School teacher scooping up homemade ice cream (also made by the pre-K kids)

Inside, a movie played of all their practice-cooking rounds!

Their semester-long project was a great success. Construction also continues at Forest school and I wanted to share a shot of these cool signs they added to the construction fences:

Such a nice idea and adds a cool element to the construction-vibe!

In other construction news, we are nearly done with the chicken coop!

Hahah just kidding, that is part of the school addition

Behold…

The Coop…

d’eggtat.

Coop d’eggtat

Greatest chicken coop name ever, right?! Quite apropos as the chickens (well, at least the building the coop part) has usurped our lives! Plus we love a good revolution, are are always generally dissatisfied by the status quo AND are all quite rebellious in nature. So the name is just perfect!

We are still working on the signage (this one is by the Spy)

There will also be an “Eggsit” sign on the inside of the door. HAHAHAHAHAhaha

More pictures to come of the coop details once it is totally finished (still need to build the run). The chickens are loving their new home and I am just thrilled to have them out of the house!

We have also taken more trips to the barn to visit our friend’s horses…

Check out my friend’s awesome Great Dane!

He is the coolest!

Giving Dexie a run for her money in the good looks department, right?!

Like a pro!

Blink

Love, love, love!!!

Happy Monday! Hope your week is off to a good start!

Springing, Swinging

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Withering tulip

Old, new

Spy Garden 4.10.17: in an effort to not be a perfectionist I have not cropped out the neighbor’s trashcans or the powerlines (which I normally do: is that crazy?! hahaah)

And is it really perfectionism or just creating a harmonious composition?!

Harvesting…

Lots of edible wild things; dandelions and their greens, henbit, violets, dock (made into a delicious salad)

Keeping the asparagus patch well-picked

Love how these tulips look even when withering away

Loads of garlic; in this shot you can see an older (probably 3 year old) garlic plant in the foreground and then one and two year old plants in the background

Young spring garlic (used the same as regular garlic, just not in clove form yet!)

Tomatoes!

It is very early for tomatoes to go in the ground so I left some inside under the grow lights but since it has been so warm and I had so many seedlings I went ahead and risked it; so we’ll see! Our average last frost date is April 21st but it has been a very mild winter.

New sights on the same old trails

Old kiln

May Apple I

May Apple II

Garden ready for planting

Dogwood

“Are those even real?”

Cardinal (female)

Chattering male Cardinal saying “GO CARDS!”

Opening week at Busch Stadium!

I hadn’t been to a game in a few years and it was so cool to see this; I once worked at Perficient! (a local IT company)

One of his friends got to throw out the first pitch!

Cardinal-red tulip

Ballpark village (seen from inside the stadium)

Another view of the Perficient Perch

More Cardinal red!

Lots of blue down there (Cubs fans)

We sat with his baseball team and who knew 11 year olds were so skilled in trash-talking! Ha!

Tigers opening week!

Tigers colors!

Playing third base

Happy Spring; hope your week is off to a good start!

Early (Early) Spring in Spy Garden

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Spy Garden 3.3.17

Forsythia

Buds galore

February daffodils

I must concede that spring has sprung, which I’m not thrilled about. I really love winter and we definitely got jipped this year…I am still hoping for a deep cold snap (to kill off ticks, squash bugs, etc.!) But of course spring is beautiful and definitely means better (less gray!) pictures to share.

Even scrabble is telling me it’s spring!

Anyone know what this is?

I was thinking spinach (that self-sowed) but I don’t remember seeing spindly seedlings (which spinach usually has). I tasted the leaves and they basically taste like lettuce/spinach. Just looking for confirmation that this plant is edible!

In Spy Garden animal news:

Every Bunny was Kung Fu Fighting

The bunnies (all male), were fighting and being really mean to one another (spring hormones?) so now they are all each in their own compartment. I am wondering 1. Why did we get three bunnies? 2. Isn’t that kind of overkill? 3. How would Bun-Bun look as a pair of one-of-a-kind earmuffs? (he is the meanest and really bit/cut up poor Butkus’ ears).

Puff Puff is the nicest

Gronk II

Gronk I met with his end in an unfortunate tank-cleaning incident a few months ago. Gronk II is his replacement. He seems more sprightly than the first one and is quite a challenge to photograph.