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Thursday, August 31, 2006

OUTDOORS AT MR.&MRS. HIPPIE CHICK'S
(and Sister Pammie's)


Still continuing the Late Summer Theme, before I went grocery shopping Sunday morning I walked around the front and back yards snapping off a few pics to take you on a little tour of the yards. And this time, the good AND the bad are included here!



Here, hubby is laying the ground cover, and filling over with the red mulch:



He is leaving an area around the 3 bushes planted under there open:

(notice the ground outside the circle; he has plans for that)

Okay let's take a trip around back for a few minutes. Down the side of the house, and here is the sidewalk hubby re-did this summer. (DAMN he makes a nice sidewalk!!) Remember the noisy gas-powered tamper that had my whole house shaking? This is where he was working:




This next picture is the area going between the garage and the house (hot-tub room) that leads back to behind the garage where the doggie's "potty" is. We call this "the runway". After having so much crap on the ground last summer from renovations, and due to years of neglect, this area has lost most of it's grass. Hubby did put down some blocks for walking on this year though:



He put down some topsoil and grass seed along the left side a couple of weeks ago and it's finally growing. When it's ready to walk on, he'll probably sod the right side.




Another area in the backyard where we lost all our grass from "crap" sitting all over it last year. Hubby seeded this also and it's filled in nicely:



Here too, in another area:

You can always tell the new grass as it's so much lighter in colour at first.



Late summer, and the Bishop's Weed out back is now turning brown in spots and is going to seed:








Signs of autumn coming in the near future:



Okay, let's head back up onto the deck and go back out front. Our deck..... oh I don't know how we've managed to keep it from falling through each year, it's in such rough shape:



The boards all need replacing SO badly.


Hubby even bought and stained these a few years ago, but they still sit as there's so many other projects to be done as well. Okay, now step down on the left and through the gate there:



Back down the side to the front yard: (dammit, ain't that one purrdy walk? Look how wide he made them, compared to the regular width next door)



More signs of summer's end soon, on that bush of ours that turns bright red in autumn:


That's the bush on the right, we'll be moving it to another spot not so close to the sidewalk. Beside it is the new pear tree:



One of the biggest compliments hubby can get, is that so far 3 people have said they think the front lawn is so pretty it looks like a "park"....





****************************************************

And by suppertime same day (Sunday), hubby has finished the Spruce tree wall, at least the inside of it! Those 3 Flowering Plum bushes will one day get big under there and fill out a lot.



Now he's digging around the outside of the stone wall, where he'll be adding new topsoil and either grass seed or sod.


See?? I TOLD ya hubby has a blonde pony tail stuffed up under his cap when he's working!


***********************************************

2 Days later:

All finished this project! Hubby has dug around the outside of the wall where the ground was compacted and grass-less. He's laid in new soil and grass seed, and we'll see how it does.



Nice job honey!



I think this completes the front yard projects for this year..... but hey, I wouldn't be silly enough to bet my next paycheque on it.

Oh, and can you say "S.L.E.E.P"???? As of tonight (Wednesday evening) I am on vacation!! Three whole weeks of getting up in the morning whenever the hell I FEEL like it, instead of a damn alarm clock! WHEEEE!!!

Okay, busy day tomorrow, I have girlfriends coming over for dinner, and need to get my housecleaning done, and food preparation. Have a good one everyone, and take good care of each other.

PEACE!
Love Jude

Tuesday, August 29, 2006

AUGUST PHOTO COMPETITION


I entered this month's photo comp over on the Opacity forum last week. (The Opacity main site link is on my sidebar) This month the theme is "Height and Depth". Well seeing as I didn't feel that lying under my tall Blue Spruce tree was gonna cut it, I kinda played with the theme, and here are my 2 entries:


"Stretching High"



"Spiral Depths"


Hah, can you guess what that last pic is of?

Wow, I just got home from work and found out that I won with my "Spiral Depths". Kinda hard to believe with the great entries on there!

Here is the link to all of the entries, some really cool stuff:

CONTEST ENTRIES

Next month: "Portraits". So far I have one. I can't see me getting any more as I don't have anyone in my house who wants to sit for one. LOL

Hubby is just now finishing off the last touches out front around the new stone wall, so I'll get some pics up soon!

Take good care of each other, and catch you soon.......

PEACE!
Love Jude

Sunday, August 27, 2006

LATE SUMMER BLOOMING

As we hit the end of August it becomes late summer, but that doesn't mean flowers are finished blooming. All of the stuff hubby planted in our front yard back in June is thriving and growing. There are a few things that flowered and the flowers have gone now, but so many other plants are flowering abundantly now, and others are still yet to bloom.



Even the rose bush he planted is blooming pale pink flowers.




This plant SO looks like dill, and has pretty big white and pink flowers just starting to bloom now.




The setting sun casts long shadows over the lawn and gardens..... and there is hubby in the background working on the stone wall.




Hubby sure loves his Marigolds, all colours.




In the distance is the bed under our window.





Even this bed has filled in a lot more since he planted it. In another year or two hopefully it will be hard to actually see any soil.





I picked out these 2 because I LOVE the colours together of the Japanese Blood Grass (reds) with the silvery-green of the Artemisia.



He has finally got the stone wall level enough to satisfy him, and has started cutting and laying ground cloth. Next comes the red mulch! I'll get some pictures of the progress and post them soon.

Hope your weekend is a good one, take care of each other and catch you soon!

PEACE!
Love Jude

Thursday, August 24, 2006

SPRUCE TREE SAGA

Hubby decided to go with something other than Allan Block, which pleased me mightily. This is called "Split 'n Stack" and I love the way the colour perfectly matches the sidewalk.




He couldn't have done better in his choice. And eventually, the brick going on the house itself will have the same shades of pink/red, AND the front step will be done in the sidewalk blocks, with this Split n' Stack on the edges. Should look nice, huh?



Doing a "dry fit":



Trying to decide, 2 or 3 high? He settled on 3.



Okay, now it's time to vibrate down the gravel with the rented vibrator:

OR: Click HERE

Getting the gravel base as level as possible:


And the stones go up!


You'll notice that the tree is offset within the circle, that is because one side goes to the edge of the neighbour's lawn, and the larger part of the circle on our side will have more greenery in it down the road sometime.

************************************************************

Several days later, hubby is still having trouble getting things as level as he wants them, so he's taking sections of stone apart and re-doing.



But doesn't it look nice from the street? Love it!

Once this part is all done, hubby will be working on the inside of the wall, filling with more soil and mulch. I can't wait to see the finished product!

I hope you have all had a good week, take good care of each other and enjoy the weekend!

PEACE!
Love Jude

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

IN THE NAME OF PATRIOTISM



We all know that it is a sin for an terrorist males of certain religious persuasions to see any woman other than his wife naked, and that he must commit suicide if he does.

So next Sunday at 4:00 PM Eastern time, all Canadian women are asked to walk out of their house completely naked to help weed out any neighborhood terrorists.



Circling your block for one hour is recommended for this anti terrorist effort.



All men are to position themselves in lawn chairs in front of their house and other appropriate places to prove they are not terrorists, and to demonstrate that they think it's okay to see nude women other than their wife and to show support for all Canadian women.




And since their faith also does not approve of alcohol, a cold six-pack at your side is further proof of your anti terrorist sentiment.



The Canadian Government appreciates your efforts to root out terrorists and applauds your participation in this anti terrorist activity.
God bless the Beaver and GOD BLESS CANADIAN WOMEN!




P.S. ~ I tried this out by giving it a "test run" in my neighbourhood. I'm still trying to figure out where the hell all the men ran off to!!

PEACE!!

Love Jude

Sunday, August 20, 2006

WHAT'S UP WITH BLOGROLLING?




Thanks to Dick and a couple more of you, I got what I asked for, a way to have my blog links show when a new post has been made. I really love it and it should save big amounts of time checking every link!

However.... I'm having some issues with it, and hoping someone can tell me why. Now and then it shows a link that has updated, when in fact that blog has NOT updated. And, there are several of my links that don't show updates at all, even when there have been new postings.

Seems like blogrolling is only doing a partial job on my links? Any suggestions?

Thanks!

PEACE, Jude

Saturday, August 19, 2006

TWOFER!!

It's "two-fer-one" posts today, a regular post (below) and videos. The sparrows have been noisly playing in our backyard this morning.... although as soon as I get the camera out they stopped chirping so much, dammit!

Yes Bob.... more choiping boids!


OR: Click HERE


OR: Click HERE

Choip! Choip!

Jude

Friday, August 18, 2006

MY "OTHER" WARDROBE

Since the first Def Leppard concert I attended 10 years ago almost to the date (the Slang tour) I've tried to get myself a T-shirt for each one, but not always sucessfully. Thankfully though, I did get a Slang T-shirt.

At the Euphoria tour concert, it was not assigned seating BUT we got in so early and there was NO LINEUP at the T-shirt table yet, but I forgot I needed cash and only had my debit card! Damn was I mad at myself!

Then for the "X" tour, again it wasn't assigned seating (ugh) and although I came prepared with cash, the lineups were so long that I had to forgo the shirt or get a crappy seat.

The last time (Rock Of Ages Tour) I was able to stand in the huge lineup to wait, as it was assigned seating. I not only got a T-Shirt but also a cap.



"Slang" Tour.

I love the pic on the front....



....and the angel-like wings on the back.




"Rock Of Ages" Tour

Ball cap too.



That's Edmonton, fifth from last on the right!




And lookie what I got in the mail finally, a couple days ago:



Nothing on the back though, it's blank. Maybe it should have said something like this:


Bad news is..... these Fan shirts shrink a LOT. I wanted to be so careful so I followed the washing instructions to a letter.... and the shirt shrunk lengthwise by about 3 inches! Crap. Now it looks huge widthwise and short lengthwise. *sob*

Anyhoo I'm getting off the computer now, as there is a BEAUTIFUL thunder and lightning storm outside! I even tried to get some pictures of the lightning but I'm just not fast enough pressing the button, dammit.

Have a great weekend all, and take good care of each other!

PEACE!
Love Jude