Morning Coffee Spot

I am the only one awake. I love starting my day like this.

fox

Hubby and I were woken at o'dark-thirty by fox calls. They are very strange sounding - I had never realized they made noise before. The girls woke up crying, scared by the strange new sound. (although once the windows were closed, their fan turned on, and tucked in together they went back to sleep) Mesha and I have both seen one of them, beautiful really. He (we think) is bold and wanders confidently through the street and yards, but shies away from anything that moves. But we have seen no raccoons or possums and our (red) squirrel population is much smaller than our (gray) squirrel population in Minneapolis.

But we better make sure our outdoor rabbit hutch is secure.

Grand Plans

Planning is may favorite part of any project.

Sitting by the fire with a warm beverage in January with a pile of seed catalogs and a pad of graph paper.

Using Ikea kitchen software for a remodel I will never do.

Putting together a wardrobe via catalogs of clothes. I do end up buying a single outfit, but rarely does it go farther. My hubby still owns more shoes than I do.

Amidst unpacking our life - Wishing we could have fit the couch and the tumbling compost bins - we are planning.

Craigslist has failed to offer up a rabbit hutch in our price range so we are designing one to be built w/ free materials offered instead.

It will go here:
It is the flagstone side yard with a narrow gate to the front, the kitchen door (on the other side of the tumble of ivy) and a closet sized potting shed. Roses and Clematis are climbing the fence and the tree is an unknown flowering variety. Just in front of the ivy are steps to the covered back deck.
The clothesline will go here: Next to "Wheel Forge" in the lower yard - same level as the community laundry room. It doesn't get as much sun as the upper yard, but it doesn't have kids running through it as much either.

The hen house, and enclosed yard (fox, hawks and coyotes oh my) will be here on the edge of the upper yard in the uncultivated area by the lilacs. But not until next year I think. The hens I want are out of stock at my pet chicken (black copper maran, gold laced polish or wyandotte, a standard frizzel or silkie plus an Araucana for those who want to know)











Now where to put the bee hive??

square foot gardening

I have had the book for nearly 2 decades. Now finally put to use.

In this 3 1/2x3 1/2 raised bed are 2 chocolate cherry tomatoes, 1 Mr. Stripey tomato, 1 roma tomato, 9 purple basil, 5 large leaf basil, 4 marigolds (seeds planted by Mesha in school for mother's day, carefully moved here) 27 white onions and 120 carrots.

Of course I will have to cover it tonight - it has been dropping below 50 degrees.


And in this corner - Mesha's (everbearing) strawberry and peppermint stick zinnia garden.

And by the afternoon . . .

At breakfast

Welcome to Colorado

This is the front yard at 12:15 this morning.

It is melting already, the blossoms bouncing back.