Our Yard

Who is this man? Why yes it is Peter Schickele, better known to us as PDQ Bach. We went to one of his concerts in Chicago last week. It was hilarious. We laughed and laughed. He has gotten really old. He is 77 and he walks with a cane but he is still very funny and the material e presented was all new. None of the old stuff. We enjoyed the concert.

NOW FOR THE GARDEN

The yard is looking so good. I wish that you all could come and visit and see the lovely results of Maurie's planning and labor. Of course if you all came to visit I would have to put you to sleep on the blow-up mattresses and I don't know that the yard is pretty enough to put up with our sleeping arrangements for large groups. Sooo, here are some pictures of what the yard is looking like as of this moment. Rachel took these pictures just a few minutes ago.

This the flag bed. Of course it is named the flag bed. It is filled with lavender, dahlias and marigolds. It is raised up a little over a foot. The front walk curves in front of it.

This is the other side of the front of the house. You can see where the walk straightens out to go into the front door. On this side of the walk there are ferns, geraniums, petunias and hydrangeas.

This the very front of the curvy bed. In early spring it is filled with yellow and pink tulips, but last week Rachel trimmed off all the spent growth and then Maurie planted these pretty pink begonias. This flower bed has a bird bath, barbury and chrysanthemums that bloom in the fall.

Here are some metal sunflowers. They always bloom no matter the temperature.

Jenny remember that lattice that the guys wrestled with last May for the Open House? Here it reincarnated as a screen that covers up our air conditioning unit and the little shed that hols all the cushions for the table on the back patio.

These are the window boxes that hang under Rachel's bedroom windows. You can see the ferns trying to reach into that space. When we first planted them we worried every spring if they would come back, but now they are so firmly entrenched in that part of the flower bed that we worry now about them taking over the hydrangeas.

This is the beginning of the long bed out by the street. You can see the bottom of the mailbox. This is the pink section.

More of the pink section with the crazy bird.

Rachel loves this iris and so of course there is a picture of it. This iris is not in the blue section of the long bed, but it is so beautiful that we don't care.

This blooms properly in the blue section of the long bed.

The red section with an allium out of place. And again we don't care.

Another beautiful iris. This one is blooming in the right spot.

You guessed it. The orange section.

The yellow section follows right after the orange.

This is another metal flower. Sorry that it doesn't stand out against the fence. I asked Rachel not to put it in but she is an artiste and her work is not to be questioned.

We have all kinds of columbine in our yard but I love this blue. It is my favorite.

The poppies bloom out of place too in our rainbow long bed. But Maurie loves poppies and they are the only flower that is still coming back every year. He planted these thirty years ago.

Around in back on the patio is this small bed that id filled with herbs.

Here is another section of the same bed. You can see the basil, rosemary, cilantro and more.

One of the containers. It is in the little seating area just off the patio,

Another container just on the other side of one of the benches.

In the far back yard by the fire pit another container has been filled with geraniums and that little blue flower that you see in so many containers.

This is Titus the tortoise. He is standing right in front of the big container.

Right next to Titus is Timothy. He hasn't had all of his rocks placed yet, but soon. He is a an exact but smaller version of Titus. The grandsons play on them.

Across the back yard has been planted with arborvitae. There are twenty four of them and they will grow tall enough to shield us from our neighbors and hopefully give us back our sense of privacy. Our backyard use to open out onto a field, but no more.

Shelley, here is that flower bed that you cleaned out in March. The petunias will fill it nicely. The water in the bird bath looks a little manky, however.

This is our orange blossom shrub. It always reminds me of Miles and Gigi because we cut all the flowers of fto decorate at the church for their wedding reception. The blossoms smell so good.

Here is another view of the lattice. I think Seth will be painting it all white as soon as school is out. Lucky Seth.

Here is another rusty metal flower. I think this one is supposed to be a rose. Illinois is rotten at roses. It is too wet and the air is too humid.