No doubt you have all been anxiously awaiting a garden update from the Eyre household...I had NO IDEA almost a year had passed since the last one. I will make it up to you here. Ask next time! ;)
This post will be all garden, so stop here if this holds no interest for you. Fair warning.
I didn't think I'd have anytime to garden this year. 'Just keep it simple', is what I said. Well, apparently gardening is the one thing that soothes my soul, whether things go as planned or not. So I garden on and take joy in every little bud and cry for all that is lost. Or is stagnant. It's all okay.
This spring I finished my installing my hardscaping plan from last year (see post from Sept '16 if you want a refresher!) and then filled it in with a plethora of plants. It's one of those things that you are glad you didn't realize how much work it would be from the start, or you never would have started. It's not crazy fancy, but it's mine. And considering how small my yard is, it feels good and happy and relaxing. I installed a large flat rock on one side so that I would have a place to sit and meditate or read. Which works really well until the neighbors let their little yippers out and they feel the need to make sure everyone is aware of my presence. Smile.
THE LEFT
The left rock garden has some yarrow (red!), silky grass, salvia, manzanita, a fern bush, siberian pea shrub, key broom and evening primrose (oenethera macrocarpa--my new absolute favorite). For some reason my broom is the same 2" high as when I planted it in the spring, but everything else is filling in nicely. The spot gets less sun that I realized, once the birch behind it leafed out, but I think the sun these plants DO get is pretty strong and is sufficient to keep most things here happy.
Primrose. *love*
This yarrow looks even more red in person.
THE MIDDLE
Here you can see where I terrace little steps in along the length and planted various types of thyme on the bottom step. I also through some wildflower seeds (that I got for my birthday) in front of each raised bed, which have grown like crazy. The little purple flowers close each night, but are delightful. The others seeds have grown huge, but I have yet to see a flower...I have no idea what they are supposed to be, but I assume something will bloom before our first freeze! You can see my sitting rock at the end of the path.
My second raised bed with strawberries and asparagus is having a light year (although I have had a handful of strawberries and a batch of garlic harvested), but the first bed above is growing like mad. I tried a new soil mix and, what do you know, I CAN grow tomatoes. Who knew. Usually by now the snow peas are toast and I have to plant a second batch for the fall, but with the cooler weather and rain we've had the past few weeks, they just keep producing (left of the bed- they have outgrown their supports and have just fallen over to cover the whole width of the bed. Then in the middle are Sean's pole beans from mom and dad's bloomin' christmas. I just love looking out at the gorgeous orange flowers that the beans are now slowly replacing. I keep having to put a longer and longer stick in for them to climb. On the right back are my 2 tomato plants. They are LADEN with fruit. I have only harvested 3 so far, but I know as soon as the sun stays out for a few days I will be in over my head.
My purple variety! Pole beans
THE RIGHT
Grapes are huge this year. Also makes a nice shady spot, which Thomas, Henry and I took advantage of one day for a game and a picnic.
Our new neighbors, Riley and Carly
Prairie clover. This plant is just beginning to fill out but I love it's unique blooms
The bees are back! Just planted flowers and all of a sudden we have bees instead of wasps.
Last spring I remembered that I really wanted to get out camping this year. I say that I make my family go camping once a year, so they remember what nature looks like, but in reality we have probably only averaged once every 2-3 years over our marriage. We have outgrown our family tent, though, and have gotten a bit achier as well as a big bigger over the past few years, so I knew that I needed to look for a cabin.
There are a lot of state parks in Colorado. Each with a fair number of cabins. Searching online I looked for any cabin in any state park w/in 4 hours of Denver that was available on any weekend this summer. It also needed a fishable lake nearby as Thomas had been begging to go fishing. That spring search led to one result: A single room cabin at State Forest State Park on the weekend of August 4th. Period.
So I booked it. Is "State Forest State Park" even a real name? Who voted for that? Well, it is. And it is a real place. And it is unbelievably beautiful. Probably the only reason it was the only available cabin is because it was in a place called 'State Forest State Park'.
Doing a little research, I found that this is the 'Moose Capital of Colorado' (maybe Moose State Park would have been a better name...or 'Big Antler'. 'Sizable Schnoz State Park' even has a nice ring to it.
Unfortunately we didn't come upon any moose, but the roads were lined with deer welcoming us. No shortage of wildlife.
This was a 3 hour drive on Friday: straight up to Ft. Collins and then due west. The drive was lovely, once we got out of traffic and once the singing started. I have always encouraged singing, but it doesn't usually catch on. Maybe it was boredom, maybe it was because the kids were trying to conserve energy on their phones bc they know they would be without power for 2 days. Whatever the cause, the musical show tunes began and went on for probably 1 1/2 hours. At one point everyone was stunned to silence when Sean sang a sad, dramatic number from Hunchback of Notre Dame in it's entirety. Drama, on key, amazing. I just never know with that kid. Probably my favorite part of the whole trip.
Once there we quickly settled in to our cabin: one room with 2 bunks and a futon. The next day we were lounging around after hiking and Thomas came out with, 'You know mom, I really like this'. Me, 'You mean this cabin?'. Thomas, 'No, just having all of our beds together in one place. It's nice'. It was. Saturday evening we played a story dice game. The story that evolved ended up being 'Dora the Explorer themed'. A little throwback to their childhoods and was hilarious. Each kid has their own style of storytelling.
The hikes let to a beautiful alpine lake and beaver dam after beaver dam on a little meandering stream. I was amazed how many wildflowers will still out in August, lining the paths.
We had a little rain, a little complaining on the hikes, and some bruised feet, but we also got to know each other a little better, felt success of 2 out of 3 fire building tries (although the cabin next to us always had a massive thing raging...it felt like they were mocking our attempts ;), but we had what we needed.
Maybe next year the kids will act a little more excited when I tell them that camping is on the agenda!
We tried a fire Friday night, but only had 15 min of sunlight left after we arrived and fire 1 was unsuccessful. Next day, we had two successes. Thankfully! As pancakes and stew were on the menu and we had forgotten our campstove.
Mmm, s'mores. We've been apart far too long.
Hiking to our first geocache. We knew we were close when we rounded a bend and saw a group of 10 (mostly kids) grouped around a tree stump. Then we heard on adult explain to another adult, 'Yeah, we weren't even looking for it, but I glanced over and saw this metal handle sticking out of the tree...' We had been hiking for 45 minutes and keeping a close eye on our GPS. Ah well. The kids didn't seem too disappointed. We found 3 geocaches that day. The most challenging was hidden in a little cave up the side of a steep hill.
Only moose we saw was this one made out of barbed wire at the visitors center. It was pretty remarkable in it's detail, though. And safer to go up and pet than the real thing.
Thomas' first (only) catch of the day! A bit of seaweed. Something is better than nothing, I always say. Thomas got his fishing hook out of one of the geocaches we found earlier.
Our cabin was the smallest of the 3 pictured. Furthest left above the kids heads.
So I know I am the worst at getting family pictures done. But this spring I realized that it had been even more years since we'd taken a couple photo. So this May when mom came out for Milla's graduation, she was nice enough to go to a park with us and snap a few shots. This one was my favorite. (and for fun, one from the year we met...if nothing else we've tanned a little 😉)
Thomas thinks that we need a pug. Why?
1. because they are so cute and he loves them
2. they are easy to take care of
3. they are small but they don't bark that much. they just groan. like henry.
4. every person needs a pug.
Mama isn't so sure. But she thinks they are cute too.
Here you can see where I terrace little steps in along the length and planted various types of thyme on the bottom step. I also through some wildflower seeds (that I got for my birthday) in front of each raised bed, which have grown like crazy. The little purple flowers close each night, but are delightful. The others seeds have grown huge, but I have yet to see a flower...I have no idea what they are supposed to be, but I assume something will bloom before our first freeze! You can see my sitting rock at the end of the path.
