Sensational Saturday - An amazing garden

This past weekend we stopped by one of our neighbors home to check up on their amazing garden.  It was so luscious, beautifully decorated and such a healthy growing garden.  I took a lot of photos but only will share the best of what I have taken.  What the garden needed are pretty flags to show off the different sections of their front and back yard.  After I got home, I decided to be creative and sew a couple of garden flag for her.  This is the same lady that gave me a bunch of plants last year to add to our front garden.  A lot of work has been done by both husband and wife on their amazing garden. Check these beautiful collections.

This is the view from their backyard.

This garden flag is located in the front yard.

This is the second glad I made and she placed it on the side yard.

Weathered Wednesday - It was time

A year ago when we bought the house, there was something in the front of the house that was sort of a sign.  It was made of wood and it also had the number of the house.  The first time I learned about this piece of artwork was when I lived in the Northwest Territories.  It was called Inukshuk (a structure of rough stones stacked in the form of a human figure, traditionally used by Inuit people as a landmark or a commemorative sign).  

Since the one we had was made of wood, I knew that somehow we would have to replace it with rough stones as it would be more like what it should be.  As there were many other items that needed more attention, we sort of put this item on the bottom of our list.  The winter, spring and summer has come and gone and the wooden inukshuk was looking very weathered.  It was actually a little wobbly as the post or screw that was holding it to the ground was very lose.  The past weekend's weather was sunny and warm.  We took advantage of it and headed to Just Rocks (a great place to search for the perfect stones).  It was located just outside of Vernon off Highway 97.  When we arrived there, we can see the variety of stones and rocks piled by sizes, types, shapes and textures.  We were told to drive to the back and get on the scale.  We got weighed (us and the car) and we proceeded to the area where we could pick what we needed.  Once we found the pieces to complete an inukshuk, we loaded them in the car and we got weighed again.  Then we went back to the office and paid for the granite rocks.  The next day Jeff removed the old wooden one and stacked the pieces and was able to get two inukshuk.  Here's the before and after photos.

Old wooden one.

First try, the little one.

Second try, the big one.

The final one. If you look at the back, you will see the little one.  

Mixture Monday - Can this be real?

Sometimes I wonder if I can actually grow plants, flowers and maybe even a tree without killing it on the first week.  You have seen the orchids that I had from the house in San Jose. With our new home, there's only a small portion of the front yard that you can plant and we have a small piece of fake grass.  At the back is pretty much going uphill and very rocky. Last weekend I decided to add some other plant to the collection.  I painted the rectangular planter box in our deck in the back.  Jeff putt up some black metal hangers for three hanging pots.  I noticed the other day that the nice red mums that I got for the front porch was looking sad and some are drying up.  I checked with the watering boy (Jeff) if he remembered to water them.  He actually did but I think it needs a little more since the weather was getting a bit warm.  Yesterday when I checked, it was back and alive again. This week I will have to try a different place to get a couple more perennials (one for the backyard and the other for the hanging pot).  Maybe there's still hope for me to take care of plants and watch them thrive.

Santana Sunday - It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas

Once or maybe twice a year, my girlfriend Jean and I have a day at the spa.  Last week we decided to have a facials.  Honestly I cannot remember how long ago since I had one.  The place is located in Santana Row (Burke Williams).  It was a bit high end for me but I thought why not.  The experience was different and I think after that,  I truly prefer a body massage than a facial.  It's like anything else, different preference.  The girl who did the facial was nice and recommended a couple of their products.  One part of the facial was a little funny when she applied some product on my lips to plump it up.  In my mind, I wanted to say "really"?  If you know me or have seen me, you will definitely agree with me that I don't need my lips plumped.  Some other women might even pay for something like this, but I don't think I really needed it.  We were done just before noon and there was time for a light lunch.  Walking around Santana Row this time of the year is really very festive.  Surprisingly because it's a work day, there weren't that many shoppers and it was pleasantly a warm day.  We took time to do a little bit of window shopping.  I was able to take a few minutes during our walk to take some photos before we stop for coffee and pastries.  It was a very enjoyable day with Jean and I look forward to our next special day.

 

Thirsty Thursday - A different type of garden

Everyone knows about our drought and the new quote regarding front and back yard.  Brown is the new green.  Most of the homes have started changing their lawns to other types of materials that does not require water.  The water restrictions is that you can only water your plants/grass/yard before 800 am or after 800 pm.  Some of the plants that we have planted just would not survive because they need to be watered more.  Jeff has been really great about conserving water in a lot of different ways.  The other day after golf I noticed a yard in another neighbors.  

Maybe something like this would also work.

We might have to do something like this to our front yard and get rid of the grass.

Mushroom Monday - Non edible

Although I like to eat mushrooms, these ones that I found while visiting the University of California (Santa Cruz) Arboretum, are non edible.  There were several sections of the garden where you can find several types of mushroom.  What is interesting is that some of them resembles some things. Let me know if you can guess what this one reminds you of.