For me, that’s a solid, uninterrupted writing week followed by a pretty weekend in the garden. All my stars aligned, and it feels like it’s been awhile since they have. That makes it all the sweeter.
Since it somehow decided to be June, and June’s pretty busy, I’ll take the pretty perfect last week of May for that solid work week.
It’s a pleasure–mine anyway–to work steadily along, then shut down for a workout. Through this week, I work out with the sound of stone saws outside my little gym. Progress there, too! Every day I saw more of our wall going up–so pretty! It’s satisfying to take a walk around, see that progress, see new blooms–after a full day.
Then to start June off in the garden? It doesn’t get better.
In my continuing war against deer, I bought a couple of big garden spinners. Fun, colorful. I was perhaps overly proud to put one together solo. Mechanics isn’t my strength. I did need BW assistance with the second–one with a solar light–mostly because it had more parts and needed three hands to manage it easily.
Whether these will spin and chase off deer is debatable. But I like them anyway. So far spraying repellent’s doing the job (knock on every available piece of wood). And I do plant a lot of deer resistance varieties.
I have a whole flow of astilbes in a shady spot at a distance convenient for deer to sneak up. I saw one nibbled on yesterday, and imagine some deer taking a bite, then going PTUI! Serves her right.
BW spent most of his first day of June on his little Cat cleaning up the area behind his shop. This is an area I mostly avoid in order to keep BW alive. I will say he made some serious inroads.
We found a better spot for our tomatoes and peppers–already have tomatoes on the vine!–and he had the idea of using an old wagon as a stand. Cute.
I weeded, dead-headed, swept, pruned, rearranged and had a very fine time.
Today, post-workout, I’ll see what else I can play with before we have a family dinner. No Jason, Kat, Griffin this time as they’re out of town for a wedding. Griffin had his first plane ride–and seemed to enjoy it.
Right now, I’m looking forward to a summer filled with work, fun, flowers. It’s time to hit the gym so I can get started on that.
Nora
Sounds like a very productive end to May and a new beginning to June….sounds like your garden is doing great!!
Sounds like a good week and you can enjoy the benefits of it throughout the season. Enjoy the weekend!
Happy summertime
The new wall looks great! Enjoy the beautiful gardens.
Alta
Sounds perfect! Love the mermaid statue!!!
Your garden is lovely and I love the wall. Good luck with the deer. Have a great day and I hope June continues on a peaceful and productive path.
Oh I absolutely love your property! And love the photos you share of it. You’re one lucky lady xx
Beautiful garden. LOVE the mermaid.
Love the garden. Just a bit of a heads up if you’re not already aware. Deer have predators and if you see lots of deer, you’re going to see the hunters. One of my former neighbors had to shoot a bear that tried to come in his front door, and we had lots of deer wandering through the area.
Happy summer and Nora systems go! I so love reading about the garden and envisioning myself right beside you helping. I miss my gardens from years ago…in another lifetime. I too had peppers, tomatoes to die for, and all other sorts of goodies.
Also love reading about writing. Another way I live vicariously through you. I write but know I could never pass the patience test of finding a publisher I wouldn’t kill off lol.
So, you’re having success fending off deer. Do you have any squirrels to deal with? We have so many, and have yet to find a successful repellent. We can’t grow any vegetables, and they are also killing our flowers. We are at a loss. Any ideas?
We never had a problem with them eating the garden vegetables, but then we had several suet bird food holders that they could raid instead. Also there are lots of pine trees around so they got plenty of food so they weren’t interested. Maybe the big dogs we had helped too. My brother-in-law’s American bulldog loved to chase anything that got in our yard.
Well deserved joy! Always take some time for you. Happy Summer.
Stephanie
#professionalromancefan
I share your welcome of anything the deer don’t immediately gobble up. Like your astilbe, I occassionally find a daisy laying on the ground and think to myself, “oh, spit that nasty thing out didn’t you”. Lavender, lithodora, white calla lilies to name a few are pretty deer proof as well.
Your garden looks lovely. So glad you have tomatoes all ready. We just got the plants in, so much rain here.
Love the mermaid. Enjoy your garden and your weekend.
Nothing like a new wall, a good day of gardening and scoring one against the deer to make a satisfying beginning of June. The wall is perfect, I love the mermaid, and the spinners look like fun – hope they keep the deer away. Happy start to summer!
We had a very cool, wet spring, so only got the plants going this weekend. Only got one harvest of the spring lettuce mix before the heat started shriveling it up. Love the pictures!
Enjoy your great start to June weekend!
Your garden, at least what we saw, is beautiful.
A couple of cute, baby dragons should be keeping watch in your garden. They won’t keep the deer away, but will make you smile.
I use to hate when my grandbaby went away for a weekend or week. I missed her so! Now she’s 11-1/2 and spends weekends at friends or advance dance classes. I guess I’ll get use to it.
When we lived in Northern California, we had about 7 deer that hung around our back yard, Mamas, Daddies and little ones. I loved watching them teach the little ones how to do things like jumping fences etc. And one especially liked to bring me flowers up on my deck! Your garden is gorgeous and I especially like the mermaids. Enjoy the summer.
There’s nothing like a beautiful garden. The wall and mermaid are beautiful. Lazy me is wondering why you need a workout when you are so busy doing a workout in the garden. We have had days of non-stop rain here in NYC, and the weeds are having a ball. Good luck with the deer. I too have been plagued by squirrels. Nothing worked so far, not even the cayenne pepper that i spread all over.
I love your mermaid and that wall is so stately. I’m amazed that you still put in a work-out, even after all that physical work in the garden. Re: calla lilies, i had a bunch of three on my dining room table. My 19 year old granddaughter, who is not knowledgeable about flowers, asked me- “Why is there a bunch of huge scallions on the table ?”
Did you know there is a Claddagh wind spinner ? I have one in my back yard. It makes me happy.
I love reading about your gardening adventures. I do not have a green thumb, so your adventures are like exploring for me. I’m grateful to read about your solid work week, because I know your lucky readers will reap the benefit! I was reading your blog aloud to my husband, and when we got to the part about the deer, we imagined your stand off with the deer with them all along thinking you planted those things just for them! I’m glad you’re having luck at repelling them! By the way, love the cover of In Death #50. What a milestone! Happy Summer to you! May your garden be bountiful!
Sounds like a great weekend to top off a good week. Love your updates.
If I were a deer I would hang out around your garden too ?
It looks so lovely and the gizmos you bought and assembled (attagirl ?♀️) makes it more worthy of a long duration visit ?
So good the stars have finally found their way to your path ☘️
Enjoy!