I Got a Rock

I got a rock this weekend. It's slightly over a foot wide and two and a half feet long. This type of rock is called Cathedral rock, due to the holes in it . . . I think.

The smaller hole near the top is the drilled hole, but we discovered a couple other natural holes which might be fun. The front left one cascades like a waterfall.

What did you do?

Hubs has been pestering me to let him put a rock bubbler in the backyard. I finally gave in, especially when I might be able to raise some bog plants, namely Venus Fly Traps. I need to get rid of those pesky 'squitos, don't I? I haven't had much luck attracting bats, so I'll go the carnivorous plant route now.

As it's springtime and my roses are just starting to grow, I need to get them transferred soon, which is why we bought the rock.

This is the location. It runs along the edge of the pool.

It's no hardship relocating my roses since I've lost about six minis over the last few years. And I have six to move.

I'll post a picture when the rock is in place and ready to bubble. It might be a couple weeks since we need to wait on the basin to arrive.

Later, Peeps!

My oasis

Yesterday afternoon I met a new neighbor two houses down from me. Now to be perfectly honest here, she moved in last August, but with the summer heat, school starting and then winter, very few people are out and about at the same time. This is the time of year when you start seeing your neighbors . . . at least the ones who are interested in yardwork.

She was working in her front garden bed.

So I had to show her my oasis, and I'll share with you too. Remember the before? After the pool cover was taken off and all the plants are trimmed down to nothing?

Here's yesterday's picture, taken from the top porch. My roses and peony's are spectacular this year! First bloom is always the best.

Taken from behind the crepe myrtle tree, toward the house. 

At the koi pond. Sorry about the dark pic--it was sunny and this was taken with my phone. 

And our happy little fish . . . actually many of them are 14-16 inches long. We bought them over 10 years ago when they were barely 2 inches.

Feed us! They are circling like mad wanting fishy food.

And yes, I can name most of them. 

Pool Opening!

I have a lot of stuff to do this week, and to tell you the truth, I honestly don't know if I'm going to get it all finished! It's nothing big or secretive, just lots of stuff going on: hubby's sister and two teens are visiting, still need to shop for clothes that fit, oil change in car, three contest entries to judge, edits for TROLL, pre-cook about four meals, the regular chauffeuring, Oh, and pack. Yeah, I'm leaving the family to fend for themselves while I take a short jaunt to visit another branch of the family. It was supposed to be a surprise, but I posted just enough that I ruined it. *sigh* I think I goofed off too well last week.

So this week, I'll be posting pictures: pool opening, garden (before and after the rain) and whatever floats my boat.

I'm sure I posted pictures last year when we opened the pool, but here are THIS year's pics! I will mention that my only contribution to the pool opening is to help pull the cover off the pool and adjust the chemicals until it looks beau-ti-mous!

unlatching pool cover from deck

This was one or two days before the 6-7 inches of rain that we desperately needed.

deep end of the pool

After the cover was removed, you can still see the bottom of the pool! This was unusual, but probably due to the mild winter. The big brown blob are piles of leaves. To the upper right of the blog, you can see the main drain.

partially vacuumed

I took this picture from the upstairs bathroom window. You can see where my hubby vacuumed the settled dirt away from the front corner.

finished!

Finished! The pool has been swept and the water level refilled, but there is still some haze to it. Hubby also power washed the deck. I shocked it after this picture was taken.

Ready for swimming--if you like 64 degrees

I took this picture yesterday. The pool looks awesome! It was actually pretty two days later, but then the rains came . . . and came . .  .and came! We couldn't do anything over spring break!

Maggie dog (white head) is sitting at the gate watching hubby (to the right of kidlet, but he blends into the background!) and kidlet (blue shirt) flying his remote controlled helicopter in the school's soccer field behind us.

I'll try posting garden pics this week!
Later!