More Cali Pics

Kids In California

There you go mommy! Your wonderful children!

Front Yard

Well, the backyard has received a lot of blog attention this year, but the front hasn't been entirely ignored. I went for a purple and yellow scheme this year, thinking the daylilies that I scavenged from MN last summer would be yellow. But then the Minnewaska Daylilies (my special name for them) finally bloomed and surprise(!) they are orange.
Also this year, I planted Petunias in the window box. Both the wave kind (white with dark purple centers) and super-sized white ones. Last year's crazy Nasturtium got so out of control and crowded everything else. So far the petunias are behaving themselves and sharing nicely with the Verbena and Sweet Peas. I also popped in some of mom's Inch Plant cuttings, which are starting to trail down.
I also planted some sunflower seeds against the wall on the far left. They have sprouted nicely, but have a ways to go. I hope they blossom. Think they'll be really cute between the window box and the drain spout.
Lastly, in the foreground of the daylily picture, I have a little box of ivy which are also from mom's cuttings. I think it's Swedish Ivy. Figure if it spends the summer outside it'll be big and strong to bring indoors this fall. So far, so good. (am doing the same things with mom's spider babies...they're in a pot on the backyard table).

Football Camp

We dropped Henry off at football camp today. He'll be there until Thursday afternoon. It's a different camp than the one he attended last year...biggest difference is that this one is full contact. They have three practices a day, plus a daily 7am pre-breakfast run. His mood has been up and down the past few days. Positive, then negative and around and around. He had the same feelings last year, but ended up having a good time. I think he'll be just fine this week. Seems like a really good program based on teaching kids to love the game and helping them to find their way on the field and within a team. There will be online video of this week's campers at www.O-D.com
He's staying in the dorms at Rider University. It's quite the utilitarian concrete block structure. We did our best to make it cozy with floral sheets and quilt. Hope he doesn't get beat up over his girlie bedding. :D
Thick as Thieves. I'm sure they'll miss each other badly this week. They might not admit it, though!
Such a little big man!
A shoe shot in homage to Siobhan's dancing shoe picture a few posts ago.

Funny Faces

We stopped at a diner today on the way to drop Henry off at football camp. I took a few photos and both ended up making these weird faces...I told them if they didn't cooperate that I'd put these on the blog. Guess what...they didn't listen!

Plantings

Forgot this picture yesterday...this was two big hostas that were wedged up next to the concrete footing of one of the fence posts. I dug them up and divided them for the small area between spa and fence. They'll get the same amount of limited sun here. I hope they'll do okay. The variegated leaves add some light/life to a drab little area.

Hydrangea with pretty varigated flowers. Very girlie.
Oak Leaf Hydrangea. I love the white flowers.
Nice big hydrangea was here when we bought the house. Inspired the new backyard's hydrangea theme.
New hydrangea. Flowers are really moppy with both small and larger blooms making up huge flower heads. Will be interesting to see how this matures. We planted two of these on the berm.
Whitespire Birch. Had a big transplant shock, but is now doing very well. Someday, this should give nice shade to the patio and spa area.

Coconut Lime Coneflower. I hope these re-seed and create a big grouping. I bought the only two they had at the nursery. Would have bought many more if they had them. I love the color.
Clematis climbing the Turkish anchor. Henry chose this pretty delicate pink/purple color.
Leyland Cypress. Supposed to grow very quickly. Hopefully will soften the back corner of the white fence.

Backyard Update

Well, we have made such progress! Only a few more things to do, but we are definately just about done. Only two more things: seed the grass path and finish the brick BBQ mini-patio. We're seeding tomorrow morning, so that will be done soon. Hopefully we'll have decent grass in a few weeks. And the BBQ patio should be done by the weekend. Whew! Then all we will have to do is sit in the hot tub and watch the plants grow!

Trip to Mars

There's a restaurant in New York called Mars 2112. Henry's wanted to go since we moved here. So, last night, we finally went. It's near Times Square, so (big surprise) it's a total tourist trap. There is a fake spaceship that you have to 'ride' to enter the restaurant. It would be really scary if you're four years old. And the recorded voice of the space journey guide had a very heavy southern accent. Guess he's from southern Mars.

Inside the restaurant, all of the lighting is red, so we knew we had arrived on The Red Planet. Or an Amsterdam brothel.

Anyway...our waiter's name was Captain Dennis. He was very nice as he served our over-priced touristy food.

The worst part? The carpeting was so sticky that I had a hard time keeping my flip-flops on. In addition to overall stickiness, there were gobs of gum everywhere. Or maybe they were some sort of Mars blobs. Perhaps it's an early life form that was discovered by the Probe on the last Mars mission. But really, I think they just don't have carpet cleaners yet on Mars.

One good thing? Since it's a tourist place, I didn't feel weird taking photos.

Second good thing? Henry finally got to go to Mars 2112. And we never have to go again.

The top pix are without flash...so you get the full RED PLANET effect. The bottom ones are with flash to capture all of the details. I almost took a picture of the carpeting...but decided I really didn't want to see that much detail afterall.