new garden - part deux

My apologies to everyone who visited this post earlier! Mark just picked up books at the library for me - one of them was The Jane Austen Book Club. I was reading the back of the book - this copy has info on the movie. "Kathy BAKER" jumps off the page at me. Oh, no, I know I wrote Kathy Bates - shoot. Yup, a quick check of the blog and indeed that's exactly what I did. I'm so sorry. However, if you see the movie, I don't think you'll be disappointed - Kathy BAKER is absolutely wonderful.


Thanks for the comments on my new garden ideas for the driveway. I look forward to reading more! As I was reading the comments, it occurred to me I didn't give you as much info as I could have. The driveway is on the north-northwest side of our house. Last year I placed half barrels along the edge of the driveway in an attempt to ward off some of the construction traffic on our street. The overview photo on yesterday's post was taken at about 9 am - the sun hadn't made it to the driveway yet. The second photo in this post was taken at 10:30 am - and you can see that the barrel is casting a shadow. The first photo shown here was taken at about 6 pm, so I get at least 8 hours of bright, hot sunshine along the edge of the road - where the garden will be placed. (photos taken around 7/20) ((the shadow on the left side of this photo is me trying to get a photo without a shadow - lol))

Last night I was checking more info on the net and making notes, and I started thinking that I'm not sure actually where my sun is in that area. The barrels did fine on all sides because they get all day sun basically from side to side. But if I plant a taller ornamental grass, the street side may not get as much sun as I was thinking. I'm not sure how the summer sun works its way across this space. I wouldn't be too upset to just plant a lovely big stand of ornamental grass - or to have a few other shorter plants on the house side - it would look nice from the house and patio area. I know Mark wants me to keep as much driveway space as possible because he's afraid I'll eventually treat the driveway like I do the yard - it's all potential garden. I can't actually deny that thought has crossed my mind! :) One thought I had was to plant the grasses kind of behind the rocks I want out there - with half barrels of annuals as fill for the forward space. So many possibilities!! I appreciate your input - and no doubt you will be hearing most of the thoughts that flit through my little brain on this topic.

Tuesday night I watched The Jane Austen Book Club. I loved it. I adored the group of women in this movie. Kathy BAKER played the oldest member of the group - and she was so nurturing to the other women - without being overbearing or cloying. I thought perhaps I want to be that character when (if) I grow up. Or maybe better yet, I want a best friend just like her. She was so confident with who she was - again, without being pushy or controlling about it - I just loved her. I thought it was a good chick flick.

books, books, books, and a movie

I haven't done a book post for awhile - and I've read some good ones. "When Crickets Cry" by Charles Martin was really good. It was a bittersweet story about a man's struggle to survive after his wife's death - and a young girl's friendship giving him a chance for redemption. His story is told in flashbacks which I found very effective.

"The New Year's Quilt" by Jennifer Chiaverini is the latest installment in the Elm Creek Quilters series. It fleshes out a lot of stories that we've read in previous books about Sylvia Compson - and does it very nicely.

For a long time I avoided John Grisham books - I felt that after his first 2 or 3, he was writing for the movies. But his later books have redeemed him in my opinion. This one is not a lawyer book - it's about an NFL player who doesn't survive the NFL - and finds himself in Parma, Italy playing in the "Pizza League." I decided to read "Playing for Pizza" because the first time I went to Europe, I accompanied Mark on a business trip to Parma. We enjoyed our visit there - and I enjoyed reading this accounting of some of the sights I saw when we were in Italy. A light read, but entertaining.

This year, ABC has a Friday night show called "The Women's Murder Club" - that is based on James Patterson's mystery series. I watched the first TV show and liked the characters and started reading the series. I'm on the waiting list at the library for the 7th one now. The main characters are very fun and Patterson tells a great story.

I liked his writing so much that I also started his Alex Cross series - "Along Came a Spider" is the first in the series. I just finished it and enjoyed Alex Cross and the story a lot. I'm totally into mysteries right now, and I'm enjoying Patterson's stories.

Another writer that I just started reading is David Baldacci. I had read several reviews on blogs praising his books, so when I found "Saving Faith" on a garage sale this summer, I picked it up.

That book was so good, I requested "Absolute Power" at the library. I'm about halfway through it right now. Baldacci is excellent!

Another favorite writer that I don't think I've blogged about is Vince Flynn. He lives in the Twin Cities and his books are also excellent. His protagonist is an undercover CIA agent.

Over the weekend, we watched "Hairspray." Too funny. Seeing John Travolta and Christopher Walken in drag is worth the price of admission!

catching up

I've been a slug!! Wednesday was our anniversary - 37 years (OMG) - and I guess I haven't recovered yet. Actually, just busy with different things - not a lot of new photos from the garden - etc.

We had a very nice anniversary. Mark had to go to Chicago to meet the new boss Monday and was back home about 11 am Wednesday, so we did a late lunch - very nice. Then late afternoon/evening we ran some errands and had a light dinner. So, pretty quiet - but a very nice day.

Last Sunday, the flippers two houses down invited us over. I think they invited other neighbors and friends of theirs, but when we were there it was just us. They're fun and we had a good time. Lynn made fondue - hadn't had that in a zillion years. Yummy cheese fondue with bread cubes and stuffed pasta, and a decadent chocolate fondue with fresh strawberries and chunks of angel food cake. Very good!

Earlier on Sunday another couple who lives on our street came down for awhile - we had helped take care of their sweet little dog while they were out of town. Just a nice hour or so of chatting - catching up - thinking we really need to make more time for relaxed visiting.

Yesterday I went to visit my sister who was babysitting her 5 1/2 month old granddaughter. Had 2 wonderful hours of baby time. She is adorable - all smiles - and now she's "talking" a lot - too cute.

In a couple hours we're meeting Kyle and Leah for lunch - I've only met Leah once before, so really looking forward to getting to know her better.

So that catches you up pretty much on "life with Kris"! We actually had about 2/10 inch of rain yesterday - could use quite a bit more. It's grey and really windy out today - so not great for photo taking. The dwarf iris in the first photo are heavenly - they smell wonderful. I checked my soil temps Thursday - 65 to 70 in most of the gardens! - so if the wind dies down, I can start putting on mulch (after removing the zillions of tree seedlings that are growing very nicely).

We've watched a couple movies this last week - Night at the Museum and The Queen. Both were pretty good - we enjoyed them.

I've read a couple books - The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton was really good - I've read 3 of her books and they are all very well-written.

Also The Quilter's Homecoming - by Jennifer Chiaverini. I can't decide if I really like her books or not. I've read them all, and I think how cool it would be to know how to quilt, and I like her stories - but there is something about her writing that bugs me - not sure what, just me, I'd guess!

I just started one by William Kent Krueger - I'll let you know what I think - so far it's looking pretty good.

We really don't watch that much TV

Well, the gardening has been put on hold indefinitely, so here's some chit-chat about our TV viewing. (yes, yes, I think I'd tune out now too!)

We decided 2 or 3 years ago that commercials were taking up way too much time, so we started recording our favorite shows and then fast-forwarding through the commercials. We even found a nice VCR that would go through and mark the commercials and do the fast forwarding for us. So we had finally achieved zero-calorie (burned) couch potato-ism!!

Luckily we cut our TV time way down when we joined Netflix, so only a few shows were taped each week. This year I managed to eliminate those pesky shows too. I taped 3 weeks worth before we had a chance to watch them, and then discovered that the SAP was on - all of the shows were taped in Spanish. Our Spanish really isn't that good, so ended up putting all of those shows on our SAVE list at Netflix. (If I'm going to waste my time watching TV, I at least want all the story lines in order.)

So that left us wide open to "catch-up" on all the shows we weren't wasting our time on in the first place. How handy!

Our first catch-up show was the first season of "24." We sat through all 24 episodes over 6 nights. The show was actually pretty good, and we will probably watch the next 5 (or 6?) seasons - but not for quite awhile!!

I found "Rosemary & Thyme" on another blog, and it sounded pretty good. So we are now 2/3 through the first season of that show. It's about 2 women who garden and solve mysteries - oh, yeah - they're English. It's funny - has beautiful flowers - and okay storylines. A nice break from Jack actually.

Have also watched "The Office" - that totally cracked us up. We are caught up to the current season - can't wait until they release this season.

And watched the first season of "Weeds" - fairly dumb, but we thoroughly enjoyed it!!

I also rented "Gardens of the World" with Audrey Hepburn recently. It's great just to watch her - but the gardens they show are fantastic. I watched the first half of this many years ago on PBS, but missed the last half, so enjoyed seeing the whole thing.

Weather: in the teens with very light snow last night. Looks like teens again tonight - and maybe tomorrow night. They haven't really forecasted a significant warm-up yet. Drat!

reality check

Today's pictures are a reality check for me. I have been moping around because the vast majority of garden blogs I've been finding have been in warmer growing zones, and they show beautiful tulips, crocus, daffodils. One even had the audacity (to me) to say "the daffodils are done now"!!!!! So I've been feeling pretty sorry for myself. Today's photos are all from the Arb and were taken March 18, 2006. One year ago, we had snow on the ground - quite a bit of snow it looks like. Today we have bare ground except for a couple places where we had big piles of snow from shoveling the porch roof and the patio. And even they are getting smaller by the hour. So no more pity party - when I have gorgeous blooms, I'll share them and all of this waiting will be forgotten for another year.

The red barn in this picture is kind of an Arb landmark. It's actually part of a farm that borders the Arb, but we have some of the most fantastic pictures (especially autumn with beautiful leaves on the trees) that include this red barn taken from other perspectives around 3 Mile Drive. It may be the main reason Mark sometimes goes down there to walk with me!

Mark went in yesterday and had the pins taken out of his finger. The nurse or anesthesist (or whoever) did a terrible job of giving him numbing drugs. His hand is swollen and very sore and we do not like her at all. But his doctor did a great job and looks like the physical therapist knows what she's doing, so I think we'll survive. Last night and so far today have not been fun though.

Background: January 23 Mark's middle finger and a radial arm saw blade came in contact with each other. It was not pretty. Luckily, the blade did not hit the bone and his finger was not lost. But it did cut through tendons, muscles, nerves, etc. So they reattached everything and let it heal until yesterday. Now he'll go through several sessions of physical therapy to try and get it to at least partially bend. Everyone's very optimistic.

Just received a book in the mail from Amazon. It's called Gardens of the Wine Country by Molly Chappellet. I found it at the library and renewed it the 3 times they allowed me to, which means I had it here for 12 weeks. Finally decided maybe I should just get my own copy. At Amazon with shipping it cost me $6.50 - not bad for a $40 book!

The first time we went to Sonoma with Ryan & Sara, I commented that maybe we should retire to Sonoma - it was beautiful. I just had the feeling that it would be a wonderful place to live. Of course the reality of real estate prices means I'll never actually live there, but this book shows some of the wonderful gardens in Napa (right next door to Sonoma). So maybe the next best thing!!

I picked up a book at the library today too - Staircase of a Thousand Steps by Masha Hamilton. One of her books was recommended on another blog I visit, so thought I'd start with this one. I'll let you know what I think.

Just finished a book by William Kent Krueger. He has written a series featuring Cork O'Connor as the hero that is really good. Krueger lives in St Paul and his stories are based in a small town in northern Minnesota. The ones I've read so far are Iron Lake and Boundary Waters. I enjoyed them both. He mixes Ojibwe stories in while telling the mystery story and it's really interesting. His descriptions of the Boundary Waters were very nice.

Have seen a couple good movies recently. Casino Royale - the newest James Bond - was okay. This Bond was kind of different from Bonds of old - vulnerable, maybe? I liked him.

The Holiday was a good romantic comedy. Kate Winslet was especially good in it.

A couple weeks ago we watched Borat - so rude it was funny. The Departed - violent but good. And when Mark was on a business trip I watched Marie Antoinette - interesting take on the story and set in Versailles - so I'll have to order it up again sometime so he can see it.

This photo looks kind of weird - it's metal sculptures on upright posts along a walking path at the Arb. I love the sculptures - I think just sheet metal that's been cut and allowed to rust. I wish I could think of a place to do something like it in my gardens. No doubt sometime I will! (Maybe by the gate that leads to the dock??? I'll keep you posted!)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JENNI!!!! (yes I did send her a birthday email - like I'm sure she'd be bored silly by my blog - but thinking of her today and had to give a shout)

To everyone else : HAPPY FIRST DAY OF SPRING!

parlez-vous francais?

More pictures from the Keukenhof

I am taking French lessons. It is great exercise for my brain, but I need to spend more time on it outside of class. Nadine, my teacher, is from France and now lives here with her American husband and two sons. Susan also takes the class. Today Susan brought biscotti for us (VERY yummy - she made it with craisins), and Nadine sent each of us home with a half loaf of bread that she had made this morning (also yummy - Susan and I think she should show us how she makes her bread during one class). I took French in high school and college,and really found it sort of easy. Now that I am much older, it is HARD! But also fun and I'm enjoying it very much. Maybe sometime I'll attempt to do an entry in French!!

Sears delivered and installed my new dishwasher this afternoon. My old one decided to quit on me last week. The new one is very similar to my old one, but it's always fun to have new stuff!

Last night we watched A Good Year. Russell Crowe stars with a good cast, a fun, light-hearted story, and great scenery. We enjoyed it.