Weeding, Mulching, Rain and Miss Marple

The last week and a half or two around here has been spent working on the yard. I've been weeding the large flower garden (which is finally pretty much finished!). Mom and Dad went out on Saturday and got some mulch and put some of it down. Still more to go, but we're having lots of rain and big storms. The lawn needs to be mown again, but it's awfully hard to do with puddles all over the place.

We went out on Sunday afternoon and took a few pictures around the yard. It was quite beautiful that day and Oliver wanted to come so badly that we took him along. Elizabeth carried him around and let him smell the flowers. He's not allowed to get down and walk around by himself, of course, as we live much to close to the road --- as well as not wishing to take any chance of a little kitty like him getting fleas or something. :) He's so wonderful!





The peonies have had a good year, and between rains I've been able to cut some for a vase in the house. The weather has been rather good this year, as we have had rain and the temperatures have stayed down. Only a few hot days so far, which is nothing to complain about after the horrible Summer we had last year!



Last week, Mr. and Mrs. Keultjes came up to cut flowers for the wedding. They were making wildflower center-pieces for the tables, so they came on their way down to get daisies, asparagus greenery, privet hedge, Japanese Willow bush stems and Snow-on-the-Mountain. We cut four big buckets of stuff, which they loaded into the trailer. It's been a perfect year for flowers.

Elizabeth and I are trying to get caught up on the miniature Poirot and Miss Marple dolls. We managed to finish a Poirot last week (between yard work and all) and it sold after one hour of being listed on eBay. So, we're trying to catch up and actually get some ready-made stock --- instead of just offering custom orders. We redesigned our Miss Marple doll. New colors, new hat, new purse. This one is SO cute! We were really pleased with the handbag, in particular.

1950s swimming star, Esther Williams, died last Thursday. That's kind of like the end of an era. We got The Columbus Dispatch obituary, and thanks to Jerry (who went "newspaper shopping") we're expecting The L.A. Times and The New York Times in the mail! Guess some scrapbooking will be in order on one of the upcoming weekends. More later.