More yard work.

We have had a very busy summer trying to get our front yard in presentable shape.  We’re just about there we think.  According to our neighborhood we’re definitely getting closer because we have gotten lots of comments from people driving or walking by, probably very grateful we’re finally doing something about our yard.  Next year we will hopefully do the backyard and roof.  So much to do—it never seems to end.

Elna LOVES tomatoes.  She picks our grape tomatoes and eats them straight from the vine and makes a mess!

There’s a story about the picture above.  After this picture I took Elna down from the ladder like a good parent should do, and then our neighbor Doris Dobis (we love saying her name—its one of those names you have to say both first and last together.  Her first and last name are spelled the same except for the middle letter.) started talking to me and Elna started climbing again without me noticing.  Suddenly, Brian (who is higher now than the picture shows) starts screaming because she was touching his foot.  She was a good 10 feet up the ladder.  I ran over, but by the time I got there she had slipped and was holding herself up entirely by her arm strength.  Apparently she is a strong girl because she did not fall.  

Elna romping around in the jungle that is our  backyard.

While Brian did this one Saturday:

Elna did this:

These two have the sweetest relationship.  Love them!

This is Brian’s first attempt to flatten the ground to ready it for planting seed.

Elna was happy to help.

But this is how she really wanted to help.

This was Brian’s second attempt to flatten the ground:

I can’t get enough of Brian’s smile—love those lines by his eyes when he smiles.

After the fiasco of cementing our walkway I thought we were done with cement for a while, but Brian had other ideas and decided to take up cementing again to build this curb a few weeks ago.  It turned out so well.  I love how Brian is willing to attack all sorts of projects, even if he has never done it before.

Last weekend we finally finished planting the grass, Brian planted a row of boxwoods near the mailbox that will eventually become a hedge we hope, and the finishing touch was painting the mailbox a shiny black and staining the mailbox post:

Before

After planting.

Funny story about when we painted our mailbox…our neighbors thought it would be fun to paint theirs too, which I totally understand because it’s such an easy and cheap makeover project.  They hadn’t painted it yet in the picture above, but if we had another after picture you would see a bright shiny purple mailbox.  Doris Dobis lives with her daughter and her family.  Her daughter is obsessed with purple—as in their house is painted a light purple, her hair is tinted magenta/purple, her makeup is all purple, and everything she wears is purple: purple shirts paired with purple jeans, purple shoes and socks.  In fact, I’m certain I have never seen her wearing something that isn’t purple.  Where does one shop for such things? 

See?  My only regret is that I didn’t capture her purple socks and purple dansko shoes.  The car got in the way and I was trying to stay hidden.

And a few weeks later we have grass: