Monday, May 26, 2008

Congratulations, Will!!

James and I went to Boston last weekend for his brother Will's graduation from Emerson College. We had a great time hanging out with the family, and we are so proud of Will's accomplishments!

Here we are at the graduation reception...














Katie, Will, and Jackie...














the brothers...














the family...














Will and his parents...














Katie, Becca, and Jackie...














James and I with his grandmother...














This was Paul Revere's grave, which we found in a cemetery near our hotel...














...and this was the grave of Mother Goose!



















The Boston common...














Some tulips on the common...

Memorial Day Garden Pictures

Our garden is doing really well, and we're very excited about how it's doing. Here are some pictures of our roses...



















These pink tea roses smell really good.














We're starting to get some color...














Our hollyhocks are starting to get tall!














This is our yellow climbing rose. The rabbits ate all the leaves off last year, but it seems to be coming back.














Some Sweet William...














One of the bowls that I made for the top of the gate.














One of the Don Juan roses...



















The roses at the front of the house.



















The urn in the garden...


































The Don Juan growing inside the garden...














More of the Sweet William...










































































The garden peonies...



















The vegetable garden...














King James surveying his kingdom...



















The dark purple clematis...

Monday, May 12, 2008

April and May Gardening

We got a lot done in our garden in the past several weeks, so I thought I'd update with some pictures.

Here's the red sails lettuce that I'm growing in a pot - still going strong.



















This was a surprise from last year - our clematis didn't do well, and we planned to pull it out, but this year, it's covered with beautiful blossoms!














The clematis growing up the trellis...



















Another surprise - we thought that our gladiolas would only last one year (the package said that they were annuals), but they are coming back in the raised bed...















These our our climbing roses outside the gate, surrounded by the white marigolds that I grew from seed.














These are the bulbs that we planted...














And here is where we planted them! The back part of this bed is FULL of lilies, dahlias, gladiolas, and other bulbs. They're surrounded by the white marigolds that I grew from seed, purple snapdragons, chrysanthemums, phlox, and white allysium. In the back are our hollyhocks, which we grew from seed last year.














Here are the tomatoes, which are starting to root out and grow more quickly.














The Sweet William came back from last year...














This is one of the garden peonies that we planted last year - look at all the blooms!



















This is a container that I planted...



















And we sprinkled zinnia seeds all over the beds in the front where the rabbits eat everything we try to grow...apparently rabbits don't like zinnias, and they're starting to sprout!

Grant's Farm

A couple of weekends ago, James and I decided to visit Grant's Farm on his day off work. Grant's Farm used to belong to Ulysses S. Grant and his wife Julia. Her father had given it to them as a wedding gift, and their farmhouse is still there. It's now owned by Anheuser Busch, and it's the home of their midwestern herd of Clydesdale horses. They also keep a bunch of other animals there in a zoo of sorts.

We stopped for a bit to watch the little kids feed the goats...















And then we watched the elephant show...















We also stopped to take a look at the bald eagles, which were injured in the wild and rescued. They just sit out in an open area, with no pen because they can't fly!