Carolyn has found a couple of computer classes she wants to take. Right around the corner at the college. Piece o’cake. Audrey, on the other hand, would be better served by art classes, but she’s in an odd spot. She’s too old for kids’ classes, too young for adult classes, and most of the teen classes are for crafts – not her speed. So I did find a few places that offer fine arts – drawing, oil painting, etc., for teen level. . .40 minutes away in Monmouth County. We’ll have to see, have to keep looking. *sigh*

In the meantime, I have more shrubs to move and plants to plant, and when the contractor starts the exterior work on the house, we’ll have to ask him to rent a slightly larger dumpster than he had planned. We have much clutter and debris that would look better in the trash than around the house. Oh, and did I mention we have a frog living in the pond? Hubby said it would eat some of our smaller fish, but I’m OK with that. We have more fish than we know what to do with.

Springhill Gardens, one of the few mail order plant sources I’ll use, sent me replacements for the ferns that didn’t come up before. I had a different idea of where to plant them while I was waiting, so it was kind of good that the first batch was a dud. We also went out and bought two arbors to frame the slate patio, and I’m trying to germinate some Grandpa Ott’s morning glories and some moonflowers to climb up both of them. The moonflowers are much pickier than morning glories.

I wanted to have some other angles, but they all show too many works in progress. Oh, well.

This area is filling in nicely, too. I can hardly wait until the rhododendrons to either side of the azaleas catch up. It’ll be stunning.

The kids were home for a week. Today they went back to school. The weather is nasty, I’m waiting for a phone call from the bank. Got some laundry going, almost done with the dishwasher, but I’m still in my nightgown in front of the computer. It’s quiet, I still have plenty of time to do stuff, and none of the cats has gotten sick or brought in any presents. Mmmmm.

I’ve been busy all week, and did a lot of things in the garden. Oh, wait, glimpsiness of sunshine! Have some pictures!

We’re going to have some work done on the house, so I was moving things away from the outside. One of those things is the pile of wood that will eventually become a fort for the kids. Yucky looking. So I killed two birds with one stone and moved plants away from the foundation to the base of the tree. They’re small now, but by the end of the summer not only will they make a nice visual vignette, but they’ll disguise the fort (or pile of wood, depending on how dedicated we are.) Hiding our neighbor’s shed is another matter entirely.

We also started up the waterfall on Sunday, after much cleanup of leaves and debris. I repotted the aquatic plants, and hubby had the misfortune of having to get into the pond and place them on the bubbler in the center. The sedum and lilies in the front were moved from the foundation, as well. They nicely cover the awkward space between the patio and the raised end of the pond.

From the slate patio you can see a little of the new plantings. I’m working on weaving the ivy onto the rest of the chain link fence. The way it’s growing, there should be a real difference by the end of summer. To the left of the pond in this picture, I’ll be moving more slate to make a smaller patio/seating area. The backyard isn’t huge, but by the time I’m done it’ll be a lovely place to sit around or wander through the individual “garden rooms”.

I think I’ll start a new category for these pictures and posts. There should be a lot of changes around here this year.