Summer Finally Arrived

 It looked doubtful during the month of June but we finally started to have summer weather in July. August is typically cooler and rainy but the first week was great. 

Unfortunately the forecast for the rest of the month is typical August weather.  

I’ve made great progress on my rockwork around the hill constructed as our septic drain field. 

Here is where I am as of this morning.

For me, this blog is a way to journal about my projects so I'm going to get pretty detailed about my rockwork. Below is Day 2 of my rockwork for 2023. I started at the tree at the bottom left and met up with the tree in the center…where I ended my rockwork in 2022.

Day 5 of the rockwork got me past two venting pipes for the septic system.

Day 6. My process is to scrape off the layer of grass and then lay down cardboard to block out the weeds. I have a great pile of gravel that I use as the underlayment for the big rocks. I had a blog reader several years ago suggest using the gravel as the base for my rockwork. She changed my world! So thankful for that huge tip. 

My personal goal is to move at least 10 substantial rocks per work day. The hardest part is getting started so I almost always start by just thinking...it's only 10 rocks. Of course...most of the time I move more than 10.

Day 7 and 8 involved a lot of pondering about how to add in a planting bed.

Just as I finished the rockwork for the planting bed my local garden nursery cut prices on perennials and annuals by 50-percent. 

This is a mostly shaded area and I wanted perennials here. I did a mass planting of coral bells. I had great success with this perennial at my last house...we'll see how it does here. 

The view from the bottom of the hill.

And another view from the bottom of the hill. This was all started just last summer. 

I set three tubs. I have a thing for using these metal tubs I get at Home Depot. These gorgeous hot pink impatiens are so fun and part of the big sale at my local nursery.

I don't have much rock left to work with this summer so my goal is to get what rock I have into place above the impatiens. 

And I just wanted to highlight a photo below from June 18th of one of my perennial beds.

This is the same area this morning, August 6th.

Maybe just one more plant photo. This is one of my planters on my deck. All of my deck planters are at their peak right now. Pretty spectacular. Our summers are so short but we get a lot of action during it.

Oh yes...I know you are wondering if we had any bear visits. But of course! I even managed a photo and a video.  I was sitting on my computer when I spotted this little black bear walking along the dog kennel that is outside my sewing room door.

My dogs were napping and had no idea we had a visitor. It’s so nice when critters cooperate for videos. 

I will do a post in a day or two that covers my progress on quilting and hand stitching.