Bat #2

Can you spot the bat in this photo?

Hint: He's near the center of the photo.

Meet Our Christmas Tree, Abraham!

Yup, we named our tree Abraham... but not because he's tall and skinny.  He's rather buff, actually.

It's no secret that I love woodland things like mushrooms and these little birds.

Stars, hearts and silver angels are all over our happy little tree.

One of my favorites - from my sweet bridesmaids the Christmas we were engaged.

Every tree needs a bare-chested mermaid!  This one was given to us by my mum.  Great find!

Tiny Touches

Nasty little crescent moon left behind by the old owners...

Turns into a happy little mushroom!

From Anthropologie

Organic Details

We have lots of moss happily cropping up between the bricks in our walkway.

and even two different kinds. 

Joey says he's grown this rose just for me.

 In reality, it is a nice little surprise from the old owners.  

This is one brave little leggy rose.  The only blossom on the bush.

Smells yummy too

IRENE!

We survived the earthquake unscathed, but weren't so lucky when Irene tore through.

At 3:00pm on Saturday I was on the phone with mum talking about our wild storm when Joey and I heard a huge crack coming from the front of the house.  We ran to look out of the windows and saw this.

A gigantic limb (about 1/2 of the tree, really) from our maple in the front yard had snapped off and fallen onto our hedges, our power lines, and out into the road.

Our poor hedge!

The big limb wasn't our only worry.  The whole yard was a mess.

We'll have to have a professional tree trimmer come take care of the remaining limb.

Sunday was surprisingly nice out, so we worked our tushies off to get things back in shape.  The grass will look much better once it's been seeded this fall.  Actually, it was seeded Saturday morning - it's been RE-seeded after since I'm sure everything was washed away with the torrential downpour from Irene.

The rain hasn't really stopped since.  

Garden warriors

The Baldwins return... 

Thank goodness!

Superstars

Another day in the yard and we've mulched more of the yard, sprayed more of the weeds, and put 3 more little boxwoods in the ground.

Rugs!

And we finally have rugs.  With rug pads.  That are sewn together.

 

Take 2 9'x12' rugs and one 6'x9' and you get the perfect rug with a cutout for our fireplace!

Hand sewn together with house twine.

Here's an update on the boxwoods.  They look pretty healthy and happy.  

Our "monkey grass" is coming back in though...

Next up, two smaller boxwoods in big, pretty planters 

where our little basil plants currently are.

Our grass is "under construction" currently.  We'll have a lush yard by fall!

We had our hedge trimmed up so it doesn't look too wild.  

We will proabably do some more aggressive pruning in the fall to get it to grow in thicker.

TAWANDA!  

Joey found me out back one evening after work with mud smeared all over, hair wild and full of sticks and leaves.  I had attacked this huge cloud of pepto-pink azaleas.  We had a bit too much pinky pink going on back there... so I took care of it.  The hope was to leave them in a state that would be transplantable.  Joey is rather skeptical.

Despite some pretty regular pruning for pizzas our basil plants are thriving!

Mum and Dad, Super Gardners

I got a little too carried away with Joey's haircut - sorry!

We took out all of the scrubby little bushes and weeds in front of our hedge

Left in the wake of the weed-whacker and mower - cleaned up and ready to sprout fresh, new leaves

Our heroes

New boxwoods and mulch!!  

More boxwoods to spruce up the front of our house

Baby basil plants in pots with our seating "card" from Graham and Candice's wedding

No more scrubby stuff or weeds in the shade of our front hedge along Cary

Home sweet home just got a little neater.  

Just wait 'til we paint it white!  (or whitewash... can't decide)

THANK YOU, MUM AND DAD!  We couldn't have done all of this work without you!!!