Ugliness Abound

The area around where I work used to be beautiful and well-coiffed with flowering trees, benches & fountains. The entire summer it has been buried in sand bags & sidewalks that I used to walk everyday are closed. Now that they are tearing the sand bags down it's getting even uglier.
With the impending implosion of a large building nearby I think it may get worse before it gets better.

All Aboard

Riding the train at Niabi Zoo.

I came across this bizarre warning while walking on River Street the other day. Scared the heck out of me the first time I heard it--then went back for the video. The weird thing is there was nothing wrong with the sidewalk.

A Whole Lotta Jumpin' Going On

Shimek Elementary

 Wednesday morning we made our way to Shimek Elementary to play on the playground. We had never been there before but had heard they had an awesome castle playground.

 

We weren't disappointed and had the place all to ourselves. Here's Mr Big Shot posing for a picture.

 

Terri and Leila jumping on the ?????????whatever it is. 

 

Snack time. 

 

 Leila stuffing her face.

 

Hello down there. 

Yard Tour

This time of year can be a challenge for us to keep up with our yard. Everything starts to get out of hand. Just the 3 hours of mowing every week can be overwhelming.

We found this voluntary vine growing out of our compost and suspect it is a pumpkin vine since I threw our pumpkin out there late last fall. Oh well--free pumpkins this year maybe.

 

 

Here are two of our four new blueberry bushes--doing well. Hoping for blueberries next year.

 

We have two mature apple trees and two new ones. There are a lot of apples on the two big trees.

 

Our golden raspberries are ready and they are delicious. 

 

Here is a shot of our asparagus gone to seed. We got lots of asparagus this year. 

 

This is a plum tree that has been here for 20 years but up until a year ago had never had any fruit on it but look at it this year! Last year it had one or two plums. Hoping for lots of plums this year.

 

 

These are not our cows but they are fun to watch from the far end of our property. This year we also added three cherry trees to our orchard. We also have a vegetable garden and a bed of rhubarb. It's fun to have a big yard but it is lots of work too.