Life was busy, slightly insane, but has lead to wonder and new experiences. My job was crazy busy all year, but then just got crazy. Decided the universe wanted some changes so quit my job, went out and found another closer to home. Age is an asset when you are a Special Education teacher. Four job offers ain't bad. I took a job teaching the same grade levels (kinder through 2nd). Am excited to start all the busyness again in August at a new school, minutes from home. Until then I will try to get my garden a little under control. Here is a new addition to our family. Another wonderful "used", apartment raised guy. We call him Jaxon, or Lumbering Jack. Having a yard to run in and squirrels to bark at are new experiences for this old guy. The garden has little fences around the beds again to teach Jaxon to use the paths. Here are some little pics of the backyard and hosta/woodland area that will give you only a general idea of the chaos that is our yard. The two Hugelkultur beds are doing well. Have already harvested zukes, cauliflower, and lettuce and need to replant some more seeds today. I also added another layer of bricks to the edging containment so only one of the old filbert tree trunks is showing. Calendula, nasturtiums, tomatoes and a few perennials cover up the brick face of this enormous raised bed. I made steps and wood or brick paths to get up to maintain the parts I can't reach from the sides. I lead two Meetup groups. I fell into the first, a laughter yoga group, when our leader moved to Seattle. Ever in Olympia on a Monday you will have to come join us at Priest Point Park, by the Rose garden. It is a beautiful park, large old trees, picnic areas with access to Puget Sound. Laughter yoga is the best and doing it outside is fantastic. The other Meetup is a gardening group I started this last spring. The first meeting was at a local food forest and community garden. Oops! I missed the first meeting! We had the fourth meeting yesterday at my home. Asked for people interested to bring boxes and take home perennials from an area we are turning into a little lawn space. Also taken away were plants encroaching on the paths, and other plants that needed to be contained. What a wonderful win-win. One friend even wanted pink water lilies so a little pond got cleaned out.. How wonderful to find new friends that share a passion for plants. Didn't they do a nice job of removing plants from the bed below? We will weed whack the rest after I remove a couple of speedwell plants. Think I will tackel hedging the privet today so this will get cleaned up this weekend. Well, nothing is ever static in the garden. Hopefully lots of fun, joy and laughter is being experienced by all my Stewbie friends. Love to all!
Looking good Jewell! What is the name of that giant Hosta? I am still waiting for my Empress Wu to get big like that one! Cute new furry companion!
Netty, the large hosta is Sum and Substance. So sorry your Empress Wu hasn't grown like you expected.
Hi Jewell,..nice to see you and your garden again,..congrats on the new garden friends and great to have them clear out what you don't want,..hoping you do well with the Yoga. Jaxon must be over the moon with a new owner and all kinds of wonderful sights to see around your garden,..what a wonderful change from an Apartment for him,..well done Jewell and congrats on giving him a new life.
Philip, Jaxon does like lumbering around the back yard. "Squirrel!" Stratsmom, flower beds to lay in and "Squirrel"! The baby squirrel has nothing to fear except his bark, since speed is not a strong suit for Jaxon at this time.
Jewell it's lovely to hear your news and see you photographs. If your garden can ever be described as chaos I better not show you mine as it's never going to be as lovely as yours. Hey maybe I should invite folks around to take away some of my plants too. However, knowing me I'd soon replace them and the garden would be as overcrowded as it is again in no time. I'm so glad Jaxon now has a life that he can be either indoors or outside. Apartment dogs are fine as long as they get plenty of walks outdoors on a daily basis. He must be so glad you found him so that he can spend the rest of his life simply enjoying himself.
Sometimes older dogs can be hard to place in forever homes, I am glad you gave him an opportunity to run and play in the open. Not sure why but my dogs have never gone in my flower beds..I never did anything special, they just stayed out. I do catch them smelling the blooms that are within their reach...I did have to tell Isabella to quit licking a plant. I wasn't sure if it was a poisonous one that I have in a small pot... Sometimes life is crazy busy and at times it can slow down to nothing, hopefully yours will slow down some but would you really enjoy it that way? Some people just like it busy ..... Your pictures are beautiful and with your group meetings, a lot of friends can develop. Which is great...you can never have enough friends. Good luck with your new class, that is such a neat age to work with.
Eileen, having a helping hand emptying a few plants from an area was a blessing for all of us. I managed to move a few more plants with the encouragement of having so many plants out of the way. Jaxon is a character and is learning about paths, edible fruits and berries. Some one also caught and killed a mole. Although Jaxon is pretty good at catching and supplementing his diet with flies I doubt he was the demise of the poor mole. Sjoerd, I am afraid Jaxon is one of those dogs that is probably smarter than his owners. Fortunately for us someone did put a bit of fear into him previously. When faced with an upset person he does back away...from the plate of your food he was about to devour or the visitor his owners wish to come in and not devour Sherry, I am looking at one more year of crazy busy, but that is ok. A new job site will be fun not to mention a very short commute. After this next year I will be able to choose my pace. I won't "retire" (mainly because I really don't know what that means) but I will be changing some priorities. Meetups have been a great way to bring new friends into my life. Something about working 10 hour days limits socializing, but I am making time for friends during my short work weeks.
