House and garden and holiday picspam

[dreamflower]

Hi all! I thought I'd post some pictures-- I haven't posted much recently. Picspam behind the cut...

	Wreath for Memorial Day/Fourth of July Here's the patriotic wreath I made. I put it up for Memorial Day, and will leave it up through the Fourth, if it doesn't get too weatherbeaten. This one was a lot of fun to make. For Memorial Day we are not putting out a lot of decorations, but just before the Fourth, we'll put up bunting and some other decorations.
	Patriotic basket I made this with the leftover ribbon and silk flowers from the wreath.
	Our flag We fly our flag most of the time anyway, but thought I'd post a pic this weekend. Memorial Day is special to both of us, as both our dads were career military. My dad was retired Air Force, and his was retired Army. Even though both of them have been gone many years now, it's still a special time to remember them.
	Peonies These peonies by the back door are blooming nicely this year. This is the first time we've had more than one or two blooms at a time on this plant.
	Shasta Daisies in bloom This is our second year for this particular Shasta daisy plant!
	My unicorn bed this year The primroses and gerbera daisies are not blooming anymore, but the lobelia and violas are doing wonderfully. The vinca and the marigolds have yet to bloom. I didn't plant marigolds in this bed this year, but had some "volunteers" come up. The spiky leaves on either side are some weird invasive vine. I'd like to pull it out, but the DH is fond of it for some reason, so I told him OK, as long as he keeps it OUT of my flower bed!
	Radishes I harvested the rest of my radishes. It's hard to see how big these things are-- I was afraid they'd get tough and woody if I let them get much bigger. The long ones were at least six inches long! We've easily had this many already, with me pulling them one at a time for salads. Fortunately radishes keep pretty well in the fridge. Still have quite a few green onions left. I wanted to plant more, but can't find where I put the rest of the setts. *sigh* The potato plants are growing nicely, but I've no idea if there are any potatoes down under them... Also harvested and ate the rest of the mesclun. Still have loads of nice sweet red lettuce growing like crazy, and three plants of green leaf lettuce that hasn't bolted yet. I planted cukes and green beans, a pepper plant, and more radishes on Saturday. Hope to get the tomatoes out of the front porch greenhouse and into the back yard Monday.
	Carrot I only had three carrots come up out of all the seeds I planted, and so far this is the only one I've harvested. It wasn't very big, as you can see, but it was quite good, and I grated it into our salads. (Because it was so small that's the only way I could divide it up between the two of us.) Still, I'm counting the carrots a success, since this is the first year I've had ANY edible ones come up!

I've been working nearly every day, fortunately short shifts, but even so, it's a chunk of time right out of the middle. *sigh* It makes it hard for me to really get things done. But at least I am off tomorrow and can go to church. The DH is working this weekend, too, though he is off on Monday. I don't know yet whether I'm off on Monday or not. But I probably will have to work.

In other news about work, we have seven new ice cream flavors! Maple Walnut, Homestyle Strawberry, Limoncella, Amaretto Peach Charlotte, Peach Sherbert, Light Key Lime Pie, and Strawberry Chocolate Chip Frozen Yogurt! So far I've only tried the Peach Sherbert and the Key Lime-- they are really scrumptious!