What a boo t full day !!! Last night the heat broke and cool air poured into the area. Today was very nice indeed. The driveway is now all dressed out in the 3/4 inch native stone and the last of the paths is being redone (they used to look better, but now they look worse - everything is relative). Sally took several rolls of film today, one primary reason being to document what color things are so at seed gathering time she now the purple from the red, etc. Cleaned out the east side a lot and mowed. Watered a bunch since it hasn't rained for several days now and it has been HOT !!! David busy doing web development and Sally sorting recent acquisitions. Then there is Wimbledon (go Andre!) and grandkids and so long to Jeremy who returned to Milwaukee after two great weeks here.

Oh dear, time flies. The solstice picnic has come and gone. The kids got so caught up in preparing for it that no time was spent recording it. David never even got out the camera. What a shame. The place was pretty spiffy, and even with the (you guessed it) rain, the party went well, with many satisfied guests. This year the beefalo burgers were wiped out, so no leftovers for the grandchildren. David promises to go out and take some pix of the current blooms and post them. There are a few more unknowns out there that need identifying, and lots of pretty old friends needing showing off.

Monday was the first sunny day and the first hot day, so off they went to sit in air conditoned restaurants and then see a film, the beautiful "Winged Migration", which is sparsely narrated but very visual, with fantastic shots of flying birds. Stopped on the way home to visit daughter and check out her great garden. Almost missed her, piling in car as she drove in.
Today it's back to the current project, which is finishing the driveway. Neighbor Steve did lots of the stone spreading until Jeremy arrived, and he finished the back in time for the party and is now doing the side which was deferred. Yesterday farmer Ronnie scalped off the top few inches and hopefully the too thick parts of the already done area can be moved over onto this last area. Looks smurfy so far. Gotta go!!!

David drove out to Milwaukee last week to visit his son and bring him back to the Berkshires for the Solstice Party coming this Saturday. All energy will now be focused on said party, so look for a link soon which will detail the preparations.
The rain continued last week and only yesterday (Monday) did a full sunny day arrive. So the window boxes will get a nice big drink sometime today.

This is such a beautfiful day. Both the kids were up early today. A nice breeeze and sunny the whole day so most bugs were not around. Most of the day spent in the vegetable garden claiming back lost edges and redoing the paths (dig, fabric, mulch). In spite of two folk working a good 7 hours, it is only half way done. Take a peek at June for pictures which are being added every few days.

The feared hernia had an overnight miracle and went away, so so long as David eschews the stone, he will be all right. Cancelled the doctor appointment and hauled weeds instead !!!!

The weekend was still cooler and spotty rain all day and night. The kids had lots of things to do out and about, so not too much got done over the weekend. David did manage to finish the prep on the driveway and Sally kept on planting window boxes and other containers.

Today the man showed up with 21 tons of 3/4 inch native stone and did the old dump and run over the high class weed barrier David put down. Then the poor old poop started spreading the stuff around and then about two hours later, called the Doctor to make an appointment for what he suspects to be an inguinal hernia. No pain or even discomfort, just a strange sensation of things moving where they never have before (don't ask!!!). So a break for the kid.

Off to figure out how to do prev and next in PHP.

Finally a great day!
David worked the western edge of the upper garden after mowing for an hour (wet grass, who cares anymore). Sally also was weeding in that area and plucking our orphans for planting elsewhere or for sale. David finally moved the last of the forsythia to where it belongs and pulled a rose out of the lawn and sent it back into the garden where it belongs. After lunch it was more containers for Sally. She did the porch hanging baskets and some of the outbuildings. Meanwhile David was busy hauling and cleaning up piles left during the rain. About 17 wheelbarrows over the edge today. Whew !!! It's never enough and hopefully the improvements last a bit. A bunch of mulch is showing up over the weekend along with some heavy duty landscaping cloth (not your normal Wal*Mart stuff). This will go down on the driveway that farmer Ronnie scuffed off a few days ago. Once the 3/4" stone arrives on Monday, the place will get real spiffy!

The rain is rather spotty, so gardening can be done. The bank path got a nice weeding the other day. The green bank also weeded. Some mowing (hard on the mower when wet).
That fox mentioned on 29 May came trotting down the road the other day right behind Sally Jane who was filling a planter at the time. David was afraid to holler out to her and scare the fox, so she missed the sighting. Momma fox came onto the lawn in front of the lilacs, then down onto the lower lawn, up thru the bank gardens and thru the western tree line into the adjacent field.

Another rainy day follows another rainy day and so this was a very wet May. Meanwhile, since unable to garden, David did the next best thing and actually implemented the php month. So now each month will come the mySQL DB and be written on the fly in php, the same as the individual pictures starting last month. Slowly the kid is catching on to this stuff. See some June pictures real soon now.