{"id":16616,"date":"2024-07-30T08:38:38","date_gmt":"2024-07-30T12:38:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/?p=16616"},"modified":"2024-07-30T09:42:32","modified_gmt":"2024-07-30T13:42:32","slug":"summer-gardening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/?p=16616","title":{"rendered":"Summer Gardening and more"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ughh. I’m sorry I have been so quiet for so long. Huge hugs to the folks that emailed to check on me since I hadn’t posted in an unusually long time. Yes, I am still doing sessions a few days a week (and had several long AMAZING sessions recently) but I have also been staying pretty busy enjoying the heck out of my yard and gardens. I really love landscaping and gardening and, even though I’ve had no formal training and often kind of just “wing it”, I am pretty proud of it at the moment. Sure there are a few areas that could use some serious redesign and thinning out, (and I am going to be doing more of that soon) but for the most part I LOVE that I generally always have something in bloom. I think my English mum would be impressed. <huge grin><\/p>\n\n\n\n

She is responsible for my love of gardening and yet that was not always the case. I remember when I was a kid and spring time would roll around and all I wanted to do was lay around and watch Saturday or Sunday morning cartoons, but mum would announce that it was time to head off to the nursery. I would inwardly groan because I knew that we were going to spend the entire morning picking flats of pansies and impatiens and then spend the rest of the day (and sometimes the next) digging holes and planting them. (cue exasperated pre teen whiney – GROAN!) But now with my dear mom long gone I look back on those times I spent with her in the garden and they were probably some of my happiest memories with her. It was generally just the two of us because my brother and sister were younger and relatively useless – haha. Those are now cherished memories of my favorite mother \/ daughter days. \ud83d\ude42 Go figure eh?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyway, yes – there is stuff I am working on this summer – sprucing up and upgrading partially because I have had the time and energy, and partially because I got some lovely new retired neighbors on my right side, and THEY have been doing an AMAZING job replanting the little strip of land between us. He was a very experienced gardener in his younger days and it looks so dang nice there, now he is inspiring me to pick his brain and maybe I need to up my game a bit. (Nothing like a little healthy competition eh?) Haha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also re-stained the front porch and back deck as well as my lovely little rocket and potting bench and<\/em> in a couple of weeks we are going to be getting a new wooden fence to replace the all but rotted one on the right side of our yard! Thirteen 6 by 8 foot cedar panels and a bunch of pressure treated 4 x 4s are being delivered Aug 6th. It is going to be a difficult project because our ground is really rocky and the fence line has a LOT of huge tree roots as well but it will save us about $6,000 doing it ourselves and my darling Brett and I work pretty well together – most of the time. \ud83d\ude42 We will definitely be taking our time and only doing a panel or two at a time but I am looking forward to it because even if I could afford to just write checks to have stuff done – I REALLY love when we are able to do a thing ourselves and say – yup we did that! \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, this week have been reflecting on how much we have already done around here because I came across some old photos that show what this place looked like when we first bought it. Check out this gallery of before and after pics and see what we have accomplished in 14 years. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
The house originally had 2 front porches, no shutters and no landscaping at all!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The back yard was nothing but dead dirt and asphalt because it had been used as a parking lot for years. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
View of the dead dirt back yard – the first year we put a table and chairs on top of an old carpet so we could eat and not be in the mud.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The side yard <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
We built this deck the second year here <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
The slope where I decided to put my water feature garden. That was a LOT of very hard work to dig out<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Another view of the future pond area and the failed asphalt we had removed. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
This was the newly finished pond in 2013 maybe? <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
the following year we added another wooden deck that lasted 11 years or so.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Then came the hot tub tent – <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
My fledgling firepit area \ud83d\ude42 <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a>
Brand new cedar arbor – replaced last week<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

We get a lot of wildlife visitors to our yard living in the Litchfield Hills … some welcome – some not so much. \ud83d\ude42 I’ll let you guess which are which – hahaha<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"A<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I am just going to slip this mini gallery in of our first kayak trip of the season – it did not go as well as I would have liked. Nuff said – lol<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

I also want to thank Glenn for this very thoughtful addition to my memorial garden. \ud83d\ude42 I definitely cried a bit but in a good way. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here are a few obligatory recent selfies and one play pic I particularly like. \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And finally, I had the privilege of having lunch with Lady Isis yesterday! She had contacted me about very generously donating some toys from her collection to me since she has retired and was cleaning out some closets. It was a really delightful afternoon, she is smart, funny and really fun to talk with and I was delighted to learn we had some common interests besides kink. \ud83d\ude42 I hope to spend time with her again one day soon. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a>
Some lovely new whips, crops, restraints etc <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Ok that is all for today but I promise to be back relatively soon with a couple of concert reports! I am attending one tonight and a festival on Sat!! Woooohoooo!! \ud83d\ude42 Happy dance!!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ughh. I’m sorry I have been so quiet for so long. Huge hugs to the folks that emailed to check… Read more Summer Gardening and more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16690,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general-blogging"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/20240506_165503-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1920&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16690"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sxysadist.com\/MainSite\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}