Mother's Day, French style

Last week was the French version of Mother's Day.  As I will never be French, no matter how long I live in the country, and as I no longer fulfill any kind of a Mommy role, I decided to honor myself by admiring the results of all the hard work I've recently done in my gardens. 

However, the day started off with all mothers being given flowers at church, and I think I made a rather nice interior bouquet.  I don't normally cut my garden flowers and bring them inside, so this was rather pretty on my table.

46 years and still counting

Yesterday was another landmark date in our family.  Alpine Queen and Doc Leo have achieved another year of dealing with each other as a family unit.  While neither of us knew it at the time, we got married on the 25th anniversary of D-Day, so whenever that celebrates a major milestone, we are celebrating one ourselves.  This year was just average.

So what did we do?  Any normal and sane couple would have gone out to dinner or something similar.  As we are not normal or sane, we pressure cleaned a few rock walls in the middle of a heat wave!

The wishing well

Once upon a time, I fixed up the yard space outside the kitchen into a really nice patio.  We inherited a huge but very badly pruned olive tree smack in the middle, the front edge dropped off dangerously high to the lower level, and everything was just dirt. 

We got the tree trimmed into a reasonable shape, had a great wall built to hold in the edge, and put down patio blocks to eliminate the mud.  Installed our nice table and barbeque grill, and we began to enjoy the peaceful space.

Then we ended up ruining everything.  So depressing.  But  now it's time to make the best of what we're left with.

Spring chez nous

As I was working at the bottom of our property yesterday, having to pass the whole front yard, I noticed how spring is on its way.  Most things aren't quite there yet, but I thought what we do have is rather pretty. 

So for those of you perhaps being buried under even more winter snow, I thought I'd show you the promise of what's to come.

Creating some missing curb appeal

Despite having a completely different home improvement project planned for starting after the holidays, I ended up on a roll and just completed my third garden project down at our lower parking area. 

Coming after the massive hillside project just above this area I worked on last fall, also unplanned, I'm a bit worn out in the landscaping department.  But just imagine what I may get to look at during the springtime.

A project to start the new year

After completing my Christmas project, I was enticed to continue with a New Year's project, especially considering how perfect our weather has been for such concepts. 

Apparently, all the November rain we had (five times normal) is supposed to be holding us over the rest of the winter, and all the heat we did not have in summer is trying to manifest itself in the middle of winter.

Both conditions create a perfect environment for some serious earth rearranging.  So I took advantage!

My Christmas gift to myself

I was unexpectedly able to both start and complete a little outside project that I've been wanting to do for months, just in time for Christmas.  I'm so pleased with how it turned out I thought I'd show you, too.

With a little help from my friend partner, I was able to transform a dead corner of our driveway into a bit of a showplace, despite its continuing rusticity.

Working a vertical driveway

Not only did we inherit the driveway from hell, it's done nothing but fall apart since we've been here.  Being as parts of it seem almost vertical, we can't just fill in the holes it has developed; but as I want to redesign its shape, we've never done anything very permanent to it.  As the hillside had eroded down right near its edge, part of my project was building it out a whole lot.  So now it was time to try to make some kind of a finished edge between the driveway and hillside.

A blank canvas to landscape

No, I did not fall off the face of the earth since my last post.  Nor did I fall off the side of the hill I've been working on non-stop for the past two months.  I haven't even taken the time to share with you, nor done anything else productive in my life, trying to reach a reasonable stopping point, especially before winter weather strikes.  But now I finally have an empty palette to design.  I thought you might enjoy what it took to get there.

Between a rock and a hard place

People suffer natural disasters all over the world, such as hurricanes, landslides, earthquakes, fires, etc., often losing everything they own, including their lives. 

While we suffered what I call The Disaster, it doesn't compare, and we are capable of digging ourselves out and starting over.  After a year and a half, with help from a few friends, we finally got started on that task last week.  As you might imagine, it wasn't easy, both emotionally and physically, but it's a relief to finally be making progress again.

A new home for the Babes

Once upon a time, we had an ugly hillside (we actually had nothing but ugly hillsides everywhere).  Right outside our kitchen and main outside dining area, there was this ancient falling down chicken coop and nothing but wild irises all over the hillside. 

It was such an eyesore, I had such grand visions, we finally decided to realize those visions.

Classy babes

Isn't she lovely?  Isn't she wonderful?  (To quote a certain Stevie Wonder.)  We got her in May 2007, the week before Doc Leo came down with a problem in his neck that put him in the hospital for six months.  At first, we wondered if trying to get her out of the car is what did him in.  (It wasn't.)

At the time, we were spending a lot of time in Italy, the Doc had a lot of jobs in Rome and it was easier to drive than fly, so we were checking out all statue places we came across, as that was a theme we wanted for our property.  One time, we found this place that supplies the whole world.  Not only did they have good prices, but we could also provide our own transportation, so we did.

May flowers

March winds bring April showers.  April showers bring May flowers.  What do May flowers bring?  Pilgrims!