Before I can leave for vacation

I have to take pictures of the garden. I will be missing it.



These stately sunflowers marking the entrance into the yard... planted by birds. I bought and planted 5 packets of fancy sunflowers. One plant is coming up. The birds, however, grab some seeds to eat from the feeders, sit on the fenceposts and spill seeds. And theirs grow into small trees.



The keyhole bed, finally looking mature and lush. I love the delphiniums.



The lily bed, just getting ready to bloom. We'll miss the height of the display this year.



The front border, lush with lilies and salvia.



I love the combination here: coreopsis moonbeam, purple sedum, iris, yellow lilies, and salvia.

The essential problem with basements

Things we found while looking for the binoculars:

The box with Gabi’s shorts and our garden t-shirts (it’s only July).

The box and carrying case for the binoculars, both empty.

A ceiling fan, in a box, which we'd both forgotten about, but after finding it again we remember bringing it with us when we moved from our apartment. Almost eleven years ago. Guess it's a good thing we didn't buy that one at Home Depot.

Several dishtowels that got left under other laundry on the pool table.

The screws and such for the awnings, carefully labeled, which we’ve been looking for since spring ’07, which we both clearly remembered putting in a special place when we put it away in the fall of ’06. That special place turned out to be the top shelf of the food pantry. Why, we don’t know.

One of the lens protectors for the binoculars, in a separate place from the case.

Four large, empty boxes for computers, some of which we don’t own anymore.

My graduation gown from the U of Montana, Missoula, with the cap, tassel, and gold cord. We added it to our other grad gowns, which means we now have at least five of them somehow. We're not sure how that has happened, particularly since we can only find two caps.

Our shoes, worn just once, from our stint as bridesmaids.

So far, we have not found the binoculars. We might just buy new ones.

So much to do

In three days we leave for vacation.

In twelve days we're getting married in California.

After that is, in Karyn's words, the "marital bliss road trip."

So much to do. I've been wanting to blog, drafting essays in my head, pondering quotes and topics to chat about. But no time.

This is how I feel.

(BTW, re photo credits: This image came to me in an e-mail from our friend Donna who finds the craziest stuff ever in her Internet forays. No idea where it came from originally.)