GOING WITH THE FLOW

Sometimes you just have to roll with the punches and go with the flow. That's been me for the past week. I have been swamped at work covering both my caseload and that of the other paralegal and I have been sick with an awful cold.

After making it through the previous several years without getting sick, I made up for it and the last two I have been sick with, have knocked me down hard. Today, I am finally feeling (SO MUCH) better, though my cough is still lingering. Considering how I felt just three days ago, I feel amazingly healthy today!


Speaking of going with the flow...check out our garden! I went out to water our garden this morning and snapped some photos to share. I am astounded at how quickly it is growing! I swear it has grown several inches in the past few days. We have lots of flowers blooming on our yellow squash, cucumber and green peppers. We already have a couple of tomatoes and more promised with lots of tiny yellow flowers everywhere!



Here are our herbs and better photos of my vintage spoon garden markers.

See those tiny buds on our green bell peppers?

More luscious strawberries ready for the pickin'! And eating!

Our first Celebrity tomato.

Our cucumber blooms are promising a bountiful harvest!

And last, but not least, a peek at our yellow squash blooms. Look how much it's grown! Having grown squash before, I know how monstrous these dudes get! I can't wait for steamed squash this summer!

It's cool and cloudy today with bits of sun peeking out. Now that I have updated my neglected blog, its time for me to get cracking on some other important stuff. Like my nails...they need fills and polish. A girl's gotta do what a girl's gotta do...right?

Have a beautiful day!

DOWNTOWN DELUGED

I got this photo from Dave Whitley's blog over at Iron Tamer. What a stark contrast to the photo I posted yesterday which I took on one of our visits to Nashville.

I am speechless everytime I see a new photo of the flooding and damage. Please continue to keep the people of Nashville in your thoughts and prayers.

NASHVILLE ON MY MIND

The recent rain and flooding in Nashville has been devastating to so many. We could only helplessly watch the news and speak to our friends who live in the area, thankful that they were affected minimally.

Others have lost much more. Many have been evacuated from their homes and businesses and tragically, some have lost their lives.

Nashville, we are keeping you in our thoughts and prayers as you recover and rebuild.

GARDEN UPDATE AND UPGRADE

Yesterday was a perfect weather day for working in our yard. The sun was out, there was a slight breeze and we were looking forward to being outside --a 71 degree day.

We had some plants that needed to be replaced and we really wanted to improve the acccess to our garden via our side yard. The bark was very messy and we were continually tracking it onto the patio, plus it was not very "bare feet friendly", and let me be honest, I am barefoot a lot of the time.

With some leftover brick and large rocks that we already had, we formulated a plan. We purchased some pea pebble, a few more stepping stones and plants--some for replacing and some for sprucing up the fence line in the side yard--and got to work. Here is a peek at our finished walkway and stone surround for established plants.

Another view of the side yard and new walkway. We added three star jasmine plants and day lillies, seen on the left and placed our bird bath in the middle of our new plants.

Our garden is flourishing and doing really well. Everything has really taken off and has almost doubled in size in the past two weeks since we planted the garden.

We have harvested a few strawberries already and I can't wait for the rest of our garden to start producing!

I purchased some cute garden markers for my herbs and I love them! They are silver plated spoons that are etched with the names of my herbs: thyme, rosemary, mint and basil. I found them on Etsy from Monkees always Look. Check out Allison's beautiful items!

How does your garden grow? Wishing you all days of sunshine and lots of happy gardening!

STAGECOACH 2010

2010 was our first year to attend Stagecoach, but it will not be our last! We arrived home Monday afternoon and as I unpacked our bags, I was already thinking about next year's show.

We drove to our hotel in La Quinta Friday afternoon and checked in and took a stroll to our very favorite mexican restaurant there. Las Casuelas Quinta. We always eat at one of the Las Casuelas restaurants whenever visit the Palm Springs area.

I love their salsa! I could eat it with a spoon. Really, I could. It's that good. But, we ate it with chips and ordered a side of guacamole and sipped on ice cold Margaritas.

The days were warm with temperatures of 88 degrees the first day and 92 on the second day. But there were plenty of places to get ice cold refreshments and find shade to sit or stand in at the festival. After breakfast at the hotel we wandered out poolside and enjoyed the sunny clear morning and at noon, we showered and dressed for our day at Stagecoach.

I have to commend the organizers for how well everything was set up. We got through the front gates and the search of our bags, showing our tickets and getting our wristband at the 'check ID' tent very quickly. Once inside, we were surprised that we didn't have to stand in any long lines for anything!! There were plenty of places to find cold bottled water, and all of the drinks were kept in ice filled coolers. Which is important when it is 92 degrees outside and you are thirsty. Just sayin....

The barbeque (pork and beef) sandwiches we had for dinner Saturday night were fresh, hot and delicious! Can you say yum?

On Day 1, we heard Joey & Rory, Phil Vassar, Billy Currington, Sugarland and Keith Urban. There were lots of screens and speakers around the fields, so we never missed out. The first day, we secured a spot directly in front of a big screen and enjoyed our "front row seats"! This is one view of the "Mane Stage".


On Day 2, we met up with some other friends who had arrived earlier and secured an open space with room for all of us closer to the stage. We met some of the people around us and had a blast people watching in between the acts. We heard Heidi Newfield, Jason Aldean, and Brooks & Dunn, who by the way, put on the best show of the weekend and came back out for an encore.

We were closer to the Mane Stage on Sunday, but also had this view of a screen to the left of our seats, as well.

After such a great weekend of good music and beautiful weather, I can't wait to get our tickets for Stagecoach 2011! Yeehaw!