Backyard therapy

Over the summer I started landscaping our backyard.  I dug a french drain in front of the existing patio and out to behind our yard and covered it with river rock.   My sister helped me level and set in a new patio area with inexpensive red blocks:

And I created a dry river bed of rocks to channel the rain around the big tree.  The garden has grown beautiful and lush.  I was starting to prepare to put some sod on the remaining ground when we got the news - the new owners of our apartment complex are planning to take down the back yard fences.  No!!!!!!!

We've gone to them as a family with a letter asking to keep our backyard, and we continue to petition each time we are in the office.  Apparently the issue is under consideration, but until we know for sure my project is on hold.  I will be heartbroken to lose the private backyard - it is so good to be able to send the girls outside and know that they are safe, besides having a place for Tabitha Twitchit and for me to have a place where I can "get away" without even leaving home.

While we wait to know if we will get to keep it or not I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible.

While we wait to know if we will get to keep it or not I'm trying to enjoy it as much as possible.  We get to observe so much life on our little space.  The girls will often call me to come outside and see what new discovery they've made, and I try to remember to grab my camera on my way out.

Grasshopper

Sunflower

Ant

Southern Leopard Frog

These big swallowtails would come by and spend several hours in our yard, slowly working their way from flower to flower, and sometimes there would be several at a time.  (I don't have a photo of our hummingbirds - they stop by daily for the canna flowers)

Zebra Swallowtail 

Tiger Swallowtail

Moonflower bud 

Moonflower (opens at dusk)

Elephant Ear

Canna Lily leaf

Tree frog

Birds Nest Fungi

Snail (I don't really like snails, but I liked the patterning on his shell)

another Tree Frog (we see lots of lizards too, but they are too fast to photograph!)

raindrops on an Elephant Ear

Zigzag Garden Spider

And there are plenty more butterflies,

and lots of bees too.

But the most exciting thing in our backyard are the fairies - I was lucky to catch this one hiding behind an Elephant Ear! 

What Do People Do All Day?

There's no story behind these photos - it is just her favorite book, and I thought she was pretty cute sitting during quiet time with her big book.

The Imperial Moths emerged!

I totally forgot to post these back in July when it happened!  Our Imperial Moth caterpillar/moths survived and emerged!  I was thinking that they would some out in August, so when the first one came out just before we left for NC at the end of June I was surprised!  We took the other pupae with us to the coast so we could watch them.  We didn't get to see any of them actually come out, but we got to see the pupa squirming a lot:

and we got to see them stretch out their wings after they emerged.  They were beautiful!

When they first come out they have to pump out their wings.  It took this one about 30 minutes:

Contra Dancing with Oma and Opa

When the girls visit my parents in north Georgia they get to go contra dancing with them.  Back in May a friend of my parents took a video of them at a practice dance.  Nora is with my mom and Elsa is with my father - they are both wearing the beautiful twirly dresses my mom made them for dancing and for Oktoberfest in their town.  Watch carefully for the special move that Elsa and Opa made up - instead of doing a simple "swing", they have a "flying fairy swing"!

Alabama Farmers Market

There are several high-end farmers markets around us, but I finally got out to the "real" (and much cheaper!) farmers market that's just north of Birmingham.  It is mostly a wholesale market for grocery stores, but they have some retail booths set up as well.  The girls now love okra and beg for it whenever we see it.  

They are impressed with the bunches of collards I pick out, but it ranks high on their "foods that make me want to cry" list.  I'm gonna keep working on my recipe.  They especially loved watching the pea shelling machines at the market, and we bought some beautiful pink-eyed peas to shell at home.

Beatrice thought that her toes were the tastiest thing at the market.

 

The girls thought they were really pretty, and I had visions of us sitting together, chatting on the back porch happily shelling peas.  Well, after the first 20 pods the novelty had worn off, but we still managed to get through the whole basket!

 Pink eyed peas!

My new skill

I would cost us twice a much to have Gideon shaved here in Birmingham compared to Medford, so we weren't going to do it.  But by the time August rolled around both he and we were miserable with all his fur.  So I bought a pet shaver for a fraction of the price it would cost at a groomer, watched a video and said a prayer.  

It worked!  And both he and I survived!  It was a bit uneven, but in a week it had grown enough you couldn't tell.  Gideon doesn't like getting shaved, but he behaved well enough, and I think he feels so much better when it is done.  He's so much more affectionate when he's shaven!

I was rather proud of Gideon's haircut, but the girls were way more amused with the pile of fur than with the shaved cat.