Sunday Stroll

After a rainy day spent in front of the sewing machine I needed to get out for some air and the dogs needed some energy drained. So I set out for our typical nightly walk but half way through I decided to check out a more scenic route along the water. I had never tried it with the two of them because there tend to be more people out on their after dinner walks with their dogs and our dogs always want to meet and play with every dog they see along the way so that makes for a very stressful, aggravating walk for me, not to mention how embarrassing they can be as they usually succeed in pulling me along!

It actually ended up not being that bad, if anything it's good for their leash training. And it's just about as long as our usual walk, for some reason I always thought it was going to be much longer. So now we have a new route to add to our list of walks!

Oliver was just so excited! He was dying to get down to check out the water, most likely just for a drink but... maybe we'll have a water dog after all!

When we got back I went around the yard to check out how everything was holding up in all the sogginess that has been our summer.

Our Hydrangea Tree is blooming! By the end of the week all the flowers should be in blossom.

The Lilies I got from Christmas Tree Shop are not fairing so well. I planted about 25 bulbs, 17 grew but only 3 have buds, these are the two that are currently in bloom. Hopefully next year more than 3 will produce flowers! At least each stalk has 2-3 flowers on it.

The grass Dave worked so hard on is all grown in! It looks great! I wish I had "before" pictures from last year when we moved in. Dave and our friend Tim spent a good day ripping out this entire side of our yard that was overgrown with weeds, pricker bushes, vines, small trees, you name it, it was probably in there! So this spring Dave tilled it, put down a lot of new dirt and planted all the grass seed. And surprisingly all the rain didn't wash it away and it's thriving!

Our blueberry bush

Our blueberry bush is doing awesome! Last year I didn't get to see a single ripe blueberry because all the birds got to them before I could. I think the rain has kept them away so I picked a little custard bowl full and the 4 of us had a snack before dinner. I think we are going to invest in some cheese cloth to cover up the bush next year.

We have some raspberries and blackberries that should be ready soon as well!

We have two hydrangea bushes, a blue one in the front of our house (direct sun most of the day) and this purple one on the back side of the house (mostly shady). Last year our blue one was loaded with flowers, this year nadda! The purple bush is younger so we only had a few smaller flowers last year, but this year it's loaded with big flowers! We'll see what next year brings.

Even our 15 hosta all bloomed (even the ones we split in the middle of their growing period) and have been kept in tack for the most part - at least the deer aren't bothering them (thanks to the rain??), but every now and then they get in the way of the weed whacker!

So while the rain has totally sucked this year; I'm pretty tired of having 2 hyper, soggy dogs it has had its positive side:

1.) We haven't had to do much watering, which is both a time and money saver!

2.) Just about all of our plants/flowers are flourishing.

3.) It's kept away the animals and we've gotten to enjoy some of the fruits our bushes produce.

4.) My EMS rain suit that I had to dig out of the back of a closet and dust off has become part of my every day wear. I paid so much for it 3 years ago when I thought I was going to need it for the Boston Marathon and I ended up just suffocating myself in it for 21 miles before I stripped it off and carried it for the last 5! All those bad memories have now been washed away and that purchase has become an investment rather than a waste after all!