You can go here and read a bit about why I am dropping the 365 project but what it doesn’t mean is that I won’t be sharing pictures here anymore. I noticed when I got into the project that I wasn’t share pictures from anything but the 365 even though I was doing plenty of shooting outside of that and it’s something that I hope to rectify moving forward. I have had some wonderful sessions and worked on some other projects and I would like to get back into the habit of showcasing them on the blog.
Suffice it for now though to just do what in technical terms is called an image dump…here are a bunch of pictures from May…enjoy!
We had a wonderful time visiting friends in Louisiana!
On the way home we stopped in New Orleans with the kids.
And then there was the Preakness Party.
It was a good month for taking pictures! Sam’s art class ended, food, stuff growing in the garden, senior sessions, etc. Plenty of moments to capture and want to savor.
Here’s to looking forward to taking and sharing more pictures!
A little back story: my husband has worked really hard over the years to create a beautiful lawn. Yard work is his domain and a way for him to relax so when we bought our home almost six years ago we put in a sprinkler system and sod. Well, a little over a year ago this weed showed up that he just could not get rid of no matter what he tried. We ended up calling a landscaping guy we know who promptly pronounced the death of our yard. I cannot remember the name of the weed but basically once you get it the only way to get rid of it is to kill everything, grass included.
Knowing it would be a bit before we would be able to re-sod the only thing he continued to do was mow the lawn the rest of the summer. Let me tell you, that weed took over and our yard was U.G.L.Y. As winter turned into spring we started talking about what we were going to do to make it beautiful again. Two things were decided ~ first, we would sod the yard with zoysia grass. A little bit more expensive but very resistant to weeds but beautiful and thick. Second, we wanted to reconfigure the layout of our yard so that we needed less grass since even with a sprinkler system it can be difficult to keep it alive and healthy in Florida. We started talking about raised beds and small gardening. After three months of sweat and really hard work (mostly by him although I did help more than just telling him what I wanted) we have a new fence, a small garden area, some beautiful flower beds with African iris and hydrangea, and three new crepe myrtle trees. And my ferns! Y’all, one of my favorite things about this are the ferns we hung along the back fence.
We have a some finishing touches to put on it but overall the finished project has been a delight and we have enjoyed it so much!
We, and by we I mean Rob, tried some small gardening once but it has mostly been this romantic notion in our heads. But in our planning we decided we wanted to create a specific space to grow some veggies and even though it seemed sort of late in the season we put some stuff in the ground. We are the proud plant parents to cucumber, red & yellow bell peppers, sweet peppers and jalapenos, regular and white eggplant, sweet potatoes and a host of herbs. Thanks to the way Rob reconfigured and designed the sprinkler system each bed has its own drip line with little mini sprinklers so watering is a breeze! Yesterday morning I was outside and noticed one little watermelon sprout working its way through the dirt. Yesterday afternoon all three watermelons had sprouted and I was doing a dance as if I were the first person in the history of forever to put something in the ground and have it take root and grow. Started nosing around and found buds and flowers on almost everything we planted. Let me tell y’all, this is some kind of excitement and if you haven’t ever experienced it at least get a pot and some kind of plant and watch it grow! In the words of my friend Donna, “Life is good whether it is human, plant or animal.” I couldn’t agree more. It’s good for our souls.
We have some good friends with green thumbs who gifted a beautiful thornless blackberry bush. It was a little unhappy with the transplant to our yard at first but on the second morning it had noticeably perked up and we are pretty sure it’s going to like it’s new home. We planted it so that as it grows it can climb up the fence and be decorative as well as fruit producing.
All in all we are so pleased with the result of all the hard work. We do have some things we still want to do like finishing off that area in the middle of the veggie garden so we can have a lovely sitting area with a fire pit for in the fall and we also want to plant some wisteria along the other side fence.
Francis Bacon once said, “God Almighty first planted a garden. And indeed, it is the purest of human pleasures.” So far we are finding that to be true.
Marty Hadding Photography 