In May while sharing my garden plans I mentioned I had some yard beautification projects planned this year. I'm making slow progress, but have a picture of the little area by the back gate that makes me happy:

I'm putting in a pathway from the house to the alley. Sunday I installed these pavers to assist in the goathead removal. (Puncture vine is common in my area and the alleyway is full of the little pokey devils. I scrape my shoes against the cement and most of the goatheads come out. The worst thing is for a goathead to make its way into the house and to step on it while barefoot.) I also filled this frame around the water spigot with rocks! Hurrah for drainage!

Bird Lady

The shawl is still not finished. I'm progressing very slowly and am ready to move on to my next project. Instead of sharing more photos of this incomplete knitting project I'm sharing a photo of a hummingbird that visits my feeder. I snapped this on my phone the other night. It startled when I first pulled out my phone, but it is the animal that is least bothered by my presence. The other birds fly off when I open the curtains and the neighborhood cats usually run away even when I apologize for startling them and tell them to lie back down and enjoy the evening. Anyway, here is the hummingbird; it's a nice one, it zooms around the yard eating lots of bugs!

Flip Cup

During our last Crafternoon, Katie, Chelsea, and I had our first try at fluid painting/paint pouring using the flip cup method. It was a fun and messy afternoon and we can't wait to do it again! Here are our masterpieces:

Kelly's. Chelsea's. Katie's. made with the leftover paint.

We used the flimsy canvas boards which wasn't a great idea because they warp so much. The paint from my orange painting pulled away from the board because of the bending. We haven't added a glossy coat over the paintings and I'm not sure if we need to. What do you think?

No Pumpkins and No More Peppers

In my last garden update I thought that the red pumpkin was likely dead, well it definitely is and the other pumpkin plant is too so no homegrown pumpkins for me this year. The pathetic pepper plants also died; the combination of hot days and lack of watering was too much for them.

In happier garden news: the tomato plants are doing quite well with the lack of care I'm providing; I haven't harvested any tomatoes yet, but there are some little guys growing. The basil is doing well, the sunflowers are doing well, these mystery bulbs I planted are doing well. I haven't much for them, but some plants are more resilient with lack of care.

flowering basil. dead pepper plant. overgrown tomatoes. sunflowers and milkweed. mystery flowers.

I really want to do better with my garden next year.

Houseplants

I don't have any new projects or project updates to share today so here are pictures of some of my houseplants.

dolphins. avocado leaves. bright pink. faji. curly leaves.