Some Flowers and Cats and Stuff

I'm actually cooking today. What the heck is up with that? I cooked once last week too, I made meatloaf for Keith and it came out really good or so he said. I don't much care for meatloaf but I choked some down and it wasn't too bad. For meatloaf anyway. Keith likes meatloaf to where he will actually order it when he is out to eat. Unthinkable as far as I'm concerned.

Anyway, today I'm trying a recipe for creamy corn soup with crisp bacon. The recipe is easy enough, just saute some onion in butter, then corn, carrots and celery gets sauteed in the onion butter for about 10 minutes, then add some milk and chicken broth and cook for a while, then you are supposed to use an immersion blender to blend it all up. Which I don't have but you can use a regular blender, too. You just have to blend it up a little at a time, finding something to put the blended soup in while you are blending the rest of it. Or whatever, we will see how it tastes. The crispy bacon part is a garnish on top and I've even already cooked the bacon, something I really hate doing because you have to cook it long and slow to crisp it up and I'm more of a hurry up and get crispy already sort of person. Not much patience in the kitchen.

Today I've also cleaned cat boxes, vacuumed the house, grocery shopped, and shopped for new dishes. I did get some new dishes but more on that later because it is kind of a long story. I also shopped for new clothes this week, also a long (and sweaty) story.

It is hot here this weekend, yesterday we broke an almost 100 year old record, getting up to 93. Geez. It really didn't seem that hot to me because I had all the ceiling fans in the house going and our dark screens help keep things cool.

So, flowers. Our flower beds have been going crazy so far this spring with absolutely no effort on our part, I haven't even watered them yet, the few rains we had being enough for now. All of the flowers that we planted last spring have come back bigger and better and it's really colorful outside. The lavender that I planted in the back yard that almost died over the winter is in full bloom and the bees love it.

This is the backyard flower bed and I can't remember what the yellow flower vine is, kind of like a small rose, but boy, is it pretty this year! Last year it didn't bloom all that much and they didn't last long, but this year every branch is covered in little flowers.

The front yard flower beds are also looking quite good this year.

We got the cats some new cat stands, the cheap one we got at Walmart being almost unusable for them and looking really shabby. Whoever designed it didn't try it out on cats, they had a hard time getting from one level to the next and the covering on the scratching posts only lasted a few minutes it seemed like. We got shorter easier to move around ones this time and everybody seems to really enjoy them, even the dog was sniffing around.

The one that Bear is on seems to be the most popular, perhaps because it is right by the sliding door and gets lots of sunshine. It has another flat platform a little lower and usually somebody else is laying on that one. The oval shape is perfect for our big fat cats.

Spring Flowers And Another Project Done!

Our back door screen was not really even a screen anymore. Genie had clawed at it (in an effort to gain our attention) so much that small holes grew into one big hole. Buddy discovered the hole and also clawed at it, making it into an even bigger hole, big enough so that last week he just jumped right through it into the back yard as I was sitting there, reminding me of a trained dog jumping through a hoop at a circus.

I guess it's time to fix the screen, what with spring definitely being here and summer not far behind. Being able to have the back door open during nice weather is something that we want to do, without bugs coming in and cats going out.

I had suggested getting one of those metal pet screens for the bottom of the door, so off Keith went to Home Depot for new screen fabric and a metal keep the cats from scratching the door thing. He got the screening that helps keep the sun out and actually got it all installed in one day. He's getting a little better at project finishing. Sort of.

So, new cat proof screen door.

I really like how our backyard flower bed is doing, but since it's on the back corner of the house, you have to be in the backyard to enjoy it. I wanted to see some flowers in the front yard, too, so Keith's next project was to move one of his hand built flower boxes that didn't have any flowers in it to the front yard. In the meantime we went and got flowers to put in it. The project is also actually finished but no pictures of it yet.

This is the backyard flower bed and the new flowers patiently waiting in the wheelbarrow.

Oh, and for anyone who is still buried in snow, it's supposed to get up to like 85 today.

Spring!

Yesterday was an absolutely beautiful day, we had all the doors and windows open all day and it was warm but not too hot with a nice breeze blowing through the back yard. Our flowers have been blooming for about a month now, but they've really popped these past few weeks with the way warmer temps and summer just around the corner. And the summer heat just around the corner, of course.

So, I'm going to enjoy every single day of this nice weather until it gets too hot and we are all sweaty and cranky all the time.

Just some of our blooms.

This is the front yard planter, where our tree that was blown over by the wind a few years back used to live. We took out all the old scruffy overgrown plants earlier this year and replanted and these guys really seem to like this spot. They were all tiny plants when we put them in, those little six pack plants and it seems like they get bigger and bigger every day.

And, these are just some of the backyard blooms.