Annuals

In preparation for my sister's visit last Wednesday and the plan for her to help me pot up annuals, I emptied all the pots of soil stored in the barn's garden room.  I mixed in vermiculite, slow acting fertilizer,  the remains of one bag of potting soil and a new bag of soil.  All of this went into my wheel barrow. 

My staging area was the deck.

Some of my annuals.  Boy, they gone up in price.

12 pots planted some shown below.

And two window boxes.  This is one week later and they are looking fine.

Today we're having a cookout and campfire with local family to celebrate end of school last week and summertime!

The Igloo Look

 We went to Exeter, NH in early June because we were having the basement weatherized with spray insulation.  The instruction was to vacate while it was being installed and for 24 hours afterward.  We stayed away for two nights.

This is what it looks like now.

Don't the walls look like what you'd expect to see inside an igloo?

What's left to be done is another blower test to see where cold air can still leak in and installation of an exhaust fan in the downstairs bathroom.  Our electric company is subsidizing the work at 50% so it was a good deal. Plus, anything to improve energy efficiency is a win win.

If you want to see what the stone walls in the basement looked like before head to this post HERE.

Reveal

 

Looking out on the deck garden

The  bleeding heart recovered from the big freeze.

One of two peonies revealed its beauty.

[No hope for the other though.]

New Recipe

 This month the cookbook club is reading this cookbook.

Lots of good sounding recipes in here but so far I've only made one.

Cookbook photo above and my version below.

I tried to halve the recipe.

Didn't have the Havarti cheese to use.

One red pepper was enough and I added some sliced onion.

I think it's a keeper.  It was delicious.  We finished it for a late morning brunch on Sunday.