Week 23-25ish

 Not sure what week of the year I'm on, must be the massive amount of cold medicine I'm currently consuming. I could chronicle the ups and downs going on over the last two weeks. I could announce that just as we finally got the dog on the right dose of meds for her Cushing's disease, she had a Grand Mal Seizure. At least we think she did, it was pretty textbook, but the vet says that a heart condition can look exactly the same. So there's that. I could go on about the stupidity that is our loan system for higher education, and the outrageous interest rates Oldest and I are contemplating for his master's program, but no one wants to hear about that. I could say that Hubs is finally getting on board with the laundry/extra bathroom downstairs, but that would only be half true, or that his retirement seminar conference call went wonderfully, but that would be an actual lie.

So instead, I'll just post some pictures...

Behold! The first strawberry of the season. Time for a teeny tiny shortcake.

This is the primary culprit for my massive pollen induced sinus infection... The left side of the driveway is 75 feet of flowers.  Early spring/summer it's all purples and pinks.  We are slowly shifting to yellows and oranges, with a bit of red now...

My peonies didn't last nearly enough this year.  heavy rain wiped them out, and sadly they couldn't come in because Kiki likes to eat all household plants. Oddly we didn't get a single yellow one this year, but we did get white and blue irises, which I haven't ever seen.  So I'm not sure what's really going on in this section of the garden.

The beach roses are everywhere around here.  They grow wild and smell amazing. They are typically found in white and pink, but can also bloom in yellow and reddish purple. These are lining the road in front of the vacant (nearly demolished) house on our road. Honestly, it's so overgrown over there that most people have no idea there's a house in there at all.

Daylilies are on round one of their blooms.  These guys will go until fall if I dead head them. We also have yellow, but they're not ready yet.

These lilies are the first to bloom of the lilies I bought last fall along with the tulips and daffodils...

The flower boxes are filling in nicely....

This is the second year for the clematis.  It's trellising up the old well pump and over the garage door trellis, so about 10 feet so far.  Not too shabby.  We got a white one to compliment this and the dark purple ones we have growing in the same planter.

The prickly pear are showing some signs of life. I thought they were goners this year, but nope.

I loved my first bonsai tree to death. Sad but true....

So I started a new one....

The aforementioned bathroom is coming along.  I found this brand new sink (originally $610, on clearance for $186, according to the Home Depot sticker.) for $25 on FB marketplace 5 miles from my house. Then I saw that the Habitat for Humanity Re-store was having a half off sale, so I scouted it out and sent the Hubs to pick up this vanity on the day of the sale while I was at work. With the $45 spent on the vanity, our grand total for the bathroom so far is $350, and all that's left to get is 2 sheets of drywall, the crazy expensive macerating toilet, and hiring the plumber to put it in. And, maybe some paint, I haven't decided if I want to splurge on a new color yet.

Oh... and I started painting rocks...

It costs me nothing but time and a bit of art supplies. I hide them in plain sight all over. I hid one at the hospital yesterday while there for my check up, and two down at the pond.  Because no matter how bad or primitive they are, they are a treasure to someone finding them.