indignant...

I don't want to get all bitchy again about how the contractors are stepping all over my plants...but they are!

They are hard to avoid, I suppose...

But, in knowing how I am, I warned Vince (the cement contractor) when he came out to do the estimate, that I get snippy when I see that my plants are not being watched over by the workers.  He told me that they will be very careful around them -  as he kicked one of my tulips without knowing...

I don't think you can tell men that they need to watch out for the flowers.  Especially manly-men like contractors.

I was in the kitchen yesterday watching one guy walking up in my boulder garden (which I really thought was safe) to the upper portion of the yard.  He was moving a hose and threw it down the other side clipping  one of my hydrangeas.  I immediately went with my impulse and stormed out the door.  By that time, he had come down and grabbed the hose and saved the flower - lucky for him.

Then I walked around the house and noticed that they had "placed" one of their metal grids (for reinforcement inside the concrete) on top of one of my rose bushes.  I picked up the metal and moved it freeing up the branch which popped back up, thankfully.

I wonder how many plants this team will end up maiming?

harvest...

Here is the booty that we harvested this weekend!

Yes...4.

Tasty little morsels.

peonies...

This year the peonies only lasted a short time.  First of all it was really drought-like here for some time which made one of the peonies just burn up.  I think it was only able to produce 4 or 5 flowers to it's full extent.  Then along came the rains...and it's still raining.  Rain is not very good for flowers once they are bloomed.  They have a tendency to get weighed down.  With peonies, their stems are so long, it's hard not to have some flowers that end up on the ground because the stems bend so far.

Well, yesterday I took a shot from the ground up of one set of peonies and it turned out pretty good...just wish I could see this beauty when I'm looking down at them...not when I have to lay on the ground and look up at them.

strawberries...

I decided I'd plant strawberries this year.  I ordered them from Gurney's.  They came while we were out of town and by the time we were home - most of them were dying, if not dead.

I contacted Gurney's and they sent out a new batch, but these looked to be in worse shape than the ones that were dying when I got home from vacation.

However, they didn't die - much to my surprise.  And this week we've noticed something pretty cool!