Blue sky!

We are reducing the amount of lawn area in the front garden.  The soil is as hard as concrete and full of rocks so the "grass" doesn't do so well.  One of my summer projects is to make two new borders along both sides of the pathway from the pavement to our front door.

I got out my favorite edging tool, made slices in the turf and removed 1,300 pounds of sod!

Then I began digging over the soil.  I like this  spade because I can take up a narrow deep slice of soil.

I found rocks, rocks, rocks!

This is the largest single rock.  This part of Washington State is known for it's excellent gravel and I could open my own mine!

For those of you who are interested in such things the gravel in Steilicoom, Washington sets an international standard in excellent gravel.  "Steilicoom grade" gravel is great stuff!

The next day it was time to get down on my hands and knees to break up the soil and remove... more rocks!

The robins were keeping an eye out for worms.  You can just see one to the right of the wheelbarrow.  This is a particularly interesting specimen because it has no tail.

Nothing - not even a little tuft of feathers.  It seems to be able to fly normally.

It really welcomed the worms.  I'd find some big juicy worms and toss them onto the pavement and the robin would take them in it's beak, pinch up and down the length of the worms (to immobilize them, most likely) and fly off with about three or four of them.  It also ate some, snarfing them right down.

So after four hours or so of digging and rock throwing and picture taking it was time to put my feet up for a bit.  David (who also dug and threw rocks) brought me a chair and a glass of wine.

So, this is our little house.  We've lived here since 1984.  Our children grew up here.  We love it.  Our neighborhood is nice - we live within walking distance of the shops and the library, post office, and the farmers market (where Gary the Bee Guy sells his honey).  It's a long commute for David, forty-five minutes or so if the traffic isn't too bad.  Fifteen minutes for me to get to work at the very most.

I made a "house flag" last Monday.  It's my version of the maritime signal flag for the letter "H".

OK, time to get back at it!  Let's get those tools out and get back to work!  Enough of this sitting around!  Forget it - I'll wait until tomorrow.  I'm having way too much fun now!