Kelly just left a few minutes ago. We've got the ribs rubbed down and smoking on the 'cue and things are looking and smelling pretty good.

I slept in this morning and boy, was it delicious. I read my Bee book until almost 2am so I just let myself sleep until I woke up naturally at 11am. Ah--it felt so good. I slept like the dead last night, too. Didn't wake up even once during the night which is such a switch.

Once I finally rousted my heiny out of bed, I sent Joey and Ed off to see the newest kid's movie while I put in the garden and did some clean up in the back yard. It was very pleasant getting all sweaty and dirty and listening to The D00rs blasting away on the stereo. Yeah, baby. So here are some photos of the results.

This one is a shot of both of the garden boxes as they look from the back door. Ed and I built these boxes about five years ago and they've been great for my garden. It's not a lot of space but I can live with it. As long as I have room to plant tomatoes, basil and onions, I'm good. The big green thing on the patio is the frame for my hammock which reminds me, it's high time to hang up that puppy.

Here's a shot of my tomatoes. I looked at them today and they're roma, better boy and the heirloom one I've never heard of--muskosomethingorother.

Here's a shot of the yellow and pink striped tomato plant, the basil and the onions. That brown stuff on the soil is my cocoa mulch which is the best best best thing ever invented. It makes your whole garden smell like a chocolate bar. Who wouldn't like a chocolate garden???

Here's a shot of the blossoms on my sage plant. I just couldn't believe how pretty the flowers were.

Here's a shot of the wild flower garden I planted a few years ago that reseeds itself every year. As you can see, the sweet william is very good at reseeding so it has completely taken over. I sprinkled some other seeds over it to see if any of them will take. I'd like to see something else besides sweet william, but then again, the flowers look pretty nice all by themselves, too. You can see the corner of Joey's play house built by Ed in '98. The porch has some stuff on it because Ed did some painting inside and took out the table, chairs and rugs. I'll have to get that put away and then take a picture of the whole thing for you. It's really quite cute.

And here's a long shot of the backyard. You can see the planter that Ed and I built and my overflowing creeping rosemary. And my beautiful quaking aspen trees in the planter. After years living in Utah with all those beautiful aspens, I had to find some and put them in my back yard. They grew fast and are providing beautiful dappled shade for the back of the house and the patio. I like my back yard but Ed and I are thinking we might like to make the entire lawn into patio with planting areas along the edges. We'd use it more if it were all patio, I think. We'll see.

So that's my back yard and garden. I can hardly wait until I get some of those juicy tomatoes in a little while. Mmmmm...

--L