My Ice Plant in the front planter continues to bloom despite the two hard freezes we had last weekend. Very nice. I plan on propagating it come spring.
As for the Simplicity roses, they keep blooming as well. They've been at it non-stop since early June. The frost hasn't stopped then either. All the other plants have started to go dormant.
Below is a picture of the ghosts of summer. They are finally on their way. The sunrises have been stunning as well.
Sun Rise
Another year has come and gone. We celebrated good times at the Holiday Party. To the right is a picture of the guys toasting with the Ginger Bread Nog. Very tasty and potent I was told ....
Here's a picture of the girls by the Christmas tree.
the melting. He took a different tack at the start. Normally the bottles are inserted into the oven on their sides. Paul wanted to see how they would react when inserted standing up. As you can see in the photo the neck of the bottle felt the heat first. With the biggest impact on the back side. So the first move was from the top and towards the fire. It slumped very quickly.
Here's a shot of most of the die-hards. It was a chilly evening so we spent most of the time huddled around the fire. At this point Paul was done with all his experiments. Justin was caught telling one of his tall tales. Time for serious fun.
Here's a picture of Logan jumping off the lower level. She didn't bring her suit so she dove in her clothes. Can't believe she came to our house without a bathing suit. What was she thinking!!!! Luckily she had lots of extra clothes.
Here's a picture of Blake jumping from the top! She's the crazy one of the bunch. At the party Laura also taught her how to dive from the 3M. She really improved as the evening progressed ...
Finally there was a break in the rain long enough to pour the patio by the pool. We are starting to make progress on more permanent structures in our outside living space! The table is still the two slabs of rock held up on cinder blocks. But that is next. The latest plan is to pour a concrete table and polish it like the headers and sills in the house. I think that will make a very nice dark contrast with the light grey color of the concrete patio. Note the patio is polished and scoured like the basement floor. It looks very nice! And it was all done in time for the Labor Day party :)
To the right is the path way leading into of the pool area. This is also getting very close to it's final state. The crushed granite mulch will be the theme in the area between the car port and the pool area. There will be random plantings of Agave, Verbena, Cactus and various other sun loving drought tolerant plants. Around the stepping stones, I'm will be planting "Walk-on-me" Thyme. This plant grows a mere 3 inches and when walked upon releases a lovely scent. It also produces a pretty pink flower. The desert region folks are known to plant an entire "lawn" in this manner. We'll see how it takes to my desert garden.
