They are here! They are here! I must have done something right in my life! I don't deserve all this sheer happiness and joy! All afternoon, I have been dashing out to take more pictures and also bury my nose in these flowers. They are exquisite! They are enchanting! They are lovely! This is ridiculous that I am hopelessly in love with these fantastic gifts of nature.

I have tried sorting through fifty odd really ridiculously fantastic pictures of peonies blooming in my yard. My selection is just a fleeting glimpse of their true beauty. If you find yourself in my neck of the woods, stop by, bury your nose in these blooms, sit by them and share the brief time these wondorous gifts.

Above & right below: Bowl of Beauty; Right top: Peony Sorbet;
Bowl of Beauty with the Peony Sorbet just past the black railings.
Getting very up close and personal with the Peony Sorbet.

Couple of weeks ago, I asked if I was spoilt! I think I am! The earlier post should the early blooming lilacs blooming over my deck from the neighboring yard (lucky me). But my very own Miss Canada (pink) and Miss USA (lavender-periwinkle) are blooming. These are right under the porch windows, so it is really a treat to sit in the porch enjoying the heady summers breath of lilacs.

My excitement, pride and happiness knows no bounds, when each and every little plants not just survives but blossoms under my care. It is my way to know that I done right with nature!

Here are some gifts of nature in my own yard.  I have thought to write more, but the sheer happiness, love and contentment overrides (and falls short) any words that may be put together. So, without further fuss, here is my pride, my love, my joy, and sheer happiness.

The Azalea "Crimson Tide" (as I like to call it)

The Azalea "Pink Florosence" (as I like to call it) s ready to just pop into fantastic dazzling display of color.

	Gosh! With all the courage I can muster I await impatiently the blossoming of perhaps my favorite flowering plant of all all time... The Peonies. These little (or not so little) plants, move me to tears. They touch me as no other living thing can ever make me feel, save the orchids.  So, yeah! I love them. If you ever want anything from me, just get me a bouquet of a collection of peonies or just a gorgeous orchid and I am yours for eternity. I will post when these bloom. I cannot wait! This premature image inclusion is simply a testament of my impatience for these to bloom.
Finally, a little less exciting, than all the above flowers is my very own little red-onion farm!

Yard work is in full swing for the past week or so. The Pink Dogwood is simply bursting at its seams with flowers. Last year, when I bought the tree (it was well past it flowering time) and planted it with loads of faith that it was the one I truly wanted. These trees can be quite tricky, when they don't carry their full botanical name. So, really it is quite uncertain whether you are getting exactly what you want. I just wish the nursuries around get into better habits of carrying the botanical names, rather than only local. But that is another story. For now, this dogwood delivers.

A year ago, if some one had asked me what a Crape Myrtle was, I would not have known it from an animal to a plant. With a bit of research last year, I found it to be a flowering plant with absolutely gorgeous little tufts of pink/red blossoms. I was hooked and absolutely had to have it.

I ordered the plant last year around this time and was horrified to get a bare-root twig in the mail about foot in size. I was sure I was swindled! and $19.95 + s+h later, I had a dead twig! Ah! Well! I dug a small hole, put some fertilizer and planted the twig..... and waited for 9-10 months for the twig to do something..... either wither away over winter or revive in spring.

I had almost given up on the whole twig business...... this is what it did in summer and today...... I am impressed! Impressed that I did not throw away the twig, impressed that it grew! This little plant it supposed to grow to about 8-10 feet. This fall, it needs a bit of pruning to shape it....:) (I am one happy gardener!)

I am indeed proud of my yard work this year!

I had planted bunch of tomatoes and peppers and they are all doing fantastically!

Some proof of the pudding!

Chili pepper purple-orange		Cherry-Husky Tomatoes (6 plants)
Peppers (should turn red soon!)		Sweet Peppers

I love lilies, especially if they are growing in my yard.

It is Friday and it is raining and cold in the northeast. It is pretty darn depressing! I just want to head home and cuddle up in my blanket and snooze for a while or until the sun comes out again.

Past week, I was overly enthusiastic and yard work went into top gear. In seven days, I have clocked about 6 hours of work in the yard, mostly weeding and more weeding. The plan is to get all the weeds out and then plant some flowering perennials and small trees like weeping cherry or something else. My quest this spring is to establish a decent yard with Cherry trees, some Azaleas, Peonies, some evergreen hedges etc etc. Small plants are easy to handle by myself, but I am pretty positive I cannot move a 8 foot tree, up 20 steps and dig a hole and plant it. So, earlier in the month I had some handymen and 'landscapers' come in and give me some quotes on transporting large shurbs/trees and planting them. After series of interviewing and wide range of quotes, I have settled on next saturday to be the major planting day with the same contractor who did the retaining wall work.

The weird thing is that I am earning to do yard work, earning to get my hands all dirty and messy in mud. Something about mud, water, plants is all very calming. I remember as a kid, I used to play with mud and water making funny pots. I remember getting really messy and caked with mud from head to toe. My poor mum, used to let me play and when I was done, pick me up and tranport me straight to the waiting bath. What fun! More water.

It isn't always, that I earn to do yard work. Most of last year spring, I hated to do even one bit of it. But this year, with the retaining walls up, I really want to make my corner house shine. Perhaps I am emotionally more attached to it than last year. Who knows! Or maybe this year, I am travelling so much, that I want spend most of the time connecting with my home and yard.

You think I have a future in non-computer related jobs like.... the army, or pressure washing, or for that matter anything else that needs hands on expertise. (This was taken by my uncle, when I was being hypnotised with the power of the pressure washer)

This past weekend, my uncle from Washington DC, paid us a visit. He was in town for a conference and stayed over the weekend to meet up with family. He is indeed a wonderful guest, as he takes so much interest in what is happening in his nieces (one of them being....me) and nephews lives. And far more, knows so much about home improvement and not only suggests what to do, but gets down and lends a helping hand to get it implemented. One of the major tasks for my yard was to get the deck and fence cleaned. It would have probably stayed on the todo list for another season and another year, if it had not been for him, suggesting and helping me to find a good power pressure washer and help me wash the deck.

For about the same price as renting, I am now a proud owner of a 1000psi Pressure washer, a one-gallon sprayer and experience of pressure washing deck and fence (Got tools, have deck, will clean for a lunch/dinner/movie!). Both the deck and fence were is dull gray and grimmy. After washing the deck, the gray is lessened to expose some wood grain and also some stain/paint in dark mahogany color. The plan was to wash and clean the deck and apply a sealant. But, now I am thinking of doing some stripping (maybe) and then applying a amber tinted transparent sealer. Hmmm..... did my one task of cleaning the deck, just blossom into a multi-step project. But I am jazzed with it, so, I think I will continue down the path. Couple of more trips to Lowes or local hardware store will do it. But I think my good deck will be great. Along with the deck we also pressure washed and cleaned the fence to completely brighten it from the dull, crappy gray to warm glow of pine. The plan is to use the same amber tint on the fence. It will look awesome. Thanks Uncle, love it when you are here. Thank you so very much for helping me along my home improvement & maintenance projects.

It truely feels being an home owner this summer, with so many items to do and more importantly done for the home. Interestingly, everytime a project is done, three more get added to the list. In one way I am happy as, this keeps me busy with the home and hearth. I dread the day, if I have nothing to do for the place.

Didn't think I would be here today...... it is awesome. I want to share this excitment, this is really wonderful. The retaining walls look really lovely. Here are the before and after pictures for the space. What a difference. I cannot wait for the planting season to begin again and phase 2-3 can start off.

More digging, leveling, gravel, stone dust and now the blocks. Block-by-block, pin-by-pin, the stacked blocks take shape into a a beautiful retaining wall and then another and then another. Now it is getting monotonous and repetitive news. Pictures coming soon..... I promise, stay tuned.

Mostly diggging, leveling, laying gravel and stone dust. I have kept some samples as a reference of what was used (I know, it is silly, but it is so cool to be able to say, this gravel type and this stone dust and that rock, and actually show samples). And of course, we make a field trip to get the Granite Gray Versalock blocks and caps (for the enthusiast: 248 blocks, and 237 caps). We ordered them and they had it all in stock, but no delivery until next day afternoon. Wah! But, just as we were walking out, we crossed the delivery man, and our delivery was scheduled for that day. It arrived one hour after we reached home. Wow! So we went from Wah to Wow in a matter of few hours. The blocks find a new home!

Measuring and digging starts. I am glad that I was home, during the process, because I could keep a watch over where, what, who and when it was all going to be done. Especially, the initial measurements and planning, to ensure that I was getting what I want, and be there to make decisions as needed. My conclusion for doing any project in and around the house is that you have got to be there, it removes all the frustration of not getting it exactly as you want it and avoid the 'cowboy' behavior of contractors and work crew doing what they think (sometimes they just don't think!). Sometimes they do think and they do bring experience to the table (well, thats why you hired them!). So, it is a tight balance between not aggravating your crew and trying to understand why they want to do something a little differently. Ask them, take an interest in seeing their point of view and you know, you get best of both worlds.

Thank you, father, for I am following your example and applying what I remember you doing. I remember both the times when you were managing the construction for both our homes. I could not fathom the amount of time and patience you had going through getting the house just right brick-by-brick, tile-by-tile and wall-by-wall. Now I do, and am in awe that you managed it all to get two homes built from design to implementation. You were there at the construction site everyday and everynight (as needed), ensuring you got it done exactly how you wanted it to be. My project is peanuts compared to what you have done.

This has been a great learning experience for me. From ground zero, where I had no experience to actually be able to understand retaining wall design, materials and construction. I measure the end result of the yard with terracing done, as just about 20% of the happiness. The rest 80% was the journey from concept to completion is a thrilling roller coaster ride, with its ups and downs.

Whoa! But I digress, Most of the day went in digging and digging and more digging. The interesting thing was that we hit river rocks. I expected rock ledge, which we definitely hit, but river rocks? One thought is that previous owners, perhaps, filled with a mix of soil and rocks and they used river rocks. But then we should have found some other crap too, but we didn't. I have a more exotic theory. Perhaps, way back when there was no town, perhaps there was a river/stream or something that flowed through and this is remanants of that. When I told my sister, she asked me to look for dinosaur fossils! (My 6 yr old nephew is all into dinosaurs and has declared that he is a paleontologist)

Finally the week arrives when the plans made in May and getting rolled into implementation phase. This is one project I am glad is following a waterfall methodology.  First the concept to design, requirements gathered, and actors lined up. Then the detailed design with inventory of materials and tools needed. Finally, the implementation and deployment. Thankfully any other methodology and the project timeline would slip, deadlines would have been messed up and cost increased exponentially. But, it all worked..... All the planning makes sense, and emotionally ready to be flexible with minor alterations.

Anyways, day 1 begins like any other project with cleanup crap that is there already. Cleanup begins in all earnest, tall dandelions get the axe and say bye-bye to the dead lawn. It would have taken me a week to clean up the mess, had I done it on my own. But three workmen cleaning up goes pretty darn fast. Just the clean up brightened up the space so much.

All this morning, I have been patiently moving concrete blocks from my friends house to mine. It took two trips, one car, couple of chipped nails, cuts and bruises all over my hands (I was wearing industrial strength gloves) & legs and one very tired back, to move roughly 50 blocks.

The process was:

1. Drive to friends house about 10 miles.
2. Crawl under the deck space, sort out broken and unbroken blocks, move them to door. The deck crawl space opened to the lawn and I wanted to take care that I did not mess up the lawn and hostas in the neighboorhood. So, the blocks got moved from all over, under the deck space to just near the door.
3. Move block from door to car. Like a priceless dufus, I parked the wrong way, and had a longer walk to get the initial blocks loaded to the car.
4. Organize the blocks in the car, so it is not loaded on one side and just sufficiently loaded to reduce number of trips without having the car to breakdown.
5. Once loaded, drive back 10 miles.
6. Unload the block to the garage. To get to my garage is a fairly sloped driveway. So, I did not drive the car (it wouldn't climb!) up the slope, but manually lugged it up.
7. Repeat from step 1, for one more time.

After that workout, I took a well-deserved afternoon nap!

A friend and I happened to chat about retaining walls, and, she had some work recently done. And she mentioned that she had some spare bricks and blocks hanging out in her house. Field Trip (rain or shine)!! I drove over to her place over the weekend, and took some pictures. Yah! I could so use them in my yard. I asked her how much she wanted for the same, but she declined. What a saint! I don't deserve this. She is so sweet. The deal being that I transport it. Hmmm, may take a few trips, but I think the bricks and blocks have found a new home.

PS: Never thought, ever in my life that I would be taking pictures, getting excited and planning for a brick!

Stones, concrete blocks, mortar, drain pipes!! Never thought I would be thrilled to research these. But, I think I am having fun! This is the fun step of designing a retaining wall or walls, as in my case. I am doing some serious landscaping this year, and serious work needs serious people..... and they get to have fun.

During my vacation week, I researched online and visited with my contractor bunch of specialized stores in and around my town and came away with pictures. I really wanted natural stone, since existing walls are in natural stone. The cost of stone and labor was not worth it. Besides, the newer wall blocks are equally elegant.

I visited Lowes and Home Depot first to find what they carry and sat in front of their retaining wall blocks for so long, that (a) I got sun-burnt and (b) people wandering about thought I worked there and started asking me questions. I sat and sat and more I looked and touched the block, the less I liked it. It felt very crumbly and not solid enough. Granted these appeared quite cost effective, but were they really cost effective in the long run? See the first image to the left. In the picture, the left hand side stack is granite gray and the right hand side is concrete white.

The lonesome one brick was in a more hoitty-toitty place. Earlier in the week, when I wandered into the place, I got shooeed away by their office, saying I had to bring my landscaper with me!! What nonsense! What if I am the landscaper? Well! I am, because I am doing the planning, research, and design and my 'landscaper' is really doing only the implementation. Besides, guess who is paying for their rocks.... me. So, what is the landscaper going to do, say look at this stone, do you like it? Damn, I can do that, that is look at a stone and see if I like it! Umph! So, in conclusion, we are not ordering from these guys. I did like the block. It definitely is more solid than the ones from Lowes and it comes with the pins and constructions looks more natural than the cookie cutter blocks.

The third from the left, was simply the best thus far.....  naturally dark granite almost charcoal color. I love this one!!

Now for the last set. !Ah! Thats my landscaper doing some measurements. This a ligher granite gray than the charcoal one, and is a larger block, almost 17in wide. and the picture on the right is the same stone, but 12 in wide and almost 8in in height.

By this time I am confused. Lowes too crumbly, the lonesome too hoitty-toitty, Charcoal love it and too expensive. That leave the bottom two. :) Looks like we are getting close to a decision. My money is on the 17in one. It is the one with my landscapers head, hand and measuring tape picture. He has promised to drop a sample on my doorstep for me to finalize it. Unfortunately, I saw all these in the Memorial weekend and so they were closed. I have to make a trip to these folks again and find out costs, delivery, who, what, when and co-ordinate that with the landscaper. Fun, Fun, Fun!!