The Living is Easy?

It's been a busy couple of days. Last night my daughter Vanessa, her boyfriend Chris, and our son Casey came over for dinner. Kim and I decided to eat "en plein air." (Can you tell my French lessons continue?)

So we dragged the dining room table outside in the shade. Since the dinner was for Vanessa's birthday I made bruschetta (her favorite appetizer), Calabrese pork and fennel ragu with pasta, fruit salad, and chocolate cheesecake for dessert.





This morning after breakfast at Goldys we decided to ride our bikes to the Idaho Botanical Garden. The garden is about 4 miles from our house so it was a decent bike trip for us.

There is always something new to see at the Garden. This is the first time we've seen Amber Conger's metal sculptures. We were very impressed.






























There is some sculpture in the Garden I'm not fond of but I loved Amber's artwork.


Also at the Botanical Garden, wouldn't you have fun with this hollowed log? It's big but I'd find room somewhere for this.

























Cool plants...































































And what great use of a fountain - fill it with succulents.






















And what do you think? Would you put purple pillars in your garden?


I think I would.


















Back to our garden......

We have Monarda 'Pink Lace' blooming.







Florida Sieboldii is also looking great.
















Another clematis, Comtesse de Bouchard, is blooming in the Moongarden,





























along with our Heritage rose.











The Nicolas daylilies are blooming with lychnis coronaria. This photo shows just one Rose Campion, but you know, if you have one of these plants, you have ONE TON of these plants.





Kim harvested the first carrots from the cold frame, and they taste good! We're excited since this is the first time we've actually tried growing veggies in there. We've also harvested lots of lettuce and chard from the cold frame.



Also, our new kitten, Jessie, has been busy meeting the "girls." Here he is, nose to nose (nose to beak?) with Tootsie. (Jessie is hard to see, but he's in the lower right corner, just peaking out.)

So far, so good.



And finally, Tootsie looks like she's posing for the cover of Horticulture magazine.
(Don't think she'll make it, but she's giving it a good try.)





Summer has been great for us so far. How has yours been?