Smith Family Weblog

Here’s the finished project, sans dirt, which will be delivered tomorrow.

We picked up five heirloom tomato plants, four peppers and about 10 different herbs from a couple of local nurseries today. We also bought seeds for zucchini, muskmelons, cucumbers and carrots. And, yes, Gramma, we will save a space for a Minnesota rhubarb plant.

The garden may already be too small!

Bryan’s friend Nelson recently started a landscaping business. He’s spending the day at our house putting in a raised-bed garden. They just got started about 30 minutes ago, but they’re making short work of this project.

We’ve missed having a garden the last two years. The sprinkler system makes adding one a difficult proposition, but the raised bed should mean that we won’t have to do much beyond working the top few inches of soil beneath the sod.

We watched how the trees affected the sunlight in this part of the yard last year, and it seems like this will be a good place–cool in the morning with full afternoon sun.

That’s the plan, anyway–time will tell!

This is only our second spring in Kansas, and since we had a very hard freeze mid-way through last year there was a lot that we missed around our yard.

Fortunately, everything is so lush and green this year. I’m trying to fully appreciate it now, because it won’t be long until temperatures soar in the 100s. And, when Bryan gets the first $200 water bill sometime in July, he’ll remind me that this is Kansas, and things are supposed to be brown come summer.

So, enjoy!

My trainer has really been pushing me to run lately. I am opposed to this because, as I told him, no one is actively chasing me, and I do not like the way my butt shakes at speeds faster than a brisk walk. He responded, “Do you know what will help with that? RUNNING.”

He suggested focusing on–and I am not kidding here–the beauty of the nature around me, rather than the act of running itself. Seriously? Has this man ever tried to run? It’s hard.

I am giving him the benefit of the doubt. Here are a few shots from my run this morning.

It’s 6 a.m. The light is actually quite pretty. The lawn has never looked better. (Thanks, Bry.)

I can smell these lilacs from a block away.

This view is also quite pretty, but really it just reminded me that sun wasn’t actually up yet.

I found a snowball tree along the path–there’s one of these behind my grandpa’s house. I remember being totally awestruck by it as a child.

So, okay, maybe he has a point. This has been rather–and I can’t believe I’m going to say this–enjoyable.

Maybe it was that I focused on my surroundings, rather than the obvious and somewhat blinding pain of my screaming lungs. Probably, though, it more manageable because I stopped every five minutes to take a photo. Yeah, that definitely helped.

Know what else made it enjoyable? My running parter.

Sugara, a horse on Lori’s farm, is about to give birth. If you’re looking for an educational distraction this morning, you can watch the foal cam Lori set up over on Horse Farm Diaries.

I don’t remember seeing these flowers here last spring, but I absolutely love them. We unknowingly covered this area with about six inches of new mulch, but they managed to work their way through.

I think they’re called grape hyacinth–maybe one of the moms will know for sure. We had a patch of them on the farm where I grew up–their diminutive size made for perfect Barbie bouquets.

A great blue heron in the ravine behind our house. Spectacular!