Gardens and Decorations

We've had a little time to get settled and given the lateness of the season, figured we needed to get a garden going as soon as possible.  We didn't have time to build the more permanent raised beds we contemplate for the future, but do have large decorative planters around the wrap around porch and while we intend those to have ornamental plants, flowers and herbs, will use them this year for a quick vegetable garden.  Here's a couple of shots of the garden now that it's producing:

Despite the fact that there are a lot of things wrong with the garden (planted too late, on the north side of the house and shaded much of the day), we've actually gotten quite a bit of yield from the garden and will enjoy it until we can plant a more permanent Fall garden in late September.  We also have a few fruit trees you can see in the pictures - three citrus and one peach - again planted at a time when they shouldn't have done so well, but with lots of care and lots of daily watering, they seem to be prospering and we hope will thrive next year.

We've also now had time to decorate more inside with things like collector plates (something we've done around the world) and and local Texas items like a set of long horns.  The big beam in the living room/dining room area makes a wonderful place to put these things so here's a few views of that:

And we've started doing some craft and building projects with grandkids.  Here's some bottle trees we've built lately:

Five grandchildren and a few other family members contributed to these works of art.

The most ambitious construction project we've undertaken since we've essentially finished the house and are limiting outside hours after 2 PM due to the heat is a pair of very large (each can seat 16-20 people) picnic tables for the large outdoor patio among the oaks.  Taylor Christie (oldest granddaughter) assisted significantly on the projects and we worked on these every day for about two weeks, using them for the first time for her farewell BBQ dinner.  Here's some shots:

Under the heading of "build it and they will come" we look forward to the time when we have enough company for a BBQ to fill the tables.