I sit down to write something on the blog and all my incredibly witty, thoughtful and insightful comments go on holiday.
So I guess it will be the less than scintillating, mundane stuff. I have been busy working on the backyard. This is the year that all remaining lawn will be gone. Last weekend I worked for hours each day removing the grass from the part closest to the house and then slowly during the week I carved away at the bits closest to the studio, which is at the back end of the yard. Just a bit more to go and then to have it hauled away. In place of the grass there will be wider raised areas and more paths and more raised beds. I don't do regular rectangular raised beds, in fact I removed the ones that were here as soon as I got settled in 7 years ago. (They were the worse for wear and needed replacing anyway.)
Where the large rocks are on the left hand side of the picture, to the left of those will be filled in with soil, making the tomato and basil bed bigger. To the right will be either bark or something else for the path.

Patio pots

Front porch plants.

Back patio again.

Buffy (reddish one) and Betsy (black and red one), I am having a hard time getting a picture of Buffy's feathery pantaloons.

Another picture looking towards the back of the house. Where there is dirt, there used to be grass. You will notice the larger pile of sod piled up waiting to be hauled off. This picture is taken from about a third of the way back from the house.
Front yard path.
Other than working on yard and the day job, not too much has been going on. Hope you all are enjoying your summer!