Germantown Cemetery and McVay Gardens

Bryan loves going on spontaneous adventures. This is a re-cap of our latest one.

On Tuesday's I pick up our CSA bag from a nearby church. It's not far from our house and there is a back way we like to go that doesn't involve any major roads.

Bryan went with Charlie and I this week and on the way back he asked if we could stop and look at the old cemetery that was right there near the pick up spot. He loves history and we had noticed a historic marker there not that long ago.

So we stopped and got out. Just over the hill next to the cemetery (from the 1800s and early 1900s) there was a playground and then we noticed an outdoor auditorium too.

Charlie cracked me up. As we were walking along in the cemetery and were approaching the playground he saw it and realized what it was. He kept pointing and whining to go that way. So of course we had to spend some time on the slide. 

In the above picture you can see how close it is to the graves. 

Other than a couple of Pokemon players the whole park was deserted. It was a beautiful, shaded park that I hope we can go back to soon. 

Charlie was one hot and tired baby afterwards. 

A Quick Trip to Nashville

Bryan has been steadily traveling since May. May through July is one of his traveling seasons (November - January being his other). I've gotten a bit jealous of his travels while stuck at home with our lovely toddler. Knowing this, Bryan offered to take Charlie and I on a trip to the Nashville area last week. Here are a few pictures of our trip:

Where we ate: 
Loveless Cafe
Jackelope (just drinks)
Hattie B's
Biscuit Love
Mas Tacos

Garden update

Not long after moving into our new house I noticed a tomato plant in one of the front beds. Two actually.

Can you spot it above, near the hostas? So random. I'm guessing someone left their lunch remnants behind to rot in the bed? I don't even know. But we somehow got two tomato plants. 

They were growing but not blossoming because they don't get enough sun in this bed. For weeks I've been meaning to transfer one of them to the garden and last week I finally did. 

It was a bit withered by the time we got to the garden and got it in the ground. I did not have high hopes for it. But it's still there, although still no blossoms. 

One day last week I arrived to the garden to see this. 5 tomatoes on the ground. Argh. So far more tomatoes on the ground than I've gotten to eat. 

Here we are on Monday. It really doesn't look like much. 

I spent a great deal of time, energy and sweat on the okra last week. There is a weed out there that looks very much like okra, lazily I've pretty much just let it go. Until the other day. I figured out the difference between the two and went at it. Now I've got a row of semi-healthy okra plants. 

My Monday harvest above. I get about this much okra every visit (every 2-3 days) which has been nice. We love love love oven roasted okra, so it's been nice to have some each week. 

I'm a bit  frustrated with my tomatoes. I started out with almost 30 and have about 5 plants now. Cherry tomatoes are doing okay, although water fluctuation is not so great, but my bigger tomatoes are just not producing for me. And what does produce gets picked up by deer.  And to top it off the plants themselves are starting to look brown and sad. 

Tomorrow I'm planning a big trip to the garden. I need to fertilize, prune, and do some major weeding. 

What's happening in your garden? 

The Den

Yesterday Mom came over and we hung up these wood molds over the couch. 

We loved the hunt prints in the den, but there was a bunch of room that needed to be take up on either side. We originally thought of some plates that my mom had in storage that Bryan had said he liked. (How sweet was she to remember this?) but when we got them out we hated them (mom and I, Bryan still liked it). So we were back to the drawing board.  

Mom had these wood molds at her house. She had them hung and displayed in her bathroom before she re-did it. And they are perfect here. They add texture and dimension to the room.

So what are they? Iron molds. My great-grandfather had an iron foundry in Americus, GA. Charlie's middle name comes from him, so it's especially sweet to have something from him in our home. 

I really should have fluffed the sofa before taking a picture. Oh well. 

I adore the lamps that I found on Everything But The House. They need to be adjusted as the shades go whoppy, but they work for now. 

4th of July Weekend

Whoohoo! 3 Day weekends are the best! Even when you stay at home, long weekends are still a nice treat.

We spent lots of time outdoors, mostly in the pool. 

Uncle Bunny, Trey, came over on Saturday afternoon to swim and eat dinner with us. 

On Sunday Bryan's parents and some friends came over.  

Notice in the photo above how Roux is standing at the edge of the pool? Yeah, she's obnoxious around the pool. Barking almost constantly and super anxious. Ugh! If anyone knows how to curb this behavior please let me know!!!

We all went to the garden to work for about 30 minutes or so. I love it when the whole family goes. 

We took Charlie afterwards to the park at Shelby Farms. Though we had passed it a couple of times this was our first time exploring the actual playground. Charlie mostly just loves to run around right now. We'll be back soon though. 

We did more swimming Monday morning and afternoon before the storms rolled in. It was a great long weekend! 

Garden update

We kicked off this fourth with a visit to the garden plot. We did a little weeding, harvested two cherry tomatoes, and watered. 

The okra is blooming and I noticed a couple nearly ready to be picked! 

The other day I planted a couple of pepper and cucumber seeds. Just to see what would happen. I know it's late in the season. 

So that's what happening in our garden. I continue to have major garden envy of some of the plots, but I'm not feeling so bad now that the big weeds are taken care of.