Happy Mother's Day to me!

My sweet husband planned a day out in nature, hiking.

We went to French Creek State Park!

I learned that "hiking" means going on a walk on dirt trails in pretty places.

I like hiking.

With sunscreen and antihistamines.

Where's Murphy?

He found us!

It turns out that Murphy is a fantastic trail dog!

He follows the trails, 

and every once and a while checks back to make sure he can still see us.

He may have enjoyed the day even more than we did.

Here are some of the interesting things we found:

a wild orchid!
(on the ground?)

This little guy landed on my shirt,
so we returned him to a tree

baby pinecones!

This is what we decided was poison ivy.

(thanks, pocket-sized google machines)

Even if we were wrong, we all managed to make it home itch-free!

**Update: we were wrong.  It is Virginia Creeper.  Thanks Elise and Brian!

**Update: for the record, Ben thought Poison Ivy had 3 leaves.  Google failed us.  

We didn't have such luck with ticks.

We found 9 on Murphy.

Two were in the car.

There were 4 on Ben.

Ticks were not interested in me.

And, surprisingly, I am not afraid of ticks, just their arachnid cousins.

I am, however, completely inept at killing them.  They don't squish!

The side view, just to emphasize that I am still pregnant.

Our picnic lunch!

mmm Whole Foods salad bar.

Thanks, Ben (& Murphy!) for such a special first Mothers' Day celebration!

Stage II of our back patio garden

Sunday morning we were very productive as soon as it warmed up above 55 degrees.

Pictured above are our wall planters with:

A) Basilico (a gifted basil plant from a very sweet, authentic South Philly Italian woman)

B)  A Comlumbine surrounded by Bacopa
C) Cilantro!  For the salsa, of course
D) Spearmint, pineapple sage, and creeping jenny

I was so busy at work I forgot to get pictures of Ben drilling holes in the pots and moving heavy bags of soil around.  But, he really did most of the work.

A very young garden.  From the top of the picture:
A) Sweet Texas Onions
B) Assorted hot peppers
C) Okra, unsprouted seeds.  Maybe I won't kill this batch. . . .
D) Two Lima Bean plants.  Nope, not for salsa.
E) A strawberry plant.  I suppose you could put these in salsa?  But really, I'm just excited that I'm not actually allergic to this fruit.

If you use your imagination, you can see a tomato plant in each of the terra cotta planters.  We are awaiting the arrival of 2 varietals from our across-the-street neighbor's fundraiser.

And some pretty, dark purple calla lilies on the left.

Now we just need to put some chairs out there and remember to water!

Building a Planter in our Back Yard

Okay, so "yard," might be a bit of a stretch. 

Let's go with "the outdoor concrete patio area attached to the rear of our house."

But, "planter" is completely accurate.

We are going to plant a salsa garden this year!  Hooray!

Here is Ben mixing mortar.  By hand, well technically by trowel.

With no protective gear!  The package recommends a N95 mask and rubber boots.

Brave Ben.

Step one: Lay the mortar.

Step two: Add a brick

Step 3: Butter the short side of the brick with mortar.

Repeat.

I helped too!  Sans protective gear.

The first layer is complete!

I should mention, by the way, that this project would not have been possible without the borrowed tools from Sarah and Michelle.  

Thanks for letting us borrow the brick splitter and the sledge hammer!

Between the completion of the first layer and this picture, I may have excused myself to shower and possibly nap.  I don't remember clearly.

I did run to the store to purchase an additional 10 pound bag of mortar dust,

so I was marginally helpful!

This is what it looked like when we first moved in.

It will look even better when overflowing with vegetables!

The masonry is complete.  

Now, to plant the tomatoes, onions, spicy chilis, 

and cilantro to complete the salsa garden.

Whenever it stops raining. . .