Thanks all who came near and far to come eat, chat, and laugh at our first BBQ in the new house. The BBQ went great and we loved seeing everyone. We also missed those who couldn't attend, but you are invited to our house anytime.
For all of the pictures click here:
http://hurstdog.org/pictures/CoveLaneHousewarming/
We are so lucky to have such great friends and family. We love you all.
This past weekend all of Shannon's family and I got together at Wawona in Yosemite for a family reunion. We had a blast.
We stayed up there on June 17-20th, and this is what we did:
17th - hung around the cabin, we got there late
18th - Went into the park, drove around in tour buses, and went to a BBQ
19th - Me, my Dad, and the Burton men went into the park for picture taking and hiking, then later that day we had dinner at the Wawona. Late that night, we went up to Glacier point for night photographs.
20th - A visit to Mariposa Grove of Giant Seqouias, and we were full.
You can see a gallery of all of the action here: http://hurstdog.org/pictures/BurtonYosemite2005/.
Everyone is really excited for next year, and we're trying to figure out a good place to go as we speak.
Andrew and I were itching to see something besides our house or backyard so we loaded up the dogs and went on an adventure. We drove 25 minutes to the Antioch/Oakley Regional Shoreline Pier. The dogs loved being outside and I enjoyed the lapping of the water.
The pier had an interesting group of people and I will never go back there alone, but it was fun to see what goes on in our town. We then headed to downtown Brentwood so I could see what kind of trees people plant in their yards. Here are some great pictures Andrew took.
Teenie wanted to show everyone what has happened in the garden these past few weeks. She loves walking on the labyrinth (and eating the compost in the dirt).
Portions of the labyrinth are slowly filling in. We are going to fill the gaps with dirt or some other material like decomposed granite.
Here is the entry to the labyrinth. We planted Japanese blood grass on both sides along with some blue fescue grasses. They are slowly bouncing back from the terrible neglect and abuse they suffered while living at a horrible nursery up the street.
Our top, right corner now has life. We planted our puya plant in the top middle and surrounded it with wild indigo. We have brick barriers up because the dogs use the labyrinth as their daily exercise ring and I want the plants to survive.
Only 2 of the 3 sage plants were shipped to me because they were out of stock on one. I will be buying the third shortly. I hope they grow big and lush someday.
I am very happy to report that my canna is very happy in its new location. It seems to grow a new leaf everyday.
We will be mulching and filling in the inner portion of the labyrinth soon. We are still searching for more used brick. We paid for the first set of bricks, but the last two groups we have found on craigslist for free.
