Okay okay. I won't do any more pond posts, but I had to post these two.

So. We had big doins this past weekend at the Oceanside, er, beach.

That's the beginning. The trench and the first course of brick took most of the day. I have to give credit to the MAN, who did the lion's share of the work. Did I mention it was hard digging? In caliche? Did I mention that those stupid bricks had to be level front/back left/right AND level with neighbor bricks? Have I mentioned how the MAN did the hardest work on one of the hottest days this year? Did I mention it was hot out? Way. HOT.





When arthur says it's this hot, it's siesta time.


So the next steps, which pretty much rounded out the first day. Funny how a ton of sand doesn't go quite as far as you might think.



And at last, fountain and plants. And a big red carp. Ceramic, that is.
The boy moved the chair there all on his own. He'd been waiting so long. SOOO long. I made the mistake of purchasing the liners first, some months ago (before it was hellishly hot), and he has been most persistent reminding us about the pond. When he really wants to communicate, which is rare, he'll get right in our face, almost nose to nose, and say his one word or phrase, in this case, "Pond." He must've gotten tired of us saying, "not today" or "later, it's too hot" because he started saying "POND" in a much clearer, louder voice.
Gawd, are we suckers for for a clear loud voice. He did help dig, and haul, and stack, and fill, and most of all, enjoy.
I think he likes it.

So, I am back to my old hobby. Dryer's fixed. Washer has a new knob. But it was close there, when things were at their darkest, no dryer, knob on the washer breaking off, I was this close to spending several hundred dollars to fix $20 worth of problems. Arrgh.

For some reason, one of my bird of paradise plants is dying. Other one looks great, so I'm not sure what the problem might be, since I treat them the same. Just dunno. Divided the aloe vera plant, and I'm not so sure it was the best time of year to do that. But my sister passed along a bunch of hens-and-chicks, and I had more than one pot of those so I had to uncrowd the aloe to intersperse with the hens-and-chicks and oh, well, that's how it goes when I start getting my hands in the dirt.

The volunteer tomatoes are doing amazingly well. For something springing up in the ersatz mulch pile, they're looking better than any I've paid good money for. Hope I haven't jinxed myself. The strawberry's a goner. I guess Flip's right-I don't bring home plants, I bring home more "victims".

Here we are back from the first annual Las Vegas Walk Now.

Tired feet. The Boy walked the whole way, bless his heart. We ended up raising over $800, just short of our goal of $1000. Not bad for the first year, I think.
Thanks to all who generously donated to this cause, by all accounts it was a very successful and fun day.

Here we are at the first annual Walk Now 5K walk to raise funds for Cure Autism Now.