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So our back patio looked pretty barren, as you can see below. Not much fun sitting out there at all, even with a double rainbow to enjoy. As you can tell, dogs have no sense of aesthetics. Angus is looking away from a tremendous view of a double rainbow. I guess if they can't pee on it, it doesn't interest them!
Over the winter, we spent a lot of time researching what we wanted to do in the backyard, and settled on building a pergola. We did a lot of designing and came up with a pretty good idea. So when Dad visited in May, we began our construction. We had a local company come in and set up the posts (which would have taken us a month - they did it in 2 hours). And after letting the concrete cure for a couple of weeks, we began building.
And we finally finished it a couple of weeks ago! It looks great! The small pieces of lattice at the posts are protecting some clematis plants from our over-enthusiastic dog when he is playing with Eba, his doggie girlfriend a couple of houses away.
We are very please with how it turned out. Until the clematis gets big enough to shade the patio (in 2 to 3 years), we can still open the umbrella under it.
We tried to match the design of the arbor when we built the pergola, so there is a consistency in the backyard. We also planted a jasmine to climb up the arbor.
Below, you can see that we are using brass and bronze welding rods to give the clematis something to climb on as they grow up the posts. We just drill a hole in the post at the lower end, then insert and bend the rod around the post until it goes where we want it to and drill another hole for the top end. The clematis just follow the rods up the post!
So nothing like celebrating the completion of a huge job! We had a neighborly get-together last Saturday evening (Aug 7th), with a fire for marshmallows and some great neighbors. Standing up in the blue shirt is Kathy Christiansen. She and Dan are our neighbors from across the street, and are the souls of hospitality and kindness. On the day we moved into our house, with boxes everywhere inside and 15 inches of snow outside, she came over and brought us a supper to welcome us. Seated to the left is Dave Cameron and his wife Mary Jo is seated to the right behind a post. They are Eba's owners (Eba is the brown dog behind Kathy), and Peter is the man standing beside Dave. He is a relative of Dave and Mary Jo's and is visiting for the Seattle to Canada bike ride that Mary Jo and Dave are going to do this weekend (Aug 12-15).
Kathy made this wonderful cake, called a "Midsummer Night's Dream" cake. It was unbelievably good! It took her two days to make it.
When you cut into it, you can see why! In the middle, there's a frozen layer of citrus "ice" that is so good. And the white icing is ice cream!
Even Dave, who normally doesn't eat dessert, cannot resist!
We are happy to have this job finished. Now it's onto the next backyard project, which is to re-landscape an area on the other side of the house so that we can put in some raised bed gardens this fall. Next year we plan to eat more of our own vegetables!
We are very please with how it turned out. Until the clematis gets big enough to shade the patio (in 2 to 3 years), we can still open the umbrella under it.
We tried to match the design of the arbor when we built the pergola, so there is a consistency in the backyard. We also planted a jasmine to climb up the arbor.
Below, you can see that we are using brass and bronze welding rods to give the clematis something to climb on as they grow up the posts. We just drill a hole in the post at the lower end, then insert and bend the rod around the post until it goes where we want it to and drill another hole for the top end. The clematis just follow the rods up the post!
So nothing like celebrating the completion of a huge job! We had a neighborly get-together last Saturday evening (Aug 7th), with a fire for marshmallows and some great neighbors. Standing up in the blue shirt is Kathy Christiansen. She and Dan are our neighbors from across the street, and are the souls of hospitality and kindness. On the day we moved into our house, with boxes everywhere inside and 15 inches of snow outside, she came over and brought us a supper to welcome us. Seated to the left is Dave Cameron and his wife Mary Jo is seated to the right behind a post. They are Eba's owners (Eba is the brown dog behind Kathy), and Peter is the man standing beside Dave. He is a relative of Dave and Mary Jo's and is visiting for the Seattle to Canada bike ride that Mary Jo and Dave are going to do this weekend (Aug 12-15).
Kathy made this wonderful cake, called a "Midsummer Night's Dream" cake. It was unbelievably good! It took her two days to make it.
When you cut into it, you can see why! In the middle, there's a frozen layer of citrus "ice" that is so good. And the white icing is ice cream!
Even Dave, who normally doesn't eat dessert, cannot resist!
We are happy to have this job finished. Now it's onto the next backyard project, which is to re-landscape an area on the other side of the house so that we can put in some raised bed gardens this fall. Next year we plan to eat more of our own vegetables!
Thanks for reading and take care,
John & Annie
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