Apologies

to Dora fans everywhere. J16 was complaining that she didn't get a 'special' cake this year for her birthday. So, this afternoon while she was off with friends, I got busy in the kitchen to create one of our signature bizarre birthday cakes for her.

Behold:

The severed head of zombie Dora the Explorer.

Amazing what you can do with frosting, fruit, pull and peel Twizzlers and cranblueberry applesauce.

She was dutifully shocked, amused and amazed (sporting her new summer hair cut)

But, on to the rest of the weekend. It has been HOT! I believe it hit 90 here today. We've got the windows open, much to the delight of the cats.

Oh, what a rough life he leads!

I converted some of the "flower" bed to an herb and kitchen garden.

I also planted one section with our mints that we have acquired: peppermint, chocolate mint, apple mint and corsican mint (a tender groundcover). I've been wondering what to do with these beds. On one side of the stairs there are a few pathetic shrubs (now with mint planted in one of the larger open sections. On the other side, where these herbs are, was just weeds and rocks. I added some topsoil so hopefully things will do well. In addition to the perennial herbs (sage, 2 types of thyme, french tarragon, garlic chives and a curry plant) I planted some basil and lettuce seeds. I have other herbs in a bed in the garden. All of these were to go somewhere else but we're STILL waiting on contractors for the septic replacement. sigh... But, we are plotting and planning something different we can do with the south side of the house while we wait. This will be a 'temporary' planting since we hope at some time to build a solar addition. However, that is down the road so this will be something that will be easily moved.

We made arrangements to borrow a large borer next weekend to dig new footings for the deck so we can get that reassembled.

But mostly, it has been a peaceful, relaxing weekend.

The peonies are blooming.

V and I took a moonlight walk through the property last night. It was beautiful! Tomorrow evening, we will leave the children home with a pizza and go out to dinner, just the two of us to celebrate.