gardens

this past week has been super busy, well, relatively... anyhow, afton and i started working on a garden plot for flowers in our front yard. along the front of our house is a cement block at foundation height about two feet out from the house, it's not much for a demarkation, but we decided if we fill it in with a bit more dirt and raise it up a little, it might actually be pretty cute, so that's what we're working on. we've borrowed a wheelbarrow from one set of neighbors, and we're collecting old bricks from the other side (they've got tons of extras they're trying to get rid of). so we're building the little plot up two bricks high and filling it in with dirt from the back yard (which isn't only not much to look at, but rather nothing to look at). we're just over half done, and hope to finish in the next week or so so we can start some plantings before it gets too warm.

sad that i think of too warm when it's just the middle of february... actually, last week we had two or three days in the upper 60s/low 70s, but then on friday morning it snowed. we had a lot of rain thursday night and friday, but it was cold enough to mix into snow before long. there was so much water on the ground that it didn't stick though, just melted right in. we like water though, so rain's always a good thing here.

wednesday night paul got snowed in too, but that was into slc. he'd gone up that night for his interview at byu, and he got stuck in slc with two other applicants, evidentally there was enough snow to close down the highway at point of the mountain there, so after a long night trying to get everything squared away, they finally put the applicants up at a motel for the night. then they had to get up super early the next morning to rent a car and head down to provo before the interviews, so paul only got about 3 hours of sleep that night... oh well, he still did okay at his interview. he's on the alternate list there. i guess that means he hasn't been accepted yet, but he's not completely out of the running either, so he's still in limbo. i like to think that's good news.

friday was fun for me and afton, we went to lunch with hilary's family and grampa anderson, then we all went to the boyce-thompson arboretum which was a lot bigger and nicer than i'd expected. we could have probably spent another hour or more there to have seen everything, but since it was raining all day and the kids were getting tired, we didn't. afton's stroller did a pretty good job staying water-proof, unfortunately, afton had no interest in staying in her stroller. we saw lots of interesting plants, tons of varities of cactus, and very few flowers. they should start blooming in another month or so, i think we'll try to head back then with paul, it looks like a really nice place. afton had a great time playing at aunt hilary's house after though, and i think she did a pretty good job keeping at least the cousins entertained (me too, for that matter, she gets really silly when she's tired).

saturday we were happy to see paul back, though we didn't have a lot of time to play, we visited in mesa with his family for a bit, and then had to get home for a stake ym/yw activity paul had to help out at (it went over an hour longer than it was supposed to), but still, he was home, we're not used to him being gone for such a long time.

sunday afternoon, we headed down to tucson for a quick visit. we stayed with some friends there for the evening, and afton had a really, really hard time going to bed, but monday morning we all had fun. we visited with paul's sister elaine for a while and then we all headed over to the tucson botanical gardens for a nice visit. they have a butterfly exhibit that's really neat. this month they had butterflies from south america. evidentally they bring in new species every month or so, there were hundreds in a fairly small area, so we could walk through and find every kind. they also had a display up of the chrysilises (spelling?) so we could see where they'd come from. those were really pretty! at first when i saw them through the glass, i thought they were earrings on display. some even had a metallic glint, others were bright green or pink. i only wished i'd brought my camera. the rest of the gardens were nice too, but a bit much for me just after seeing the arboretum which was more extensive.

anyways, it's good to be home, and hopefully healthy (afton and i are fighting colds). it's interesting to me how much gardening can brighten up a rainy day, even in arizona in february. if anyone's ready for a break from winter's snows, feel free to drop by... i think we're done with snow for this year. smile!