Welcome to Debbie-Dabble Blog!!
I am so happy you decided to stop by!!
Just a reminder, I will be posting on Wednesdays
and Sundays every week so be sure to check back on those days to see a
new post......
Today, I will be sharing how our front yard looks this Spring....
In my previous post, I shared how our front porch looks set up for Summer, minus the flowers planted in all my pots!!!
And now for a few Personal Notes...
Food of the Week
I hope you all had a lovely Mother's Day!!
I sure did as I got to spend the afternoon with my family!!
We always order pizza for our family celebrations as it is one of our favorite foods and something everyone likes which is a rarity in my family of picky eaters, mainly Joe!!
I chose pizza from Norm's, a local eatery, as my Mother's Day dinner....
I forgot to take a picture but envision this Sicilian pizza with just one topping of bacon and no pepperoni and that was what I chose!!
I also decided to try their White Sicilian pizza, minus the onions as Joey will not eat them...
I am glad their was one piece left to take a picture of!!!
Really good!!
Joe picked up a small yellow cake with butter creme icing from Price Chopper on sale for $5 and Haagen Dazs chocolate coated ice cream bars for dessert...
Of course the pups came to wish their Mimi a Happy Mother's Day!!!
Faye with Uncle Joey!!
Faye with her Mama, Danielle and Dad, Jim!!
Faye looking in the mirror at herself!!
Azumi, who was tired and actually fell asleep under the Dining Room table while we ate!!
Azumi in her Mama's lap....
I was gifted this lovely pop up card from Jim and Danielle and several Lottery tickets which I did win on!!
And this very heartfelt picture of the pups....
The framed photo on the table in the back ground is of my sweet Savanna, as if she is watching over these new pups in our family!!!
Touched my heart!!
They love to sit on this recliner and look out the sliding glass doors to the back yard of Jim and Danielle's house!!!
And they love to lay on their beds in front of the sliding glass doors in the Sun!!
Joey gifted me a Boscov's gift card and the entire Season of Dexter New Blood on Prime!!!
I LOVE a good Serial Killer show and I absolutely loved watching the 8 Seasons of the original Dexter!!
I hope you got to spend Mother's Day with those that you love!!!
This week's Reheat and Eat Dinners from the WB Scranton Pens Food Service.....
Joey got the peach BBQ glazed chicken with Mac N Cheese...
And I got the Pork ( sausage) bolognese sauce over pasta!
Looks pretty good to me...
It is dinner tonight....
Joe opted out and got himself a hoagie....
The house next door is rented now to a Physician who will be doing his
residency with the Wright Center, physician-led, non-proft organization, in Scranton......
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They have a 15 month old and
his wife is expecting another baby.
My neighbor Melanie, who works in Human Resources at the
Wright Center, is glad that she was able to place him in our development
for the next 3 years....
As a favor to Trish, who owns the house, Joe will be painting the front porch railing
and we will be landscaping the back yard!
Yes, Barna Landscaping is still not retired!!!
The original owners kept the grass in the back yard except for this bed that runs along the back fence where they planted a vegetable garden.....
The daughter and grand daughter that lived there for 9 years never did anything with this area and just let it get overgrown....
These pictures were taken from my upstairs Sitting Room window....
The grass area is fine except for some dandelions....
I will be cutting back this tree in this corner that reseeded itself from the property behind the fence that belongs to the people who live back there....
And hopefully, pull out the roots of the tree along with all these weeds....
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There is a cinder block border here that I will pull out and re-do and then put weed block fabric down and then mulch creating a flower bed should they feel so inclined....
Looks like I got my work cut out for me but I have until June 1st to get it done which is when they are supposed to move in....
Hopefully the inside of the house will be done...Powder Room is done, Kitchen is almost done and they are working on replacing the entire bathroom upstairs as it had to be ripped down to the studs....
However, the entire bathroom ceiling came crashing down the other day.....
Trish estimates she has put about $50,000 into this house after buying it for $40,000 which with all the damage she discovered after the fact was too much to pay!!
Update on the feeding of the Birds and Squirrels by my neighbor....
Trish,
who owns the house next door, and I banded together in our quest to
stop the neighbor who feeds the birds and squirrels.
She is very upset seeing, as she says. "4-5 squirrels at a time dancing on her back fence", every time she looks out into the back yard...
When the neighbor, who lives on the other side of her, asked her the other day if the house is rented, she told him that it is and that there
will be a 15 month old child playing out in the yard and she wants him to stop throwing out food for wild animals....
She told him that the squirrels concern
her as they carry lice, fleas, ticks and could spread diseases to
Humans and domestic pets such as dogs....
Plus she is concerned about all the bird poop in the yard, which
is also a health hazard ,with a young child who will be living there...
She told him that if he
does not stop, she will be forced to take legal action against him.
WHOA!!!
His reaction to this was "So this is what I can do to make it better for them?"
What kind of reaction is that????
OMG!!
Then it was my turn.....
Make a fool out of me once but do NOT do it 2 and 3 times....
Enclosed in the Packet were copies of Ordinances in
different municipalities against feeding wild animals.....
Which if he does not stop, I will be forced to go to our Twp. Council meeting to appeal for an ordinance of this kind to be enacted since we are one of the few municipalities around that do not have such an ordinance.....
Articles on the diseases that Squirrels spread were also enclosed.....
And an article that
feeding birds bread is harmful to them....
Along with copies of pictures of all
the damage to my property....
And, as per my Home Owners insurance carrier,
that if I sustain damage caused by a squirrel gaining access to my
attic because of him enticing wild animals with food, they will sue him
for payment of damages....
Because I have pictures of him doing so!!!
Hopefully, this will finally end it!!!!
So far, 2 days with no squirrels whatsoever behind our houses in the trees....
Imagine that!!
And Speaking of that....
I took these pictures from our upstairs Sitting Room window of our back yard....
This is why I call my back yard and Patio my little "Secret Garden"....
Because no one can really see into my yard because of the trees and lattice on the fencing!!
My lilac tree is in bloom but I think the extremes in temperatures that we have had this Spring killed a few blooms....
I love the deep purple lilacs....
Joe is a happy soul as our Baby Penguins won the first round for the Caulder Cup and will be moving on to the second round....
And so far the Pittsburgh Pens are doing well in their bid for the Stanley Cup...
Last year when we landscaped everybody and their brother's front yards in our row of townhouses and trimmed our azaleas, sprucing up our own front flower bed, I did not have the time or the energy to give this flower bed under our Living Room window a thorough sprucing up....
So it was definitely on the agenda for this Spring as you can see that the border needed to be straightened and lifted up a bit....
So I got to work....
Yep, that is me who crawled in the flower bed and lifted those borders up and out, straightened them and put them back in....
While Joe sat on the porch and took pictures of me working....
That's okay as I prefer to do these things myself....
Much better....
I then graded the existing mulch, dug out a hosta that was growing too close to the sidewalk and transplanted it in a pot and lugged 2 bags of mulch over and put it in the flower bed.....
Then set up my bird bath and solar lights...
Before Memorial Day, I will plant flowers in the pots....
And Coleus will be planted in these long flower boxes...
I then dragged 3 more bags over and mulched the front flower bed that is on top of the slope in front of our house and set out my garden art and solar lights....
Still waiting to plant flowers in these pots too!!
I do want to share that after cutting back the azaleas severely last Summer, they have grown in beautifully and are starting to bud.....
This purple one may not have that many blooms this year ...
But this was how it looked last year when we cut it back....
And this white one usually looks like a cotton ball when in full bloom......
This is how it looked when cut back.....
2 azaleas were really cut down last year....
And now look at them!!
Buds on both of them....
I will share how they look when they are in full bloom...
My Dad always said to cut things way back and they will grow back better and nicer!!
Okay, I have to give credit where credit is due....
Since I can no longer climb the slope like I once used to, Joe has to do the mulching on the slope.....
Trish put us on retainer for caring for the slope in front of her house...
First Joe put the Preen down .....
Good way to slip down the slope when pulling out a weed....
And then put down a layer of fresh mulch....
This time I got to take the pictures while he worked!!
Glad we did not take out this rhododendron when we landscaped Trish's yard last year...
That is Lowe's roof you see in the shopping center on the side of us...
And this is how the slope looked once Joe finished!!
And this is how it looks today with my Phlox in bloom .....
There is a mixture of phlox and sedum planted here.....
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Just about when the phlox will be done blooming, the sedum will bloom with it's yellow flowers....
That is Trish's carpenter taking a break on her front porch....
This 70 year old man comes every morning at 7 am after about a 45 minute drive and works until around noon....
He is doing beautiful work and I have his number because I always need a "guy"....
Perennials from the house on the end of our row of townhouses reseeded on the slope....
The yellow ones are supposedly called "Bonfire" Spurge....
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Also Columbine reseeded from my neighbors onto the slope.....
The space between my neighbor's and my house is a bit bare as Joe had put weed killer down trying to prevent the onslaught of weeds from growing on to our side of the slope from when the crazy neighbor lived next door to us and he killed the phlox that were growing here....
So between this year and last year, I planted sedum from the back yard, more phlox which we bought from Lowe's and transplanted a hosta or 2 here to fill this area back in....
And hopefully, more plants will reseed further over to the middle of the slope....
The hostas that I planted 30+ years ago that I dug out of my MIL's yard are doing well....
They look like shrubs when fully open....
And this is a view of the slope looking down from the sidewalk that runs along the front of our house....
Too bad that the phlox does not stay in bloom longer than 2 weeks.....
I hope you enjoyed seeing how the front flower beds look in early Spring.....
I wll be back with another post on Sunday so I hope you will stop by to visit again then!!
Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!
Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
If you do not have a blog, PLEASE give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......
Stay safe, healthy and most of all, HAPPY!!
Thanks to those who took the time out of their busy day to spend a little bit of time with me!!
If you do not have a blog, PLEASE give me some way to reply to your comment, maybe by including your email in your comment. If I can not find a way to reach you, I will reply on the post where you commented so please check back......
I am linking up to these parties:
THURSDAY
Vintage Charm
Share Your Style Thursday Link Up Party
Encouraging Hearts and Home Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
Grace at Home Party
Vintage Charm
Share Your Style Thursday Link Up Party
Encouraging Hearts and Home Party
Thursday Favorite Things Blog Hop
Grace at Home Party
Welcome to the Really Crafty Link Party
TUESDAY
Inspire Me Tuesdays
Lou Lou Girl's Linky Party
All About Home Party
Tuesdays with a Twist
Tuesday Turn About Link Party
TUESDAY
Inspire Me Tuesdays
Lou Lou Girl's Linky Party
All About Home Party
Tuesdays with a Twist
Tuesday Turn About Link Party
Your flower bed looks so nice and girl...I need a slice of that pizza! You amaze me with your energy. Hugs and blessings, Cindy
ReplyDeleteThe photos with the phlox blooming in front of your house are just breathtaking! All your hard work last year is certainly evident in how well it is all doing this year! Just gorgeous! It sounds like you all enjoyed your mother's day celebration and as good as your pizza looks, those dinners look even better! I would have definitely chosen yours, although I don't think that I have seen a meal choice I would not enjoy. It is great to hear that poor woman's investment is finally close to being done and that you will have "normal" neighbors! I certainly hope the "feeder" takes this to heart and quits feeding the animals! The fact he told you he would and lied to you just makes me fume. Have a great week!
ReplyDeleteThat phlox is absolutely fantastic! I'm glad you IDd it because I THOUGHT that might be phlox but wasn't sure. A beautiful color, too. That's a steep incline -- well done on doing all that gardening and getting through in one piece. Mother's Day looked great, delish food and a wonderful porch! All glorious signs of spring!
ReplyDeleteGreat the squirrel and bird problem is fixed. My sister had to have her car towed one morning to the shop and the gentleman saw that the line (don't know which one) was chewed through. He said either a squirrel or some type of rodent did it. She has problems with squirrels coming up on her porch and her husband has been getting rid of them for good. Still there are many. It happened again and it was a squirrel, she saw one on the ground around her car. Now its war on squirrels at her house. He said not to leave any paper bags in car that fast food may have come in. They pick up the scent.
ReplyDeleteYour phlox looks beautiful! Every thing looking good!
Your creeping phlox is incredible and your food, as always, looks amazing.
ReplyDeleteDebbie, your phlox is so pretty! Thanks for sharing at Vintage Charm!
ReplyDeleteYour phlox is beautiful and your front yard looks lovely. It sounds like you had a wonderful Mother's Day! We really enjoyed Dexter too and debated about adding showtime to our streaming networks/ channels just to watch it; you'll have to let me know what you think of the newest show.
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! All of your hard work has paid off.
ReplyDeleteAs always, such a beautiful yard!
ReplyDeleteBeautiful! Let me know what you think of the new Dexter if you haven't seen it yet. Once I know if you have or haven't, I can let you know my thoughts lol. I don't want to give a spoiler if you haven't! Thanks for sharing on Crafty Creators.
ReplyDeleteEverything looks so beautiful.
ReplyDeleteI'm interested to hear your story about the birds and squirrel issues. We live in a city but near to a small wood area where there are LOTS of squirrels but we don't have too much of an issue with them coming over and causing damage thankfully, they seem very happy in the woods! People here in the UK can feed birds as much as they want, but we do tend to have bird feeders that hang up with specialist food/seeds/nuts etc rather than throwing things onto the ground. That way the smaller birds are attracted and feed and the bigger ones like pigeons don't get a look in as they can't get to the feeders! I think rats being attracted to fod on the ground would be an issue here too. Pigeons are a real issue in town centres though so a lot of places have spikes to stop them roosting and pooping on the ground below!
I hope your saga is over now and things can settle down and you can enjoy your gorgeous outside spaces.