Freshly painted chairs and an evening nap in the garden!
(Click on the photo of Dottie to enlarge and check out that tongue-you have to love her!) My thrifty husband found the chimnea at a garage sale for FIVE DOLLARS. We have already enjoyed it a number of times. The begonias in the background (behind Dottie) are planted in a wire bicycle basket that we found under a bush when we moved in! We knew we wanted to use it, but it took us a bit to figure out how we would use it. It is lined with the backdoor matt that the previous owners left behind.

The mighty Dragon Wing Begonia!

Hannah and Dottie love the backyard! (Where is Lucas?)

All is well in the shade. The bunny is happy............. This particular bunny is special, because my Mom gave her to me. She came right out of one of my mother's gardens prior to a move. My mother also purchased the gorgeous blue pot next to the bunny. I am pretty lucky.

Can't get enough of those coneflowers.

Andrew took all these photos so that I could have a taste of home while I visit my parents. The fuzzy girl is Hannah. The smoothie laying her cute head down in the grass is Dottie. The begonias are my first experience with growing Dragon Wing Begonias. They are a success. Cone flowers will be a staple in our garden. The impatiens are watered with captured/recycled shower water, and those pots seem to hold the water very well in the shade. We are lucky to have St. Augustine grass. The backyard has never been watered.

This gorgeous gal's name is Sara Lee. She is one of our foster cats. We are sure that she will be adopted quickly! (www.fcdf.org) She is very friendly and very confident...fearless really!

We got some rain today. Just enough to make me smile. Hopefully, more soon...... the volunteer Cleome seedlings are doing well (including the ones that were relocated). Same goes for the cone flower seedlings. The fan flower is thickening up as well. All is going pretty well right now.

June is here, and things are definitely starting to happen in the garden despite the drought. We are really hopeful that we chose drought tolerant plants that the hummingbirds and butterflies will flock to.....we tried. This guy is one of our more unusual visitors so far. He isn't as flashy as some others, but he seems to have a clever disguise going (is he a moth or a bee? is he tastey or threatening?)...He is the first of his kind that we have noticed.