So there we were, sitting on the patio enjoying the afternoon WHEN ALL OF A SUDDEN...

... I saw a frog leaping happily from hither to tither! Everybody was absolutely fascinated with the little creature and we were all oohing and ahing because it jumped right into Andy's hands!

(the bruises on Andy's arm are not from me... maybe)

I'm not into frogs or anything but that was the cutest little croaker I've ever seen!

  awwwwww

All the hardened 30 year olds (and a couple of of hardened 20 something year olds) turned into little kids who wanted to look at it, pet it and hug it and then there were suggestions of keeping it as a pet. I had to shoot down that idea because our fish population is now down to one sad little chromis. Killing stuff just isn't as fun as it used to be.

We also debated whether we should walk it to the river and let it find some new buddies but somebody argued that its family could be somewhere near here and we'd probably launch the next version of Finding Nemo. Only I named the froggie Richard because it had spots. Because then we could nickname it Spotted Dick. So the title of the movie would be Finding Spotted Dick which I guess could be misinterpreted somehow.

Instead Andy set it free in our yard so it could go wherever it was headed before the humans interfered, again! After Andy let Spotted Dick go, I realized I have a lot of frogs in my garden. hmmmm

Anyway, I've been pretty busy beautifying my garden and I think I'm finally at the point where I'm satisfied with my beginner's attempt at landscaping. Unfortunately, the nights have been cold here in Chi-townland so some of my flowers aren't blooming as I'd hoped but I'm sure they'll be okay once the sun finds us again.

Here are pictures of what I've been doing while neglecting my bloglife.

Here is the grass.

Here is the grass with edgers.

Here is the grass minus grass.

Here is the grass with plants minus grass.

Now, I don't know if you know this about me but when I become obsessed with something, I generally don't half-ass it. No, anything that catches my fancy deserves the full attention of my ass in its entirety. I have studied up on what plants would be best for my region. I've wrinkled my brow in thought, made notes while tapping my pen, consulted nursery specialists, tasted the soil, hugged the earth to my bosom... Okay, I may be exaggerating a bit but I did do as much research as I could before selecting the perennials I planted.

Some will attract butterflies and humming birds. Some will be fragrant and others will be colorful but more importantly, some will grow along my fence so that I don't have to look at my neighbor Wilson's makeshift dumpster everyday!

I've never understood why people amass unusable junk. Are you saving the broken toys for spare parts in case you need to build Crapenstein? Is that also why you keep bleach bottles full of what might be blood and urine? And you think the holey tarps will protect your "" treasure ""???

For a couple of summers I had to put up with his grankids peeing on the side of their house, but they stopped when they realized we would laugh hysterically every time they started peeing. Cruel? Do they now probably have issues peeing in public urinals because they are now traumatized? Maybe but this here is war!

Well, that's about it for today.