Lunch Date, New Palms, Cooking and Crafts

It's been busy these past couple of weeks, what with catching up my dazzler's inventory after a record number of sales (35 items!) at my favorite craft fair, the Mandarin Garden Club. The ladies that organize the fair, and really everyone that participates, makes this a fantastic & friendly show. I have several more fall shows coming up so I have to stay on top of things.

Another beautiful day in a lovely setting. My set-up has changed
a bit as I've added my free-standing grid hanger, (on the far right
with blue coverings on the frame).

My sweetie took me out to lunch one day to a great local waterfront restaurant called Whitey's Fish Camp, on Black Creek. A beautiful setting, great fish & chips and, I'm sure a great vibe in the evenings with music on tap on the weekends. They're proud of Southern Rock, and that Lynyrd Skynyrd was a hometown band. Here's a link to check them out - some nice shots of the area - whiteysfishcamp.com

Deck seating and plenty of dockage for people coming via the water.
It was a king tide and right after a hurricane scooted by so the water was high!

On to the front yard makeover story. For years our elderly camellia bush and azalea were struggling and getting sickly looking. We did keep our crepe myrtle tree as it has a nice shape and is healthy. 

I wanted a fresh start out there so after we had the various "locate" crews come out, we had both bushes taken out and prepared for our new addition, a 3-trunk cluster of pygmy date palms. It will look so pretty, so tropical and provide a pocket of shade for plantings underneath it. They are slow growers, and bonus, not terribly messy. We had experience with them from the atrium at our old house.

All ready for the planting, but boy,
the rocks got a lot of dirt on them.
I smell another yard project coming up.

We have to keep the moat for 8 weeks and water everyday 
to get them established, but it sure is a big uptick in
our curb appeal, lol. Those foundational plants were outdated.

As far as cooking goes, I made a yummy chicken pot pie the other day - thank goodness for rotisserie chickens at BJ's! We split 1/4 of it, so 3 more dinners, yay.

Another project this past week was to tidy-up our driveway and road "meet-up". Our upper road, which is private, was repaved this summer while we were out west. The crew left a gap at the joining between the 2 which was less than ideal. When the crew came back to spray a topcoat on a section of road near us, the Boss got a small bucket of tar from the crew and we got busy making it a seamless join between the 2.

The gap between the 2 surfaces, not good if you're OCD,
plus the asphalt was crumbly at the edge.

I "blue taped" while he came behind and applied the tar. There were
several coats of tar needed, thanks for your efforts Boss!
Looks so much tidier now and the edges of the asphalt are sealed
so it should hold up much better now.

 

Aaahh, much better now.

Well, I think I have lulled you to sleep by now so I'll quit and leave the rest until another time. Thanks for dropping by, I appreciate it! 😊