life keeps happening

there have been some crazy goings-on around the doyle household lately, which somewhat explains the absence of blogging lately.

while i've been working some INSANE hours (IN. SANE.), doing some fun traveling on the weekends, running around for appointments and prepping some visitors, we also came home from vegas last weekend to a dog with an eye infection and a crazy huge cut on his leg. we took him to the 24 hour vet hospital and he had to undergo anesthesia and came out with three sutures. we got his stitches out over the weekend and unfortunately he wasn't ready yet...and it popped back open! we had to take him back in for 8 staples in his leg and now he's wearing a cone for two weeks. poor guy. cover your eyes if you get queasy, it's kinda gross...

in the realm of good news, the garden has also been growing like crazy. the weather here in austin has been unbelievable, and the roses and vegetables are loving it. nick's green thumb is awesome and we've been enjoying tons of fresh veggies all week. it's amazing how much better stuff tastes when it comes straight out of your backyard.

strawberries and gold

i keep forgetting to blog about this fun surprise that came in the mail just before valentine's day. it's a hand painted tote bag from blogger jessica of flourish the blog. she went out of her way to make something like 20 of these for readers who signed up to receive her special valentine's gift - and if all of them are as awesome as the one i got, she has some lucky readers! check out her blog, you'll like it.

oh, while i was outside taking photos i decided to show off the activity in our tiny little vegetable garden. every single thing we planted has sprouted. i can't wait for the teeny tiny strawberries and broccoli florets to turn in to something edible!

a backyard vegetable garden

just like michelle obama said we should, nick and i spent our day off yesterday making a kitchen garden. we waited until the austin cold seems to have gone for good (it was in the 80s yesterday, woot!), scoped out the best spot in the yard and put in a 5x5 raised bed and a few pots full of broccoli, beans, brussels sprouts, asparagus (which btw takes three years to show any yield, wuh wuhuuu), peppers, tomatoes, potatoes and strawberries. we've also recently planted a fig tree, a peach tree, blueberries, grapes and a calamondon tree. pretty soon you might see us with a booth at the local farmers market (ok...not really). emilio was a very good helper...until he walked right through the garden in an attempt to catch a squirrel in a tree above. it has since been surrounded with chicken wire.






ps. here's a nice shot up emilio's nose. he loves mooching it up for the camera.

rain, rain, go away...but fill up my barrels first

i told nick a few weeks ago that the backyard is officially his domain. i planted a bunch of stuff over the summer that i promptly started to neglect so decided to throw my hands in the air and let nick do his thing. he has since done some awesome things such as rip out a half-dead tree and replace it with a baby peach tree, put in a fig tree, grapes, blueberries, a few flowering plants and a tangerine tree.

his latest escapade is rain barrels, which came in over the weekend...just in time for the rain on saturday night. a tiny bit of rain turned into two completely full barrels, which will be enough to keep the plants watered for quite some time. he's so green and it'll save us plenty of cash in water bills. i heart him.

ps. happy 1.11.11!