Why I Oughta...

And, is "spring fed".  Based on this flyer that the Twin Lakes Sailing Club tossed on the dock.  They used fruit snacks to weigh it down - which was kinda cute.

Paw Paw Lake in Coloma, Michigan is 4,300 acres.  7x the size.

I'd been trying to figure out how they compared and now, thanks to the Twin Lakes Sailing Club's brochure....I have my answer.

Also, fun fact, it is technically "Elizabeth Lake".  And according to Wikipedia, Elizabeth Lake was named for Elizabeth Barrett Browning, an English poet.  Who, I'm guessing never visited the lake.

About a week ago, I posted a photo showing the new little collection of Hicks Upright Yews that I picked up at Home Depot for a song with the intention of planting a hedge in the back.  Welp...I started that project this week.

If you've been following along, I'm using this Bunny Williams sweeping yew hedge as inspiration and after I get these established, I'm going to try to prune them into curving, swooping shapes.

I started to place them out and realized that the spacing wasn't going to work.  What you see here above and below is 3' (36") spacing between the centers of the pots.  Looks too far apart to me.



So, off I went to pick up 3 more shrubs and shrunk the gap down to 30".  
And after I dug the holes (remembering Ralph Snodsmith's advice about digging the holes!!!), I stuck them in the ground and threw some mulch that I had on hand on top of them. 
Here's the immediate aftermath of planting them.  I have to clean up the front of the bed, ge…

By now, I think I've been pretty clear that this place - Luxembourg Gardens in Paris - has left a pretty significant impression on me garden-wise.  Just yesterday, I posted about the metal walking path edging and before that, the many love letters to this Garden/park include:
The chairs.  These amazing vines/ivy that have been trained between posts and trees.  These orangerie tree boxes. The fact that they use cocoa bean shell mulch in their beds.  And how I copied the color pallete of one of their beds in our raised planter box. Today, I'm sharing this photo above that shows off the 'bottom' of the pleached row of Horse Chestnut trees.  Pleaching is training/pruning trees that is kind of a close Cousin to espalier.  More here.

For a wider-view perspective on these Horse Chestnut Trees in Luxembourg Gardens, do a Google Image Search for [Horse Chestnut Trees Luxembourg Gardens].  Go there now and poke around.  Or just look at this image here.  Then come back here.

Ok..…

Just a couple of days ago, I posted the latest in my love letters to Luxembourg Gardens with my post about the chairs they have there.  Prior to that post, I shared a series of things that I have been drawn to about the garden including posts about the vines growing between trees by the Medici Fountain, the tree boxes,the cocoa bean shell mulch and the colors of the flower beds that inspired our own raised planter mix. 

Today comes these little metal edges.  They're half circles or little hoops and they kind of overlap each other to form an edge to the walking paths.  What's that you say?  Jake...you've been talking about a walking path in your own backyard for a while now.  That's right!  I'd been thinking about using something a little bit more formal with uniform metal edging to keep the crushed granite in place, but this little bit of whimsy via Luxembourg Gardens has me wondering if I can think about using different types of edging?  I mean, this is NOT a pol…

In my mind, Sleeping Beauty Castle in Disneyland Paris is a hybrid of the two US park castles.  It has the 'feel' of the OG Sleeping Beauty Castle but it is built at the scale and style of Cinderella's Castle in Walt Disney World in Orlando.

But there's something different about the castle that is, kinda awesome. There's something called "La
Tanière du Dragon".


According to the Disneyland Paris Parks page:
Tip-toe through the dark dungeon "La Tanière du Dragon" underneath Sleeping Beauty Castle, where a monstrous prisoner lurks. Once the ruler of the skies, this defeated dragon lies chained against jagged rocks. It may be dozing, but tread carefully, as one false move will lead to a hot, rumbling surprise. Here's that 'prisoner':


This was a really neat experience that we just kind of wandered in to as we wandered on some of the park paths near the castle.  I remember being inside here, seeing the dragon and looking at Nat and both …

There are a ton of familiar details at Disneyland Park.  The hub layout.  The castle...that is kind of a combination of Disneyland's castle at Disney World's scale.  But, I noticed one little detail that is different.  They don't two-finger point.  This is a photo I took of this Cast Member who was directing people around Disneyland Park.  I was sitting at a restaurant waiting for Nat and was able to watch this guy tell people where to go and what-have-you.  After seeing him one-finger point for about five minutes, I had to snap a photo.

What's the two-finger point?  From Travel + Leisure:
Disney is all about the details.  Sure, every Disney fan knows that the rides, snacks, and the parks themselves are meticulously designed and maintained so visitors can be delighted at every turn, but did you know that this very thoughtful mentality also extends to the park’s staff as well?  Take, for example, the fact that Disney park employees are banned from ever pointing with ju…