Why I Oughta...

How fascinating, right?  We had a pair of Mallard ducks hanging out in our yard recently and after a short stay, they left behind this beautiful egg.  We were hoping that they'd come back the next day or two to lay even more, but this one was left all alone.  Not exactly sure what was happening here, but we live just down the street from a large pond that has quite a bit of waterfowl.  Perhaps they got turned around?  Or, could this egg be a not-so-great one that they laid here on purpose - away from their nest?  Either way, I'm excited to see it as it adds another layer to our 'Certified Wildlife Habitat" story in our yard .  If you'll recall that in early Spring of 2018, we applied and were granted Certified Wildlife Habitat status for our yard based on meeting the criteria.  Those criteria include the need to provide food, water and cover but also "places to raise young" - including places for wildlife to mate, bear and raise their young.  Check

There are these lovely little entrance plaques at some Disney parks that feature a quote from Walt Disney at the opening of Disneyland in Anaheim.  As you walk through the entrance tunnels, you can look up/over and see these and smile and remember that the whole thing was in one dude's mind.  Pretty amazing. I posted the one at the Magic Kingdom in Florida here on the blog back in 2016.  This one, in Disneyland Park at Disneyland Paris is a bit different.  First, the dual language thing, of course.  But also the phrases are different. Magic Kingdom : ...and enter the world of yesterday, tomorrow and fantasy.  Disneyland Park: ...and enter worlds of history, discovery and ageless fantasy. 

After coming home with some peonies from Trader Joe's a few weeks back, Natalie asked me why we didn't have any peonies in our yard?  After all, we had a bunch of them back in Elmhurst that had established themselves enough to flower pretty productively every year.  Here's a look at some of them from 2015 .  That forced me to get outside and try to find the various peony plants that we have on hand and to start to chronicle them here on the blog.  These photos are a few weeks old, but sharing to start the diary entries on these. First...let me remind you all (and myself) that we still have the most important peony plant out in Foster Care in Naperville.  It grew pretty well last year and I'm thinking that it has likely flowered this season.  Time to move it, soon, I believe.    But, this post isn't about fostered plants.  It is about the five peony plants that we currently have on site.  The first one is above and was the only one that flowered.  All of thes

The photo above is from the plans at Gardener's World that were our inspiration Back in April of this year, I published a list of seven additional or addendum items in my Spring/Summer To-Do List that included: "Work out the patio container situation" .  We had a hodgepodge of containers in our back patio and Nat wanted to do something about it.  She shared a few photos of planters that she liked and we came across this plan from Gardener's World that featured a simple timber planter .  You can see it above and how it features a two-tiered planter with three sections. After noodling it a bit and altering the plans a little, we ended up trying our own hand at making a similar patio planter.    Off I went to Menards and I ended up coming home with a van full of 2x3's of treated lumber. That 'altering' of the plans included Nat's decision to lop off the top level and just make it a flat-topped planter.  Here's how it ended up: Because I

Last week, I posted a photo about our first Disneyland Rose and mentioned how I would get around to posting photos of the other two.  Welp, here's the post showing off the other two.  These were 10th Anniversary gifts from Nat's Mom and I planted them in October of last year .  October!  It was late, but that's when they were shipped to us.  I put them on the southside of our house , in the kind of narrow space between our house and our neighbor to the south.  The top photo shows the Disneyland Rose that I put in a little bit more oriented towards the back of our house.  It has blooms!  The photo below shows the other rose bush that I planted closer to the front of the house.  It does NOT have any blooms.  And in fact, it seems like half of the bush has perished (the back half), but the front half is full of green growth.  If go back and look at the original plants, you'll note that the one that is doing better *this year* was also doing better when I put it

I've posted some Disney Parks maps on the blog here over the years.  Mostly for posterity sake and because the parks have been doing a nice job of tailoring the maps to specific windows in time.  Most recently, I shared this Tokyo DisneySea map and guide that celebrates the 35th anniversary of that overall park.  And earlier this year, I posted a holiday-themed parks map from Disney California Adventure and a similarly-holiday-themed one from Disneyland .  And here's one from a Halloween-time Mickey's Not So Scary Halloween Party . Today's post shows off a map (or as they call it a "Guide to the 2 Disney Parks" at Disneyland Paris.  The cover shows the dates of January 7th --> June 28th of this year and features some legacy Disney Parks characters (Mickey the Mouse, Cinderella, Buzz Lightyear) and the two new, shiny objects:  Marvel (Spiderman) and Star Wars (Darth Vader). Inside, there's a double-sided map.  First for Disneyland Park - which i

The last time we checked in on this large caliper Chanticleer Flowering Pear tree that is planted close to our front driveway was last Fall when it was totally off-cycle.  It flowered in early November .  But, I took that (oddly-timed) indicator as a potential sign of progress.  Looking back at this same tree in June of last year, I think that this year the tree is healthier.  It isn't perfect as there are still plenty of thin spots and some dead tips.  But, look at the photo from last year .  The leaves are a different color.   Darker green.  Seemingly more healthy, right? The culprit was the clay bowl that this tree was planted in and how it was drowning the tree.  At least...that's what I *think* was happening.  I dug out part of the tree on the low-side of the planting bowl and then used a post-hole digger to dig through the clay layer to make a kind-of drainage spot so the water had a place to run.  After I did this excavation project, it didn't take long for the