Happy at Home and in the Garden

While my trip to Ecuador was incredible (and I’m working on a long post on it), I was so happy to see my family and fur babies again, not to mention that there are certain creature comforts that I missed, like my shower, my coffee, and my own bed. But I know that my pets were taken care of very well by my daughter and her friends while I was away, and they even got the cats a fruit stand, which Steven LOVES (and so do I)!

This weekend was exceptionally nice to be back, because I got to celebrate Mother’s Day by going to the Oddities & Curiosities Expo (which is becoming an annual tradition for my daughter and me) and going for sushi at my favorite restaurant with my daughter and her boyfriend on Sunday. Each year I try to get a memento at the expo, and at this year’s event I got this cute Halloween house print. Also, I finally got to do some garden shopping on Saturday.

One of the things I miss most about being in a house versus an apartment is the gardening space. Sure, I have a little plot of land at the back of my apartment, for which I am very grateful, but it is in a very shady spot so vegetables and colorful flowers usually don’t fare well there. My balcony, on the other hand, gets a good dose of daily sunshine with a little evening shade, so I’m starting a mini vegetable garden out there.

This year I put off buying plants until after my Ecuador trip, in case it was dry while I was gone, but normally, I love to do a garden haul in April, especially during our rainy season. So I was very eager to finally get some plants this weekend. On Saturday I found the cutest garden center in Bartlesville, Evans Nursery, and enjoyed taking some time to explore, admire, and choose some plants in this charming little shop. It even has its own shop kitties, so I heart it.

For my tiny vegetable garden, I got this miniature raised bed, tomatoes, cucumbers, and one watermelon plant because I’m cuckoo for watermelon and couldn’t resist trying (I’ll deal with the watermelon logistics later if it actually starts growing). I also got a little lavender plant to attract pollinators to the balcony. So here’s a small start to something that I hope will flourish this season.