June has flown by! Wasn’t it just Memorial Day? I’ve been busy and I have some photos. There’s been landscaping, baking, reading, writing and editing.

Lets start with landscaping. As soon as I could, I got outside and began the transformation from a very uninspired garden bed in front of our house to something that looks prettier and more deliberate. I’m not a gardener and that’s why the garden bed looked so uninspired for so many years. But since I had time this spring I decided to tackle the project. It’s not completed yet. I still have to work on the bed that runs along the side of the house and connects with the garden beds that run along the back of the house. I’m focusing on putting in what I like to call the “bones” of the garden. There’s a lot of green right now. Next year I’ll tackle adding perennials that have pops of color.

This is where I started. I dug up and transplanted  what used to be right in front of the house. The soil was in terrible condition. That one last plant got moved after I took the photo. Nothing was safe. 🙂

Right in the center of the above garden bed I planted a dwarf Hydrangea. I love it. And on either side are Boxwoods. Then I dropped inches of mulch to help reduce the amount of weeds.

Still a work in progress. This is the garden bed on the other side of the front step. All the plants are in so I just have to finish weeding and dropping more mulch. That’s the plan for this week.

Now lets move into the kitchen. When rhubarb was in season I make a batch of rhubard-ginger muffins. There’s no recipe to share because they really weren’t that great. Maybe I’ll try again next year and tweak a few things.

I made a batch of Triple Chocolate Flourless cookies. Delicious! The recipe will be coming soon. I brought a container full of these cookies to the police department when I went on a second ride along and they were a hit. Cop approved. 🙂 I’ll share the recipe soon. But until then, here’s a photo.

We did have some unseasonably cool evenings (which I loved) so I did some roasting. For one meal I roasted new potatoes and a tray of string beans. Everything tastes so much better roasted.

I managed to get some work done. I’ve finished outlining a new book I’m starting and I also got the edits back for The Uninvited Corpse. This is getting real, people!

There you have it. What I’ve been up to these past few weeks. As June eases into July I can’t help but think about a summer vacation. I have a few ideas. What’s on tap for your summer? A vacation or staycation?