my mom has been in chicago for the past few weeks and just came back to iowa city today after a trip to new orleans with my dad. she and E settled back into their groove right away.
rob started putting in the rain garden's limestone edging this evening, hauling and tamping despite the heat and humidity.
here is the bellflower in first bloom. so much for that orange flower prediction. it's a lovely fuschia instead. those other two plants that may or may not be the same still show no signs of budding. maybe later this summer...?
the soon-to-be rain garden has been all dug up and rob is getting it ready to be edged by a whole bunch of cut limestone. rob borrowed our neighbor's roto-tiller and went to town. he compared it to walking an eager 200-pound dog. whatever gets planted here will be rain fed by two buried downspouts from our roof. the city is subsidizing the materials for the garden and our rainbarrel, too.
it's made from a repurposed olive barrel from greece. rob swears that when he opened it up, it smelled just like olives. i think it looks at home between the grapevine and the japanese maple. eleanor loves it when we fill up the watering cans from the barrel's tap.
we spent the day in des moines with our friends the case haub gang and checked out the blank park zoo. those penguins hovered around the edge until we left and then we spotted them swimming around from the nearby sea lion exhibit.
flatty, eleanor and rob contemplate the bull in the petting zoo area. we also saw a tiny baby goat, some llamas, chickens, and...
...this crazy, teeming school of koi. they really, really want your bread.
i think there's something magical about this swan and her little island home.
somehow, the showy peacock blends into the background. he was just wandering around and the kids rushed right over.
jack and brandy, benjamin and mike on the train. if the twisty slide in the petting zoo's play area was E's favorite part of the zoo (it might have been), then the train was jack's favorite.
us on the train!
