As this is our first summer in our house, I've been pleasantly surprised with most of the landscaping. Some is a little...well, boring but there have been some really lovely things pop up.

Like these:

This spike is absolutely huge--probably about 7 feet! I was a little suspicious of the plant when we moved in since it looks like an overgrown aloe vera (without the awesome gooey medicinal qualities) but this spike is totally worth it. You can vaguely see another spike in the background here but you can see a wider shot here.

Just next to that plant there is some low shrubbery that is putting out some lovely purple flowers:

These are only about 6 inches long so not nearly as impressive as the pink flowers but I just love the tiny little purple-blue bells.

Next year will probably be a year of ripping out what we didnt like and replacing it with more flowers but this year it has been nice to just let nature run its course and see what comes up. Of course--that does mean a lot of weeds have taken up residence... oh well. At least they flower, right?

Last night while I was waiting for dinner to cook, I whipped up some refrigerator pickles (the recipe in this month's Everyday Food). I've never made pickles before but, like a stereotypically pregnant woman, Im eating a ton of them, so I though I'd try my hand at my own! I'm going to try them with dinner tonight and I'll let you know how the recipe turned out!