Weekend Basics

1 I framed up a few more photos for our front hallway gallery and am looking forward to sharing more details about those later in the week.

2 & 3 Our container herbs have been doing great — almost overgrowing. Tim's been trying to use up as many as we can while they are in their prime and made up a sage corn side dish with Saturday's dinner that was so so good. Find the full recipe here.

4 We can happily say we finally bid farewell to the last of the purple painted walls in our home! We were able to paint the downstairs back room of our house and are looking forward to sharing all the details and after shots here soon.

5 Tim made another skillet dish incorporating spaghetti squash that was healthy, simple and delicious — look out for the recipe later this week on E.A.T.

6 & 7 We picked the rest of the container carrots we planted back in March — which didn't do as well as others we've picked and used. That's the last of the carrots we planted in the spring, so we are excited to try again with a fall crop.

8 This guy got a big old puppy bath (or shampooey hose down?) in the back alley:

Tim trimmed up even more of the holly tree we have in our backyard space, freeing up some electrical cords that were getting tangled and making the space feel a lot larger. See all those empty planters in the background? Those are the leftovers from our spring plantings we brought down to empty out and re-plant for fall — crossing our fingers we get to it next weekend.

Sunday, we took Basil for a long walk down by the river near where we used to live here in RVA. It was a damp day with a light steady rain, and Basil couldn't have been more in his element.

During that walk we came across this guy:

Turns out it was a "Hickory Horned Devil Caterpillar" and just as large and scary as it appears in this photo. While harmless, my heart definitely skipped a beat when we came upon it in the middle of the trail. Apparently, these guys are the largest caterpillars in the world, can grow up to 6 inches long (I'd say this one was an easy 4 inches long) and hang out in their cocoons for a solid 2 years before emerging as giant moths. We're chalking this one up to a pretty cool sighting on our part.