Stupid British period dramas, why do they have to be so good! So, I came back from Maui and I was tired from hiking in the stream all day. My awesome honeybunch cooked dinner and we began our daily dinner & Netflix movie night. Browsing through our Instant Q, I saw the face of Richard Armitage. I didn’t know his name then but remembered him from Spooks (MI-5), another addictive British show. Next thing we know, we sat on the couch for 3.5 hours, watching the entire 4-part series of North & South. Gosh darn it! This series reminded me of Emma, Pride & Prejudice, and Persuasion, all of which are romantic British period drama that I love. Here is the last few minutes of North & South that I watched 5 times now over the past 2 days. I love how he couldn't stop looking at her and how she kept on looking away for the same reason. The cast is so gorgeous! Richard is handsome! But Bryan is more handsome!
Here is my favorite scene in Pride & Prejudice. While Mathew MacFayden is not as handsome as Richard Armitage or Rupert Henry-Jones, his acting in this movie is so real that makes all the women want to be Mrs. Darcy.
Friday, September 10, 2010
Thursday, September 9, 2010
Yard work
We love telling the story of our backyard because it is a huge undertaking, and continues to be a challenge for two homeowners who know zip about landscaping. However, we do know a little bit about cleaning up trash and so it goes like this…
The previous owners of our house were sloppy and they literally killed the yard. To use the yard as a giant dumpster in such a beautiful valley where green spring out of the soil without much effort and where the sun and rain work in harmony to produce the most vibrant colors in mountains as well as people’s yards, is a hideous crime against nature! We spent a good month clearing out the yard and ended up with about 45 bags of junk (we know this because we finished up one box of Costco trash bags) - giant killer vines, endless piles of mango leaves, termite eaten trees, concrete, broken ceramic pots, dead Christmas tree, glass bottles, soda cans, rebar, paint cans, utensils, leftover instant noodle packaging, medicine bottles, rotten wood, tennis balls, golf balls, toys, parts of some metal machinery, pipes, roofing, and other building materials. This is not to mention two truckloads of rotten mango wood trunks that have been harboring termites, roaches, centipedes, and other nasty bugs for a whole year. We truly believed that the yard had 2 foot thick pile of all this trash.
After clearing out the yard, we focused our efforts on the house renovation and have just recently resumed our work on the yard. Poor Bryan doesn’t like yard work as much as I do so when I ask him for help, he is a little clueless as to what needs to be done. He is more of a project-oriented person and yard work is maintenance where there is no completion. So, while he was fixing the mailbox (which was falling down because the based rotted out), I spend a good 8 hours moving boulders to section off the shady area underneath the mango trees from the sunny portion of the yard where I plan to grow vegetables and grass. I leveled out the yard and then laid blue rocks in the shady area. I also moved a big pile of rocks from the back end of the yard to the front so that we can later use these to build a retaining wall in the front yard. The photo above is the shady area of the yard that I sectioned off. It looks 100 times nicer than a year ago when we bought the house. I still have two piles of blue rocks (shown in the second photo) to put in this area and I plan to finish that this weekend. Wish me luck!
I have also redesigned Our Garden blog with more pictures of our plants. I also post to that blog too! The link is on the right.
The previous owners of our house were sloppy and they literally killed the yard. To use the yard as a giant dumpster in such a beautiful valley where green spring out of the soil without much effort and where the sun and rain work in harmony to produce the most vibrant colors in mountains as well as people’s yards, is a hideous crime against nature! We spent a good month clearing out the yard and ended up with about 45 bags of junk (we know this because we finished up one box of Costco trash bags) - giant killer vines, endless piles of mango leaves, termite eaten trees, concrete, broken ceramic pots, dead Christmas tree, glass bottles, soda cans, rebar, paint cans, utensils, leftover instant noodle packaging, medicine bottles, rotten wood, tennis balls, golf balls, toys, parts of some metal machinery, pipes, roofing, and other building materials. This is not to mention two truckloads of rotten mango wood trunks that have been harboring termites, roaches, centipedes, and other nasty bugs for a whole year. We truly believed that the yard had 2 foot thick pile of all this trash.
After clearing out the yard, we focused our efforts on the house renovation and have just recently resumed our work on the yard. Poor Bryan doesn’t like yard work as much as I do so when I ask him for help, he is a little clueless as to what needs to be done. He is more of a project-oriented person and yard work is maintenance where there is no completion. So, while he was fixing the mailbox (which was falling down because the based rotted out), I spend a good 8 hours moving boulders to section off the shady area underneath the mango trees from the sunny portion of the yard where I plan to grow vegetables and grass. I leveled out the yard and then laid blue rocks in the shady area. I also moved a big pile of rocks from the back end of the yard to the front so that we can later use these to build a retaining wall in the front yard. The photo above is the shady area of the yard that I sectioned off. It looks 100 times nicer than a year ago when we bought the house. I still have two piles of blue rocks (shown in the second photo) to put in this area and I plan to finish that this weekend. Wish me luck!
I have also redesigned Our Garden blog with more pictures of our plants. I also post to that blog too! The link is on the right.
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Story of the Curious Gecko
On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Bryan and Choo once again set out to clean out the front and backyards. While Bryan was sweeping the front driveway, a curious little brown gecko hopped onto his shoe. He slowly climbed up Bryan's leg to see what's going on. Choo was so excited that she ran back inside the house to get the camera. As Choo got a little closer and closer to take a good shot, the gecko stared into the camera lens and suddenly jumped onto the camera! here is a photo of his yellow belly.
Choo screamed and gave the camera to Bryan. The curious gecko glanced at us and calmly hopped onto Bryan's hand like nothing happened.
He slowly made his way up Bryan's shoulders and onto his neck. What is all this black stuff he thought.
He got a taste of Bryan's hair and wasn't interested at all. He walked back down Bryan's back.
He jumped onto a plant in search for bugs. Now that's a real feast. Bye bye curious little brown gecko.
Choo screamed and gave the camera to Bryan. The curious gecko glanced at us and calmly hopped onto Bryan's hand like nothing happened.
He slowly made his way up Bryan's shoulders and onto his neck. What is all this black stuff he thought.
He got a taste of Bryan's hair and wasn't interested at all. He walked back down Bryan's back.
He jumped onto a plant in search for bugs. Now that's a real feast. Bye bye curious little brown gecko.