Planting and Weeding and Mulch - Oh My!

     I am so tired that I almost put off writing this until tomorrow, but I'm really trying to get back into the habit of writing on Sundays, so here I am.
     This past week has been so crazy trying to get all the things on my newest list of "to dos" crossed off.  My realtor is coming tomorrow to finalize the listing and is planning to take photos and I've been working ever so hard to get the house ready for that.
     However . . . I still have a few things to do and just sent her an email to ask if she could maybe come later in the week so I can get everything accomplished.  I know she's anxious to get it on the market (as am I), but I want the house and yard to look perfect, and it's not there quite yet.
     How is it that grass and weeds grow so well where you don't want them?  I have been pulling up lots of "undesirables" in the dog run, on the sides of the house and in the front.  All of these areas were mulched at one time so the grass and weeds have grown on top of that.  Actually, it wasn't that hard to pull it all out, but it certainly was time consuming and OH my poor aching back!
     I have planted a lot of lovely flowers and herbs in and around my patio.  It looks very beautiful out there.  The perfect place for a morning cup of tea or and afternoon glass of ice tea or wine.  I love my back yard!
     I now have all the wood floors refinished, every wall inside the house has been painted, every baseboard has been repainted or restained.  All the rooms have been staged (thanks to Beth!), but I still have some clutter to take care of and need to finish cleaning out my closet and linen closet.  The carpet still needs professional cleaning, but that can wait, I think.
     I have made numerous trips to my storage unit and to Goodwill.  So thankful for both of those!  I have one large suitcase completely packed with winter clothes, boots, shoes, coats and some books on SW France that I know will come in handy while I'm there.  I took that suitcase to the storage unit with my car load today.  It can stay there until the end of August.  At least it's out of the way for now.  My other large suitcase that I will be taking is under my bed!  I find that "under the bed" is pretty handy :-)
     Andy came over today and helped with the front yard.  We finished pulling all the grass and weeds and he spread quite a lot of mulch, but I'm going to need a lot more!  So another trip to Lowe's sometime this week.  Another reason why I'm not ready for Joan to come tomorrow.
     And speaking of Andy, I want to tell you what he's been working on.  The landscape company that he works for is "trail approved" meaning that he and a couple of other guys who have been trained on how to repair and even build trails can now go out on jobs to do just that.  So this past week he has been outside of Denver in a large and exclusive housing development putting in biking trails.  This will take another three weeks.  So he's gone during the week and home on weekends.  He is loving it!  I'm so happy for him that he finally found a way to make money doing something he enjoys.  The company has been really good to him.  Because he has been really good for them.
     Mom's birthday was yesterday and Andy's is Thursday.  May is a special month for us.  So for Andy's birthday I bought him a ticket for the Royal Gorge Zip Line Tour (I bought myself one, too!)  They have a series of nine zip lines going back and forth across the gorge.  You do a little hiking to get to each of them and end up about a mile from where you began.  We're going to try to do this the first Saturday in June!  Yippee!! 
     OK, I'm getting more tired as I write this.  I need to find a photo or two to put in here.  I'm hoping to make it to the zoo sometime this week.  I'll work it in somehow!  I want to meet our new silverback gorilla!  We lost our former one, Rafiki, last September to an intestinal disease.  I hope the girls (there are 5 of them) will be nice to Goma.  He looks quite handsome to me!  And, of course, I have to see the precious lion cubs who are almost a year old.  So next week I should have news about the house and photos from the zoo.  Stay tuned . . .
     I'll be so glad once the house gets listed because that will mean all my work is done!  Keep your fingers crossed for me to get everything done in the next few days so it can be listed by Thursday. 
     Here are a few photos of my little corner of France.  I've shared them many times, but I never tire of seeing them.  Thank you for joining me on this journey.  That next bend is almost here!

My patio at my cottage

A view of the front of the double unit

Mine is on the left