Clever packaging

Lowes has some pretty clever packaging. I was confused when this arrived - wondered if it was some weird brand logo.

 But then this box showed up (baby for scale) - a castle?

Yes! A castle! Because who doesn't love to have make-believe adventures using large shipping boxes. I remember some of my best childhood memories are from the time when my parents bought a chest freezer and I made a house out of the giant box.

 If you can't see it clearly, it says "Lords, knights, ladies - the royal family doth summon thee to the palace, forthwith. Yea, verily! Just as King Arthur pulled the sword from the stone, freest thou the castle from this box to create thine own cardboard Camelot. Wield thy sword with care so that no wound may befall thy fair skin." At the top of the box, it says "THANK YOU. We hope you enjoy your order as much as your box."

What was in the boxes? An outdoor rug for our patio and a large flower pot, both from the parents.

They bought us the flower pot in order to make an umbrella stand but we are far too lazy and instead, are keeping an eye on a pretty cantilever one from Home Depot in the hopes that it goes on sale as the season comes to an end (sorry Lowes, you have cute packaging but don't make a model that we like).

It worked out well though, because we've been slowly increasing the pot size for a willow branch that we planted. It's getting bigger and bigger and we hope that if it survives the winter on our windowsill, it will find a permanent home next spring when we plant it outside.

You may have noticed some sticks on our table in the above picture of our patio? What is it? A sawed-off mulberry tree! After we got some help identifying the second of two baby trees growing in our yard, we decided the tulip tree was the winner and cut the mulberry off. We still have to cut it down further. Seemed like the remains will make decent kindling.

A few more gratuitous yard pictures - our lilies and black-eyed susans are very happy (finally!). This fall we have to actually thin out our garden. I can't believe it!

The weather has just been too nice to do much work lately. We've been out enjoying ourselves. The blog will pick back up soon - we have a growing to-do list.