Yesterday was a run around day but I stopped at the Swap Meet. Look what I got! This beautiful little green wagon for $10. It's contents cost more than that and as you can see I have some work ahead of me. I had several people stop me and tell me what a bargain I got. They said it was an antique , the wooden handle , dated it. I love these little wagons because they have the hard wheels that don't go flat. I have a little red wagon I purchased about 3 years ago for $12 at the swap meet and it has served me well. I haul all kinds of stuff around with it. I also purchased one of those big fancy wagons one day on sale , I think they normally run around $89 and I got it for $20 less but it sits, as the inflatable tires just don't hold up here with all the goat head stickers I have. Even with the green slime in the tires they always seem to be flat. Give me a little old fashioned hard wheeled wagon, anytime. I'm so pleased I ran into this one.

Peacocks in the garden. Snowprince and Lil Carlos resting in plant depressions doing their dust baths. I love the Spring time when I can be outdoors and see things growing. The little fig Lil Carlos is under is coming up from the roots. Thought I lost it.

I thought this little almond had died. It sure looked dead but I kept watering it and look at it now. It didn't bloom this year like the other almond but it sure did leaf out. My pistachios are leafing out now too. I'll get pictures of them later. I'm trying to make as much of my plantings food growing plants as possible. That way they serve a dual purpose, food and shade.

Another shot of the antique metal gates I picked up at a yardsale for $60 for the pair. I'm hoping to get them covered with vines to serve as dense screens from the road and neighbors. The palms look pretty brown yet but there is green coming through. I will prune them later once the green gets more dominate. I want to use the brown leaves that I prune off on another shelter. I'm going to weave them in a cattle panel and put them on top of four railroad ties. I have thoughts of putting a swing under that facing the mountains. This winter was pretty hard on a lot of my plants. I'll have to begin anew.

Here is the pergala. My son-in-law built my backporch, pergala, outdoor kitchen and put up the old metal gates I got at a yardsale, as privacy screens, last Spring. You can see the grape in the foreground that I'm hoping will grow up over the pergala. I've planted two more this Spring at two other corners. The Potato vine and bouganvilla I planted last year to grow up on the antique metal gates didn't make it through this winter so I will have to try something else or replant. The palms are coming out of it from the frost. I would like this area to be a garden oasis eventually to screen me from neighbors and serve as a cooling area in summer.

Here is an antique lounge that I got at a yard sale. It also has a chair with it that I have at the other side of the house. I often sleep out here on hot summer nights until it cools down. I have a rug over the end because my feet are dirty sometimes. I have an old metal hospital table next to it for coffee. I painted it but the green is a bit off from my porch so I will paint it again this summer. The lounge and chair ran me $25, the hospital table $10 and behind that is a box with a solar fountain in it I have to put up that my son sent me as a gift. The potting bench is a rubbermaid I got at a yard sale for $10. They run over $100 new. Very handy for potting and it has removable shelves and soil holders. You guessed it the sarape on the lounge I got for pennies at a thrift yard. I always fill my spaces up then I have to stop junking.

Here is another picture of my backporch. The orange bench was made by a local out of bed footboards. Down at the end you can see a handmade entertainment center that is really beautiful. I use it like a dish hutch in the summer time. I paid $45 for the bench and $25 for the entertainment center at a yard sale. I'm a real junky kind of person. I also have hanging from my back porch a chime made by someone in Terlingua, Texas from old silverware. It makes the most beautiful chime when the breezes blow, which is almost always.