The past five Mondays I hiked up or walked around Pilot Butte and shared my tale.
Sunday evening, 5/15/16, I returned from a four-day quilt retreat at Sew-N-Go Quilt Retreat with my longtime “Quilt Sisters” from Oregon, Washington and California. Monday I spent recovering from my drive and unpacking (unpacking did involve trying to figure out what to do with the new fabric and quilting tools I acquired while at the quilt retreat…other quilters are bad influences!).
So I skipped Pilot Butte on Monday. I am not sure if the 2 mile walk with Terry “the Quilting Husband” and the dogs made up for it, but at least I did something besides fondling my new fabric purchases.
I will share my adventures related to quilt retreating in my posts the rest of this week, but I wanted to follow up on last week’s post The Monday, Post “Yard Bark Mulching” in which I discussed “xeriscaping” (low water landscaping with native plants) and laying down endless bark mulch.
One of the tierneycreates blog readers asked to see photos and here they are:
Xeriscaped Front Yard (with fresh hemlock bark mulch)
Another example of a Central Oregon xeriscaped yard from my neighborhood (they used rocks instead of bark mulch):
Gratuitous flower photo: My lovely irises in bloom
If you want to read more about xeriscaping check out the online publication Introduction to Xeriscaping in the High Desert.
Postscript
As I mentioned, the rest of the week I will share stories and photos from the quilt retreat I attended.
Currently I listening to the audiobook – The Path: What Chinese Philosophers Can Teach Us About the Good Life by Michael Puett and Christine Gross-Loh.
Parts of this book seem fairly esoteric, while other parts are deeply profound and very accessible. If you can be patient through some of the more scholarly sections (the author is a Harvard professor) you will be rewarded with timeless insights into human nature from ancient Chinese philosophers.
I feel I grow more enlightened by listening to this excellent audiobook.
The disease of men is that they neglect their own fields and go to weed the fields of others. – Mencius
tierneycreates 
Glad you had fun on your retreat! That book sounds amazing! Will you tell us at the end if it was worth reading (although sounds like it already is)?
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Yes definitely! I will let you know if overall it was a snoozer or completely worth it, so far it is worth it!
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The irises are beautiful! This may be a dumb question, but when I think of yards that are fully hardscaped with very little grass, I think of Arizona. Is that also common there? It’s very pretty!
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Occasionally but not like AZ. I did find one that was all rocks, will post that photo next time – it is extreme xeriscaping!
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I love seeing all the different areas, particularly of the US. I haven’t been to all 50 states, but definitely the majority of them and I’m always amazed just how different Massachusetts is from California; how different South Dakota is from Florida. Love it!
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And thanks for the compliment!
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So glad to hear you are back safe and sound and that you were able to add to your inventory. I’m looking forward to hearing about the retreat. Love the photos. So glad one of your readers asked for them. 😁 Oh, and by the way, awesome quote!
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Thanks Cindy and speaking of that quote, I do need to go weed my own field (yard) – bark mulch does not mean no weeds! Especially since we had a lot of rain recently. You know those “inventory adds” 😉
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They always tell u to put mulch down to keep out the weeds…..somebody should tell my weeds that. LOL!
I may be working on inventory control when I go to my retreat/class Monday. :o)
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