Dog days of summer

Hello!

I thought I would sneak in a quick post tonight before I head to bed. 

It has been such an incredible and hot summer here in Ontario, so much so that one day we found that our little girl had burrowed herself a cool hole to lie in between our two large evergreen bushes in the backyard! I can't say I blame her but I hope we can keep her from digging anywhere else.

Any tips would be greatly appreciated to help us do that.

and on slightly cooler days she has been invited by Todd up on our lounge chairs (after I told him not too) and now she helps herself.  

ok, it kinda makes me laugh as I've never seen a dog on a lounger before,

have you?

and because of the combination of the extreme heat  and the great expense of  buying a new fence I chose to buy just two planter baskets this year which I found just a couple of weeks ago for just 9.99 each.

Todd has just finished the custom post caps that I designed for our fence  which literally saved us hundreds of dollars.  The fence has 6 foot and 8 foot sections and we had hoped to add square lattice to the center section of every other section but are not sure if our budget will allow it and I have yet to decide if it will be the large one or the small one. 

Of course it will get a coat of white opaque stain next year too which will make it even prettier but I can't express just how much I love it!

We bought the top piece of the post cap from my work for just over two dollars and then he added the middle plate and then the bottom trim. I really love the arts and crafts feel they give the fence.

and I have yet to share with you the gate because there is some more work to be done to finish the top of it but I just had to show you these stunning victorian cast iron hinges that my father gave us that Todd cleaned up and sprayed black. Although not traditional gate hinges I like them  and they do a good job of holding up a very heavy gate.