Random as ever....

Despite a frost, I have a few roses blooming.  The zinnias are pretty much done for the season, so those will be pulled before the snow arrives.  I have some work to do in the kitchen today, but the weather has warmed up enough for "porch time." 

Fall Blooms ~ Tidbits

The white mums I planted a few years back, are blooming now.  These were table decorations at my younger brother's wedding, and I have two that stayed alive and continue to bloom.  They add a color in the flower beds that I did not have before.

This past cold spell kind of took a toll on my zinnias.  They don't look like they'll be blooming for much longer, but boy have we enjoyed them.  We are already talking about where to put in new flower beds to add more color here.

Fall Blooms ~ Extreme Clean Continues

Despite lack of weeding, the front flower beds are full of color.

Random Tidbits ~ Needle Tatting

I am starting the day with breakfast on the porch, although a bit later than normal for me.  I need a peaceful moment with nature first.  Hubby is home too, so he'll join me too, before the kids get up.  We are letting them all sleep in.  The kids went to the movies in Son's new car last night.

Son is happy with anything I cook lately, as the food he has eaten at the chow hall was all processed.  He's pretty proud to see his 16 year-old sister can grill meat very well too.  She's my go-to grill girl now.

We are still cleaning the house, but my two younger girls are giving me resistance.  Their 18 year-old sister is working almost every day now, so the work load falls on them now.

Today the bathrooms get a top to bottom cleaning.  If the bathrooms are clean, I'll be happy, even if we don't get the rest spotlessly clean. 

Blooms ~ Blue Sky ~ Vintage Find

The flower beds are creating new color, and the gladiolas are blooming now.  The phlox is drawing attention to large butterflies and we are enjoying them.  Evidently,

Visiting Flamingo

My garden has been high jacked by a cleaning frenzy going on in my garage.  Obviously the kids have compromised the flower bed with one very pink, plastic, flamingo.  They think they are so funny. 

The story behind having this flamingo (we had two, but I have no idea where the other one went), is that we had a plan for them.

My younger brother had a birthday coming up, and he despises "yard trash."  Basically, anything that is not growing naturally, and is put out for yard decorations.

Our plan?

Monday Coffee Hour ~ Car Repairs ~ Noodles ~ Surviving the Party

Grab a cup, and enjoy!

Wood splitting was stalled again this past weekend.  First, Hubby got a call to go in for work Saturday morning.  On his way home, he met up with Oldest Daughter and drove her car out to our place.  It was so funny to see that tall man crammed into such a small car.  Ha ha ha!

After $120.00 and a few hours later, he was driving it back up to her work.  It purred like a kitten instead of putter, putter, shake, grunt, and stall. She'll need to change a filter too, but it won't stall in the rain now.

Drying Lemongrass ~ Herbal Updates ~ So You Know

Lemongrass is new to my herb garden this year.  I planted it in a pot, due to space, and because I did not want it to spread too quickly, like my lemon balm did.

It was time to cut some leaves, and dry them for tea making.  I love to add this to our summer iced teas with spearmint too.

Random Tidbits

Remember when I posted that we'd have a few "dry days?"  Well that same day (yesterday) we had thunderstorms roll in after 4:30pm.   The weather seems to have it's own mind these days.

Today, the sky is cloud covered, but I am heading out to pick peas and berries.   The sun should arrive today.

Here is our progress on just the cauliflower/broccoli/cabbage/brussel sprout garden.  First day weeding it:

Weather and Weeds ~ Random Tidbits

You are probably tired of hearing about it, but it continues to rain.  I woke up to the same wet ground again.  It has rained either during the day or night here, every single day.

It was dry most of yesterday, but too wet in the vegetable garden to even step into it.  

You can see in this photo, how tall the weeds are in the broccoli and cauliflower garden.   If the sun stays out today, I may be able to get into that garden late today yet.

Halfway through the day yesterday, I started on the front flower beds.   This is one corner I was looking at from the porch. 

This is what I was looking at afterwards.  This is just a snippet of the front porch flower bed.

(just one corner of the front porch flower bed)

 
Here is how far we got with mulch, before we ran out.  I guess we'll get more.  We have already filled the rose bed, the mailbox bed, and two other rose beds with mulch.  There seems to be a lack of color right now, but zinnias are very slow to grow with all this rain.  They were buried in weeds and wet ground.  Once the zinnias bloom, we'll have all sorts of color to beautify the gardens with.

The weather looked like this most of yesterday.  Today the sun is shining.  I have high hopes to get more work done in the vegetable garden.

If it rains again today (there is a 60% chance for thunderstorms at 11am....sigh), I always have deep cleaning chores indoors, handiwork, and a new Lucy Stone murder mystery book from the library.  And Hubby and I can always cut wood inside the barn too (maybe).  

It's just hard for me to shift gears so easily, and not worry about the garden.  I need to go read my morning devotion, relax a bit, pray a bit, and move out of my pity party.

The wild berries are ready for harvesting.  We had planned to pick today, but we are fighting the rain again.  It will be interesting if we get any wild black raspberry jam made this year too.

I just looked at the pollen count for today.  No wonder my eyes are beat red when I do get outside work accomplished.

 Today's reading is not a good report for someone like me.  
 

A heartrending update on Hubby's sister in the hospital.  She cannot swallow food. Not even pureed food.  They had to make the decision to have a feeding tube in place.  She's had two tubes down her throat, so we hope that over time (and healing) she'll be back to real food some day in the future.

Did you notice something today?  There is no "read more" to click on today.  

I better scoot out and pick snow peas quickly.  I hope your Sunday is peaceful, relaxing, productive, or whatever you want to accomplish (or not accomplish) today.

 

New Blooms ~ Rain ~ Library Visit

Despite the weeds multiplying here this season, I am still getting some new blooms in the flower beds.  I've been dodging the rain showers (and storms) and cutting flowers to bring inside.

You can see the bees are very busy this year in the flower beds too.

Royal Treatment

My birthday (and Mother's Day) started with an awesome breakfast made my chef-in-training daughter (15 yo).  She made a bacon/veggie omelet.  Delicious.  I love bacon.

Although sitting on the porch all day, sipping iced tea sounded nice, I could not help myself with planting the 2 flats of marigolds. It rained off and on, but there I did accomplish a lot.

Now I do have seeds saved.  Hubby just went nutso.  I'll be putting my seeds at the edges of the veggie garden, so no worries on waste.

At one point in the day, he just shook his head and laughed, "your birthday and Mother's day?"

Tired Down to the Bones ~ Birthday/Mother's Day

This is how we make our rows for hand planting seeds.  Talk about "pioneer."  That took belonged to Hubby's father, who used it in his own garden.  When I lived in the city, it was a lawn ornament, and we've been using it for going on eight years now.

We are taking advantage of Hubby's strike (yes, they are still on strike, going on three months now) and getting the garden expanded.  These two are now connected and more room to plant, but I still don't have room for acorn or spaghetti squash.  I'm not sure where I'll put my cantaloupe or watermelon yet either.

Hen Update ~ Yard Work ~ Spring Blooms ~ New Recipe

We still have the hen that was/is eating her eggs.  I have just been too busy to even deal with it.

What I can tell you, is that my araucanas are less prone to lay eggs than my barred rocks.  The barred rocks are older and lay many more eggs.  I have four araucanas left, and three are in the coop with the rest.  I am getting only one egg from all three araucana hens, about every 4-5 days.

When it's time to buy more layers, I'll be looking at leghorns and/or more barred rocks.  Although the araucana chickens are pretty in color and lay a blue/green egg, I think I'll take the heartier chickens over them. 

Hubby spent Saturday mowing and trimming, while I enlisted the help of one the girls for weeding flower beds and the herb garden.  The others cleaned the inside.

Garden Beauty

We left the camping spring blooms behind, and came home to some very pretty colors in the flower bed.

Fall Color ~ Clothesline

While walking to the mailbox, I noticed my snapdragons are adding some vibrant fall color to the flower beds.

Sunday Sunrise

While most folks are out buying fall mums for their garden, I was out searching for clearance priced rose bushes. Why?

Blooms ~ Hummingbird ~ Box from Aunt ~ Conversations on the Porch

I took some time to "smell the roses" yesterday.  I walked my flower beds after lunch.

Weekend Update

Saturday we got a good amount of work done - one trip to recycling (huge load because for some reason we had a ton of cardboard), one trip to Goodwill, several bags to the garbage, swept up the back area by garage, washed curtains and windows. 

I found a cute tin for my tea, and for only $.50.  I just need to wash it up.


We finished up more work on Sunday. 

New Blooms ~ Random Homestead Tidbits

Here are a few new blooms around the homestead this month.