Category Archives: gardening

Oct8

2 figure ‘8’s and I don’t mean ice skating!

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Another very warm day through most of the country. I didn’t even venture out.

But look what I found last night when I was watering my flowers (yes still doing that because they still look fairly decent):

2 cukes

Very unusual to be still getting veggies in October! But Bri just piped in that he planted these late. We still have a few tomatoes clinging to the vine. I’d like to make some green fried tomatoes, but I didn’t feel like picking them the same time I got the cukes.

We had whole wheat spaghetti and turkey meatballs. The Classico spaghetti sauce was the three mushroom kind-very good. And after dinner I make a quick Pillsbury pumpkin bread:

Pumpkin bread

My sister-in-law is doing my hair tomorrow, so I’ll take them a loaf for their dinner. These are the mini loaf pans.

And it was about 88 degrees today! Unbelievable!

Sep19

Mandevilla

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My own flowers! I am happy that these bloomed. And to think the nursery was trying to sell them for about $20 each and was tossing them out. See what a little TLC can do?

Mandevilla

Mandevilla2

I have no idea if I can save these from year to year. It wouldn’t hurt if I brought them in before the frost. I have to designate a place for my bring in plants. Where I had them in the past year-well between the heat and too much sun, I didn’t have much left by March.
Later Bri and I are taking Cosmo kitty to the vet. I refuse to go alone. It’s hard enough to get him in the cat carrier as it is. He’s been such an affectionate fellow too. Last night he was so content to be on my lap. Hope he doesn’t hate me tonight!

Sep18

The best therapy

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Blue Morning glory

Idea Garden

Full bloom flowerbeds

Fountains and music<
The favorite of the 67 I took:
Monarch

I lasted an hour, but I did a ton of walking. It’s the first time I felt relaxed in a long time. I wasn’t ever really alone. People said ‘hello’ or made comments about things. There is an outdoor train set up featuring Thomas the Train and the little ones were going ga ga!
I bought myself some nasturtium seeds and a little boxed display of speckled eggs-so cute. Watch for a slide show and a video!

Sep16

Say it ain’t so

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That I am still pulling weeds in the middle of September! Usually by now I say the heck with it. I have to admit that I did the front area where people look as they pass the house. I filled up two garden carts with weeds, mostly those long grasses. Now my pretty blue and peach salvia are making a nice show. I promise a photo. I gave up weeding after an hour as my back was hurting. I am also pleased with my ‘trash grabs’; remember when Sean and I went to the nursery a few months back and the lady gave me plants she was tossing? They both are blooming-pink and white trumpet flowers-one is the Mandevilla and the other is very similar, but the leaves are a bit different.

When I came in I decided to make the gown for my ‘Mommy paper doll’. My friend gave me the body template and I used the photo of my mom when she was about 20. I assembled the body with brads and painted it too. The dress is made from some of the scrap paper I got in the mail yesterday. Her belt and shoes were made from a band from a candy box. Her belt and bag have butterfly accents. I think she looks like she is ready to go to the Emmys (you all are getting a sneak peek)!

Flat Jeanne
And here’s her journal with her initials and the first page that I did for her:
Mom’s Journal

Page one
I worked on my ’57 Thunderbird (Love Quilts) while watching the Emmys. It was in ‘the round’ and I felt bad for winners like James Spader who said they were the ‘worst seats he ever had’. I was glad Katherine Heigl from Grey’s Anatomy won. It was neat to see some of the cast from ‘Roots’ which was a miniseries 30 yrs ago when I graduated from high school. I didn’t know that Edward Albert, Jr (Butterflies are Free) had passed away last September-the ‘In Memorium’ showed his picture. I looked him up and he was only 55 and had lung cancer. His dad had passed on in ’06 at 96! Eddie Jr took care of his dad for 10 yrs. I liked both of them a lot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We went to church this morning as we thought Father M needed help as the ‘main’ usher was in a car accident last week in Virginia. We had heard he bruised or broke his ribs, but he was in the hospital. We have known Chris and his family for at least 10 years and when we saw him standing there today, well I just had to give him a hug! I think I surprised him! Later he told Bri that the rear axle on his Ford Explorer had broken when he was going about 55 mph! He rolled over at least 2-3 times and doesn’t remember anything except waking up when the paramedics were talking to him. I think he’s one lucky guy!

Sep2

Nibble, nibble

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Sometime between Friday and today, some critters, probably deer, had a grand feast. No use showing you the headless flower stalks, as it’s a sad sight. I was admiring the lovely yellow rose that was presenting me with it’s final bow of the summer season. The lavender roses were just as pretty. I do have a photo of one of the now gone buds.

Now gone rosebud

And you know how much I loved my dinner plate hibiscus-many of them are gone too.

I did have fun making a few videos, even a live one of Cosmo the kitty. I was trying to video tape him and play with him at the same time! The first part, well he has playing with the jalapeños, batting them around and wouldn’t do it when I wanted him to do it. My voice is high and I sound a bit tongue tied.

Here’s a collage page I really like. I call it ‘Dance with Me’

Dance with me

Enjoy tomorrow if you can!

 

Aug31

Seeds

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First of all, I want to thank Zoey over at Perennial Passion for the Lynchis Coronaria seeds she sent me recently. Zoey had a flower game-a letter mix-up and I guessed them all and got this awesome prize in a sweet homemade envelope-love it. So in return, I am drying some seeds for her. If anyone else would like purple or lime zinnia seeds, let me know. I’m also trying to get the Autumn Harvest heads on a few of the sunflowers before the birds get to them.

Tonight it dawned on me that I planted saved marigold seeds from last year and hadn’t seen them. The marigolds are in their glory right now, but where were the ones in the circle garden? Here they had fallen over, but they were the yellow marigolds with the big flower heads. I thought they may be the white ones. I’ll save them too.

I’ve been to Big Lots twice today, by myself and then later with Bri. They bought out a local drugstore and the stuff is 30% off. I noticed they had compact flash cards for the camera, so that’s why Bri and I went after dinner. We got a 256 mb one for about $11! They also got some neat scrapbooking stuff in, many items for $1! I was playing with some of the new stuff when Bri wanted to go there.

Sean went to a pep rally for the football team tonight and it was fun. He got to see Coach Joe in person for the 1st time. This has been the slowest week here! It will be a week since we have been to PSU soon.

Aug29

Touch of Autumn

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close up sunflower
I realized that I haven’t taken too many flower photos lately. I wasn’t thrilled by what I saw around the yard-2 feet tall weeds! I thought I had kept on top of them, but the heat and rain really caused an uproar. I was out tonight pulling weeds, even from the back patio! The ants were not happy. I’m not going overboard, but I will get the gardens/yard presentable. Since I have to pay for online photo storage soon, I am going to start and use Flickr for my photos here. I can upload at their full size too. I love the colors in this sunflower!

On one side of the house, we have a yellow jacket nest in a window well area. They really fly in and out of it quickly, and I’m afraid to even walk by. It’s also near my fairy/gnome garden and glider, so I haven’t really been near that area for a while.

I had a craving for a brownie sundae, so Bri took me to Baskin Robbins tonight. I can’t remember the last time I ate ice cream. I’ve been good and have cooked well balanced meals all this week.

Sean called and said he went and checked his car and started it up. It’s a good distance from his dorm. We are hoping he gets brave enough to start and drive around soon. I have a care package almost ready to mail. It just needs his favorite goodie-7 layer cookies.

Aug20

Tomato stuff

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I perused Lee Bailey’s little cookbook named ‘Tomatoes’ this afternoon. I made salsa for Brian (the only thing not from the garden was the onion). I tasted it and it was hot as I had added an entire jalepeno pepper. The next thing, and it’s still cooking down was a sweet and tart tomato butter. It’s still watery looking, so I’ll keep it on the stove as long as I have to. And finally, for dinner, some basic tomato sauce. It called for shredded carrots cooked with the onion at the beginning-I’ve never added carrots to tomato sauce. I think I used 2 dozen of the toms today. Yeah. Not to say I don’t need to pick more out of the garden tomorrow. I’m thinking about a tomato pie next (not today). Here’s some photos:

Salsa! Ole!!

tomato butter and sauce

Aug20

Tomato explosion

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 Tomatoes!

I’ve got dozens of red monsters sitting out in the kitchen. The longer they sit, the stinkier they get. I need to get my act together and turn them into salsa and spaghetti sauce today! I’ve been giving some away to family, but didn’t get to see my uncle last night, so his bag is sitting there and I have to use them too. Not to worry, there are still some on the vine. I think Bri over plants because he doesn’t think he’ll get anything. This year was different because we mulched around the tomatoes-apparently they love mulch (like what you put in your flowerbeds). It was pretty easy to apply-we used three bags. He did plant one row in a nice straight line, so I did a ‘line tie’ ran the string all the way down and looping it around the individual stakes as I went. Made a big difference! Some of the plants that stood alone fell over.

I’ve been vegging out myself since the trip. I have been tidying up as I get motivated. We are having company next Monday, Father from church for his bi-annual visitation. He doesn’t stay long, says a prayer and goes to the next house. This will be a few days after that trip to central PA.

We have a dreary day here anyway. Something stinks and it’s not in Denmark-must be an overripe Tom. Ugh.