This sweet young deer has been hanging around my yard a lot these last few days. Seems ‘he’ has a wounded left front leg with a cut above it. He was curled up in a little flowerbed most of the day Thursday and came back today. But today he is walking around more. My neighbor, a hunter (gasp) saw him in his yard and thinks he will be fine, though he is roughed up looking and wobbly a bit on his legs. The good thing here is that he is eating all around our yards.
Sean said there was a lovely sunset on Monday, so I went out to capture it to share:
I wasn’t feeling 100%, so I decided to stay off my feet and scan some old photos. My brother always gives me a bunch of them and it takes a while. I just love this one of my maternal grandmom Ruth at age 2 with her sister Ethel about 3 or so. It is dated April 1, 1906! Little Ethel passed away when she was 6 from pneumonia. My grandmom was the second of 6 and she had 2 children and her younger sister Edna had only 1. She had two brother pass on in their 20s. So sad to think that we could have had a larger family if they had lived and married. By the way, my father was an only child with a few step siblings, and Brian is an only child. Our immediate family is about 13.
and after I photoshopped it a bit adding a reddish tint. The tints seem to bring out more detail in these old photos:
And here’s a cute one of Sean on his 1st birthday (1987) on a motorized car he had and loved to pieces:
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The Phillies are giving the Yankees a run for their money, but they can’t just play well every 5 games. They have to win the next two game to hold on to their championship title. They had a huge lead and the gap narrowed in the 8th inning. We were on the edge of our seats. I only see 3 Phillies really giving it their best. At least we won the National League Championship to get this far two years in a row-the Yankees can’t say that.
Hoping for a good game on Wednesday!
About a month ago, I planted a variety of crops that like to grow in the cooler weather. Here is what I harvested on Sunday:
A handful of arugula and tiny red radishes. There is a little lettuce, a sparse spinach seedling and if the beets are there, I don’t see them. I planted garlic and it’s starting to sprout in the container garden.
We may have had some frost last night, and I brought in some coleus at the last minute to save them.
Got my hair done and mom went out to dinner with us. This certain restaurant sometimes bothers me-I should know better that minestrone soup on an empty stomach is not a good idea. Unfortunately, I have had issues eating there before. Guess you have to figure out what places agree with you. Both Sean and me brought home most of our dinners.
I need to get to the grocery store-so that will be soon. My winter wardrobe is in bags all over my living room. I have my work cut out for me. I am anxious to get my sweaters and warmer clothes stored!
It’s a tight squeeze-
(ironically, this is the last photo I took today! You are seeing mums and hearty begonias that come up every year).
Watch your step through the bombardment of Chestnut burrs (quite sticky-ouch) and see the little sprouts of arugula, spinach, radishes and lettuce. The beets seem to be taking their time, but the rest were up in less than a week!
The nasturtiums are all over the various gardens providing a nice show and bow out for the end of the season:
I’ve seen many more bees than butterflies this year
I always plant Zinnias in memory of my Grandmom Ruth. Here is a pretty peach:
Some house painting is going on-just the overhangs. It’s a bit lighter, so that may be incentive to paint the rest of it in the future!
The Gnomes have plenty of hiding places:
Always remember to have a happy
And back inside-starting to decorate for the Autumn and then I’ll add some Halloween decor to that (not all the summer stuff is off the window area. The hydrangeas are from outside):
Happy Fall, y’all!
Yesterday Sean helped trim his Great Uncle Don’s bushes and worked around the yard, so something good came about today-he got a call from the Delaware*State Park Dept! On Friday he has an ‘interview’ in Delaware City for one of two positions in researching invasive species in the the area. The man that called said some funding came in, so positions were opened up. The research area would be the White*Clay Creek State Park in nearby Newark, DE. Crossing fingers for Sean as he’s been looking for 3.5 months and found this on his own. One thing could lead to another. Of course he said he’d love to do research in the beach areas. ; )
I also worked my pants off at my uncle’s yesterday. The first thing I did was get my trusty rake and pull a 40 foot vine (at least) growing up and around his bedroom window. My next big job was a wild grape vine attacking a bush near the end of his driveway. I was praying it wasn’t poison ivy or anything-so far, so good. Many of the properties in his area are on steep hills and Sean had to do the dragging up to the back yard. I did that a few years ago and it was too much for my knees. The only bad thing that happened was Sean cut through the cord with the hedge trimmer! So we are glad to have helped Uncle. I saw the garage door open and out he came with his walker and watched us and ‘ordered’ us around a bit-lol-he wanted Sean to throw the debris over a fence. He made a big pile. We are hoping we’ll be allowed to go and burn it sometime in the fall. He has oodles of tree branches around too.
Trying to muster the strength to go food shopping and mail off Sherry’s package. : )
I am pretty happy with the way the front garden across from my front door looks. I have mostly purple flowers with a contrasting touch of the orange nasturtiums and Pinwheel Zinnia. My mom bought me a 4-6 pk of the zinnias for under $1 and I gave a couple to Sean and kept some. They spread so nicely.
Here’s the garden:
The purples and pinks are Nemesia and Salvia. I had to treat the Salvia a lot with bug spray as the insects love to nibble on it. The Zinnias and Nasturtiums are in the right corner. On the other side is a coleus with a peeking of the gold/yellow mums coming into bloom. (Ignore the weeds behind the salvia-need to get to them). This is all under a huge evergreen where I have plantings all the way around.
Does anyone know what this plant is? It came up by itself in a shady area of the yard:
For Zoey-the Crepe Myrtle is blooming now. I was out taking photos of the above and around the yard yesterday. That was after I was pulling out a garden cart of weeds from the flower bed next to the photo above. Today I am feeling it in my shoulder blades. Sean and I are going over to my Uncle Don’s to trim some hedges for him. Bri and I did it a few years back.
The insects have all seemed to appear within the last few weeks when it got warmer outside. I didn’t miss them one bit! I spray Off! on me, and they find the spots I missed. And don’t get me started about the weeds. I think I will do a few areas that I see all the time, like when I come out the front door-across from that and let the others go. That garden looks awesome. (I know-where’s the photo). We do need to clean out where the tomatoes were as we have some fall crops to add. I love planting seeds, so that shouldn’t be too difficult. I have some zinnias still coming up from seeds I put in a few weeks ago. I also have nasturtiums sprouting up too- I just poked the little dried ‘peas’ everywhere.
Today I went to the Social Security office with Sean so he could apply for a new card. That and his Birth Certificate went missing. I think back in 2002, they were put in an envelope when we went on the plane to Florida. Remember we had to show ID back then to fly after 9/11? I know they are around here somewhere, but he doesn’t want to dig deeper to look in his closet,etc. He already got a replacement for his B.C. It wasn’t a big deal. Glad I went as the office was stuck in a shopping center where he may have missed.
Our priest came for his bi-annual visit yesterday. He stayed 5 whole minutes. I think he was happy I had him sit in the living room so close to the door! : ) Sean was in the shower and it’s right in the hallway there (we live in a ranch style house) so I could see him when he came out wrapped in a towel-lol. He had just cut the grass. He did run out in his socks (after he got dressed!) to say hello and help Father back out on our busy road.
Here are a few photos of my parlor area:
My little settee. Everytime I think of getting rid of it, I can’t as I thought it was so cute and the Victorian look I wanted. I have a Tiffany style floor lamp next to it I got from mail order. It’s heavy!
I have so many collections! I still have the summer one up on the sofa table in the window. I’m getting in the fall mood though.
Guess it’s off to the store tomorrow. I have a nerve issue or pull in my left shoulder blade. It’s like when one of your fingers goes out of joint. I was sitting on the floor sorting things and I can’t do that. Or I lifted something funny-who knows? Bri is complaining about his back too. Wish we could find a chiro*practor we like and for a reasonable price.
This was an experiment with some sprouting potatoes I had called Fingerlings. I had a little room in my veggie patch and they came up and flowered. My Farmer’s Almanac calendar said to dig them up 3 weeks after they flowered which I did today and got over 3 pds of potatoes!
I picked about a dozen green tomatoes and Brian had to pull them out today. They got the tomato blight that went around this year. I put some in a brown paper bag and the others I left out and made some green fried tomatoes for dinner.
We have been enjoying zucchini, grape and cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, some green beans, basil and fennel. So all is not lost.
Seems we are in for a week of heat and humidity with pop-up thunder and lighting storms like Friday and Sunday nights! Of course last night we lost power for almost five hours from around 8 pm to 1 am. We were sitting around listening to ‘Delilah’ on the radio (she has the most soothing voice) and doing a round robin playing the ‘ABC’ game with people’s names. Some of the names I picked were ‘too hard to remember’ like Tawny and Wentworth-lol.
I had made a yummy veggie stir fry for dinner before the storm hit. It called for Bird’s*Eye frozen veggies and I used all fresh-a few had to be precooked.
Then I mixed up a Cinna*bon coffee cake we bought at B*Js-we enjoyed that in the dark. I had just cleaned my kitchen floor and one of the counters before the power went. At least I didn’t totally waste my evening.
A new gazing ball on a stand.
And the Crocusmia:
~Update-Zoey wanted to know how long I’ve had the Crocusmia-they have only bloomed twice, so I think I planted them in the fall of 2007. The leaves flicker in the breeze and I think the flowers are neat the way they open.
We’ve been having such nice weather this summer. The humidity is just starting to build over the last few days. It was overcast yesterday, so I retrieved the weed whacker from the shed and went on a mission to do away with that darn Creeping Charlie and grass that was invading my many gardens. An hour and a half later, I was done, though the string part was a nuisance to deal with at times. Today I am tired and have my right hand wrapped up as it was the one holding the piece of machinery up. My left trigger finger was asleep this morning. I’m pretty happy with the way the yard looks this year and using the weed whacker gives it a finished look and saves my back. We were trying to get rid of weeds and grass growing in the cracks of the sidewalk bricks- a never ending job!
That’s basically what I’ve been up to. Hopefully Sean and I will see a movie within the next few days. He’s at the dentist-again-getting a few fillings.
For Zoey-My Crocusmia!
I need to take a photo of them open!
Collages & Creative Goodness 