Wednesday's Wisdom

When you buy a house with an established garden, photograph the emerging plants so you'll remember where things are and you can plan to add or subtract accordingly.

Just read that . . . somewhere . . . maybe a blog post recently. Anyway. It's good advice and I went out this morning and took a few photos.

Ferns (and junk trees) on the south side of the house.

More junk that needs to be replaced

Tulips by the lamp post (which does not work) and shrubs infiltrated by junk trees that are all coming out!

These are such a bright color it doesn't photograph well with my little camera.

Volunteer junk tree at the foundation at back of the house.

You can see that Spring has sprung here in Minnesota. I was hoping for more flowers, but the tulips are all we got. Now I know what I need to plant in the fall. Along with the long term plans for the house, I have a ten year plan for the yard. I want to fill it with new shade trees, flowering shrubs, flower beds, and fruit trees. But before I can put in anything new, all the old has to be taken out and felling trees comes first.

Life Update

Noble in a new outfit going on a date!

Getting ready for Mother's Day portrait

Didn't the photographer see the BIG GREEN THING!
l-r Mr. Movie, PFCMom, Noble, Dandylion (who thinks his smirk is a smile)

That's a little better.

Never too old to cuddle with Mom

Dad asked us to make an angry face -- I look just like my older brother! Good grief.

I finally got my plates up.

I think it really makes the room complete.

Mr. Movie demolishing the cinder block planter box.

The board is to protect the window from flying debris.

He diligently cleaned it all up and hauled it all away.

Now we can actually see the plants and flowers!

That furry thing is Noble's cat "Calico" doing her balance beam routine.
Still a little bit of clean up to do and adding the mulch to make it complete.
But I really like it a whole lot better.

End of Summer Beauty

I captured my gorgeous geranium bloom knowing that they won't survive the winter here. In San Diego, where I grew up, they are perennials growing into huge bushes; here they are annuals.

My tiny flower bed

The three Geraniums were the Mother's Day gift from the past three years, carefully nurtured inside; the Marigold was a gift from Lt. Lehi in 2012, also nurtured inside, and the tiny Sweet William at the left was transplanted from a shady spot where it grew but didn't bloom. When I rearranged the living room I needed to move the plants and decided to put them outside in this bed. In between the Geraniums are two Purple Cone Flower plants, perennials which are the beginnings of what I want this bed to be, a perennial garden. I removed all the rocks and the overgrown Sedum that was there, planted the flowers and have enjoyed the blooms all summer. More rocks to remove (at the right) and then more plants to go in, but that will have to wait for next year. 

More Miscellany

Saturday was our community wide yard sale; we participated both with a "stuff" sale and a bake sale fundraiser for Dr. Hair's (I think he needs a new name) brand new high school film club. They made more than I did. How did that happen? But I cleaned out a bunch of stuff, and took the leftovers to the thrift store on Monday, restoring our living room to a useful state. Friday I baked from 9 AM to 9 PM making 5 loaves of white bread, 2 each of banana, pumpkin and poppy seed loaves, a double batch of brownies (from scratch) and a big batch of ginger snaps. The house smelled wonderful! All that didn't sell was brought back inside to fill up the hollow legs around here and give me a week's break from baking.

Sunday we had a wonderful women's meeting at church that helped to unify us and inspire us to do more in strengthening each other and building the Kingdom.

This week I've caught up on lots of things around the house. I had to take time to clean out the drain for the laundry sink, it was clogged and draining slowly. TopDad was too busy to help so I did it all by myself; well with the help of a bottle of drain cleaner, but I did take everything apart and put it back together. Now all the laundry is caught up, you know, sheets and towels and such. The regular stuff goes on forever.

Wednesday I wrote letters and took care of some Relief Society business (church women's group, I'm president). I attended the high school honors night where Dr. Hair and Dandylion both received awards. Both in speech and Dandylion lettered in Academics, he has maintained a 4.0 GPA for at least three consecutive semesters. I know many of the seniors because they are Dr. Hair's friends so it was fun to see them. The art department has their annual art show in the cafeteria so we get to see the student projects. This art teacher is fabulous! Having lived here for four years now, I wish I'd grown up in a small town where the students get so many opportunities to explore and try things. Our youngest sons have really done well here.

Our weather is hot, cool and in between. Last night we had thunderstorms and hail. Today began clear, but clouds have moved in and "tut, tut, it looks like rain." The grass is Irish green, the trees are leafed out and my big lilac bush is in bloom smelling like heaven. I spent some time outside yesterday morning digging out dandelions from the lily of the valley patch on the north-east side of the house. I hope they bloom this year as I love that fragrance too.

 So, how has your week been?

September Total Grocery Spending

I surprised myself. Total grocery spending for the month is $356.76 including this week's addition of $42.12 bringing the weekly average to just $89.19. Pretty darn good, if I do say so.

Of course, I'll be totally honest, I would have spent more if there had been any more to spend. I ran out of fruit for one boy, and salty snacks (chips, pretzels, etc.) that the other boy likes in his lunches, but overall I think I did pretty good.

I'm going to keep up this average calculating because I want to see what it looks like over a longer period, also I'd like to see a monthly average.

A friend of mine has offered space in her garden next year to grow what I want, thank you J! She has nine acres and will put in a huge garden and generously offered some of it to me. I want to grow a "salsa garden" and beets, cantaloupe, spinach, eggplant, peas, beans, pumpkins and sweet corn. What I actually will grow remains to be seen. Some most times my dreams are bigger than my reality.

I'm still looking at putting in a few (two to four) fruit trees on our property. I've been watching where the sunny patches are and think I have figured out where the best spots are. I need to go down the street to the Iowa State University Extension office and talk to the experts there about which varieties grow best here. I'm dangerously low on jams and jellies and with my mother gone can't expect anymore supplies from San Diego. Guess it's time to grow up and fend for myself.

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Springtime

I spent a few minutes outside today in the garden, such as it is. I cleared the beds around my tulips and soaked up a little sunshine. In between the tulips are hostas and violets, but as you can see they aren't up yet.

Around the base of the huge maple tree.

North bed by the front porch

This afternoon I got a phone call from Dr. Hair requesting a photographer for when he arrived home from school. This is the teenage transport:

The Summermobile!

Dr. Hair is the gent in the maroon shirt. I think teenage boys are great! I gave the truck the name of Summermobile and the boys had a good laugh.

Mid-Summer Report

Well since nobody reads my blogs it is almost pointless to post anything, still . . .

We are surviving a horrendous heat and humidity wave, which feels more like a stagnant pool than a wave.  I grew up in San Diego and know about waves, they move, advancing and retreating.  This is staying completely still.  Topdad and Jet got an A/C installed in the dining room window which, surprisingly, keeps all the public rooms on the main floor cool enough to be comfortable.  Climb halfway up the stairs to the second floor and it's a different story.  Oh, well, I just remind myself that people have lived here in Iowa for over a hundred years without air conditioning, I'll survive.

Topdad announced today that school starts in a month.  This summer has just flown by and I feel like I haven't accomplished anything.  I've kept my family fed, the laundry done and the house clean; but all those lovely projects I wanted to work on are still languishing in boxes.  Ever the optimist, I'll hope for better conditions after school begins and I actually have the house to myself and no one clamouring for attention or food.

Noble called on Saturday to let us know she had survived BEAST (playing war in the field).  She had her final physical fitness test this morning, and though we haven't heard the results we are praying she passed with flying colors.

I went to the storage unit this morning, after a lovely bike ride with Topdad, (and then a short walk with the dog, Charlie), to retrieve the last of my sewing stuff.  I now have everything in the sewing room and look forward to a fall of creating.  I've been looking on Craigslist for a dress form to help with fitting things to myself.  No luck yet, but I'll keep looking.

Riding my bike on the trail is lovely, the wildflowers are so beautiful! The trail is flat and I can ride a long way.  It's just the trip there and back that is hard.  My cruiser bike and my old legs don't handle the hills very well yet.  Must keep building muscles!

I really admire other sewers who can cut out and sew a dress in a day or two.  I wish I could watch them to see their technique.  By the time I've cut something out I'm too tired of it to begin sewing.  I have to wait a day.  Then I'm so persnickety about everything that it takes me a long time to finish anything.  I just like the inside to look almost as nice as the outside!  I'm fascinated by haute couture and all their special finishing techniques.  Especially the old school designers, their clothes really were very well made. 

I've learned something about gardening this year.  Most flowers need sunshine!  The ones I planted under our big maple tree haven't done as well as the ones at the sunniest spot in front of the porch.  Next year I'll have to find some shade loving varieties for under the tree.  And find a sunny spot for the sun loving ones.  Also I'm growing an oak tree.  In the early spring when I was cleaning out the area under the tree I found an oak seedling, the acorn probably hidden by a squirrel in the fall.  I carefully dug it up and put it in a pot to protect it.  When I figure out where I want it permanently I'll plant it and put a block ring around it to protect it from errant weed whackers and lawn mowers.  We planted a six foot oak tree in Midvale in honor of our twentieth wedding anniversary and then had to leave it.  Oaks take so long to grow!  But this one I can say I grew from an acorn.

I think that's all the news that's fit to print.