gardens by the lake

where am I????

2008-05-15T17:36:00.003-05:00

The question has been posed - where am I????? I've been trying to figure that out. :)

The short answer is that I have been feeling burned out with blogging. I thought if I took a break, maybe I'd feel the same excitement I had last year at this time - when I couldn't wait to share what was blooming in the gardens each day and spent time visiting all of my friends in Blogland.

I apologize for not posting an explanation on the blog prior to this one - and I can't tell you how guilty I feel about not visiting your blogs. Guilt is such a huge and unnecessary burden to bear, and yet... there you go.

I have been enjoying my gardens - tulips, tulips, tulips - everywhere I look. I love it. And we have been involved in several projects - this week we're getting a new roof put on the house. It's lovely - and, guess what just popped into my head: I'll have to get a photo and show you! (So, see, there is hope!)

Tomorrow we're leaving for a couple days in Seattle - to see our grandson! Spencer Ryan was born April 12. Ryan and Sara say he is absolutely perfect. I can't wait to see that for myself!

I promise I will write another post when we return home. I'll either be writing to tell you how much I have enjoyed this past year - or I'll be back into blogging and you'll see all that I've been up to the past couple months.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

sorry!

2008-04-03T13:13:00.004-05:00

My apologies to everyone who has Google Reader or some other reader tool. I've been playing with a new computer program that works great for organizing recipes, book lists, garden info, etc. I wanted to share with you what I've been doing - by showing you the pages I've done. But when I linked the pages to the blog, I think it allowed anyone looking at it to go in and help me out! As much as I love you guys, I really don't want you inside any of my computer programs! :)

I'll keep playing a bit and see if there's any way to show you - photos of the pages or whatever. The program is OneNote - I am liking it a lot. More to come - I hope~ :)

signs of spring

2008-03-30T21:07:00.009-05:00

Wow - sun earlier today - and 50's!! Woo-hoo! A lot of melting going on. Forecast: rain tonight. By Tuesday morning 3-7 inches of fresh snow. Drat. So, good thing I took some pix this morning.

I did this one extra big so you could actually see what I'm so excited about. :)
I have little tulip sprouts showing up in several areas of the gardens. It gives me great hope for beautiful things to come.

A lovely clump of coral bells. I love the spring greens and purples.

My ornamental grass didn't fare too well after the last heavy, wet snow. But I'll be cutting it to the ground soon, so not a problem.

My bowling ball crop is looking spectacular!! :)

A sure sign of better things to come is water appearing around the edges of the lake. This is looking east...

and this is to the west.

And this is straight out from shore. Yup, the little things you see on the ice are fishermen. It's still thick enough to walk on.

which view do you like better?

2008-03-18T23:01:00.012-05:00

Nan left a comment that she would like to see the view from our bedroom window. This is it in July - the gardens in full bloom. From the bedroom we don't actually see a lot of the lake itself because of the leaves on the trees - but I love looking out at the gardens first thing every morning.

And then you have days like this morning. :( Our snow had pretty much melted off the yard last week, but we woke up to a couple inches on the ground. By noon this was gone. I'm going to be very happy to see open water instead of ice, green leaves instead of bare trees, and flowers instead of dock sections in the gardens!!

I have a little bit of green showing in the garden - very fun! Jacob's ladder and a couple other plants retain their green color through the winter - which totally amazes me.

Back in November, Kate did a post on her glass pens. I thought hers were beautiful and showed the post to Mark. A couple weeks ago he found these on eBay and bought them for me. Aren't they pretty? They're very fun to use - too bad I'm such a slug at writing notes and cards to people! :) The first pot of ink I bought was purple - very cool.

I'm afraid I still have weeks to go before I really have any interesting garden stuff to share. This has been a very long and very cold winter and I am quite anxious for it to be GONE! But in the meantime, thank you to all of you who have flowers in bloom for posting photos. It is such a treat to see right now!

a bedroom finally comes together

2008-03-03T12:03:00.008-06:00

Thank you all for your good wishes on my blogiversary. And also for your good thoughts about the loss of my friend Babe. I can't believe that I will never sit and chat with her again - but I feel so fortunate to have known her for so many years. She was a sweetheart.

I wanted to show you another project I've been working on this winter. Last summer I found this picture at a garage sale (the weird lines in it are from the reflection from the blinds). The orange-tone colors weren't exactly what I have my house filled with - but the background and over-all feel of the picture was something I thought would fit in our bedroom very well. We put up new wallpaper a couple years ago and I have been trying since then to find bedding I was happy with. I can't begin to tell you all of the trips I've made - buying complete sets, returning them because the color was just wrong, repeat, do over. I had almost given up on ever finding what I thought I wanted!

These photos are of the wallpaper - hard to get a picture that shows the exact color - plus it changes with the light - but you get the idea. The paper is smooth - but it gives the impression of great texture and subtle variations in color. After I had chosen the paper, I looked in the back of the wallpaper book and found that this particular faux finish was called "concrete" - of course I would choose wallpaper that looks like concrete!! I love it anyway. :)

This winter I found this brick red duvet and matching sheets etc (below) - and it worked really well with the burnt orange in the picture and with the walls. There is a very subtle print on one side of the duvet. I love it. The dark color shows all of the little bits and pieces that float around from the down pillows and comforter, but other than that I think it's perfect. I also bought a bedding set in a greyed or blued green - hard to describe - for summer sheets. It's very pretty and after I make the duvet, I'll show it to you. I couldn't find a duvet I liked with those sheets so bought extra sheets to make one.

All in all, I'm pretty happy with it. We're not big on lots of frills and pillows - I like getting up and shaking out the duvet and not thinking about it again - Mark likes just jumping into bed at night without clearing it first. Still have more wall space to figure out, but it's finally coming together. The stained glass in the small window is one of a set that our son and daughter-in-law made for us one year for Christmas. They are absolutely beautiful - I'll have to show them in a post sometime too. The light patterns on the duvet are from the windows - that entire wall is windows facing the lake - it's a gorgeous room to wake up in every morning!

I've lost someone special

2008-03-01T15:45:00.003-06:00

I found out this morning that a very dear neighbor and friend had passed away this week. My heart just hurts thinking that I will never again sit with her in person and share news of the neighborhood and our families. I will never again hear her generous compliments, her wise insights, her unfailingly positive voice. I will, of course, have talks with her and hear her voice - but only in my head - in my memories. She will now be in that part of my life that holds memories of my grandparents - rich, full memories - but not nearly as wonderful as all those in-person chats - not nearly as comforting as warm hugs.

When we moved to this street in 1975, Babe's mother lived at the end of the street. Grace was an old woman at the time - at least to my 25 years. I liked her because you always knew where you stood with her. If she wasn't pleased, she told you - likewise, she never hesitated to pass on a compliment. She had the most incredible gardens. They reminded me of my grandmothers' gardens. In the early 80's - shortly after we moved into this house on the lake, Grace passed on and Babe and her husband, Glenn, moved into her house. Babe immediately became a favorite neighbor. She was an excellent role model for aging gracefully. I don't think I have ever met anyone as genuinely positive and appreciative of those around her.

Babe had back problems and let a lot of the gardens go back to lawn. In the process, she shared countless plants with neighbors and friends. I remember talking to her one year shortly before my birthday. I mentioned that I loved Siberian squill or scilla. On the morning of my birthday, she came down the street with a small bucket full of scilla and other treasures from her garden! She never failed to mention how much she loved my gardens - or to tell me what a wonderful man I'm married to - or what wonderful young men I've raised. I am going to miss her terribly.

This morning our son came out to visit - and do a couple loads of laundry. We were talking and I mentioned that I had seen Babe recently at the nursing home, and that she had said how much she had enjoyed seeing him a couple years ago. Our son said why don't we go down and visit her this morning? We decided to wait an hour so she would be up and ready for the day. A half hour before we were going to head out the door, Babe's son called and gave me the news. I was so glad that we had been thinking of her before John called - it actually helped soften the blow.

Next spring, when the ground has thawed and plants have sprung back to life, I will walk down to her yard and ask her son if I can dig up a few things from her gardens. John will say of course - Mom would want you to have some plants to remember her by. I won't need plants to remember Babe - but I will treasure having a small part of her in my gardens.

one year of blogging

2008-02-28T11:29:00.006-06:00

Well, as I said yesterday, today marks one year of blogging for me. I can't believe I've been doing this for a year! I thought I would tell you how it all began for me.

About a year ago, I was looking for info on the No-Knead bread and found a beautiful step-by-step pictorial on Kitt's blog. I scrolled through her blog a little and found a photo of her first crocus. We were still in the dead of winter here in Minnesota so that made me smile. And then a few posts further down I found a photo of her standard poodle, Sophie. Well, of course, she had me hooked right there! I left a comment and she responded by asking for my blog address and saying she'd love to see our dogs. I took a look at Blogger and decided I could figure out how to at least show her the dogs. I did this post and then went on to do another and another and, with a little help and lots of encouragement from Kitt, pretty soon I was hooked on blogging! I thought the blog would be a great way to keep in touch with family and to share my gardens, so I shared my new hobby with them. My dad and Mark's dad are my two most faithful readers - they check the blog first thing every morning. I love it!

I spent quite a bit of time being a "lurker" - looking but not leaving comments on other blogs. Thank goodness I moved beyond that stage! It was so fun when more people began coming here and leaving comments for me. I love being a part of this community. I have met so many wonderful people - it makes my family smile, but I think of you all as friends. It would give me great pleasure to meet each of you and sit down for a cuppa and walk through your gardens and see all of your beautiful handcrafts. I feel honored to be a part of this whole experience.

Thanks to all of you for sharing your beautiful blogs - your joys and sorrows - for touching me in ways you'll never know. I treasure each of you. And thanks for coming here from time to time and sharing my little space in Blogland too. I am so looking forward to my second year of blogging!!

finicky eaters and other tails

2008-02-27T13:07:00.007-06:00

This is Tess trying a new diet. She doesn't seem to care too much for the veggies - lol. Kobie has been battling ear infections for close to a year now. My sweet boy is very stoic, and I usually don't realize that he even has ear problems until they're full-blown - which is perhaps a big part of the problem. But since the first of the year he has been under the care of a doggie dermatologist, and a week ago we decided we need to do allergy testing to see if we can get this under control. The good news would be if the special diet works - the bad news is the food costs $52.00 for an 18-lb bag (the largest size they package). Both dogs have to eat the same food for the testing to be valid. My two lovelies eat about 18 lbs a week - easily. I'm hoping I don't have to go out and find a full-time job to pay for their food and vet bills!!! Yesterday the vet told me I could add certain veggies to increase the fiber content - hopefully that would mean they'd be eating less of the expensive food. Both dogs meticulously picked out each and every piece of vegetable and spit it on the floor. It was pretty funny to see. If I offered them each a bowl of chicken pot pie with vegetables, they'd inhale it, of course. I'll keep you posted.

Look at my growing collection of gently-used knives. When we were married - oh so many years ago! - we bought the best knives we could afford - Chicago Cutlery. But recently Mark started buying Wustof at sales and on eBay. We have a couple more on our list to try and find - but I am loving the ones we have so far.

Last weekend we hit an estate sale and found two treasures for me. The first was this herb cutting knife and bowl. We cleaned and oiled them, and I think they're going to work really well. Now I can't wait for summer and fresh herbs from my garden!

The second find was a new foutain for the gardens. The auction listing said "garden sculptures" - Mark was unimpressed with what he saw sitting in the snow. But I noticed these cattails and thought they might look pretty cool with my grasses. When we went out and started digging a little, we discovered that the cattails were part of a small fountain. Even better!! The entire group is copper and has a beautiful patina. The cattail pieces are sitting on rods stuck in the cement base - and all of that sits in the basin. I think I'll probably add some rocks to hide the cement. The pump attaches to one cattail stem. I can't wait to see it hooked up and working - after we're finally done with freezing cold weather, of course! The top photo is so cluttered, I'm not sure you can see the cattails - but I'll be showing you more photos when it's sitting in my garden.

Tomorrow marks my one year blogiversary. I can't believe I've been doing this for a whole year. I'm planning to put up a post that tells you how it all began...

a new video

2008-02-21T11:33:00.003-06:00

Our neighbors bought a weather vane (I think that's what you call these things??) this winter. It's so cool and I like it so much that I thought you all should see it too. They're planning to attach it to their dock this summer - I hope they put it on our side so we can enjoy it. It's really mesmerizing to watch.

Did you all catch the lunar eclipse last night? It was really cold here, but the dogs and I bundled up and went out every 20 minutes for the first hour. By the time it was eclipsed, the moon had risen enough to be right outside our bedroom window - so I could lay on the bed and enjoy it in comfort!! (and more importantly, warmth!!) (well, guess the comfort part would be excluding the fact that I had two huge dogs jumping on me!) Wish I had a photo to share, but I was too lazy to dig out a tripod so all the ones I took have multiple moons - interesting, but not exactly what I was after.

i have wheels again

2008-02-18T19:46:00.005-06:00

Thank you for all of your comments and support last week when I was without wheels. As so often happens, the day after my whining, the truck started, and I spent the rest of the week running here and there and getting nothing done here at home. Maybe THIS will be the week I catch up on blogging and cleaning and laundry and reading and...

Our weather has been a rollercoaster this year - sub-zero way too often - but after a couple freezing cold days, the teens and 20's feel like spring - so guess there's a bright side to everything! This weekend we had two days in the mid 30's!! It was wonderful - but today it was in the single digits again. Our son who lives in Seattle called today and said he spent time working in their garden this weekend. Sounds wonderful - but I still have several weeks before that's even a possibility here, I'm afraid.

Saturday while we were out running a few errands, we saw these three planes sitting on the lake in front of a restaurant near our home. Aren't they cute? I'm thinking jumping in the plane to meet for lunch would be too fun!

I have been very negligent in my blog housekeeping. About a month ago nonizamboni at Peacock Blue gave me this award. And then a couple weeks ago, Tristi gave me the same award. Thanks, guys!! Even though I am very slow at thanking you, please know that I am honored to receive this award. Nonizamboni lives in the Twin Cities, and I love reading her posts - if I lived on her side of town, we would run into each other all the time, I think! And Tristi just cracks me up with some of her posts - her stories about her children's antics are a stitch. Thanks to both of you for making blogging so much fun! And thanks to all of my blogger friends - you ALL make my day!!

i'm tired of this cold weather

2008-02-11T20:01:00.001-06:00

This has just not been a good day. I think I need some serious R&R in a nice warm place. Mark drove his car to the airport early this morning. We were pretty sure my truck would start because it was running yesterday, so I opted to sleep in instead of taking him. I was planning to meet a dear friend that I haven't seen in forever for lunch. The truck would not start. It didn't even make any whining noises. So I am without transportation until late Thursday night. If I have an emergency, I have neighbors who would take me wherever I need to go - but being guys, they probably wouldn't consider lunch an emergency. Whatever. I've cancelled all other appointments for the week - and I guess I'll keep busy with blogging, reading and actually getting my work done on time. But what a bummer. Stupid truck only has 200,000 miles on it and it's acting like an old lady.

I've been going through old photos and scanning some of them into the computer. I came across these two the other day and thought you would get a laugh out of them. Being a farm girl, I was in 4-H growing up. I learned to make bread the old-fashioned way - lots of hand mixing and kneading. I truly like the new wet dough way better! This was a bread-making workshop during the summer before my 8th grade year (if memory serves me right). Our loaves look kind of puny - but I remember that they smelled heavenly. Oh - I'm the cute one in the center - LOL!!

Remember the accordion-playing girl? This was me in high school - 64 would have been freshman year. We wore these heavy, itchy wool uniforms for marching band (whether it was 90 or 30 degrees out) and for two band concerts held in a tiny little, sweltering gym each year. I loved band - most of my friends were in band, and we had so much fun. I played the French horn - I can always pick out the French horns in classical music - truly a beautiful sound.

warm thoughts on a cold day

2008-02-10T18:24:00.000-06:00

I realized today that Mark won't be home on Valentine's Day. I was not happy. Over the course of five weeks, he will have been gone a total of four. Believe it or not, I actually prefer to have him here! :) It was so cold this weekend that we didn't even go out for an early celebration. Maybe we'll do something fun next weekend. In the meantime, I said no to roses. I LOVE roses - but I much prefer them in the summer gardens. This time of year I'm yearning for tulips and daffodils. A nice little winter get-away to a beach somewhere would be very welcome also!

One of my favorite Valentine recollections is of one several years ago. Mark left work early and met me at a theater complex to see the 4pm showing of Chocolate. It was so fun - so out of the norm - to go to a weekday matinee. I loved it.

Mark caught Kobie and Tess this week on a warmer day - the bright sun had them squinting, but we were all enjoying the relative warmth.

I am in love with the European Peasant Bread from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day. It has a little rye flour and a little whole wheat flour, and the taste is wonderful - kind of a nutty flavor I think. I've also made focaccia from the olive oil dough. I think I'll probably have to try all of the doughs in the book - what a hardship! LOL

new garden - part deux

2008-02-07T14:11:00.000-06:00

My apologies to everyone who visited this post earlier! Mark just picked up books at the library for me - one of them was The Jane Austen Book Club. I was reading the back of the book - this copy has info on the movie. "Kathy BAKER" jumps off the page at me. Oh, no, I know I wrote Kathy Bates - shoot. Yup, a quick check of the blog and indeed that's exactly what I did. I'm so sorry. However, if you see the movie, I don't think you'll be disappointed - Kathy BAKER is absolutely wonderful.

Thanks for the comments on my new garden ideas for the driveway. I look forward to reading more! As I was reading the comments, it occurred to me I didn't give you as much info as I could have. The driveway is on the north-northwest side of our house. Last year I placed half barrels along the edge of the driveway in an attempt to ward off some of the construction traffic on our street. The overview photo on yesterday's post was taken at about 9 am - the sun hadn't made it to the driveway yet. The second photo in this post was taken at 10:30 am - and you can see that the barrel is casting a shadow. The first photo shown here was taken at about 6 pm, so I get at least 8 hours of bright, hot sunshine along the edge of the road - where the garden will be placed. (photos taken around 7/20) ((the shadow on the left side of this photo is me trying to get a photo without a shadow - lol))

Last night I was checking more info on the net and making notes, and I started thinking that I'm not sure actually where my sun is in that area. The barrels did fine on all sides because they get all day sun basically from side to side. But if I plant a taller ornamental grass, the street side may not get as much sun as I was thinking. I'm not sure how the summer sun works its way across this space. I wouldn't be too upset to just plant a lovely big stand of ornamental grass - or to have a few other shorter plants on the house side - it would look nice from the house and patio area. I know Mark wants me to keep as much driveway space as possible because he's afraid I'll eventually treat the driveway like I do the yard - it's all potential garden. I can't actually deny that thought has crossed my mind! :) One thought I had was to plant the grasses kind of behind the rocks I want out there - with half barrels of annuals as fill for the forward space. So many possibilities!! I appreciate your input - and no doubt you will be hearing most of the thoughts that flit through my little brain on this topic.

Tuesday night I watched The Jane Austen Book Club. I loved it. I adored the group of women in this movie. Kathy BAKER played the oldest member of the group - and she was so nurturing to the other women - without being overbearing or cloying. I thought perhaps I want to be that character when (if) I grow up. Or maybe better yet, I want a best friend just like her. She was so confident with who she was - again, without being pushy or controlling about it - I just loved her. I thought it was a good chick flick.

a new garden?

2008-02-06T15:55:00.000-06:00

Okay, I'm kind of psyched. Some blogs I've visited lately have been showing garden photos from last year - instead of snow, snow and more snow - and quite a few gardeners are thinking about plans for this spring. Thank you - started me thinking about my own garden plans!

One area I would really like to do some major revamping is our driveway. We live on a narrow dead-end street that would probably qualify as an alley. Parking is at a premium. But what I've noticed for us is that we need tons of parking only 2 or 3 times a year. Wouldn't it be easier to arrange the parking we need for those 2 or 3 times instead of having this huge open (and might I add, ugly) driveway along the street?

When we first moved into this house, the gravel area you see in the above photo was a grassy area that was about 18-24 inches lower than the street. It's enclosed with a cement retaining wall that runs along the street and back to the garage. When our sons started driving we filled in that lawn area to enlarge the driveway. It was a good choice - for years we really needed all that room for cars. But I'm thinking it's time to make it look pretty and more inviting again.

We still need room for cars and boats and utility trailers in the driveway, but I'm thinking maybe I could dig up a portion of the driveway along the street and fill it in with good black dirt and plant a pretty little boulevard garden. I'm thinking about tall ornamental grasses with shorter plants in front (toward the street) - and, oh yes, a couple of nice rocks to hopefully keep people from driving through my lovely new garden. We would still have room for the utility trailer and to store a boat in the winter. The trailer would be at least partially screened from the street, which I'm sure would make some of our neighbors happier. And our kitchen door and patio area would be partially screened from their view. I'm thinking lots of happier people!!

So, this is where you all come in. Our street isn't as heavily sanded and salted in the winter as a lot of places, but we still get a fair amount. I'll need to plant things that are fairly salt tolerant - both from salt spray and salt in the soil. So far my research has led me to believe that Karl Foerster reed grass is the perfect solution for the screening part. Have any of you grown the Karl Foerster? I'm also looking for shorter plants to fill in around the rocks and in front of the grass. If any of you have suggestions - for tall or shorter plants - I'd love to hear them.

There are lots of primary roads in the Cities that have beautiful plantings, so I can do some research here also and see what cities and counties have chosen for their salt-tolerant plantings. I'm so excited about this! Keep your fingers crossed that I can come up with a plan that both Mark and the city will approve!! An added plus is that I really like ornamental grasses - but can't have them in the main gardens because Kobie eats them - I mean eats them to the ground on a regular basis. This would be an area that he doesn't get to visit without supervision. Gosh, it's beginning to feel like spring! :)

Winter hibernation

2008-02-01T12:57:00.000-06:00

A couple weeks ago I posted a photo of some baked ziti I had made for dinner that night. Lynne asked me if I would share the recipe. Of course!! It's from The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook - one of my favorite cookbooks.

Baked Ziti with Tomatoes and Mozzarella

1 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for oiling the dish
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 (28 oz) can crushed tomatoes
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes
2 tbsp minced fresh basil
1/4 tsp sugar
Salt
1 pound ziti (or any short tubular pasta like rigatoni or penne)
8 oz mozzarella, shredded (2 cups)
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees - rack in middle position.
2. Bring 4 quarts of water to a boil for the ziti.
3. Cook 1 tbsp oil and the garlic in a skillet over medium heat, stirring often, until the garlic is fragrant but not browned - about 2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes with their juice. Bring to a simmer and cook until thickened slightly, about 15 minutes. Stir in the basil, sugar and 1/2 tsp salt.
4. When the water is boiling, stir in 1 tbsp salt and the ziti. Cook, stirring often, until the ziti is almost tender but still a little firm to the bite.
5. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water, then drain the ziti and return it to the pot. Stir in the tomato sauce and toss to coat. Add the reserved pasta cooking water as needed to loosen the sauce.
6. Spread half of the ziti in an oiled 9x13-inch baking dish. Sprinkle with half of the mozzarella and half of the Parmesan cheese. Spread the remaining ziti in the dish and sprinkle with remaining mozzarella and Parmesan.
7. Bake until the cheeses turn golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Note: you can add 1 lb cooked hot or sweet Italian sausage and 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes to the skillet with the tomatoes if desired. I use frozen tomatoes in place of the 2 cans of tomatoes called for. And I use more cheese than they call for. :)

Serves 6

I usually make a half recipe and Mark and I easily get 2 generous meals out of it. I've done both the vegetarian and the Italian sausage - both were very, very good. Lynne, if you try it, let me know what you think!

So, I've been very bad at blogging lately! I guess nothing too interesting has been happening here - it seems to be all about the weather - either unseasonably nice days or deep-freeze cold. Hopefully, we've seen the last of the frigid cold for awhile.

I've been trying to organize my storage areas. I don't really understand why I have to do this EVERY year - obviously I haven't quite hit on the right place for everything yet!! One thing I did that I am very pleased with is moving the barrister into the dining room. It makes a great china cabinet! And it takes up less space than the ice box. The ice box moved into the living room - but, of course, not where I had the barrister. Mark was shaking his head, but it was necessary to move 3 large cabinets to make this all work. :)

Right now, I have crystal in the barrister. But, truth be told, I rarely use my beautiful crystal pieces - even when they're staring me in the face. So I'm thinking about packing the crystal away for awhile and filling the barrister with everyday stuff - kind of leaning toward putting pottery in it. I'm sure you'll see photos if I actually do that!!

The other big move I made was to take all of the photos out of this cabinet. You know the ones - the boxes and bags of photos that should be in albums, but, sadly, are not. I decided I needed more space for table linens - and also a place for beach towels. This cabinet worked perfectly. I kept the placemats in the dining room hutch because we use them more often when it's just Mark and me here. I'm excited about having beach towels handy - we can just grab them as we head out the door to the boat or lake. Kind of a strange combination, but it will work great for us.

My biggest organizing project has been in the basement. But I'm not showing photos of that - lol. You'll just have to take my work for it that right now everything seems to have a place on the storage shelves. I'm quite pleased!!

land of bread and honey

2008-01-19T16:25:00.000-06:00

Christmas Eve we did a grab bag gift exchange (with a fun little game that involved stealing gifts etc). Mark's dad, Everett, and Marlene brought jars of honey made in Rochester, Minnesota, as their grab bag gifts. Mark ended up with one (yay! way to go, Mark!!). This honey is sooooo good - and as a bonus, it qualifies as locally grown food. Later Marlene told me to check out their website, Johnston Honey, because they have their beautiful gardens featured on the site. I've been checking them out, and they are indeed beautiful. So I thought I should share them with my blogger friends - especially because so many of you, like me, are looking at snow and/or cold instead of lovely flowers right now. I couldn't see that they have a slideshow feature, so the site is kind of cumbersome to use, but well worth the time. Let me know what you think.

Today (and for the next few days) we are hovering right around zero for highs, so I made homemade vegetable soup and crusty rolls for tonight's dinner. The rolls look really good, and I may have to sneak one before dinner time! But I wanted to show you the breadboard Mark made me. I read (was it in Artisan Bread??) that the best way to store cut crusty bread was with the cut side down on a breadboard. One night last week we had to go out for awhile, and I couldn't leave the bread on the pullout breadboard because Mr Kobie would have helped himself to it while we were gone. So I told Mark I needed a small breadboard that I could set back on the counter. Two days later I had this lovely board. He used maple and walnut to make it, and it is beautiful. He's taking over the garage with his woodshop, but I'm thinking it might not be a bad thing! :)

Hope you all are surviving this cold weather (or enjoying the warm temps if that's your reality!!). I'm hoping to get back into the blogging stuff soon.

restocking what melted

2008-01-11T19:14:00.001-06:00

We've been enjoying some warm temps which means melting snow. But tonight it's being replenished. The dogs came in covered in big fat flakes. Kobie was nice enough to pose for me. By the time I got the camera it was melting fast, but he was such a good sport, let's let him think he was still covered in white.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: How-To

2008-01-11T15:40:00.001-06:00

Another interview with Zoe and Jeff making the bread.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

2008-01-11T14:57:00.001-06:00

Here's a video that shows the authors of the 5 minute a day bread making it. Simple!

grumpy old men, a loaf of bread, and ziti

2008-01-10T20:17:00.001-06:00

This was a corner of our lake last weekend. We've been enjoying some nice temps - and everyone is out taking advantage of it. We regularly see ice fishermen, snowmobilers, and cross-country skiers. The great lazy dogs love having all of this activity to bark at - I think they're saying, "Come open the gate - we'll play with you!"

This was my third loaf of bread. I used parchment paper on the peel and stone, and I think it came out perfect. No burnt cornmeal, nice crust, and the taste is out of this world. My dough has been sitting in the fridge now for a week - and this loaf I definitely noticed a slight sourdough taste. Very nice.

Tonight I made baked ziti with roasted tomatoes from my garden (via the freezer!) and mozzarella. It was divine. For whatever reason, I've been in a cooking and baking mood lately - it can't last, but nice for right now!

a walk at the Arb

2008-01-07T16:27:00.001-06:00

Thanks for all of your comments about the bread I'm experimenting with. I didn't bake any over the weekend or today, but will let you know how the next loaf comes out. We've been enjoying some really nice weather (for winter in Minnesota!!), so today I went to the Arb for a walk. I walk there year round - it's good for my soul. Here are a few of the beautiful things I saw.

These are some of the holiday/winter containers they display. A lot of them are made by area garden centers and designers. In the visitor center they had several trees displayed over the holidays - they were all decorated with natural materials - dried hydrangea, seed heads, pinecones, ornaments made from bark, etc. They were very fun to see - lots of great ideas to try and remember to use next year here at home!

These two photos are from the Japanese garden area. In nicer weather, the area in the bottom photo has a pond and waterfall - and koi swimming around. Very pretty and peaceful.

The tree stump you see next to the treehouse was a huge old oak tree. It and a former treehouse were damaged in a big storm a few years ago. They rebuilt the treehouse and retained the stump, kind of as a tribute to the wonderful tree that was there. I used to sit in the treehouse on nice spring days and read a book or write in my journal. It was fun. Maybe sometime I'll be taking my grandson to play in it!!

Look how pretty these red dogwoods are against the white snow.

Is there anything more grand in the northern winter landscape than beautiful, big evergreens?

I thought this stand of ornamental grass was pretty too - you can see the seeds.

Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day

2008-01-04T23:41:00.001-06:00

I found the bread recipe that I'm experimenting with published on a local TV website. So, here is what they published. The book starts with this basic dough recipe and also has tons of other doughs that follow the same basic principles. The book is "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. Their website is http://www.artisanbreadinfive.com/

Master Recipe Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day: the Discovery that Revolutionizes Home Baking (Thomas Dunne Books / St. Martin?s Press, Nov 2007)

The full recipe as it appears in the book provides more detail, but most home bakers will be able to get a start on five-minute a day homemade bread with this short version of the recipe.

Preparation time: 15 minutes to prepare enough dough for four loaves, to be baked over four days. Each daily loaf will average 5 minutes of active preparation time.Makes four 1-pound loaves

3 cups lukewarm water (about 100º F)
1 1/2 tablespoons granulated yeast
1 1/2 tablespoons kosher or other coarse salt
6 1/2 cups all-purpose white flour (no need to sift)
Cornmeal for the pizza peel.

In a 5-quart bowl, mix the yeast, water and salt. Add all the flour, then use a wooden spoon to mix until all ingredients are uniformly moist. It is not necessary to knead or continue mixing once the ingredients are uniformly moist. This will produce a loose and very wet dough.
2.Cover with a lid (not airtight). Allow the mixture to rise at room temperature until it begins to collapse, about 2 hours, but no more than 5 hours.
3. After rising, the dough can be baked immediately, or covered (non completely airtight) and refrigerated up to 14 days. The dough will be easier to work with after at least 3 hours refrigeration.
4. On baking day, prepare a pizza peel by sprinkling it liberally with cornmeal to prevent the bread from sticking when you transfer it to the oven. Uncover the dough and sprinkle the surface with flour. Pull up and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit-size) piece of dough (serrated knives are best). Store the remaining dough in the bowl and refrigerate for baking at another time.
5. Hold the mass of dough in your hands and add a little more flour as needed so it won't stick. Create a smooth ball of dough by gently pulling the sides down around to the bottom, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go. While shaping, most of the dusting flour will fall off. The bottom of the loaf may appear to be a collection of bunched ends, but it will flatten out during resting and baking. Shaping the loaf this way should take no more than 1 minute.
6.Place the dough on the pizza peel. Allow the loaf to rest for about 40 minutes. It does not need to be covered. The bread may not rise much during this time.
7. Twenty minutes before baking, place a pizza stone on the center rack of the oven. If you don't have a baking stone, use another baking sheet. Remove any upper racks. Place a broiler pan on a rack below the pizza stone or on the floor of the oven. Preheat oven to 450 F.
8. When the dough has rested for 40 minutes, dust the top liberally with flour, then use a serrated knife to slash a 1/4-inch-deep cross or tic-tac-toe pattern into the top.
9.Slide the loaf off the peel and onto the baking stone. Quickly but carefully pour 1 cup of hot water into the broiler tray and close the oven door.
10.Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is nicely browned and firm to the touch. Allow the bread to cool completely, preferably on a wire cooling rack.

(I do the original mix with a Kitchen Aid mixer)
What I like about this recipe over the No-Knead recipe is that you make enough for 4-8 loaves at one time - let it rise about 2 hrs - stick it in the refrigerator - and then make the bread by the loaf over the next 14 days. Each day that you make a loaf, you take less than a minute to shape the loaf and let it rise for up to 40 minutes - and bake for about 30 minutes. My experience with the No Knead was that our house is too cool in the winter, and it took over 30 hours to rise - and I had to do that for each loaf.

I still have some kinks to work out before I'm completely sold on this - but so far, I'm thinking it might be a winner.

If you're interested in the No Knead bread, Kitt has an excellent step-by-step post at http://kittbo.blogspot.com/2006/12/no-knead-bread-step-by-step.html

sunrises and bread

2008-01-04T11:09:00.001-06:00

Thank you so much for all of your kind and encouraging comments about our new family member. When April rolls around, you'll be hearing every detail, I'm sure! I foresee many trips to Seattle in my future this next year - I can't wait to welcome this sweet baby boy into our family in person.

This was part of our sunrise yesterday - it was stunning. The sky was maybe even prettier later - but the wind was blowing like 100 mph at the time - and after I took this photo I was frozen!! It did turn out to be a fairly nice day - and today looks even better. When I finish posting this, I'm heading down to the Arb for a walk.

I have been trying to catch up on my blog reading - I have to read every single post I've missed, so if I haven't left you a comment yet, never fear - I'll be there! Mark even loaned me his laptop so I could sit by the fireplace or look out over the lake while I'm catching up. What a sweetie! You all have been busy - it's so fun to see all of your holiday decorations and celebrations - thanks for sharing with me!

I'm baking bread - a couple people who live here in Minneapolis have put out a new cookbook - Bread in 5 Minutes a Day - or something like that. It's similar to the No-Knead bread - but really much quicker. This was my first loaf - I was supposed to shape a 1 lb glob of very wet dough - they said about the size of a grapefruit. I only pulled the size of a peach. Oops. However, even though it wasn't a great loaf, we enjoyed it - the flavor was very good. I made French onion soup from scratch - and it was lovely with the bread and shredded Swiss cheese.

This morning I pulled the right amount of dough, but it stuck to the peel when I tried to put it on the baking stone - so it's very misshapen. And then I was blogging when it should have come out of the oven, so a little - well, BLACK on the bottom. I'm pretty sure I'll find a way to eat most of the loaf anyway! lol My big question to you bread bakers out there: I'm supposed to generously sprinkle corn meal on the baking stone - but it burns - so my house smells like burnt cornmeal instead of fresh baked bread. The bread isn't burned (if I pull it out at the right time!), but I was kind of hoping more for the smell of baked bread! What am I doing wrong?? I'm open to suggestions. In the meantime, I'm going to keep experimenting - and reading - and I'll keep you posted.

holiday reading

2008-01-04T10:48:00.000-06:00

Looks like I've actually put away quite a few books since I last posted a list. The first was "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer. I read "Into Thin Air" several years ago and had mixed feelings about it when I was done. I felt the same with this book. It was interesting - but...

I have the movie on my Netflix list - it will be available in February - and maybe reading the book will give me a better appreciation of the movie - or vice versa. I think maybe it's that his writing is very intense, and I feel totally drained when I'm done.

"The View from Mount Joy" by Lorna Landvik was good. Landvik is from the Twin Cities, so I have a built-in interest in her books. I don't think she's the best author I read - but I usually enjoy reading her. This was like that - yeah, read it - but don't expect it to be the highlight of the year for you. (Wow - makes you wonder why I'm doing this post, doesn't it????)

Now, William Kent Krueger, I'm totally into. I have the next two Cork O'Connor books sitting on my little table - I can't wait to get at them. He tells a really good tale - and I totally love all of the Native American info he includes.

This is the third Baldacci book I've read - and I'm a fan. This was a really good one. Mark has read two of them and likes them also.

This is the second in a trilogy by Louise Penny - "A Fatal Grace" - I love her books!!! I love the people in her stories - I love the little town she sets her stories in - READ THESE!!! I just received an email notice from our library that her third book is on order - they're only getting 7 copies, but I am number 3 on the list - yay!! I can't wait.

This is the first book I've read by Jodi Picoult - but now she's on my radar. "My Sister's Keeper" was a great book - parts were very hard to read - parts were so uplifting. It's a story of a family whose second child develops a rare form of leukemia - and basically they choose to have a "designer baby" to help her. I can't imagine the choices families have to make when they're faced with this - but this book deals with it beautifully.

winding down the holiday

2007-12-29T13:03:00.001-06:00

Well, I'm being gently prodded to please put up a new post! What a busy couple weeks this has been, but I am very ready to get back to blogging. I hope you all are having a wonderful holiday. Ours was very, very nice.

Remember the cute card my niece sent us - with the clothespins and mittens? We received this one from her sister a few days later. Their mom is very creative, and I'm thinking the apples didn't fall far from the tree! Thanks, Anni, I love this card!

We had a white Christmas - like a little bit of snow every single day!! But it's very pretty, so no complaints here. I took this one afternoon just before the entire sky turned orange. I loved the way the sun was highlighting some of the trees with a beautiful glow.

I never did get a photo of our tree with presents underneath. I told you it was a little different this year!! I've had a very nice artificial tree for the last 10-12 years. This year when I pulled it out, it looked pretty tuckered. I was planning to replace it at an after-Christmas sale, but now I'm thinking this little sheet metal tree is perfect! It just feels like the perfect "Charlie Brown" tree to me.

Everyone was saying I should at least hang a few ornaments on it - but to me, the holes and stars look like ornaments. I really totally love it. We'll see how I feel next year. :)

Last, but certainly not least, we have some news to share. In mid-April, Mark and I will be grandparents for the first time!!!! We are soooooooo excited. Sara looked wonderful while they were here - and Ryan is going to be a wonderful daddy. This is a small teddy bear that we put under the tree for this much anticipated baby boy. You will be hearing tons about him, for sure!!

ice candles

2007-12-17T16:31:00.001-06:00

We hosted a small dinner party last night - 4 friends came over and shared a casual meal and wonderful conversation with us. They were nice enough to ooh and aah over my decorating and the food I fixed. Unfortunately, I didn't take photos of the table or the food - what was I thinking??!! However, the hit of the evening was the decorating on the patio. I had made ice candles and had them sitting on a snow-covered table with the icicle-lighted fence in the background. They did look quite festive.

They were easy to make. I bought a plastic mold and filled it with water (I used different amounts of water to get different height candles) - and let them freeze for about 12 hours. The Minneapolis Strib http://www.startribune.com/lifestyle/homegarden/12357556.html did an article on the ice candles a week or so ago and showed how to decorate them - with evergreen pieces, cranberries, coloring, etc. They were beautiful, but with the white fairy lights and snow on the patio, these were exquisite. The daytime temps all of this week are supposed to be near 30, so I don't know if these will last until Christmas. But I have a long winter ahead to make more!

Mother Nature does her own decorating for the season

2007-12-12T09:33:00.001-06:00

This is what I woke up to today (and, yes, the sun was fully up before I even opened my eyes this morning!). Seriously, Mother Nature is the Queen of Outdoor Decorating!

it looks like Christmas

2007-12-11T12:26:00.001-06:00

Think this is the last post I'll put up showing Christmas decorations. There are a few little corners that I haven't posted, but I'm sure by now you have a good idea what our Christmas will look like. I really love the way the fireplace area came out - it looks very pretty both during the day and at night. Oh, I may have to show you the tree once I get presents wrapped - it's a little different this year. I feel like I still have a zillion and one things left to do, but really everything is coming together pretty well. I'm hoping to get around to visit everyone before Christmas - but if those plans don't work out, I hope you all have a very happy Christmas and merry New Year!

a little more Christmas

2007-12-10T10:39:00.000-06:00

The sun is shining - bright blue skies - sparkly snow on the ground. I love days like this!! Over the weekend a small fishing village popped up on the lake in front of our house. Only one house was left out overnight, but the next time they congregate, I'll snap a photo for you to see. Today more photos of Christmas decorations. These are on a sideboard I have behind the sofa - the front of it faces the dining room and fireplace room. The pinecones in the iron basket smell like cinnamon and cloves.

This one I took one day last week when the sun was shining in the window.

And, of course, one more snowman!!!!

(snow)men in trees

2007-12-09T09:11:00.000-06:00

I had a very fun day yesterday. My niece, Jess, and her fiance came to the cities to visit Steve's sister for the weekend. Mark & I were planning to meet Jess & Steve and my sister and her SO (Mary & Jim) for lunch today. Mary is babysitting with her granddaughter, Kajia, this weekend - so that was going to be very special! But I got a little bonus - my other sister (Jess' mom, Patti), came up with them and stayed at Mary's for the weekend. So I went over there yesterday and had some major sister bonding time PLUS baby girl time. What a perfect day!! And I get to see everyone for lunch in a couple hours. Lovely weekend!

Here are a few more photos of Christmas decorations. My piano sits in this little nook of the fireplace room - next to the stairway. This is a photo taken at night with the tree and garland lit. The tree is rustic and small - and I put only snowmen ornaments on it. After I started, I realized I don't really have that many snowmen ornaments (LOL), so I cut up some snowman ribbon and put that on the tree. It looks kind of like banners - a little weird!! But it's supposed to be a fun tree, so it's okay! (Look closely at the guy in the red hat - he has a snowball in his hand ready to throw!)

I have a wooden train on the piano - it's one that my sons had when they were little.

Oops - guess I took this photo before I added the ribbon to the garland. :) But you get the idea at least.

more snow people

2007-12-08T09:20:00.000-06:00

BRRRRRRRR!!!!!!! I had to take Kobie to the vet early this morning - we were on the road before 7am - and it was minus 4 degrees out. Felt toasty in my car, but a little chilly outside. I did get to see the most gorgeous sunrise, but, of course, didn't have my camera with me. (Kobers is fine - he gets ear infections really easily and is now under the care of a doggie dermatologist. How special is that?!)

Here's another display with my snowmen (and women). I put a short string of icicle lights on the snow which provides some interesting night light. Of course our trusty clock and thermometer are always present on the entertainment center. The thermometer says 10 degrees at 10am yesterday - I think that's supposed to be our high today. (66 inside????? Excuse me, I have to go turn up the thermostat!)

Some of my snowpeople remind me of other things. This guy looks like Chilly Willy - remember the cartoon penguin who was always shivering?

He makes me think "scarecrow."

This poor guy used to have twig arms and a nose that matched his black buttons. With the big nose and the hat, he reminded me of W.C.Fields. He still looks pretty happy, but I hope his next caretaker takes better care of him!

Here's the iron sleigh I bought this fall. I had several ideas for displays, but Tuesday Nadine (French teacher) gave me a bag of French candy and it seemed perfect for the sleigh. Soon it was joined by other bags of holiday candies, and, voila, a sleigh full of presents.

This little snow family is so cheery. I love their picket fence and mailbox. And they even have a cardinal visiting.

The name on their mailbox says "The Flakes" - I laugh every time I see it. Perfect!

Here's sort of what it looks like at night without the living room lights on. The light is actually a little more golden, but you get the idea. From my favorite chair the bulbs look like luminaria lighting up their winter wonderland.

season of the snowmen

2007-12-07T10:23:00.000-06:00

Many years ago I bought a couple of snowmen at a boutique. I thought they were cute and had personality - and that I could display them longer than just through the Christmas season. Well, turns out by the end of January I'm more than ready to dispense with anything snow related, but I do enjoy the snowmen over the holidays. I don't buy them anymore, but I receive them as gifts from time to time. This year they are the star of my decorating scheme.

This cutie has a board for a bottom - so he can sit on a shelf (or bookcase) and dangle his feet over the edge. Behind him I have a display of children's Christmas stories. I guess I'm starting a collection of "The Night Before Christmas" - I have two and just ordered the version that is illustrated by Tasha Tudor. I love the illustrations in childrens' books - whether they're childlike and fun or beautiful art.

This guy sits on the bookcase on the other side of the fireplace. This display is kind of so-so - I may be fiddling with it in the coming days.

Our son and daughter-in-law gave us these adorable mugs and matching spoons for Christmas one year. Hot chocolate and cookies, anyone?

The detail on the mugs is too cute - look at her - she has a bright red purse and stylish hat. Each one is different - 3 guys and 3 gals.

The cups and plate are sitting on top of my old wooden ice box in the dining room. This was an estate sale find almost 30 years ago. If we had a fire, I'd probably try and get it out the door!!

a cozy mystery and a cookbook

2007-12-06T14:49:00.000-06:00

I just finished a delightful book that Nan at "Letters from a Hill Farm" ( lettersfromahillfarm.blogspot.com ) recommended awhile ago. "Still Life" by Louise Penny is a cozy mystery. www.suite101.com/article.cfm/detective_fiction/97341 describes cozy mysteries as:

"Traditionally, the cozy was a British novel featuring sweet elderly women and other harmless protagonists. Now, however, cozies take place in every place and time. The genre is gradually broadening as popularity increases. Most cozies are written for women and are a series, probably appealing to women who once thrived on Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden. "

There's more if you want to read it. But this could be an apt description for why I like them. This book is set in a small town outside Montreal, Quebec. It's picturesque, the characters are wonderfully quirky and likeable, and the book has just enough French interspersed to make me feel like my French lessons are paying off. (Don't worry, if you read the book, you'll understand the French whether you have studied it or not!) This is book one of a trilogy - I just requested book two at the library - can't wait to see what happens next!

Trailhead at "Mountain Time" ( mountaintimeblog.blogspot.com ) requested the recipe for the pot pie I had in my last post. It's from "The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook." I bought this cookbook about 3 years ago, and I love it! It has homey, everyday recipes - that always seem to turn out perfect. Everything I've made from it so far has turned into one of our favorites.

CHICKEN POT PIE

Serves 6 to 8

Total time 1 hour 10 minutes

4 tbsp unsalted butter

3 carrots, peeled and sliced 1/4 inch thick

2 ribs celery, sliced 1/4 inch thick

1 onion, minced

salt

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 tsp minced fresh thyme

or 1/2 tsp dried

1/2 c all-purpose flour

1/4 c dry sherry

3 c low-sodium chicken broth

1/4 c heavy cream

2 bay leaves

pepper

3 pounds boneless, skinless chicken breasts,

trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces (uncooked)

1 c frozen peas

2 tbsp minced fresh parsley

Pie dough or Cream Biscuit dough

Heat the oven to 425 degrees.

Melt the butter in a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the carrots, celery, onion, and 1/4 tsp salt and cook until softened, about 7 minutes.

Stir in garlic and thyme and cook until fragrant, about 15 seconds.

Stir in flour. Slowly whisk in the sherry. Stir in the broth, cream and bay leaves.

Simmer until the mixture is thickened, about 10 minutes.

Season the sauce with salt and pepper to taste.

Stir the chicken into the sauce and continue to simmer until the chicken is cooked through, about 10 minutes.

Discard bay leaves and stir in the peas and parsley.

Pour the mixture into a 9x13 inch baking dish.

If using pie dough, roll it out into a 15x13 inch rectangle and drape over the dish and trim.

If using biscuit dough, cut the dough into eight 3-inch biscuits and lay over the filling.

(Note: the filling must be hot when you put the pastry or biscuits on top or the topping will be gummy.)

Bake until the topping is a golden brown and the filling is bubbly, about 20 minutes.

Let cool for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

CREAM BISCUITS

Makes 8

2 c all-purpose flour, plus extra for the counter

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 c heavy cream

Heat oven to 450 degrees (if just making biscuits).

Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt together in a large bowl.

Stir in the cream with a wooden spoon until the dough forms, about 30 seconds. (Do not overmix)

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured counter and gather into a ball. Knead the dough briefly until smooth, about 30 seconds.

Pat dough into a 3/4-inch-thick circle. Cut the biscuits into rounds or wedges.

If making biscuits (not pot pie), bake until golden brown - about 15 minutes.

warm wishes

2007-12-05T13:09:00.000-06:00

We received this card in the mail from my niece today. It's handmade. Isn't it adorable? Little wooden clothespins holding up paper mittens - I love it!!! I like it so much, I've decided to forgive her for spelling my name wrong on the envelope! :)

We had snow all day yesterday again, so decided chicken pot pie would taste good for dinner last night. I made it with a cream biscuit topping instead of pie crust. We're talking biscuits made from flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and HEAVY CREAM. I cannot tell you how good it was!!! The filling needed more gravy - something to make a note of for next time - but it disappeared almost like it was perfect!

I'm still putting finishing touches on my decorations. I have most surfaces partially done. When I finish this, I'll be heading out to get the little touches I neglected to pick up when we were running errands Monday. Tis the season.

But thought I should start showing you some of the stuff.

We have a barrister bookcase in the living room. I've used it for books, knick-knacks, crystal - and now my Spo*de Christmas china. It makes a nice display and was much easier than emptying out my hutch in the dining room for 6 weeks!! Sorry about all the reflection - small house with tons of windows, means I never get great photos inside!

I have wine glasses in the top section, behind the leaded glass. The second section has glassware, cups & saucers and a crystal cream & sugar. The third section has specialty plates - cookie and candy dishes - and dessert plates.

The fourth section is dinner plates. After deciding to do this, I realized the plates are wider than the shelves in the barrister. So Mark went out to the garage and made me a plate rack so they could stand up. They look a ton better this way. Thanks, Mark!!

The bottom shelf has serving pieces from Christopher Rad*ko. I'm way too cheap to buy more Spo*de and they have similar designs, so...

Many years ago, I had opportunities to buy at Day*ton's (which then became Mar*shall Fie*ld's and now Ma*cy's) with an employee discount. (I volunteered my time every so often - I got an employee discount and a local school was paid cash for the hours I worked - great program for me and the schools! And the store actually - I spent WAY more money than I would have without the discount!!) Anyway, with the discount and sales, I bought 8 place settings and some specialty dishes. I love them, but I doubt I would have ever paid full price for any of it.

Here's a closer look at the plate rack - he did a really super job - and there's room for 12 plates in case I ever use different china or other pieces. It comes out, so still very useful for displaying other pieces too. Really, what a talented guy - and sweetheart!!

from autumn to winter in two days

2007-12-03T19:59:00.000-06:00

I took this sunset photo last Thursday. This is looking to the southwest - so not even the primo sunset. The colors were so rich and vibrant. This photo doesn't really do them justice - but I wanted to show you that we still had open water on the lake - and if you could see the grass, it's still green.

Saturday we had a bit of a storm. It started about 9am, and came down for about 12 hours. All told, we ended up getting about 6 inches of sugar - nice and dry. The wind was ferocious and blew it around for a couple more days. It is absolutely gorgeous, and the pooches are coming back into the house way more energized than they need to be!!! Mark heard today that someone dropped a snowmobile through the ice over the weekend. The guy is okay, but you have to wonder what people are thinking sometimes. Hello, it was water - liquid - NOT FROZEN - just one day earlier!

I've been trying to get the inside of the house decorated for the holidays. It seems to be taking me forever - and I have boxes and stacks of things laying all over. But I think it's beginning to come together, and I hope to post some photos over the next few days.

This is the seat of one of the chairs on the porch. The wind blew so hard, about an inch of snow came through the screens. I thought this pattern was kind of cool.

books, books, books, and a movie

2007-11-27T17:35:00.000-06:00

I haven't done a book post for awhile - and I've read some good ones. "When Crickets Cry" by Charles Martin was really good. It was a bittersweet story about a man's struggle to survive after his wife's death - and a young girl's friendship giving him a chance for redemption. His story is told in flashbacks which I found very effective.

"The New Year's Quilt" by Jennifer Chiaverini is the latest installment in the Elm Creek Quilters series. It fleshes out a lot of stories that we've read in previous books about Sylvia Compson - and does it very nicely.

For a long time I avoided John Grisham books - I felt that after his first 2 or 3, he was writing for the movies. But his later books have redeemed him in my opinion. This one is not a lawyer book - it's about an NFL player who doesn't survive the NFL - and finds himself in Parma, Italy playing in the "Pizza League." I decided to read "Playing for Pizza" because the first time I went to Europe, I accompanied Mark on a business trip to Parma. We enjoyed our visit there - and I enjoyed reading this accounting of some of the sights I saw when we were in Italy. A light read, but entertaining.

This year, ABC has a Friday night show called "The Women's Murder Club" - that is based on James Patterson's mystery series. I watched the first TV show and liked the characters and started reading the series. I'm on the waiting list at the library for the 7th one now. The main characters are very fun and Patterson tells a great story.

I liked his writing so much that I also started his Alex Cross series - "Along Came a Spider" is the first in the series. I just finished it and enjoyed Alex Cross and the story a lot. I'm totally into mysteries right now, and I'm enjoying Patterson's stories.

Another writer that I just started reading is David Baldacci. I had read several reviews on blogs praising his books, so when I found "Saving Faith" on a garage sale this summer, I picked it up.

That book was so good, I requested "Absolute Power" at the library. I'm about halfway through it right now. Baldacci is excellent!

Another favorite writer that I don't think I've blogged about is Vince Flynn. He lives in the Twin Cities and his books are also excellent. His protagonist is an undercover CIA agent.

Over the weekend, we watched "Hairspray." Too funny. Seeing John Travolta and Christopher Walken in drag is worth the price of admission!

Ultimate Italian Squash

2007-11-26T15:16:00.000-06:00

I've been in a cooking mood lately. This isn't always the case, so you can imagine how much Mark is enjoying it and encouraging me to continue! A couple weeks ago I found a recipe in the paper for this squash recipe and tried it last night. Mark declared it MAYBE the best squash he's ever had. (Or at least until the next time he has squash!!!!)

ULTIMATE ITALIAN SQUASH

Serves 6

3 medium-size acorn squash, split in half and seeded

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

6 tbsp unsalted butter

6 tbsp light brown sugar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 lb bulk Italian sausage

1 (26 oz) jar marinara sauce

5 to 7 oz shredded mozzarella cheese

1/4 c. chopped fresh basil

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.

Place the squash halves, open side up, on a foil-lined baking sheet.

(I cut a small piece off the bottom of each piece so they don't tip over.

And I used parchment instead of foil.)

Brush the tops and openings of each squash lightly with the oil.

Place 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon brown sugar in the center of each squash.

Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake until the squash is fork tender, 50 to 55 minutes.

While the squash is baking, brown the Italian sausage in a large skillet until cooked through.

Add the full jar of marinara sauce and simmer until the squash is done baking.

I used marinara sauce from a local restaurant - it was nicely seasoned and had big chunks of vegetables in it. (and it was red, not pale orange!!!)

I didn't baste the squash while it baked with the butter/brown sugar mixture - but that would have been a really good idea!!

Remove the squash from the oven and evenly divide the sausage and marinara mixture into the center of each of the squash halves.

Sprinkle with the cheese.

Place the squash back in the oven until the cheese is melted and bubbly, about 5 to 7 minutes.

Remove from the oven and sprinkle with the basil - a step I neglected - :(

Serve warm. (Note: these stay very warm for quite a long time - nice!)

To serve, I used these cute pasta bowls I picked up on a visit to a Seattle winery.

It was very yummy and I will definitely make this dish again. I think you could easily get by with less butter and sugar in the first step, but it was very tasty.

I cooked 1 squash that Mark and I split, but I did cook all of the Italian sausage - so now I have 2 packets of 1/3 lb each in the freezer to use another time - and 2/3 jar of marinara for another meal or two.

never mind

2007-11-25T09:52:00.001-06:00

Yesterday morning I was ready to surrender to winter - dig out the snowshoes and ice skates - enjoy the season. But in the afternoon the sun came out - the temps climbed above freezing - and the ice on the lake started disappearing. Hooray!!!! This morning there are a couple sheets of ice still being blown around by the wind, but mostly just broken up stuff along shore. A reprieve - and I gladly accept! As I write this, the sun has just burst through the clouds - I think it's going to be a very nice day. Cool!

Mark took this for me last night. I hung icicle lights inside the porch and then wrapped single strands of clear lights around the railing on the landing and stairs. It's kind of pretty from both inside and out. I love the lights on the porch - it looks like candlelight. Now that I have some hooks up in there, I can envision stringing single strands during the summer for some soft lighting...we'll see.

We also tried to get a photo of the tree on the dock. This was by far the most interesting - Mark was trying to get the light meter or ?? set so the red would show up as red, and he was just holding the camera in his hands. Very cool, don't you think?? The white squiggles near the top are lights that the red coating has rubbed off. We had a good chuckle when we saw this - hope you do too!!

there was enough for everyone

2007-11-24T09:47:00.000-06:00

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving - I hope you all did too. Our son who lives in Minneapolis was out for the afternoon on Thursday - to enjoy a holiday meal with us, catch the game, and do his laundry. It was great having him here, as always. The pooches enjoy holiday dinners too - there's always a handout if they're patient. Here, Kobie sits attentively while Mark carves the turkey - and then lies attentively when he realizes this is a BIG job!

Thursday night/Friday morning we had our coldest temps so far this season. There was a light skim of ice on the lake Friday morning. It was cold again last night, so this may be permanent. There is open water trying to push through the ice - but a few more cold nights and it will be solid. The bigger bays are still open water. I love it when the ice is first forming and when it's breaking up in the spring. As the open water collides with the ice, you can hear a "tinkle" that sounds like crystal - it's very pretty to listen to.

I put an iron tree on the dock. In this photo it looks like barbed wire! - but those are tiny red lights. At night you can see it from across the lake and all up and down the shore. I think it looks very cool. I'll try and get a photo at night to show you. I turned on the outside lights Thanksgiving evening - and have only had to replace one strand so far! I'm sure there will be more that decide to stop lighting before I'm ready to take them down in January!

Our cold nights are taking a toll on my flowers. I have a few rosebuds that still look pretty - but other than that, we're down to sedum. All in all, it was a very good year for my gardens - and I'm already thinking ahead to next spring.

I wanted to share some more info with you about the oil warmer and scented oils. I won mine in a contest Sandra at http://sandrasdance.blogspot.com/ sponsored on her blog awhile ago. A couple people have mentioned that they were going to look for the plug-in warmer. Check out Sandra's site at

www.yourscentyourway.com

She sells the warmers and oils - there is an extensive list of oils available. I love mine!!!

Thanks Giving

2007-11-22T09:12:00.000-06:00

On this Thanksgiving morning, I want to take just a few minutes and list some of the things I am thankful for.

I am so thankful for my family. Mark is my best friend, father of my children, and love of my life. We share so many interests and have so much fun together that I think the coming years will only get better and better. We have two wonderful sons and a wonderful daughter-in-law who are all generous with their time and love. I love each of them and consider them all good friends.

I'm thankful for the two poodles who live with us. They provide hours of companionship and fun.

We are so thankful to have my parents and Mark's dad in our lives. Mark's mom passed some years ago, and we'll remember her today as every day. We're happy that his dad has someone very special in his life now, and that she's a part of our family too. We're thankful that they all enjoy good health. They all have so many friends and interests - they're much busier than we are!!

I'm thankful for brothers and sisters and in-laws who are all good friends. And I have the best nieces and nephews you can imagine. They all enrich our lives immeasurably.

Friends and neighbors - you have provided support and love and fun - and we are thankful to have you in our lives.

My blogger friends - I am totally addicted to each and every one of you. What a fun place Blogland is!! Thank you all so much.

I'm thankful that we live here - our beautiful lake, my gardens, and the beauty all around us are truly gifts.

I'm also thankful that I have common sense and tolerance towards others. That I have thin skin sometimes so I can have empathy for others - and thick skin so I can accept that others think and do differently than I would and it's okay. I'm thankful that I have a sense of humor - and especially that I can laugh at myself. And I'm thankful that I have enough love to share with others.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

I'd love to have you as a neighbor

2007-11-20T14:55:00.000-06:00

Peter left a comment on the previous post and linked to a very expensive house on Lake Minnetonka. I've included the link again here because from the comment section, I only opened a small window on the site. To look at a 53 mil plus house, I wanted BIG pictures! LOL

http://cbburnet.com/custommodules/property/PropertyDetail.aspx?propertyguid=e07dbc31-242b-4a39-8512-26ca0d6193df

As Peter correctly noted, there is a huge range in prices for homes on Minnetonka. Ours is a lot less expensive than this one!! However, on a more sobering note, it appears that pretty much all of the lakeshore on the lake has been developed, and now builders are tearing down anything they can to put up McMansions. The house that went up on our street is a good example: a smaller 40's rambler was torn down and now we have a 5,000 plus square foot house with a price tag of $1.8 million. A more modest home more in keeping with current home sizes and price tags would have been a kinder, more neighborly option, but I guess we will be seeing a lot more of this in the coming years. Makes me sad.

Several communities in the Twin Cities are putting limits on how big a house you can squeeze into an existing neighborhood - which I hope our city will think about in the near future. But at some point, a lot of people will be leaving the lake because the taxes will be outrageous even on their small homes. I have to say that this is a song we heard 30 years ago when we moved out here, so maybe things aren't changing all that much...time will tell.

My prediction for the house we linked is that it will be bought by a developer - 12 acres on this lake is a very nice package - and that house will be history. I'll let you know what happens.

map of the lake

2007-11-17T23:46:00.001-06:00

Connie at "Notes from a Cottage Garden" asked how big our lake is. It's hard to describe our lake - even people who have been on the lake have a hard time picturing it without looking at a map. It covers about 14,000 acres and has about 140 miles of lakeshore. It's made up of connected lakes and bays. From the small lake we're on, you can boat to any other part of the lake. We love it here - the lake is very social - lots of restaurants and beaches are accessible by boat. There are 4 cities that are on the lake. Next year when I have my gps in the kayak, I can tell you exactly how far across our lake is - but I'm guessing it's about a quarter mile from our house to the shore you see in the previous post. If these maps will click bigger, you can find our lake - Black Lake - near "Spring Park."

all kinds of good stuff

2007-11-15T22:54:00.000-06:00

Back in September, Sandra at "The Dance" had a contest on her blog to win an oil warmer, and I was lucky enough to be the winner! It took me forever to pick out the 3 fragrances I wanted to try, but I finally did. And this week it all arrived in the mail. It is so cool. You just put 2-3 drops of oil in the warmer and plug it in, and it makes a room smell wonderful. I love it. Thank you so much, Sandra!! I want to play with these three scents for awhile, but I'm already starting to think about other oils I want to try. Very fun.

Kate at "Kate Smudges..." mentioned this book in one of her recent posts. It sounded like something I would really enjoy having in my library, so off to Amazon I went. I found a used "like new" book for a really good price. It's going to be great fun reading this over the winter. Thanks for telling me about this book, Kate!

Last weekend we had some gorgeous November weather - in the 50's and perfectly calm. I had Mark take some photos for me of the reflections on the lake - I thought it was so pretty. We saw several people out in kayaks - perfectly smooth water and no boats. I have to get a wet suit or dry suit or something so we can use our kayaks when the water gets colder. I sit in water all the time in mine, and the water right now is COLD! But next spring, I plan to be out there shortly after the ice goes out. Do you see who's hunting in my garden?

Miss Tess. She's always on the lookout for critters - or something good to roll in!

November blooms

2007-11-14T12:02:00.000-06:00

Are you tired of my flowers yet? I think their days are numbered. We have had several mornings where the thermometer read in the 20's. However, last Friday I went out in a small flurry of snowflakes and took the first two photos below. The rest were taken today. I have to enjoy them while I can!!

an x-rated meme

2007-11-13T12:35:00.000-06:00

A warning: Susie at Susie's Space tagged me for a meme - and I'm blaming her if I lose my G rating. :) The meme had one rule: go to Amazon.com Advanced Search and type your name in the title section.

Lots of fun titles came up - cooking game and fish with Babe and Kris Winkelman - a Kris Longknife novel titled "Audacious" (I thought the sci-fi babe on the cover looked a lot like me actually - lol!)

But the clear winner has to be "Pictures of Kris" - which incidentally does not look at all like me!

Thanks for the tag, Susie!!

Veteran's Day

2007-11-11T18:15:00.000-06:00

In honor of Veteran's Day, I thought I would show you a photo of my grandpa, Sam Mills. He was born in 1892 and died in 1993, just a few months shy of his 101st birthday. He fought in World War I, stationed in France. I was thinking about him today and wishing that I had talked to him about the war when I was growing up. But my dad told me tonight that he rarely shared his experiences with anyone - he would just say that we were better off not knowing. Grandpa and Grandma lived around the corner (or through the orchard, if you took the shortcut) from us when I was growing up. Grandma had beautiful gardens, and Grandpa farmed with my dad. They were wonderful grandparents, and we were very lucky to have them living so close. I think of them often.

Gale Woods Farm

2007-11-09T15:15:00.000-06:00

While the dogs were at the groomers today, I decided to go to Gale Woods Farm for a walk. Gale Woods is part of our county park system. It's a working farm. They have animals - sheep, cattle, pigs, chickens, turkeys, a dog and many cats. They have gardens and farm land. They sell eggs, honey, meat, syrup, and wool. There's a lake for canoeing and fishing, and 3.5 miles of hiking trails. It's beautiful in every season. We went one day when my parents were here this summer - the gardens were beautiful. There are tons of hardwood trees so autumn is a treat. You can ski and snowshoe in the winter. Today was peaceful. Here's what I saw:

Guess I should say that the marshy pond shown in these photos is not the canoeing/fishing lake. My camera batteries died before I got that far!!

dishes

2007-11-08T18:26:00.000-06:00

Wanted to tell you about a cool site that was featured in the Minneapolis Star Tribune today. http://www.oneyearofbeauty.com/
Check it out - there are some very, very cool photos and some lovely writing. Her post for today links to the article in the Strib in case you're interested in the story behind the blog.

Below are some of the dishes and serving pieces I've been picking up over the last year or so. I love estate sales!!

I found these this summer - 8 dinner plates, 6 salad/dessert plates, and 8 mugs - in four very pretty colors - all for $10.00. They're really heavy, and the mugs keep drinks either hot or cold. They're my favorite everyday dinnerware right now.

I found these 8 dinner plates and 8 matching dessert/salad plates for $2.00. They had gunk all over them, but cleaned right up in the dishwasher.

This is the sweetest serving bowl. I just love the colors and the cut-out edge.

This is a beautiful bowl - hand-painted - made in Italy. It's like a piece of art - I have it sitting on top of my fridge in the kitchen. It's over 18 inches wide and about 4 inches deep. I LOVE it! I bought it with a ton of other items at an estate sale - got the whole pile for $15. Not sure how I sleep at night.

I love this pottery colander.

And this pottery platter is very cool.

Found this totally tarnished silver tray this summer - again, I love the cut-out edging. I have no plans to polish it - although Mark keeps offering to do it for me. Not gonna happen.

Mark came home with this plastic divided dish/tray. I haven't used it yet, but I think it will be cute next summer...for something... :)

I do love this plastic tray. I bought the dishes many years ago at Target and use them on the boat. We sometimes load up a big salad or subs or take-out and anchor somewhere on the lake to eat. It's nice to have plastic plates instead of paper - especially when a big wake hits. Plus I can just throw them in the dishwasher instead of the garbage. The tray is perfect with them.

lovely weekend

2007-11-03T18:19:00.001-05:00

We are in the midst of a lovely autumn weekend. Our city does a clean-up every spring and fall that allows residents to get rid of the junk. Today was the fall clean-up. Mark cleaned out some stuff in the garage and put it out by the curb yesterday. This morning some guy came by and took over half of it. One person's junk is another person's treasure!!

One of our neighbors who has given me leaves in past years knocked on the door last night asking if I needed more this year. NO!!!! I'M DONE! Yeah, that's what my brain was screaming at me, but this morning I headed over there and brought home 13 bags of oak leaves. I'm pathetic.

We have had a stack of logs on the side of the driveway since last summer when we trimmed up a maple tree. This afternoon we rented a splitter, split all the logs, and hauled them back to the firewood pile. I still have to actually add them to the pile, but the hardest part of the job is done at least. And the driveway looks much nicer.

It's supposed to be near 60 tomorrow - key word "supposed to be" - so I'm thinking I'll take the opportunity to put hooks in the porch to hang Christmas lights this year. On one of our drive-arounds last year, I picked up some cool ideas for lights, and I can't wait to try them out. The lights won't be turned on until after Thanksgiving, but it is way nicer to put them up when it's 60 than when it's 30!!

If it does hit 60, I want to get down to the Arb for a walk - I haven't been there for awhile, and I think it would do my gardener's soul some good. Maybe I'll even remember my camera - although I think most of our leaves have fallen. I picked Mark up at the airport yesterday and was surprised to see quite a few trees that still have leaves near there. Mark is hoping to get in a motorcycle ride if it's warm tomorrow. Gosh, we seem to have a lot riding on tomorrow's temperature! :)

A few things are still blooming in the gardens. I emptied out the last of my containers today - very sad since they're still blooming. I left this one with the geraniums - I'll pull them after we have a hard frost. The first two photos are "Hawkeye Belle" - this rose is peach to lt pink in the summer - but now with cooler temps it's a little deeper color - very pretty. The next photo is my green leafed snakeroot. These have a ton of bloom stalks - but just started to bloom. If we'd had an earlier frost, they wouldn't have bloomed this year. And the bellflowers are blooming again. I really wish things could just keep blooming away until next April when the tulips start in again!!

tablescaping

2007-11-02T16:36:00.000-05:00

On yesterday's post, I mentioned that I had bought some curtain panels to use in tablescaping at the Gift Mart sample sale. When I said I wouldn't bore you with them, Zoey at Perennial Passion left a comment saying she loves stuff like this. Yup, I knew that was coming as soon as I wrote the post!! So, Zoey, tell me what you think:

Every Wednesday, the Minneapolis Star Tribune does a special Home & Garden section. About a month ago they did some Autumn tablescapes that were beautiful. One thing they suggested was buying curtain panels to use for layering. I had just been at an estate sale and passed on a beautiful panel when I realized that it was a curtain and not a tablecloth. Talk about lack of vision! So, when I saw these at the Mart, I decided to reprieve myself. The first photo is of two sheer panels - one is a brown-rust and green - the other is a gorgeous dark red. The photo below is another panel that's sheer but has a velvet-like design on it - it's a beautiful dark wine color.

The rest of the photos are treasures I picked up at estate sales this summer. This is a Williams-Sonoma tablecloth and napkin. Brand new. Still had tags attached. I bought the tablecloth and 4 napkins for $6. The tablecloth is square and looks very cool on my round table.

These placemats and napkins are not exactly my style - but I have a feeling with the right dishes and cloth on the table, they might be very pretty.

These chicken and sunflower placemats and matching napkins I simply couldn't resist - are they too cute or what?

These lacy placemats were badly stained - so I picked them up pretty cheap at a garage sale. When my parents were here this summer, Mom suggested soaking them in OxyClean - took the stains right out.

Thinking these napkins will be fun around the holidays - a breakfast or casual supper look with my Spode Christmas Tree plates maybe?

Last Christmas I saw a tablecloth very similar to this at my nephew's - my sister had given it to her daughter-in-law for Christmas the year before. I thought it was very cute, and so I was thrilled to find this one at a garage sale. I am certainly not good at tablescaping - yet! - but I think I'm going to have fun experimenting with these table coverings. Next I'll have to show you some of the fun dishes I've been picking up!

more sample sale items

2007-11-01T20:26:00.000-05:00

The other day I realized I hadn't taken photos of all of my sample sale items from the Gift Mart. I'm sure you wanted to see everything, right? :)

The background in most of these is a little busy - sorry. I also bought boxes of Christmas cards and curtain panels to use on tablescapes. I'm sparing you those photos!!

I guess I'm obsessed right now with chandeliers - I bought this candlelier for the gazebo. If I ever talk Mark into making me a pergola, I'll probably use it there.

This is a small urn that I'll probably use as a centerpiece.

Ditto with this small basket. I have 3 other larger baskets similar to this that I love. One holds huge pinecones from Tahoe. Another is full of magazines. And the 3rd I use when the need arises. Very versatile.

I'm thinking this small sleigh will also be used as a holiday centerpiece - isn't it cute? They had a larger tin sleigh that I totally wanted to buy - but resisted. Wonder if there would be any left if I went over Monday...

Found these two copper twirlies to hang on either side of the porch doors. I'll like them better when they have a nice patina on them, but when the sun hits them it showers the living room with fun sparkles - so I'll enjoy them now too.

I think that's everything. When I can get stuff for less than half of what I'd have to pay in a store, I have a hard time stopping! Thanks for all of your nice comments about the things I showed in an earlier post!!

turning colors in the gardens

2007-10-30T22:21:00.000-05:00

I'm not doing very well on getting caught up in Blogland - but soon - promise!! We've had some gorgeous days, and I've been taking advantage of them. Soon enough I'll be spending more time inside, so I'm feeling the need to be outside enjoying the beautiful weather. Yesterday I went to lunch with my French classmate, Susan. Our teacher, Nadine, is in France visiting family, and she sent us an email. We checked our translations of her email with each other and then tried to come up with one to send to her. She'll get a good giggle out of our sentence construction, I'm sure!

I mowed the yard when I got back home yesterday. Today I washed windows and the porch screens. The dogs haven't been inside long enough to even re-slobber them yet - nice! We have a very small house - but it has 27 double-hung windows, 4 fixed windows (leaded glass by fireplace and two small ones in our bedroom), 6 basement windows, and 5 doors with windows. That is a ton of window washing!

I realized today that I have more iron pieces to share with you - what a surprise! :) I completely forgot about them when I was taking photos before. I also found several things still blooming in the gardens. And, finally, some of the plant leaves are turning pretty autumn colors.

The top photo is of geranium leaves - that bright red one is stunning. The second photo is my miscanthus ornamental grass. And coral bells in the bottom photo.

stained shed and garden decorations

2007-10-27T21:23:00.000-05:00

Can you believe it - I think my autumn chores are DONE!!!! I'll still have to rake leaves a few more times and probably mow the yard once or twice, but everything else looks to be wrapped up. I'm so happy about that! Next on my list is getting the house cleaned. And also on my list is visiting all of my blogger friends. I have been really bad lately, and I want you to know I appreciate very much that you keep stopping by. I can't wait to check in with all of you! :)

Here are photos of the freshly stained shed. I'm afraid I didn't have very good lighting for these photos, but I think you can get the general idea of the color. It's called "Beachwood" - and it's a gray-green or green-gray - depending on your point of view! We'll put a second coat on next spring and then I have a darker color called "Autumn Gray" for the trim. And then, I can start decorating with windows, window boxes, some plantings, and hopefully stenciling. I'm pretty psyched!

I do computer work for a couple wholesalers at the Minneapolis Gift Mart, and every year the Mart has a huge sample sale where the showrooms sell samples of discontinued stock. I get to shop there because I work for these guys - otherwise it's supposed to be for retailers only. I have a couple favorite places that I hit up for garden decorations, and I wanted to show you the fun stuff I have picked up (so far!) this year.

This adorable bird house with roses climbing up the base. It'll be very sweet in one of the gardens next summer.

This chair is unbelieveably comfortable!! It may end up in my gazebo - and I may have to go back and get another one. (They're open on Mondays thru the middle of November and then they do a huge weekend sale right before Thanksgiving - I usually try and do 2 or 3 Mondays and then force myself to stop!)

I bought 3 of these rose stems - won't they be sweet in the garden? I'm thinking I may use them in a vase in the house this winter. The detail is pretty cool for iron.

I also have a sweatshirt place I go to - they sell really nice sweatshirts for $5 each. Some have resort logos on them - and they're all supposedly seconds, but I have never found any obvious flaws. For everyday keeping warm, I think this is a deal!

And I added a new sunburst to my collection. I thought he was kind of cute!

Hope you're all having a wonderful weekend!

wacky, weird, and wonderful

2007-10-25T21:22:00.000-05:00

Today's post is going to be kind of a hodge-podge. Once again I have a little blog housekeeping to do, so I'm going to just throw all the miscellania together in one post. (Is miscellania a word - and if not, why not? I kind of like it! And if it were a word, is this how you think you would spell it?)

First, look what I got in the mail this week - more blogger seeds!! Jean at "Ms Green Thumb Jean" sent me some foxglove seeds - and a seed pod from her trumpet vine! Thanks, Jean - I am totally excited to see how these do next year.

Next, Lynne at "Lynne's Little Corner of the World" said awhile ago that she'd like to see our 'Vette. Mark and I were born the same year, and in honor of our turning 40, we bought a Corvette. Our first one was a '79 Stingray - black with red interior - a gorgeous little classic. We had it, I think, two years before we totalled it. No one was hurt - but the car did not come back home with us. The good news was we about doubled our money in that two years - cars as investments: what a hoot! With that little windfall, we moved up to an '84. We have totally loved this car, but we're finding that we drive it less and less each year, and we're thinking it may be time to let someone else have fun with it. I'll keep you posted. Today it was washed and sent to the storage garage for the winter. The best part of having summer toys is bringing them out in the spring - it's like having a brand new toy each year. But it is incredibly sad to put them away each fall.

These are from my scarlet runner beans. I have a question - will these reseed on their own this winter? I've never done scarlet runner beans before. I'm going to save some of the pods so I can start new ones next year, but I'm wondering if there's a chance they'll come back next spring. I have grapevine growing on the fence along our neighbor's cement wall, and I planted two runner bean plants there. They grew up into the grapevine - it was really cool because the grapevine is nice and thick, and the runner beans added wonderful little red-orange flowers everywhere. I got a lot of comments on these over the summer.

Today I emptied out my window box planters on the fence by the patio. I had some sweet potato vine in the planters - and I found this HUGE potato growing in one planter!!! This is a normal-size shovel. I have never had this happen before. It has both Mark and me laughing.

NOTE: Peter Hoh just left a comment about another sweet potato posted at http://martagon.blogspot.com/2007/10/avert-your-eyes.html

Check it out - it is too funny!

I cut down my dahlias today and dug out the tubers. They look really good, so hopefully they'll grow again next year. This is the biggest stalk I had - that's a quarter beside it. Are dahlias related to the bamboo family? This stalk looks like bamboo to me.

And finally, I just had to show you the high score I got playing Bejeweled 2 last week. It took me about a month to finally break 600,000 after getting into the 500's. I play one or two games maybe 3 or 4 times a week - major time waster, but also totally addicting!

The last couple days have been pretty productive. Mark stained the shed yesterday - and I just realized I didn't pull a photo of that - so something to look for tomorrow!! It came out really nice. I planted all of my tulips - dug up dahlias - and cleaned up the last of the containers. I shredded the last of the leaves and drained most of the hoses after Mark pulled the lake pump out. I still have compost to move, and I need to cover some things like the fountain and wood pile with tarps. But we are getting very close. I feel like I need a vacation!

fall blooms - pt four

2007-10-23T23:05:00.000-05:00

Another beautiful day - although quite a bit of wind this afternoon. We started taking the dock out this morning - and after two sections (out of nine), Mark asked if I still had the number I'd seen on a sign advertising dock removal. We have a ton of toys and all of the work that goes with them - and we ALWAYS do that work ourselves - so this was HUGE!!!! The guy came out about an hour later and had the rest of the dock out in about another hour. Boy, was that nice!! And easy!! It also made both Mark and me feel old, old, old - it would have taken us hours working together. sigh

I started moving my compost over the weekend and am over halfway done. It goes pretty fast once I start, so a few more hours and that job will be done. Then I have to shred a few more leaves that have fallen into the yard, and that job will be done too. I think we may be close to running out of jobs!!

But not yet - I still have all those lovely tulip bulbs to plant. And my dahlias are still in the gardens - blooming away - and I really hate to cut them back when they look so beautiful. But if I'm going to save them, I think I'd better do it soon. From what I've read, I need to cut them to about 6 inches - and then a week later I can dig them up, dry them, and store for the winter.

This was my first time planting dahlias, and I have been simply delighted with how gorgeous they are and how many blooms I've had. Very fun.

more autumn roses

2007-10-22T21:13:00.000-05:00

What a lovely day we had today. The boat is out and winterized and tucked under a tarp for the winter. A big job that Mark is happy to have out of the way. Now, on to the dock!! :)

Wanted to show you more of my roses still in bloom. I love that this little show is lasting. This is Knockout - I planted it in a half-barrel container this summer and then moved it to the garden about a month ago. It seems to be very happy in its new home.

These two photos are of J.F.Quadra - my climber on the rainbow trellis. I talked to my neighbor a couple weeks ago and asked if he would mind if I painted the cement block wall on our side. He said no problem - so maybe the flowers in this garden will have a happier background next year.

This very floppy bloom is Gertrude Jekyll. She'll be going underground soon. This is a zone 5 David Austin rose - and I've found that it does better if I bury it for the winter. A lot of work, but well worth it. I wish you could smell this rose - it is simply wonderful.

And Nearly Wild. I have 3 of these roses and all three are covered in blooms right now. Very pretty.

let sleeping dogs lie

2007-10-21T21:49:00.000-05:00

We've had lots of outdoor time lately, and I guess Kobie needed a nap. He makes a very cute garden ornament, don't you think??

fall blooms - pt two

2007-10-21T00:15:00.000-05:00

Thanks for the nice comments about my fall blooms! We have not had a frost here yet. And it doesn't look like we're expecting one in the next week, so I'll get to enjoy these lovelies for awhile longer. The roses always put on a great show in the fall - the colors seem more intense, the fragrance is stronger, and they hold onto the more open, flouncy blooms longer. We had a beautiful day today and managed to get a lot of work out of the way - as well as a little play time. The dogs were laying on the floor tonight looking totally worn out!

"Jackmani" clematis

sedum "Autumn Joy"

"Autumn Joy" with "Purple Dome" asters

"Purple Dome"

"Madison" roses

fall blooms

2007-10-19T18:07:00.000-05:00

We've had two very windy days now, and I'm happy to report the oil/gas film on the lake from our neighbors' boat sinking has disappeared.

Our boat was pulled yesterday, so this weekend we'll be getting that winterized and ready to cover for the winter. If the weather cooperates, we'll also try and get a start on taking the dock out. It's way more fun getting all of these things out in the spring than putting them away this time of year! Here are a few more of the blooms I've been enjoying the last week or so.

Carefree Beauty rose

hibiscus

turtlehead

snakeroot (I think "Brunette")

anemone

veronica

John Davis rose

a great bloomer identified

2007-10-17T22:30:00.000-05:00

I showed this photo on one of my previous posts - and I've shown these flowers on several posts throughout the summer. These plants start blooming in mid-summer and are still going strong - it's not even rebloom, they just keep going!!

Sandra asked what they were called, but I have never known the name. Mark brought me two packets of wildflower seeds from the Denver airport several years ago, and this is one of the plants that grew from the seed. So I just did a little detective work and found a wonderful site for identifying wildflowers: http://www.wildflowerinformation.org/
I think I'll be using this site often!! Thanks for asking, Sandra!!

Yellow Prairie Coneflower
Ratibida columnaris (yellow)

About Yellow Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida columnaris (yellow))

Height: Up to 3 ft.
Flower Color: Yellow
Plant Type: Perennial. Returns each spring from same roots, forming expanding clump. Blooms second spring from seed.
Flower Type: Daisy-like
Bloom Time: Mid-season

Is this wildflower invasive? No
Is this wildflower endangered? No
Is this wildflower edible? No
Is this wildflower medicinal? No

What is Yellow Prairie Coneflower's native range?
Indigenous To: From western Canada into Mexico.
Where Yellow Prairie Coneflower is naturalized or can be grown
Regions: Native to plains regions, but can be grown in all regions.
Zones: 3-9

How to grow Yellow Prairie Coneflower (Ratibida columnaris (yellow))
Soil preference: Somewhat adaptable, but prefers non-acid, dry conditions
Sun/Shade: Needs full sun.
Moisture Requirements: Adaptable to even arid conditions.

Instructions:
Like all desert or arid area wildflowers, ratibidas need loose, gritty soil to do well. Given these conditions, they perform as classic perennials, and are easy to grow.

shredder

2007-10-17T17:34:00.000-05:00

Today is not a "pretty picture" day - but I think tomorrow will be! :) A couple people inquired about the shredder I use to do my leaves. So I thought I would share that info with you.

I have a "Super Tomahawk" with an 8 hp Briggs & Stratton engine. I'm guessing this is overkill for a small 'burban lot - but if you're married to an engineer, you'll understand perfectly!

I have owned 3 other shredders - and this is by far my favorite. It has the power to do about 1 1/2 to 2 inch branches and damp leaves. It will bog down if I put in bag after bag of soggy leaves - but then I bog down when I try and do that too! It has a wonderful design - most of the shredders we looked at make the leaves or sticks go around a corner - and this is where you will end up with clogs. This one lets me dump things in, and the shredded product comes straight out the bottom. The only thing I would like to change on it is to add an electric starter - I hate trying to start it with the pull cord - but Mark doesn't have a problem with it.

I talked to a master gardener a few years ago about shredding - and he said he simply runs his mower over the leaves a couple times and it works much better than any shredder he's tried. I think that works fine - but I don't like the mess it leaves on the grass. I want all of my hard work to go into the mulch pile!

Today I did 49 bags of leaves - that's a lot!!!! Here's what my pile looked like when I was done. I think I did about 20 bags on Saturday. I'm kind of hoping this is all I'll have to do this year, but I'll let it settle for a couple days before I decide for sure.

In the meantime, here's my compost pile waiting to be moved. It's a good thing my gardens look fairly good in the summer, because this is a ton of work!!

some excitement in the 'hood

2007-10-16T21:01:00.001-05:00

Well, we had an exciting afternoon. When I walked out on the dock, I noticed an unusual amount of oil film on the lake. Mark went down to see if there was a problem with our boat. Nope, our boat was fine. Our neighbors' boat, however, was in the process of sinking. We called our neighbors and then notified the water patrol. Very shortly we had a Sherrif's truck and a fire truck on the street, and soon after that more fire trucks. The owner called their boat mechanic, and he came out and oversaw getting the boat out of the water. (To make matters worse, our neighbor is in Chicago on a business trip, and his wife works about 45 minutes from here.)

Gary (one of our neighbors) brought down a huge pump and pumped out as much water as he could. (In our opinion, Gary deserves a huge thank you and maybe a nice dinner out!) Then Mark towed the boat over to the landing and several neighbors helped to get the boat up on a trailer. Luckily, our neighbors have good insurance and the clean-up and engine repair will be totally covered by the insurance company.

The film on the water was actually gasoline. This is good news because the gas will evaporate and clean-up will be faster and easier than if it were oil. There is some oil mixed in, but could have been worse. This photo shows a fireman putting an oil or polution boom in place around their dock to try and contain any further spill.

The bad news for us is that most of the oil and gas are in our swimming area - what a mess! I'm really glad it's not swimming weather!! If we get some strong winds, this will disperse over a larger area of the lake. It got a lot worse after Mark snapped this photo. The best guess right now is that a critter (probably a muskrat) chewed through one of the seals on the outdrive. We were glad we noticed it when we did, but that boat is our neighbors' pride and joy, so we're feeling for them. It is nice to be a part of a neighborhood that pulls together when someone has a crisis.

an extra week

2007-10-16T09:45:00.001-05:00

Did you ever have one of those times when you're running around like a headless chicken, and suddenly, unexpectedly, you are given the gift of time? Well, that's what happened to me today. I've been scurrying around trying to get all of my fall chores done and feeling like I must be getting very old and very slow. There is so much left to do outside, and it's raining almost daily, and how am I going to do this?? Then today I realized that Mark doesn't leave for a week THIS Sunday - it's on the 28th - we have a whole extra week to wrap things up before his business trip! Hallelujah! I'll still be planting tulip bulbs and shredding leaves for next year's mulch when he's gone, but we will have time to get all the big stuff done. I cannot tell you what a load was lifted from my shoulders when I slowed down enough to realize this!

So now I need to do a little blog housekeeping. Violetlady gave me this wonderful award a few days ago. Thank you so much! I love it! I apologize for not thanking you sooner, but it is truly appreciated. She wrote on her blog:

The "Change Begins At Home" award originates from Bean Sprouts and is given to bloggers who live what they preach, who try to make the changes in their own lives that they would like to see in the world.

I guess maybe after my epiphany this morning, I can lay some claim to this nice tribute - I think it would be lovely if we all slowed down enough to enjoy and appreciate the things around us - especially all of our thoughtful blogger friends. Thanks Violetlady!

I am making progress on the fall prep front. The shed is nicely loaded - I have a few things left to throw in before we close the door for the winter, but this weekend I managed to get a lot of stuff cleaned up and stashed away.

I have become a zealot about the amendments I use on my gardens - and using what I get for free instead of spending money. Every summer I pull weeds from the lake to compost. Every fall I have the task of moving the partially composted pile to the various gardens. I mound compost over the crowns of all my roses and clematis, add it to the tomato spaces (to be worked in next spring), add to any gardens that seemed to struggle this summer, and then if there's any left, I choose a garden to amend. I don't work anything into the soil at this time of year, but by next spring all of that partially composted material will be like black gold for the gardens. I still have this huge task to do - but once I get started, it usually goes fairly fast.

The other big job I do is collect fallen leaves. I save some whole leaves to put on the gardens over the winter. I used to put about a foot of leaves on every garden, but now I pretty much just protect things that are marginally hardy here - and cover up any bare dirt so the dogs aren't tracking it into the house all winter. Next spring, I'll rake the whole leaves off the gardens so the soil can warm up, and put them in the compost bin. I shred the rest of the leaves and put them in a mulch bin to use as summer mulch on the gardens. I used to spend between $100 and $200 for shredded cypress - every year! Yikes! No more - the leaves add good things to the soil - and, in my humble opinion, look nicer. I go all around our area - about a 10 mile radius - collecting bags of raked leaves that would otherwise end up in the yard waste collections. I don't know if they incinerate yard waste here or put it in landfills - but I do know the leaves are put to much better use on my gardens!! I've started collecting leaves and have maybe 1/4 of them shredded. Still a lot left to do.

These are all things reblooming in the garden right now - I have several more photos to share - so maybe I'll get more posts up this week!! And I hope to visit all of you very soon. You're all so nice to keep visiting with me when I'm being such a slug - thanks! :)

still getting ready for winter

2007-10-13T00:33:00.000-05:00

I am swamped with fall chores! Getting the shed organized took time from other projects, and I feel like I'm way behind. I hope to get a lot of things wrapped up this weekend - as well as visiting blogs I haven't been to in awhile - and showing you some of the beautiful flowers I still have blooming in the gardens.

Last weekend we bought a used scanner so I could scan our old family photos into my computer. (It works better and much faster than the old one I used to do the accordion photo.) So I've been doing a few photos whenever I have time. I'll leave you with one of my favorites - my dad and me. I was about 2 in this photo. I love that we're both wearing flannel shirts and jeans! I think the cabinet in the background had a turntable in the pull-out drawer under the radio.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Wally's Garden

2007-10-11T14:02:00.000-05:00

Country Dancer - Kris' garden!

A couple days ago Peter Hoh (Growing Things) left a comment asking if I had seen a local news show that did a feature on a Minneapolis gardener who is featured in a book "1001 Gardens You Must See Before You Die" by Rae Spencer-Jones.

I thought I would give you the link because it's a really cool place to see. If you're interested, check it out. Click on the video that shows up on the right-hand side of the screen.

http://kstp.com/article/stories/S213035.shtml?cat=1&v=1

Hopefully someday this will be a public garden that everyone can enjoy, but in the meantime it's cool just to see it in this video. I have the 1001 Gardens book on hold at the library - I'll let you know what that's like when I've had a chance to look through it.

(My own little blooms kind of pale by comparison - lol)

P.S. I just went to Growing Things to thank Peter for the heads up - you should all go over there - he did a much nicer post on this than I did!! Thanks Peter!

the great estate sale

2007-10-10T17:14:00.001-05:00

Saturday we were running errands and stopped in at an estate sale. The sale was benefitting a local charity and Saturday was half-price day. Things were a little picked over, but I think I ended up with some pretty cool stuff.

These are salad or dessert size plates. Aren't they totally cool? I have 8 of them and paid $5.

I bought 25 pieces of pottery - 11 bowls and 14 small plates. About half of the plates have the blue trim and the others are just brown. I love pottery and these are nice sizes. Price: $10.

This green/white checked tablecloth is kind of shabby-chic - it's definitely been used. But I think for an everyday cloth, it will be perfect. The napkins are beautiful - they each have lace trim in one corner. I paid $3 for 12 napkins, and $1.50 for the tablecloth.

Here's a close-up of the lace on the napkins. I think 8 of them have been gently used, but 4 of them looked brand new.

Two litre-size carafes. They could be fun with beverages or flowers in them. $1 for both.

And the piece de resistance - a cut-glass chandelier - 30x30 - super heavy - $30. I love this!!!! The problem is none of my ceilings will even support it. It's hanging in the basement right now - actually over my washer and dryer - although we moved it to take the photo. (Charming with the paneling and exercise equipment, don't you think??) I haven't figured out where I could put it - and Mark is already talking about putting it on Craig's or ebay. BUT, hello, it was only $30!!!! If I figure out someway to keep it, you'll be the first to know! :)

I also bought a leaf rake for $1, and Mark found some cool stuff too, including a nice Wustof knife for 50 cents! We had fun.

getting ready for winter

2007-10-09T19:55:00.001-05:00

I really didn't mean to leave the "accordion-playing girl" post up for so long. Thank you all for your kind comments. It's been kind of hectic around here. We're into prepping things for the cold months ahead. It's always more fun to do that when it's still warm out, but with our crazy weather - we had 80's over the weekend and didn't get out of the 40's today - we're just taking what we get. Every spring we spend weeks getting all of our summer toys out ready to enjoy another beautiful Minnesota summer, and every fall we spend weeks putting things away and winterizing so they can survive a cold Minnesota winter.

I had great fun over the weekend. Saturday we were out running errands and stopped at an estate sale. I will have to get some photos and do a post on it - but I found some wonderful treasures for very little money. What fun! We also bought all of the hooks etc I wanted for my new shed, and I spent quite a bit of time organizing that. Right now it's kind of jam-packed because I want to store as much stuff as I can for winter - but I think it's going to be very nicely organized for next spring. We also bought the stain for the shed - now we just need some dry weather so we can get it done!

Monday the kayaks went down to a storage garage we rent to store our Vette for the winter. (Oh, gosh - it's October and I never showed you a photo of my lovely Corvette! I will have to do a post on it because we are thinking seriously about selling it next spring.) Today we pulled the pontoon and it went to a storage shed for the winter. And tomorrow the big boat comes out. Then we get to start taking out the dock. And you notice this list doesn't include any garden chores I still have to finish!

Last night I was restacking the firewood pile (had to move it to put in the shed), and there was the most beautiful sunset. I barely caught it because Miss Tess decided to jump the fence and join me at the neighbor's (where she is most definitely not welcome), so I had to return her to the yard with a scolding and then go back and get my photos. I think this winter I'll have to work on getting better long-distance photos like sunsets and sunrises.

In all of our running around we really didn't see any spectacular autumn foliage. I think it was just too warm for it to really turn colors and now a lot of the trees are bare. The sumac was gorgeous and some maples - but our color wasn't as brilliant as it is some years. I'm sad that the days are getting so short, but I have a lot of activities planned for this winter, so before I know it we'll be enjoying another beautiful summer!!

a trip down memory lane

2007-10-04T19:35:00.001-05:00

A very long time ago, in a land far away... well, about a month ago, actually, in Blogland, Dirty Fingernails at "Green Thumb Chronicles" tagged me for a meme. I was asked to list weird, fun or random things about myself. I did a meme about this topic earlier this summer, but I was sure I could think of something weird to share. I found out this was not an easy task. So, thank you, Dirty Fingernails, for tagging me - and I apologize for taking soooooo long to do this. I have come up with one thing to share. Maybe if I make this a regular feature, I can add more as we move into autumn and winter?? Stay tuned...

When I was nine years old, my mom wanted me to take music lessons. Our house was quite small at the time, and there wasn't really room for a piano. So I started taking accordion lessons. I want you to know right up front that I usually do not share this info until I have known someone a very loooooong time. It's not that I'm ashamed or embarrassed...well, okay, maybe a little embarrassed. I recently told Nadine, my French teacher, and she thinks I should buy another accordion and start playing again. Evidently accordion music is much more hip in France than in my little corner of the world. Here was my reality: my grandparents loved Lawrence Welk, and any time we stayed at their house, we watched the show. As some of you may remember, Myron Floran played the accordion on the Lawrence Welk show. He was a wonderful and very talented accordionist (??), but he was not exactly idol material in my book. So, while I played very well actually, I have not willingly shared this info with very many people. (My favorite performers on the Lawrence Welk show were the Lennon Sisters - I even had their papers dolls - a high compliment indeed!!)

My accordion had a candy-apple red metallic finish and my name was on the front - in diamonds! (or a reasonable facsimile thereof) As I said earlier, I actually played quite well and took lessons for 3 or 4 years. When I was in high school, I played the French horn in band. And several years ago, my mom gave me (she says loaned) her piano, and I play that reasonably well - for someone who has never taken piano lessons. So even though it feels totally dorky to tell someone I played the accordion, I think the lessons paid off in the long run. Thanks Mom & Dad!!!

glassware

2007-10-03T23:49:00.000-05:00

We had a beautiful, SUNNY day today. I totally needed it! Tomorrow is supposed to be lovely too, and then back into the rain - but temps in the 70's, so I can't complain. I worked outside most of the day - and it was so nice. The pooches were pooped tonight from being out all day. It was too windy to get any good garden photos, although there are a surprising number of plants still in bloom. I thought I would share with you some of my cool estate sale and garage sale finds. Mark is a sale junkie, but I only get into it once in awhile. These are some of the treasures I've picked up over the last couple summers.

I found these cool bottles - 2 vinegar cruets and an oil bottle - at an estate sale a year ago. The people had run a catering business and had some very fun things on the sale. I bought a bunch of stuff at this one!!

Here's another cool bottle I found this summer. I thought it looked kind of neat in front of my kitchen window. (please ignore the waterspots on the window - washing windows is on my list, but haven't done it yet!)

This was at the caterers' estate sale - I bought it thinking I would use it for a vase. But last winter I was going through kitchen idea books, and they showed the same container with fresh squeezed orange juice in it. I've used it as a pitcher all summer.

I found these Ball jars (nice big 2-qt size) at an estate sale last spring. They had tons of them - a box full for $3.00. I was thinking they might make fun flower vases, so I picked through and bought 5 jars for $3 - it wasn't even a full box! When I got home I realized all of the other things that I could use these jars for and have been kicking myself ever since!! Right now, they are being used as dry goods cannisters in the cupboard and for puppy treats. The pooches love the sound of that metal cap being unscrewed!

looking for Mr Sun

2007-10-02T18:37:00.000-05:00

Another grey, rainy day. I need some sun!!!! I know we need the rain - a very dry summer means all of the gardens and trees and the lake are loving this rain. But I'm ready for a break.

I thought I would show you more of my tuberous begonias. They waited most of the summer to take off, but they are adding some nice spots of color in the gardens now.

cool award

2007-10-01T22:05:00.000-05:00

Cindy at Rosehaven Cottage just gave me this award - how cool is that?? I love the design. Thank you so much, Cindy, for the award and the kind words. I love visiting your blog and reading your thoughtful posts and seeing your absolutely gorgeous photos.

a good day for loons

2007-10-01T15:44:00.000-05:00

This afternoon we heard two loons being very noisy out in front of our house. Mark grabbed the camera, a humongous lens, and a tripod - and captured these images of one of them.

We hear loons almost daily, but they're usually on the next bay over. It was very fun to have them here - even though they stayed quite far from shore.

I'm guessing that's seaweed in his/her mouth.

(This one shows the photo before auto-correct and cropping.)

rainy weekend

2007-09-30T12:55:00.000-05:00

Rainy weekend here. We were so dry most of the summer, that it's hard to complain about it! I did get in a couple hours yesterday morning hauling things into the shed. I think it's going to be a really nice size - the lofts are holding a ton of stuff. We stopped Friday night on our way to dinner to look at stain colors. I have a color in my head, so, of course, that makes the job twice as difficult! I think we will try and get it stained this fall yet - but windows, window boxes and stencils will probably wait until next spring. (Maybe I can spend some time this winter working on my stenciling skills!) I managed to free up some shelf space in the basement by hauling all my clay pots and other garden things to the shed - so maybe this afternoon I'll work at organizing the basement. Does that sound like fun, or what?! Maybe I'll watch a DVD instead!!

Autumn apples

2007-09-28T14:29:00.000-05:00

Don't apples make you think "autumn" in a big way? Our friends' daughter has 2 Haralson apple trees in her yard. They have apples, apples, and more apples this year. So they were nice enough to bring me a grocery bag full. I'm guessing when I get through these, I can probably get more! They've been making apple pies and putting them in the freezer - oh, to have a nice big freezer!

As you can see, I have a lovely marble rolling pin that would be perfect for making pie crust - but so far I've resisted the temptation. We found the rolling pin and the marble lazy susan at estate sales last summer. Maybe a nice slice of apple pie with vanilla ice cream would be a perfect treat this weekend. (ooooh - and how about caramel apples? Or apple crisp? All sorts of yummy apple treats come to mind!)

tulips bulbs

2007-09-27T17:09:00.000-05:00

Last week, I went out and bought my tulip bulbs. I can't plant them until mid to late October, but at least I found a lot of the ones I wanted by shopping early.

In April 2006, we went to the Netherlands for 4 wonderful days, and spent 2 of them at the Keukenhof Gardens. What a paradise for anyone who loves spring flowers. I bought many, many bulbs for myself, and my neighbor had me pick out some for her. Several that I bought her were so pretty, I wanted them in my own garden! So, here's what I found:

Apricot Beauty is one I bought for my neighbor - beautiful. I saw Prinses (princess?) Irene on Zoey's blog (Perennial Passion) this year and they were very pretty. I think these will be a very nice combination.

These two I just thought were very pretty - not sure if they'll be planted together, but I think they'd be pretty together.

Elegant Lady was one I picked up for my neighbor - very tall and very pastel. Abigail I just thought looked cool in the package pic.

These two I saw at the Keukenhof - they were gorgeous. I bought Monte Carlo for my neighbor, and they bloomed a really long time.

And some of you may remember my love affair last spring with Carnaval de Nice - this is a fantastic late tulip. I decided I needed more!!!

I won't really have fun digging all these holes, but I'm quite sure I'll enjoy all of them next spring.

thanks for the great ideas!

2007-09-26T22:15:00.001-05:00

Thanks to everyone for your nice comments about my shed!! I appreciate all of the great ideas you shared. I don't know if we'll start decorating this fall or wait until spring - but I think it's going to look cool when we finally have it done! I am so excited about having that storage space - and I know I could easily fill 2 or 3 of them!! But, for now, I am thrilled to have one.

Kobie and Tess were playing King of the Hill in it today - one of them would stand inside the shed with a leaf or stick, the other would grab the prize, and then they'd chase each other round and round the shed. After several trips around, one of them would jump inside the door - and then the whole thing would start over again. I swear, they play just like human kids! The really cool part is now I have a really fun dirt race track going around my new shed - it's exactly what I was hoping for - lol!

"Knockout" - the rose I had in one of the half barrel planters. I put it in the raised garden by the patio a couple weeks ago. It's doing great - new buds and beautiful blooms. It's in the same garden as "Hawkeye Belle" - I hope they look good together and provide some fun color.

Autumn has come to our yard! This maple tree is our neighbor's - it sits between his garage and our driveway. Everyone coming down the street sees it - and everyone comments on how beautiful it is.

we got us a shed!

2007-09-25T16:40:00.000-05:00

It's here!!! Chris came this morning at 6:30. He and Mark unloaded the wall frames, and at 7 am, he fired up his compressor and started building. He took an hour lunch break, and at 2 pm, I had a shed.

Isn't it lovely? This is the side you see if you walk from the patio down toward the lake. The 6 ft wide double doors face the house. Mark put linseed oil on the floor and bottom edges for added protection. When that dries, I can start loading it up!

Here's the inside. You can see the two lofts we had them add. There isn't much headroom in the lofts themselves, but it will be a little added storage space. I don't think I'll have any problem finding something to stick up there. :)

Here's a little better view of one of the lofts. (The black handle is a broom that's on the other side.) Chris said we could stain it right away, but we both have a lot of projects scheduled for this fall, so we may wait until next spring to "decorate."

A few weeks ago, we found some freebie windows on Craig's list. I don't want windows in the shed - I want to make use of all the space for storage - but we're thinking we might attach some windows on the outside of the shed to make it look more friendly. Another idea I have after seeing Kate's project is to stencil the sides. If you haven't checked out Kate's beautiful garage wall, you really should. (Kate Smudges in Earth, Paint and Life - on my sidebar.) When I decide what to do, you all will be the first to know!

This is the view from the lake - it hides the compost bin - hooray!!!! The wagons and baskets will all have a home now. I am smiling from ear to ear.

a bit of this, a bit of that

2007-09-24T22:52:00.000-05:00

Last week I was out taking photos of things blooming in the gardens. This little vignette caught my eye. Do you think the squirrels are trying to bribe the fairy? Is it an offering for a mild winter and plenty of food? There were acorns, bits of a walnut, a birch leaf, and a small peach from our neighbor's tree.

Look at the brilliant color on this balloon flower - I love it! There are still a few blooms and little balloon buds - but we are definitely nearing the end.

I had seen a cool rusted sunflower that I thought would be neat in the gardens, but then my neighbor bought one for her garden. So I kept looking and found this fun star.

The bees have been happily buzzing on the sedum. Both of these photos are of "Autumn Joy" but were taken a couple days apart and in different light. If I went out tomorrow, I would probably get another shade of pink. These add such great color to the autumn gardens.

This is a copper sprinkler that we bought on sale. The pattern for the sprinkler made it ornamental rather than useful for watering, but I thought it added a fun touch to the gardens.

My shed guy called about 8:30 tonight. They're coming at 6:30 tomorrow morning to install my new garden/storage shed. So there will hopefully be photos to share on tomorrow's post. I am so excited!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JESS!!

ornamental grasses

2007-09-23T23:38:00.000-05:00

We have just had a really beautiful weekend - warm temps and sunny skies. It was a little on the breezy side, but... Peter (also a Twin Cities blogger) left a comment on my previous post that after this weekend, we might be able to think winter will pass us by. I suppose that won't actually happen, but we can certainly enjoy the days like today that we are given.

I wanted to show you the ornamental grasses. They still aren't turning from green to red, but the seed heads are really pretty. With all the wind we've had the past couple weeks, it's been fun to see the movement in the gardens. All three photos are of miscanthus - sorry, I don't remember the name. (One of my plans for this winter is to dig through files and see if I can come up with names for most of my plants - or even SOME of my plants! So, maybe I can share more information next year.)

Carefree Beauty

2007-09-21T21:30:00.000-05:00

I must have been very tired last night when I put this post up - I forgot to write anything about my lovely rose!!! Thank you, Barbara, for reminding me! :)

This is "Carefree Beauty." It's one of the first roses I chose to put in my gardens many years ago, and I still adore it. It's lightly scented - heavier on some days than others. It does a nice flush of blooms in June, then sporadically until mid to late August. Then it starts putting on a show and blooms heavily until our first hard freeze. Some years I still have blooms and buds in November.

roses, roses, roses

2007-09-20T22:14:00.001-05:00

Wow, wild weather tonight. Heavy downpours and winds, hail, tornado touchdowns, and flooding streets. Luckily, no damage here.

This is a great time for my roses. They all bloom heavily in June, and then kind of putz their way through July and August. About the middle to end of August, they start putting on another fabulous show. That will continue until our first hard freeze - sometimes into November. I have one rose - "Carefree Beauty" - that blooms its heart out this time of year - and, so, deserves its own post - tomorrow! But I also have some beauties to share with you today.

"J.F. Quadra" - a climber that is just completing its second year in my garden. This is turning out to be a really fun rose - lots of blooms and a really nice dark red color.

This is "Quadra" on the "rainbow" trellis Mark made for it this summer. The background still isn't wonderful, but look how tall some of the canes got this summer. I think in another year or two it is going to cover this area of the fence very nicely!

My species rose. I adore this rose. It grows very "wild" and has the most wonderful fragrance. It also has been most elusive in letting me take photos of it - but I thought this one wasn't too bad.

"Country Dancer" - aren't these buds just too sweet?? Last year, the first year in the garden, this rose bloomed like crazy. This year it's been a little more reticent. But I still have high hopes for it in the years to come.

"Fru Dagmar Hastrup" (or "Frau Dagmar Hartopp") is a lovely single rose. Its blooms are so fragile looking - so pretty and dainty. I really like it.

more September blooms

2007-09-19T20:53:00.001-05:00

Kind of a quiet, boring day here - we spent most of the day leveling a space for my new garden/storage shed. Hopefully, I'll have photos to share of the new shed within the next week. Tonight we went out for pizza with friends - a very fun evening of catching up.

Here are more photos of this weekend's blooms.

This is by far the best photo I have ever taken of spiderwort. Usually they come out looking very flat. This one is perfect (if I do say so myself!). About a month ago, I cut most of the spiderwort back, and now they are blooming again.

This is the wild coneflower that's been blooming all summer. This is a workhorse!!

The mountain bluet is blooming again also. I love these spidery blue blooms.

I have a snakeroot plant that has been moved many, many times. For the last few years, it hasn't been very happy and hasn't bloomed. So last fall, I moved it to yet another home. When I dug up the plant, it split into 3 plants. They all look healthy, but they are just now sending up these little flower stalks. I think they're the same variety as the ones I showed blooming a couple months ago - big, beautiful flower spikes. I'll give these another year here - hopefully, they'll bloom earlier and better next year. (If not, I do have a couple more places to try :) !)

Here's one of my dark snakeroot - I believe this one is "Brunette." It's just starting to bloom. Again, not terribly impressive. This one may not be getting as much moisture as it wants - it's right next to the river birch clump. Gosh, I hate to move these things all the time.

The physostegia - or obedient plant. This is a fun little plant that should keep increasing in number every year.

Turtlehead. Not a great photo - but look at all those blooms! I love these plants.

I think this is the last veronica in the garden still blooming.

Brown-eyed Susans are still going strong.

A tuberous begonia. These finally started blooming last week - way too long to wait for container plants!! I had some red and some yellow that did quite well this year, but the rest were only so-so. I may decide to not do these next year...

The white "David" phlox is still looking very pretty. Some of the other phlox have blooms, but they're coming to the end.

The Japanese anemone are still looking good.

Another shot - I just love these airy little blooms.

I just took some under-performing begonias out of a hanging planter by the streetside door, and put in these pansies. (And then the temps jumped into the 80's for a couple days - of course!!) I absolutely love this color.

hydrangea

2007-09-18T18:23:00.000-05:00

It was a very rainy day here in the Twin Cities. But I hardly noticed - well, except that my hair was BIG and bordering on frizzy from all the moisture in the air - lol.

Nadine, Susan and I have French lessons on Tuesday morning, but Nadine is leaving next week to visit her family in France for 6 weeks. So we went out to lunch. We went to a very nice little French cafe - good food - beautiful decor - very fun to have social time with my instructor and classmate. It was noisy and difficult to hear each other, so we conversed in English for the most part. (Susan and I breathed a huge sigh of relief on that one!!) (I must start remembering to take my camera with me!)

This past weekend I took photos of everything blooming in the gardens, and today I thought I would show you how the hydrangea are doing.

"All Summer Beauty" - I adore this hydrangea when it starts turning this dark rose color in the fall.

"Annabelle" is mostly lime green right now. I used to hate this color change, but I guess I'm mellowing in my old age, because now I'm quite enjoying it.

"Annabelle" again. It was simply loaded with big blooms this year.

There are a couple newer, still white blooms on Annabelle too.

And some turning brown already.

A bigger view with "Autumn Joy" sedum next to it. And look at that brunnera - it has simply gone crazy this year. This photo is a little weird - our yard was very shady - our neighbor's was very sunny - plus they had their sprinklers turned on - so lots of stuff happening to affect the lighting.

I'm so pretty

2007-09-17T15:54:00.000-05:00

I guess if anything can be excused for being narcissistic, it would be roses. Still it was a surprise to find this Nearly Wild bloom staring lovingly into the gazing ball.

Mirror, mirror

in the ground,

who's the fairest

rose around?

dahlias

2007-09-16T21:43:00.000-05:00

We've had some cool, fall-like weather the past couple weeks. But today it was sunny and warmed to the mid 70's. They're forecasting 80's this next week. Yeah, I'm okay with fall and cooler temps, but I really can't say no to a few more days of 80's. Once winter hits, I'll be very happy we had one more dance with summer.

There are still a lot of things blooming in the gardens. The dinner-plate dahlias are stunning. This yellow color is hard to capture in a photo, but it sure adds a bright spot in the garden.

These pinks are also a lovely bit of color in the fall gardens. They're growing sort of incorrectly. I didn't stake the plants when I put in the tubers this spring, so most of them in the garden by the gazebo are laying on the ground. I think I have smaller flowers, but more of them because of the stem being horizontal. Whatever, they're cool!

If the next photo will click big, you can see the stem laying on the ground - it's like having several plants there instead of just one. I like it.
(all of the pink flowers you see in the photo are growing from one stalk)

I spent yesterday moving plants around. Today I raked acorns out of the garden by our neighbor's big old oak tree. Last year, we didn't have many acorns fall - and had a very mild winter. This year, zillions have fallen - I'm predicting a cold and/or snowy winter. Luckily, I haven't been feeding the birds this summer, so the squirrels have been doing a good job of picking up the acorns. I'm sure they're preparing for no easy-to-steal bird food this winter too. Our neighbors also have walnut trees along the fence line, and the squirrels stored those away immediately. I have only seen one walnut in my garden this year! I love it!! (They probably buried them all in the gardens - LOL!)

Hearing Pavarotti at Bellagio

2007-09-15T18:07:00.000-05:00

I've seen some very nice posts this past week remembering the great talent of Luciano Pavarotti. I'm not a true opera fan, but it isn't hard to know that he had a voice we were lucky to hear in our lifetime.

There are some wonderful videos on YouTube. But I realized that we had a Mark-made one from a trip last December to Vegas. Enjoy!

(There are better videos of this fountain show on YouTube - you see the show from above. And ours has a lot of chatter because Mark was standing on the street. BUT, he made it, and I think that counts for a lot.)

(Also, this was my third attempt at using Blogger - the first one was a pretty long download, the second one never did finish, and this one was quick - I started it, hit the shower, and when I came out it was done.)

everything's peachy

2007-09-12T14:48:00.000-05:00

Peaches - grown in Minnesota - on my neighbor's tree - totally cool!

Our neighbor has a little peach tree in his yard, not far from our fence. In the spring, we get to enjoy the beautiful peach blossoms that smell soooo wonderful. The orioles love the peach tree when they visit in the spring - and then they fly over and drink and bathe in our fountain - very fun. Then we get to watch the little peaches growing all summer long. About three weeks ago, everytime we walked out on the porch, we were able to enjoy the most lovely sweet, peachy aroma in the air. Today my neighbor called and said, "Kris, the peaches are ready!!! Bring a ladder and a bag and pick all you want." I was there in about two minutes! They're always quite small, and this year they're very small - but the taste is pure fresh peach. I think we'll be having a lovely peach cobbler or maybe peach crisp this weekend. (If I don't eat all of them before then!)

Mark went to San Antonio for a trade show last Thursday. He flew home last night. This morning he was back on a plane headed to Chicago. He'll be home again Friday at noon - hopefully for longer than 12 hours!! He'll think the peach "whatever" is a lovely treat when he gets here.

7 random garden facts

2007-09-10T20:50:00.000-05:00

Over a month ago, Kitt at "The Kittalog" tagged me to do a "7 Random Garden Facts" meme. (And you didn't believe procrastination was my worst habit!) I'm not sure why, but this has been a hard one to do. So I'm just going to write 7 things that jump into my head right now, and that will be that. Kitt - thanks for tagging me - I probably seemed like a natural for this meme - but evidently, not so much!!!!

Early this summer, we were out on the boat one day cruising the shoreline, looking at houses and yards. I said something like - but why don't these people do gardens???? Without missing a beat, Mark said, "Maybe they have lives." OUCH! But yes, my first garden fact is that if you're really into it, gardening takes a heck of a lot of time.

Nothing has to stay in one place forever. An alternate definition for gardening could be: moving things around in one's yard. I have some plants that move yearly - some gardens that undergo complete renewals every year or two... you get the picture. I love that if you goof or change your mind or whatever, you can grab a shovel and do it over!

Gardeners love to share their gardens. They love to have people walk through their gardens and ooh and ahh over everything. They love to talk gardening. If you garden, you can strike up a conversation based on gardening anywhere in the world. This is the primary reason I started blogging - to have people ooh and ahh over my gardens. :)

And, they love to share their plants. Plants always need dividing, etc, and most gardeners are thrilled to share their extras. My experience has been that gardeners are very generous.

Being able to grow plants in the dirt outside does not necessarily mean you can grow plants in little pots in the house. Indoor and outdoor gardening are two very different talents.

The more you play in the dirt, the more confidence you will have in your abilities to garden. Most of my gardening friends and I have acquired our design talents from doing. (I'm not actually claiming that I have talent, but I'm better at figuring out what I want than I used to be.)

When we first moved in here, we had an almost totally shady yard. I grew up on a farm. My mom's gardens were total sun. So I went to a small nursery near our home and asked them to design a shady garden for me. The gardens themselves are long gone, but I still have some of those plants - snakeroot, turtlehead, geranium, Jacob's ladder, lungwort - things I didn't even know about when I started. Everyone has to start somewhere, and it's okay to get some help.

And, because I took so long to do this meme, a freebie: Rototillers (and the men who run them!) are a gardener's best friend!

middle name meme

2007-09-10T20:19:00.000-05:00

Lynne at “Lynne’s Little Corner of the World” tagged me for “Middle Name Meme.” Here are the rules:

You have to post these rules before you give the facts.
Players, you must list one fact that is somehow relevant to your life for each letter of your middle name.
If you don’t have a middle name, use the middle name you would have liked to have had.
When you are tagged you need to write your own blog post containing your own middle name game facts.
At the end of your blog post, you need to choose one person for each letter of your middle name to tag.
Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged and to read your blog.

My middle name is KAYE.

K - KAYAKS!!! I wanted to use something like “kinky” – but who would have ever believed that??!
A - ANSWERS. I have them all. Just ask my hubby.
Y – YOUNG, of course!! Well, at least young at heart.
E – hmmmm…Energetic?? Effervescent?? No, probably just ENJOYING life.

Seriously glad I don’t have a looooong middle name – thanks, Mom!
This was fun – if you decide to play, let me know!

Thanks, Lynne!

rockin' girl blogger award

2007-09-10T20:11:00.000-05:00

Cindy at "Rosehaven Cottage" gave me this award recently.

She said: Kris at Gardens By the Lake--a wonderful blogger that let's her personality shine through in her writing and her photography of her beautiful gardens. Her comments on my blogs always make me smile and feel a little bit happier.

Cindy - right back at you!!!! Everyone, visit Rosehaven Cottage - Cindy's posts are always thoughtful and her photography is beautiful. Thanks Cindy - I love this award - totally cool.

nameless meme

2007-09-10T19:50:00.000-05:00

Awhile back, Violetlady at “Violetlady At Home” tagged me for this nameless meme:

ACCENT: I’m from the Midwest – we don’t have accents – it’s the rest of the country – honest!

DRINK: Coca-Cola Classic. Did you know that if you order a Coke in Paris, they look at you funny – and then say, oh, you mean Coca!
My favorite alcoholic drink is a margarita.

PETS: Kobie and Tess – two rambunctious, beautiful standard poodles.

ESSENTIAL ELECTRONICS: Cell. Not because I’m on it all the time, but because it has all the numbers I would ever need. Ever.
And it would be pretty hard to blog without a computer – and now I MUST blog!

PERFUME: Never wear the stuff. If I did, it would be something light and citrus-y. I do adore the smell of Freesia.

GOLD OR SILVER: Silver.

IMSOMNIA: Often. I go to bed late and have trouble falling asleep – but when Mark gets up in the morning, I sleep like a baby for a couple more hours.

JOB TITLE: My paying job is doing data entry. My other titles would be: wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend. And I think I could claim to be a gardener.

MOST ADMIRED TRAIT: I like people who are genuinely nice - and I think I usually am. And I love being around creative, artistic types - it makes me feel really inferior - but I do think my gardens show some creative/artistic talent.

KIDS: Two sons, Kyle and Ryan and one daughter-in-law, Sara.

UNUSUAL TALENT/SKILL: I have a really good memory for certain things – I remember birthdays. At a party one time, I went around a table of about a dozen people and knew all of their birthdays – some of their anniversaries – and several of the kids’ birthdays. A party trick to amaze and awe – otherwise, pretty much useless. This is why they make calendars.

VEGETABLE: Well, this time of year what comes to mind are tomatoes from our garden. (unless you think tomatoes are a fruit. not going there.)

WORST HABIT: Oh, there are so many, it’s hard to choose the worst…
Probably procrastination – I’m sure I was overdue when I was born, and I’ve been pushing things to the last minute ever since.

FAVORITE MEAL: I love pizza and calzones. If you’re taking me out, Kincaid’s Chicken Dijon. (Kincaid’s is a nice restaurant in the Twin Cities. I have their recipe and really make it better than they do, but it’s nice to have someone else do the cooking.)

PHOBIA: I can’t really think of any right now. Guess that’s a good thing.

SIBLINGS: One brother and two sisters. I’m the oldest. (And a recent study found that first-borns are generally smarter – so true in our family! LOL)

TIME I WAKE UP: It varies from day to day. I never set an alarm unless I have to – and then I can’t get to sleep until about an hour before it’s due to go off. I don’t sleep as late as I used to.

This was fun – thanks, Violetlady!!

berries and seed pods

2007-09-07T18:33:00.000-05:00

Cooler and drier - what a lovely autumn-like day we had here in the Twin Cities. My gardens received a much-needed inch and a half of rain last night. I put mulch down on another garden section this afternoon AND mowed the lawn. Roasted two more batches of tomatoes - I'm caught up now until I go out and pick again. Yup, pretty productive day.
(In Minnesota, we say cooler and drier and mean less humidity - the inch plus of rain has nothing to do with the drier part! Likewise, I would describe this summer as extremely hot and dry - which has nothing to do with the very, very humid conditions each and every day. Everyone here would know exactly what I'm talking about.) :)

Yesterday it was hot and super windy. I noticed that the ornamental grasses were really pretty blowing in all that wind. So went out and took a video. Here's the good news - my voice actually sounded like me - this is old-hat now! LOL The bad news is there was so much wind noise you can only hear about half of what I was saying. Also found out my camera shuts off after 3 minutes. I was standing out there talking away for at least 5 minutes AFTER it had shut off. (you can go ahead and be relieved that I only get to do 3 mins at a time - imagine sitting through 8 minutes of me yakking away and showing you grass blowing in the wind!!) Anyway, I'll try again on a less windy day - it is kind of fun to do.

Today: plants are thinking about next year already. Here's a collection of berries and seed pods in the garden today.

Solomon's Seal
false Solomon's Seal

Jack-in-the-pulpit
(yes, Kobie & Tess, please do explain why it's laying on the ground instead of standing up???)
(oh, and look at some of the ZILLIONS of acorns that have fallen this year - do you think maybe we're going to have a horrible winter??)
The cool part of this photo is that you have to have both female and male plants to get seed heads or berries. I adore the bright red color - and the fact that I'll probably have some baby plants next spring!

false indigo
I love how these rattle in the wind.
Has anyone had any luck growing plants from these seeds? I have several people who would like seeds, but people who have taken them in the past have had no luck with the seeds growing.

too much work evidently

2007-09-05T21:02:00.000-05:00

Good grief - September 5th already! I am running as fast as I can and still falling behind. I am very behind in checking in with friends' blogs - sorry! I'll be there soon.

I want to thank all of you for the nice comments about my first video. It was fun to do - and hopefully future ones will be more polished!! Thanks for the encouragement!

I'll just take a minute and catch you up on some of my current projects. First, Zoey at Perennial Passion sent me a seed packet. I think this is so fun. Next year I'm planning to collect seeds and share too. She sent the cute seed packet above and an information sheet. I've never grown rose campion, so this will be fun. I think I have a couple perfect places picked out in the gardens. I can't wait until they come up next year. Thanks, Zoey - I loved getting the seeds and the packet you made!

I've been busy weeding gardens and think they are all finally done. So no doubt I can plan to start all over again in a couple days. Weeding is a never-ending chore in my gardens. I still have several areas that need mulch added - another big chore. I'm also hoping to get some cooler weather to move some things around - something I seem to do every year! My neighbor has some beautiful dark coral daylilies that I'm going to divide and add to my garden. And I want to put the Knockout rose in the ground (it's in a half-barrel planter in the driveway now). And I'm pretty sure I'll find several varieties of tulips etc that will have to go in this fall too. I think I'm going to be busy for awhile yet!

This is my hibiscus that was supposed to be a pale yellow. Still looking pretty white - but I see in the photo that the camera picked up both a little yellow and a little red - cool! The center of the hibiscus and the rose are very similar in color.

This is an iron table and chair that was on Craig's list. Mark ran over and picked it up yesterday while I was at my French class. It's child-size - which was a surprise - but way cool. I think I will probably end up putting it in a garden and let the flowers grow up around it. In the bottom photo you can see that it's quite a bit smaller than my "normal" size table and chairs on the patio. (Well, actually, it doesn't look all that much smaller does it? Hmmm...guess you'll have to trust me on this one.)

I also read an interesting article the other day about butterflies. In my previous post I referred to the caterpillar and the cocoon for the Eastern Black Swallowtails. In fact, moths come from cocoons. Butterflies come from chrysalids. I had thought that chrysalis referred to the process. It's good to learn something new!

Also, I wanted to share how my French teacher, Nadine, prepares her tomatoes to put in the freezer. She washes them. Then she puts the whole tomatoes in large freezer bags. When she wants to use the tomatoes, she removes as many as she needs from the bag - puts them under running water - which removes the skin with no further effort on her part. I'm not sure I have the freezer space to do this - my little bags of roasted tomatoes lay nice and flat in the freezer. But it sure sounds easy!! And it would be much nicer to roast the tomatoes for an hour in the winter before I make soup or lasagna than to heat up the kitchen in the summer. Thought I would pass it on to anyone who might be interested.

Note: my mom just left a tip in the comments section - she does the same as Nadine, but quarters the tomatoes instead of leaving them whole - so they fit into limited space better. Thanks Mom!! I still want the roasted taste when I add them to our meals, but it would be easy (with a little planning!) to do that before you use them with either the whole or quartered tomatoes.

love estate sales

2007-09-03T20:54:00.000-05:00

My first video!! Well, okay, my first that I'm willing to share. Just so you know, I set the bar really, really low on this first one so that we can see some rapid improvement if I do another one. But there must be some realism, because Tess tried to attack the monitor when she saw the puppy. (Tess can see TV screen images - Kobie can't - why is that???)

Happy 80th, Dad!

2007-08-30T23:09:00.000-05:00

Tomorrow, August 31st, is my dad's 80th birthday. If you met him, you wouldn't believe he's heading into his 80's. Keep up the good work, Dad. We want you around for a long, long time yet! I love you a ton.

Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterflies

2007-08-26T15:43:00.000-05:00

Isn't he cute???? Last weekend, Zoey at Perennial Passion posted a photo of caterpillars like this on her blog. They were on her parsley plants. I went out and looked, and sure enough I had them on mine too. I was really happy that I had seen Zoey's post before I saw the caterpillars, because they look like ugly green worms, and my parsley plants probably would have been in the garbage about 15 seconds after I saw them! I'm not crazy about squishy, crawly things.

But thanks to Zoey they're still crawling around on my parsley, and sometime soon they should form their cocoons and then turn into beautiful Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies.Today I counted 11 caterpillars on my two Italian parsley plants. I'm hoping they do the cocoon thing somewhere I can watch the daily progress.

But if I can't, Zoey put two of hers in a jar and is posting regularly about their progress. If you go to her blog, look at Aug 19, 23, and 24th. On the 24th, she videoed one of caterpillars shedding its skin. It is absolutely awesome! I've linked Zoey's blog here. Check it out!!

Perennial Passion

Thanks Zoey - this is VERY cool!!!

September 5th update: I just read an article that I found very informative. Butterflies come from chrysalids (chrysalis is the singular); moths come from cocoons. I had in my head that chrysalis was the process of becoming a cocoon or a butterfly (yeah, it's been a long time since I was in grade school!). Anyway, now I know!

more late summer blooms

2007-08-24T20:04:00.000-05:00

On our walk through the garden yesterday, we found a surprising number of things still blooming, reblooming, and just starting to bloom. Maybe I'm the one who's tired - not the gardens!! Here are more photos.

dianthus (pinks)

Queen Anne's Lace

native rudbeckia or coneflower
These all started from seed brought by the wind or birds or ??
They bloom, like, forever! I love it!

plantegenia hosta
these blooms smell sooooo good!

dahlia

turtlehead

little blue stem grass

just starting to turn burgundy and develop seed heads

the phlox are winding down, but still some color

"David"

"Hawkeye Belle"

(this rose is just covered in blooms again)

one of the dahlias

hibiscus are still going strong

mallow reblooming

shasta daisy

"Autumn Joy" sedum, just starting to show color

hibiscus bud starting to open

delphinium reblooming

(surprising because I neglected to deadhead the first blooms)

one of the caladiums in the garden

hooray, there are still things blooming

2007-08-23T16:50:00.000-05:00

Nearly Wild

Okay, I know this won't be popular with those of you who still need rain, but I've had enough for awhile! We haven't had the flooding amounts that they received south of us, but for the past week it has been grey, drizzly, and/or outright raining. I'm ready for sunshine. And bring back some of those 80's, too, please!

I was feeling like my gardens were done, and it's only August 23rd for heaven's sake. So this afternoon between rain showers and drizzles, I took the dogs out and we did a little garden recon. There is still color in the garden! Hooray! So over the next few days I'll show you some of the things blooming, a few of them reblooms - that's always fun!

Balloon flower

Mark has been out of town on business all week, which probably accounts for some of my blahs. I've been doing fun stuff like moving the compost pile to a new home, edging and weeding gardens (between showers - the weeds pull out really easily at least!), roasting tomatoes, etc.

Well, yes, I have had some real fun too. There has been very little wind and the grey skies have kept boaters off the lake, so I did get in a couple of wonderful kayak paddles. Tuesday I did 4.2 miles - on my own - and that felt great. Here's one of the things I love about kayaking: you go out and at some point you think, okay I have to turn around - I'm tired. And then you get back home and you realize that you have energy left! You could go out and do a couple more miles! It is just that much fun. I love it. Down side is I sit in water in mine (sit-on-top model), and very soon I am going to need some neoprene shorts. Once it starts dipping into the 50's at night, our lake starts cooling off quickly. Most of the summer the lake is like a tepid bath - not even refreshing on a hot day. But it is starting to cool down, so I'll be doing some on-line shopping very soon.

All Summer Beauty - starting to turn its fall colors

odds 'n ends on a rainy day

2007-08-19T14:17:00.000-05:00

"Rosy Returns" - repeat blooming daylily

Isn't this a beautiful daylily? I just planted it this spring, so not sure if it will always bloom late. I'm thinking I need to add more late bloomers, so hope it will. It's a smaller daylily bloom, but a lovely rich color.

Japanese fall blooming anemone

Japanese anemone again

I love Japanese anemone. They aren't real showy from a distance, but up close they are very pretty. I love the way they nod in the breeze. I have them in a couple gardens - in light shade and in almost full sun. They seem to be okay everywhere I try them.

dahlia

A couple more of my smaller dahlias. The colors have been so rich this summer - I love them! The dinnerplates are definitely more showy, but I'm hoping I can overwinter the tubers and have them all again next year. I do have to remember to stake them as I plant them though. This year the ones in partial shade are pretty much laying on the ground.

dahlia

Turtlehead

Turtlehead is another fall bloomer that I love. The plants get very large and the blooms aren't super showy until you get right up to the plant. But they are so cute! And it keeps blooming for quite a long time. When I first bought turtlehead, it was for a shady space. But mine does much, much better in full sun as long as the ground is moist.

Brown-eyed Susans

And what late-summer/fall post would be complete without brown-eyed susans? I used to think these were too "gold" for my gardens. But now I rely on them to add bright spots throughout my late summer gardens. I can't think of any flowers I don't like, but I do have a soft spot for the prairie-type flowers.

We have had a cool, rainy weekend here. No complaints - we desperately needed the rain. But I do hope it plans to warm up again, so we get more tomatoes. I roasted and froze several batches, but not nearly enough to last the winter!