Last Post of the Year

I just want to say that this has been a great year and I'm looking forward to the next one.

There are already signs of spring and I took these three pictures about two weeks ago. This one is a daffodil already starting to come up.




This is one of my viburnums in bloom.




I love the way that sedum "Autumn Joy" has these little clusters of blooms that are just starting to show their faces.





This is our cat Harley who liked the tree better without presents.




Here are Lola and Bing in their new coats. They are not thrilled.




Wednesday night we had thunder,lightening and hail. These two pictures were taken the morning after and none of it had melted yet.




They were about pea sized and have not melted away yet where the sun doesn't shine on the yard.




I pray that in the coming year that many of us will become acquainted through our blogs and maybe some of us will even meet one of these days face to face. May you have health, joy, plenty of all you need and the love of family and Friends. May T
the Lord be with you and keep you and shine His face upon you.

Happy New Year! Tata for now.

Link to a Giveaway

I love going and looking for new blogs and reading the ones that I follow. I found a new one today when I was reading Coffee, Tea, Books and Me. She put a link on her blog to a blog that had a giveaway. If you put a link on your blog to her link then she will enter you twice. It's a nice giveaway.

I can't figure out how to put a link on here to the blog so I will just let you know that the name of the blog is "Lazy Bee Farm". It looks great and I'm excited to see who wins the giveaway. I actually won a giveaway about a year ago from the "Lemon Verbena Lady's Herb Garden". I was so surprised to actually win something.

Anyway, if you get the chance to go to these blogs you will love them. Sorry ladies that I couldn't create a link. Maybe someone out there could let me know how to do it. So, that's all for now. Tata.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's been a busy couple of weeks leading up to Christmas. What a hectic time of year. I love it. This year I was actually done shopping, wrapping, baking and almost done with cards a week ahead of Christmas. Which makes me nervous because then I start to panic and wonder if I've bought all the presents or forgotten someone. Does anyone know the feeling? But, so far I have remembered everything and have just been able to enjoy the season.

Christmas program at church

a gift exchange with three special friends

another gift exchange with another special friend

one big family Christmas

a Christmas luncheon

lots of Christmas movies

A potuck at a friends new house

sitting and enjoying the lights of the tree in the morning with a cup of coffee

planning menus



I pray that all of you who read this will have a blessed Christmas and enjoy family and friends and remember what we are celebrating. The greatest gift of all was when God came down as a tiny baby. The wonder of it all is almost too much to comprehend at times.

So there is still Christmas Eve service at church and grand kids coming over Christmas eve and Christmas day.

So tata for now.

Wonder......

At this time of year my heart turns toward the wonder of the birth of Christ and what he did. This year this song has become my favorite Christmas carol. Please take a few minutes to watch this video and enjoy the message in the words.





Have a great day! Tata for now.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

It is 30 degrees this morning at 6:25 and lightly snowing. The house is warmer than it was yesterday when we got up. I am so thankful for a warm home and a wonderful family to share it with.

I pray that all you you will have a great and warm day out there and you too will find many things to be thankful for.

I want to give honor and glory to the God who makes it all possible!

Have a great one. Tata for now!

Angel, Cup and Saucer, Colonel Sanders & Chicken

Here are the pictures that I couldn't download for the last couple of days.



Making a snow angel.




Looks just like an angel doesn't it?




My friends cup and saucer vine in October.




This is Avery and Hadley in their Halloween costumes. The Colonel and her chicken.
They were the first trick or treaters we have had since we moved here six years ago.

The temp was only 16 degrees this morning when we got up at 5:30. Mark went to work this morning and will be working a full day out in the cold. At least he has his truck to splice fiber in. Sarah is home today from work and Jay is out of school. The sun is out and shining beautifully and it is wonderful.

It's so fun to sit here and write this and look out the sun room window and watch the birds come to the feeders. So thankful for the blessing of a warm home to be in.

One more time, Happy Thanksgiving to all. Tata for now!

SNOW ANGEL

For some reason I'm having trouble downloading pictures on my blog. The program keeps shutting down.

Sharon, just want you to know that I went outside in the 24 degree cold and made a snow angel for you. It was quite exhilarating. The sun is out now and its beautiful. But, oh so cold.

The boys (Jay and his friend Hunter) are loving it. They play outside for awhile and then come in to warm up with hot chocolate. This cold makes me want to bake so I need to decide what to make today. I'm going to make a black lentil stew for dinner tonight.

There's not much traffic going by and it's much quieter today. I really need to be able to get out to the store but Mark may have to be my go to guy for that. My list keeps getting longer and longer.

Anyway, I hope that where ever you are you are staying warm. Again, have a great Thanksgiving. Tata for now.

SNOW!!!

Well it has snowed about three inches since this morning
and the temps are supposed to get down into the 10's and 20's. I
would have some pictures for you but for some reason I can't get the program
to download the pictures I took today and downloaded. So those will have to
come another time.

Jacob still had school today but two hours late and Sarah
didn't go to work today and is working from home. Love that! Would
hate to think of her out in that commute tonight.

So this afternoon I made these awesome Ginger cookies that
my very good friend Carla F gave me the recipe for and they are so good!
The recipe is 200 years old and from Sweden. I'm sure they won't last long.

Am so looking forward to Thanksgiving. Our son Chris and his
two children Hailey and Landin are coming over and Sarah and Jacob will
be here. Seven of us. We'll be having turkey, cranberry pecan stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry apple chutney, rolls and Sarah is making a Pumpkin Cheesecake dessert. Wish you could be here to share it all with us.

I hope everyone has a blessed Thanksgiving and are able to
enjoy all the blessings of family and friends. Give thanks also for the
blessing of being able to enjoy the wonderful blessing of living where we do.

I hope next time I can have some pictures to show you. Tata for now!

Gone Junkin and Punkining

Last night Sarah and I want to the Junk Salvation Breast Cancer Benefit at the South Hill Mall. It was so much fun to walk around and look at all the creative things people do with junk. My favorite booth was the 4th Ave Girls.
Tinell is one of the girls who run it and I know her from the neighborhood where I walk the dogs. They have such creative stuff and very good prices. I bought a couple of things from them and so did Sarah.


This is one of the things that I got from the 4th Ave Girls. It's very heavy and I'm thinking of putting it in the kitchen. I'll let you know later.




This little chicken feeder was half full of candy corn when I bought it last night. Candy corn is one of my favorite candies at this time of year and as you can see most of them are gone now. It's going to be perfect when I get my chicks in the spring.




Today my friend Carla put together a little party of four to go to the pumpkin patch.
It was really a lot of fun. We went through the corn maze, did the sling shot and picked out pumpkins. It was wonderful, sunny and warm. A perfect October Saturday outing. Here's some pictures.

This is Leanne getting ready to sling shot a pumpkin.




Here I am getting ready to let go. None of us made the barrel. But we had fun trying.




Lisa was wearing a Charlie Brown Halloween shirt and people were taking pictures of it and I thought it would be cute for the blog. Thanks,Lisa.




Carla wore a crow shirt.




What's a pumpkin patch without a scarecrow?




Here we are. Me, Carla, Lisa and Leanne. Thanks for a fun time.




Well, this is the third day in a row to post. Let's see how long I can keep this up. Ta ta for now.

Another Beautiful Day!

This has been anther beautiful day here in the Northwest. When it's good here, it's very good. We seem to be having an Indian Summer before the very cold and wet winter they keep predicting we're going to have here. But I'll take all the good days I can get until then.

I took advantage of the great weather to work out in the half-moon garden today and planted a winter blooming honeysuckle that is supposed to be very fragrant. Then I planted three little agapanthis that I had started from seed from my good friend Susan, who gave them to me last fall and I got them to come up. They are now planted in the ground with tomato cages over them to discourage Bing and Lola from trampling on them when they go charging through the garden. We'll see if it works.

My hydrangea bushes still look pretty good. At least some of the blooms do. I love this color.



Here is one of the agapanthis plants in its cage. I hope it makes it through the winter.




And here are Lola and Bing. Lola's tongue is too long for her mouth so it sticks out all the time giving her a sort of dumb dog look. But we love her anyway and she is our sweetie.




Right now they are at the back door begging to come in and get fed so I'm going to let them in. They are demanding little buggers! Ta ta for now!

Fall

I'm just going to show you all some random shots from around the yard and some other things that have been keeping me busy. I love fall and the colors and fragrances.


Here's a scabiosa with a bumblebee.




This lavender pansy has beautiful veining.





Red zinnia from the half-moon garden.




Profusion Berry from the half-moon garden.




Old birdhouse in the half-moon garden. I'm planning on more attractions for this garden.




Fuchsia in the lasagna garden in the front.




Fuchsia




Fuchsia




A gardener's helper.




This is my one decoration outside on the front porch. In the six years we have been here in this house we have never had any trick or treaters.




This saying is over our breakfast nook in the kitchen and I just love it. It's our motto. We love to have people over and it really fits our life style. The leaves really make it festive for fall.




This is from left to right: Green Tomato Relish, Jalapeno Jelly and Red Hot Jelly. Since I wasn't getting a lot of red tomatoes my Dad challenged me to make the relish and I did and got twenty jars. I also made three batches of the jalapeno jelly and two of the red hot pepper jelly. The jelly's are wonderful over cream cheese and spread on crackers. And they will make wonderful Christmas presents.




I've been to a lot of garage and yard sales this year and here are just a few of the things that I bought. The child's wardrobe for $10.00, two garden pillows for $1.00
and a picnic basket for $3.00.




I keep saying that I am going to get better about posting and I am really going to try to. Sometimes I just have blogger's block and don't know what to blog about. Well, Mark and I are running out the door. Ta to for now!

Tahoe and Flowers

I went to go see my sister in Tahoe a couple of weeks ago and we had the best time.
One of our high school friends came to see us at her place and we just sat and talked for the longest time. Here are the three of us together in her back yard. From left to right: Brenda, me and Cindy.





Brenda lives above the Truckee River on the edge of the forest and its just gorgeous. I would get up early every morning and have my coffee and devotions sitting on the couch in the living room and watch the sun come up over the mountains with her cat Ivy. Here is a bear planter on her deck.




Birdhouse off the deck.




This is an old ski chair that sits right on the edge of the deck that I could sit and read in and rock in the sun. The weather was great while I was there.




The morning before I left we went to a resort called Sorenson's for breakfast. We shared an omelet and home fries and fruit and then looked around the grounds. They were moss bear sculptures that are covered in ivy in the summer all over the place. Here is a picture of Brenda with some flowers in the back ground.




Here's the sign for the place against a back drop of pines.




Don't you just love sunflowers? These are in the half-moon garden. The squirrels planted them.




Isn't this a pretty color of aster?




I'm hoping things are going to settle down now that the summer is winding down and its fall now. My bible study started last Thursday and I had fourteen ladies here in my home and it was great. It's a Beth Moore study on the life of David. It's called "A Heart Like His". It's going to be very good.

I have decided not to pursue the Master Garden program for this year at least. I have so many things going on right now and that will continue for awhile that I don't think I can take on any more. We also have a hard family issue going on right now and that makes it difficult to think of add one more thing to the fire.

I've done quite a bit of traveling this summer and hope that i am home to stay for awhile. Although Sarah and I are going to see Beth Moore in Spokane the last weekend in October. That should be great.

The weather today was supposed to be really nice but right now its so muggy we can't hardly stand to go outside. It's like you can cut the air its so thick.

I went to some garage sales this weekend and ended up with a child's wardrobe for $10.00. I'm very excited about that. I hope to get it painted and new drawer pulls on it and use it to hold linens. I'll try to have a picture here pretty soon.

Well that's all for now. Ta ta.

Grands and Praying Mantis

It has been a busy few weeks. Idaho, visiting grands and just catching up in the garden and house.

My friend Sharon's grandchildren all call her "Grand" and she loves it. I call my grandchildren "grands" for that is what they are as you can see from these pictures. While Tim and Scotty were here visiting from Idaho they swam and went to the movies and played with Jacob and had a water balloon fight at a friends house and went to a Rainers baseball game and a motorcycle ride with Papa and just had a good time. On the day before we drove them to Pendleton we had a family barbecue and five of the grands were here. From top to bottom there is: Scotty, Hailey, Tim, Jacob and Landen. Aren't they "grand"?




Here are Sarah and I in a picture with them.



In Pendleton where we drove to meet Scott and Jennifer to give Tim and Scotty back to them there is a park that has a climbing rock and the boys loved it. They spent most of the time on it while we were there.



The half moon garden is filling in so nicely and the big daisies have bloomed so well for the last month or more. I have put some other color in there and it has been so nice to look out and see.







A couple of months ago I had let a whole bunch of praying mantis go in the garden and
every once in a while I find one. Today I was deadheading some basil and there was this mantis. So I went and got Sarah and had her get the camera and we were able to get these pictures. I put my hand out and it jumped onto my hand. I got this picture looking straight at him. You are looking into his face.




If you look slightly to the right of the center you can see him. He is just a lighter green then the plant he is on. He's about 2 1/2 inches long. It had been a while since I had seen any of the mantis' and I was beginning to think they were all gone. I'm so glad to know at least one is still around.




Summer seems to be winding down a little bit. Jacob will go back to school a week from tomorrow and the days are already getting shorter. Where did the time go? It almost seems that summer got started and its going to be over so soon. It's been a strange year of ups and downs in the weather and the vegtable garden hasn't done as well this year. But there is always next year to look forward to. I have a trip planned to see my sister for next month and can hardly wait see her in South Lake Tahoe. We always have a fun time together.

Well, that's a peek into whats's been going on in my world lately. I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying your summer. I'll say ta ta for now.