HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

  I have two beautiful daughters I would like to say Happy Mother's Day  and my Dad married a wonderful gal that we all love that I would like to honor also.


We will spend the morning at church and then come home and barbecue with my daughter Sarah and Jacob and my son Chris and Hailey and Landen.  I am so blessed with a wonderful family.

I hope all you out there who are mothers have a blessed Mother's Day also and spend it how ever you like.

Babies

    


     I found the Junco nest.  I believe there are four babies in the nest. I was able to get two pictures and then I left them alone.  The nest is only about two or three inches from the twig fence of the Half Moon Border.  I will leave them alone now.  I just wanted to know where the nest was. I didn't think there would be babies already. They've been there longer than I thought.

     Here's another shot of them. You lcan just see the yellow beaks.  So very cute and delicate.  I will be watching closely to see if I can see when they leave the nest.

     Here is the father (I think) sitting in the tree above the border.  I just love watching them.  I hope that all of you have a great weekend.

Blessings,

Kay

Plant Exchange, Juncos, Garden Room

So the plant exchange was so fun. It was so cold and cloudy but it didn't rain. Eight gardening friends came and we tour the gardens,
laughed a lot, did some exchanging and ate some goodies and drank hot tea and coffee.  I just love my gardening friends and I want to say thanks for coming out on a gloomy day. When gardening friends get together its always a good time.  We teased Carla who couldn't be here by texting her that we were really glad that it was a progressive exchange and we loved going to her house and taking what we wanted from her flower beds. She was out on the sound fishing with her boyfriend. What would life be like if we couldn't have fun with one another.

 Here is a picture of 7 of the ladies who came. I didn't get a picture of Rita. She came a little later. From the left there was Leanne, Denise G, Candi, (hiding behind Denise) Gloria, Janet, Denise B,
and Yvonne. Not pictured it Rita. Thank you ladies for making this a special day.

I was blessed with some wicker furniture from my friend Janet and was able to get it done by the special day. Here it is in the garden room.  She also gave me a beautiful carpet that worked beautifully in the room.  This is my garden room that I can go and sit out in when its really hot because it stays about 65 degrees all the time. I love it and put everything garden themed in here.

We have Juncos nesting on the ground of the half moon garden.So we have to be very careful walking too close to that part of the border.  I am so excited about this border.  I started it about 2 years ago and already it is looking so full. There's so much in it and I keep adding more. It's our living privacy screen from the neighbors.  It's coming along very nicely. More pictures as the season progresses.

The baby chicks are now nicely integrated into the big flock and seem to be doing well.  There are so many things in the garden blooming right now and getting ready to bloom.  I need to get outside and do some gardening.  My grandson Jacob has a track meet this afternoon at 3 and I want to do some stuff.

I am going to try to keep up better with the blogging. I will leave you with something to think about.

If you treat an individual as if she were what she ought to be and could be, she will become what she ought to be and could be.

Just a thought.

Blessings,

Kay



o

HI

Hi!

I've got to start writing more often because when I wait so long to post Blogger changes the format on me. It's been a crazy 6 months. Do you ever feel like you're busy all the time but when you try to think of what you've been doing you don't know what it is? That's how I feel.

I'll just start writing and maybe it will come back to me.  My friend Linda's sheep had four lambs last month and they were so cute.  I took my grand kids out to see them and it was so much fun. Here is a picture of the mom and her lambs. They are a little hard to see them all. The mom reminds me of a cartoon character with her matchstick legs.

My friend Carla gave me a book on Artisan breads and I made some and here is a picture of my first loaf. It was sooo good. And so easy to make.  The book is "Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day" by Jeff Hertzverg,MD and Zoe Francois.

I also have added to my flock of chickens with 3 more Rhode Island Reds and 3 Bard Rocks.  They are now about 6 weeks old and are outside in a small pen beside the big coop so they can all get acquainted. Yesterday after Mark got the lawn mowed I let everyone out together in the big yard so they could start getting used to each other.  It went much better then I thought it would.  The big girls pretty much ignored the little girls except that once in a while one of the big ones would come over and give them a peck. Probably to make sure they knew who was boss. I was surprised it went so well. As soon as the weather gets nice again they will have some more time together outside. I'll maybe have some pictures next time.

Something else I got to do was speak to our Women's group at church about gardening.  When I was asked last Aug or Sept. I said yes because that was months away.  Then it got closer and closer and I got more nervous all the time.  My friend Betty said she would help me and so we both spoke. It needed to be for 30 minutes.  I wasn't sure what I would talk about because there are so many different things and it's so hard to decide what.  But I did it and it went really well.  They seemed to like it and laughed a lot.  I really don't remember hardly anything I said but people keep telling me different things that they are doing  so I must have said something right.  Betty did a wonderful job and then they asked questions for about 15 minutes after we spoke,  Very fun.

This is a picture of my 2nd oldest granddaughter Samantha.  She just turned 18 in on the 11th of this month and will graduate from home school in May.  Sarah (my middle daughter) and I are going to go the Boise at the end of May to her graduation ceremony.  I am so excited to see her and the rest of the family.

This Saturday I will be hosting the 3rd annual plant exchange here at my home. It is so much fun. Everyone brings between 10 and 15 plants that they have brought from their gardens that have needed to be divided and then we all trade.  I have coffee and tea and some people bring goodies and we have a tour of the gardens and just have a good time talking and being together.  I hope to have some pictures next week.

I know there are many things I have left out from the past six month but that's all I can do for now.  I hope you are all blessed and have a marvelous week. 

All for now,

Kay



I'm still here......

It has been so long since I have written anything that the new format is very strange to me.  When did all of this take place?

I've had a really busy summer and there is no other excuse.  I did have a stress fracture in my left foot that slowed my down for about 6 weeks with a walking and was taken out of it Oct 12th and today it is finally feeling better.  I was beginning to feel like I would live the rest of my life with a bum foot. 

The chickens are doing well.  I am going to find a home for Wilmer my remaining rooster because he keeps attacking me when I go into the coop to feed or water them.  Now I know that he is only protecting his hens but I don't wish to have to watch him every second to make sure he is not going to do his kung-fu move at me.  So he is going to go bye-bye.  I get an average of between 5 to 6 eggs a day.  Right now I am selling about 2 dozen a week.  I would love to have enough hens that I could get a dozen eggs a day but that will have to wait.  We put a light in the hen house when we built it and we now have it on a timer so they have heat a night.



Our daughter Jennifer came to stay for 5 days this August when she came home for her 20th high school reunion.  This is a picture of she and our daughter Sarah.  They are the best of friends for which I am thankful.  It was so good to have her.  I hope she gets to come with  the whole family next time.



I have been sewing up a storm this summer also making an Amy Butler Birdie Sling Bag.  So far I have made 16 and have my 17th cut out and ready to go.  I tried to load picture of them but I only seem to be able to do one picture.

There have been so many things that have gone on since I've been on here that's its hard to tell you about them all.  I will go for now and hopefully not be so long next time. 

P.S. Can anyone tell me if it's supposed to take forever for pictures to download on Blogger? I only seem to be able to do the one picture.  Thanks so much 

EGGS!!!

I started getting eggs last week. I have been so excited and I go out to the hen house about every 2

two or three hours to check to see if I have an egg. I usually get one in the late morning. So the one on the left is the one from today. It is significatly bigger than the last five. They all seem to be the same color so I beieve it is either Lucy or Ethal, one of the Rhode Island Reds that is laying. I give them all a pep talk after I collect the one egg and tell them thank you and please would the other girls start laying now?

I only have nine hens and one rooster now. Thelma turned out to be a rooster and she went to live at my friend's plant nursery. Wilmer now rules the roost for the time being.

So now that I can publish posts I seem to have hit the wrong button and hit the button too fast. So I will close for now with more to follow later. Tata.

My Beautiful Granddaughters

I am going to see if I can post this morning. For some reason I have not been able to post for a while. I will have a great post written with pictures and Blogger will not publish it. It has been very frustrating.

I have been having a great time with my granddaughters who are visiting from Idaho. They are Elizabeth and Samantha who are almost 19 and 17.

They are so much fun.

Talk to you soon.

Frustrated........

I am having an issue with Blogger and am wondering if anyone else is having the same issue. I have tried for two days to get on and comment on Lilac Cottage Blog and have not been able to stay signed in. I will sign in and when I comment in puts me on as Anonymous and kicks me off of being signed on. So frustrating!!!!

The other issue is since I got my computer back the last time a week ago I haven't been able to download any new pictures.

So many things have happened in the last couple of weeks The first thing was that our smallest pug Lola was attacked by the two big dogs next door. I won't go into all the details because it would take too long. She ended up having surgery on her leg and neck. A week later she was back in for more surgery because her neck wound fell apart from infection that was still in there and so had to go through all of that again. She is doing much better and the hard part is trying to keep her from scratching the incision and restricting her movements. She wants to run around the yard with her big brother. So she has to go outside with a makeshift harness that won't touch her stitches. But she is on the mend.

The neighbors paid a big portion of her vet bill and are in the process of putting up a much more secure fence on their side of the already existing fence.

The other thing is much happier. My son Chris moved from our house back into his home with his wife Jen and their two children. This is SUCH an answer to prayer. God is SO GOOD. All the time.

The garden is looking so good. I wish I could show you. The chickens are doing well and getting big. I hope big enough to start laying eggs in about a month.

I pray everyone has a good week. I'll say tata for now.

Morning in the Garden and Willow Creation

Wednesday morning I got to play in the garden for about an hour before I was off for the morning. I walked through the garden taking pitures of the flowers that are starting to bloom and here are just a couple of the blooms.

This is a small iris. They were so pretty with the dew drops on them.





A good friend Linda gave me a bunch of Solomon's Seal last year and they are blooming so well.

This was a plant I bought at the Master Gardener's Plant Sale this year. The name of it is on a tag in the next picture.

This next picture is my new willow creation that my brother Randy made me. It's sitting in front of the chicken run and it has a tub with sweet peas, basil and lemon verbena planted in it. I love it. We had such a good time making it together.

Here it is sitting in the middle of the grass with two bunnies.

Here's a better shot of it. The girls were all in a twit over it being in front of their space. They soon got over it. Just more to look at.

We've had some great days that have been wonderful for being out in. The beds are getting weeded and everything is starting to bloom.

I recieved my "Mennonite Girls Can Cook" cookbook today and have hardly been able to put it down. It has many great recipes and the stories from all the girls are heartwarming. If you've never gone to their blog before, there is a link on my sidebar.

I am waiting for my daughter Sarah to come and pick me up and we are going to go the the "Junk Salvation" show tonight. Our friend Tinell has a booth there with one of her friends and we will find lots of vintage items.

So I'll sign off and say tata.

Mother's Day, Chickens, Borders and Blessings

I hope all of you had a great Mother's Day. I know I did. Two of my three children were here to celebrate with me and my husband b-b-cued and they all made me feel really special. My oldest daughter called early in the morning to wish me a Happy Mother's Day.





I know it's been awhile since I was on here so here goes with some catching up. This is my son Chris holding Wilma/Wilmer. We're not sure yet if she's a she or a he. We'll know if she starts crowing. Chris really likes the chickens and checks on them almost daily.

Here some of them are with me in the run. Every time I go near them they all come running to see if I have brought them anything to eat. The great thing is that whenever I weed I just throw everything into the run and they get to go through it and pick and scratch whatever they want. Then I will take it all out and put it in the compost pile and it will make great compost. It's a win-win deal!

Here is our grandson Landen holding Laverne or Shirley. He really likes them too. Just like his dad, who when he was about 2 1/2, we went to see my mom and step-dad who lived on a walnut ranch. They had chickens and Chris decided he wanted to hold one. He went out into the chicken yard with just his shorts and some cowboy boots on and chased them until he caught one. He had a scratch on his chest and the biggest grin on his face. He was so thrilled that he had one.

This is our granddaughter Hailey who likes the chickens also. She is a very beautiful girl and we love her dearly. That day she happened to be wearing a pretty blue flowered raincoat.

I was going to have pictures of the plant exchange that I had on Saturday but the computer says it can't find my picture program. It can however find the pictures that are already on the computer. I want to thank Karen, Carla, Donna, Carla, Denise, Janet, Betty, Linda, Sharon, Yvonne, Paige and Sarah for all coming and making it a great time. Even though it rained during the garden tour there were many great plants here and a fun time was had by all. Leanne, we really missed you.

I have a bigger garden area and Mark has tilled up a new border for me that is 40 or 50 feet long. I was able to fill it with plants from the plant exchange and from other places in my existing borders.

Last but not least I will not complain about the weather or anything else when I see the devastation from back East with the tornadoes and the flooding that's going on and the drought that Texas is having. So we are having a cool and wet spring. I can deal with that when I still have my home and family. We're so blessed here not to have to deal with those events. Robin over at "Robins's Nesting Place" has some very good posts on what's been going on in some places. My heart goes out to all of them. So I count my blessings and will not complain about a little cool weather.

I hope you are all having a good week and I will say tata for now.