Coneflowers: Summer vs Autumn

This is how one of our flower beds currently look. This is the third year that I had Mick take the weedeater to the entire flower bed. I'm not sure if it's a good gardening practice or not. So far each spring the flowers have come back.

Here are some Coneflowers from the summer.

Coneflowers in the fall.
I don't have any Sunflowers, maybe next year. I would like to plant some so I could save to feed the birds in the winter. I took the photos in my neighbors garden. She was Amie's kindergarten teacher.
The birds would love these seeds.

Hope you have a GREAT last day of September. Where did the month go??

WEEKEND RECAP

Ate way to much.
Slept way to little.
The raspberry pie was a huge hit. We actually fought over the last piece.
The homemade spaghetti sauce is delicious.
Eric got his first ever deer with his bow, a doe.
It rained the entire weekend.

We thought for a tiny while SU would win.
I found a second glass oil lamp for the mantle and I have my eye on a third.
I got my car back. Oh how I will miss satellite radio.
Not a single picture was taken.

I wish they didn't live so far away.

TGIF

Getting ready for Kristen & Eric to come for the weekend and I can't wait! Did you know that bow season starts tomorrow? Last time Eric was home was last weekend of turkey season. I guess I should change my feelings toward hunting. Yeah, I should like it, forces him to come home. Last night, for the first time, I made a raspberry pie. My brother David gave me 16 cups of berries from his garden. There will be enough to make four pies. They are the largest raspberries I've ever seen.

The crust is not homemade. Sorry Martha.
I wasn't going to cut into it until they arrived but I could NOT stop myself. The pie is delicious and so easy to make!! There will be raspberry pie on the Thanksgiving menu this year.
May you have a wonderful weekend and if you hunt, good luck in the woods. If you fish, Joe good luck in the river.

Loving Frank

Last night was book club. We meet once a month except for the months of July, August and December. I’ve been in the club for five years and for the most part I don’t particularly care for the books we’ve read. Last night was an exception. Another good thing about the book was that it made for good discussion. The book is about Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress, I always enjoy reading about how people have lived in the past and what life might have been like. One thing about book club is that it has changed my reading habits. I used to just read Danielle Steel and Nora Roberts type books. Those books now seem trivial. Also, I have read books that I never would have read and looking back although, some months the books are hard to get through, I’m glad to have read them.

Planting a Tree

We chose a Jacquemont Birch to replace the tree we had cut down in the spring. Why does it seem that every job we tackle, I use the term "we" very loosely, turns into a huge project??Per instructions, the hole was dug twice the diameter of the root ball.

The area was filled with roots from the old tree. Next we need to have the old stump removed.

I hope the tree will grow strong and to its estimated 60 feet.

Window Shutters

Mick finished building, painting and installing the window shutters over the weekend. I decided on shutters since we are in need of privacy. I didn't want to have to pull curtains shut in order to stop people seeing into the living room. I need to decide if I want knobs on the shutters. We are thinking of painted wood knobs.

I am also still contemplating some sort of curtain valance. I thought I would like the windows without any curtain but they look to plain.

LUD, have I told you how much I LOVE the brick?

The next project will be the dining room.

First day of Autumn

Instead of walking my course I went to the Nature Trail and looked for signs of Autumn. As you can see from above, 99% of the leaves are green. I was able to find a few that have started to change color. Not far from here the leaves are already at 80% of color.

There is a small pond there. I've always liked the look of cattails. Gee, I need to contact Wikipedia. I like my photos of cattails better than theirs.
I guess this is what happens to the cattails in the fall. It is called stuffing & some birds will use it for their nests. I never intended to educate myself writing this blog. The only purpose was to show Amie pictures of home & force myself to practice using my camera. There are lots of ferns around the pond. I have a few in our perennial garden. In the spring I bought a few more to plant. Wish I could move a few of these. We are planting a Birch Tree in our yard to replace the tree that had to be cut down in the spring. Mick has it tagged at the nursery & will take a truck to pick it up one day this week. I just hope it won't meet this fate.
I think there is some relation between frost & caterpillars. Since I don't want to put education into the blog, I'm not about to start searching for an answer. No more education & blogging.

Weekend Visitor's

The weather prediction was for our temperature to go down to 30 degrees last night. So, I covered all my flowers on the deck to hopefully keep them for a bit longer. It ended up going down to 32 degrees and there was a frost. In fact, I had to scrape the frost off my windshield.

Tomorrow, Mom, Donna, my sister-in-law Debbie and one of Mom's friends will be spending the day with me. We will attend our local art show in the morning and then shop at a newly opened store in town. Plus, we are excited to show them our newly renovated living room. I'll be serving homemade cheese & broccoli soup for lunch. I true sign off cold weather when I break out the soup recipes. They plan to head back home late afternoon.

Sunday I hope to start some craft projects and Mick has plans for me to continue sorting the mess of our basement. The project that just won't go away.

Collage Winner

Six people guessed correctly that I was going to make a bird collage for myself. I wrote the six names onto strips of paper, had Mick close his eyes and pick a strip of paper.

Michaela aka Mickey is the winner!!! Mickey, let me know what theme you would like for your collage and a color scheme. Hopefully this Sunday I can get a start on the collages. I mailed Amie’s collage to her two weeks ago. She said it looks better in real life, not that it looked bad on the blog, and she loved it. I'll make sure I'll show the next collages when I get them finished. Although, trying to make a bird out of paper has me worried. I may switch to my second choice, a leaf, if the bird doesn't work out. Kay, your guess was oh so close!

Wedding Day

Saturday we attended the wedding of one of Eric's spring hockey teammates. They played together in 6th & 7th grade. We hadn't seen KK since he was in high school.

KK's parents looked great. His Dad was actually the coach of the team. The first coach that really taught Eric how to play defense, he was a great coach. He told me he still misses hockey and it went by all to fast. I couldn't agree with him more. This is the head table.

I loved the simplicity of only two white flowers on each of the guest tables.

Cakes have certainly changed since my wedding days. Initials on the top of wedding cakes are all the thing now. That was one observation I learned from my recent Atlanta trip. Mick, very edited in Photoshop. I love the different looks you can get editing photos. I waste way to much time playing with Photoshop and I wish I knew the program better. Good thing he doesn't read my blog, he would be very upset with me if he saw this!

Since this is a Wedding Post, exactly 10 months from today will be Leigh Anna & Steven's wedding. Anyone interested in combining a mini family reunion with a wedding on HHI?

Hurricane Ike

At 12:36am on Monday, Hurricane Ike went though our neighborhood. I know the exact time since it awoke me out of my sleep. It is hard to believe that a hurricane that hit land 1,800 miles away could do damage so far away. The winds and rain subsided about four hours later. One branch broke in our backyard. We never lost power although, about 2,000 homes in the area did. Good thing my bird bath was spared. My brand new, very hard to find, white mum was blown over & split in half.
Some days we complain about where we live but at least we are far away from REAL hurricane damage. Also, earthquakes. Right Amie?

Shopping???

On our way to a wedding Saturday we stopped to buy a Little Green. I use the term "we shopped" very loosely. Mick decided he would wait in the van instead of going into the store. When I got back to van, he had the radio going, the windows opened, he was out in the parking lot enjoying the sunshine & drying out all his wet golf items. He played in the rain on Friday at a tournament. He told me several shoppers commented on his antenna.

He really hates shopping or it's his number one pastime?

Our front door is back in season!

One year ago Mick painted our front door orange. I was going to have him paint it red in December, I even bought the paint. Then a cold spell and it never happened. Let me tell you, my red, white & blue patriotic wreath over the summer months did not look good hanging on the orange door. Although, last month I overhead a family walking by our house commenting on how they liked the door and what an unusual color.

I like unusual front door colors. I wish I never bought that red paint. I would love Robin egg blue, Goldenrod or Olive Drab. Anyone want to buy an unopened quart of Benjamin Moore Red Paint? : )

Thank goodness my favorite season has arrived.

Over the weekend I'm going to stop the contest for a homemade collage. If you haven't entered yet, you still have time. Go here or here and enter your guess. Have a great weekend!

Trash to Treasure

This is our deck. This is what happens to a deck when a oak tree grows right next to it. The squirrels love our oak tree. We hate the mess that comes every fall.

The last couple days I've been picking up the whole bottom & tops from the fallen acorns. There are not many that are in one piece. I asked Mick if he would pick up any he sees, he has yet to find any.
When I do things like this I know I need to get a life. Or as Eric would say, "a freakin life."

I like how the trash from the squirells has turned into my treasure.

Homemade Spaghetti Sauce

Since our second year of our marriage we, I use the term we loosely, have been making my Mom's recipe for Spaghetti Sauce. I would use a bushel of tomatoes and make a batch every other year. Unfortunately, we have not made sauce in about 7 years. Mick's part of the process is to use my Grandmother's Squeeze-O. The kids used to love helping with this part. It's a messey job so he always does it outdoors.

This year I only used a half a bushel, which we bought at the farmers market. For the first time I used fresh herbs. Also, for the first time I used real garlic, that I bought at the farmers market, instead of powder.This is by no means a money saving project. In fact, each quart is more expensive than store bought. We ended up with 11 quarts and I think it costs about $1.50 per quart. I worked on the sauce on and off all day starting at 8am and was completely finished at 9pm. I grew up eating this sauce and it's still my favorite!

The Stanley Cup

Unimaginable as it seems we unexpectedly got to see the Stanley Cup one evening last week.

Mick had business associates out for dinner and when we left the restaurant I noticed a large crowd at the restaurant/bar next door. I had heard over the radio that a local boy, who played Junior "A" on the same team with Eric in Canada, had the Stanley Cup for the day. I asked if anyone wanted to go see the Stanley Cup. They didn't believe me, thought it was a replica or just a picture hanging on the wall. They would not believe me until they saw it. Thankfully, I had my camera & was able to get everyone posing along side the cup.

Below is Steve from Sudbury, Ontario.

Below is Steve from Manitoba, Canada. After the picture he went right outside to call his family to tell them the news. I think it took awhile for him to convince them he wasn't kidding.

Needless to say, both Steve's were shocked, really shocked, you know how much hockey means to the citizens of Canada. Neither one thought he would ever see the cup let alone close up and personal.

Oh how we were wishing LUD could have been with us!