The Little Red Hen

Azaleas

My moter-in-law's yard is abloom with azaleas.

I also just realized that I didn't get any pictures of the deep coral red ones or the cream colored ones. I'll have to take more pictures tomorrow!

Happy Spring!

 

SNOW!

We have snow! I was secretly hoping for a snow day.

Instead, our power went out. When we got up at 6:50 this morning it was really 8:10.

Needless to say, P was late to school.

B took her to school and I took a little walk around the barns. What a great way to start the day.

I love when the sun comes out after a snowy night.

American Chestnut

My plan was to post this picture today with a quote. I thought surely Laura Ingalls Wilder had written something about roasting chestnuts in her books but she did not.

So, instead I'll tell you a little about our American Chestnut trees.

The American Chestnut used to be a prominent tree in the eastern United States. They were all but elimated by the chestnut blight in the early 1900s.  Typically new trees don't live long enough to flower and fruit. Several organizations have been trying to reintroduce blight resistant trees to the original growing range.

When we first bought our property more than twenty years ago we started planting trees from the soil conservation service. One year they offered American Chestnut seedlings. We bought a small bundle of those and two of them have grown to adulthood. For several years we have seen flowers and one had the prickly fruits grow on the trees. Previous years we have found lots of flat nuts. They were not fertilzed and did not grow into plump fruit.

Our two trees are not very close to each other so this spring when we noticed that the trees were flowering we clipped a flowering branch from one tree and tossed it into the tree that has had the prickly burs on it in the past.
Our experiment worked!
This year we have plump chestnuts!

Now we need to decide if we will roast them or plant them.

Wordless Wednesday

Milkweed

It's that time of year again.

 

Wordless Wednesday

 

August in Bloom

I thought I'd share a bit of what's blooming in the yard as we move into August.

Butterfly bush

balloon flower

zinnias

lily (in the white garden)

hibiscus

mystery tall yellow-orange flowers

I hope you have a bit of color in your August.

A Snail's Pace

I have been enjoying summer vacation this week. The alarm clock has officially been turned off for the summer!

The mosquitoes aren't quite as bad this week either. For some reason I get SWARMED with mosquitoes when others are not bothered. I feel like Pigpen in a cloud of mosquitoes while others are playing normally. Sigh. M noticed the phenomenon while we were in the garden today. He was picking peas with no mind to the mosquitoes and then looked over at me swatting them all over myself. He calmly said, "Mom, there is a CLOUD of mosquitoes around you." Yeah, I had noticed that.

I have been walking on the road a couple of times this week and found that if I walk in the MIDDLE of the road that the mosquitoes are not too bad. I do, however, get swarmed when I go to the side of the road to take pictures.

P and I went to the registration for the summer reading program at the library. That is always a fun event with lots of activities, games, and snacks.

I have been slowly progressing on some sewing and knitting projects in the evenings but have nothing really exicting to show you.  These roadside photos will have to do.

M has been busy though, he made this cool robot magnet for his middle school art teacher who wrote a poem for him for graduation. He thought a simple thank you note would not suffice.

I hope that my snail's pace on crafting projects will soon yield something that I can share.

 

May Merriment

There is always a flurry of activity in May. There is much to do outside in the yard and gardens, in addition to end of school activities. This year we also have a lot of graduation related events.

This weekend P and I worked a bit in her fairy garden. The plants from last year all look happy there. We put in a few new plants but still have quite a few seeds to get in the ground.

We put in fence for the peas and weeded the vegetable garden. B did a bit of mowing and working on the house. D installed the toilet in our new bathroom upstairs! M wrote a term paper and had a couple of music gigs. P had her spring recital with others in the studio. I also made 20 books covers from these papers for the art club students.  We have all done a bit of spring cleaning.

When it gets crazy busy like this I do try to make time to walk the yard and see what's in bloom.

I don't want to miss any of that!

Since on the go knitting seems to be all I can fit in for now, I have also been progressing on a few portable projects like new socks for B.

That yarn in the background is making its way to the top of the knit pile too! I need to decide what to make with it.
I'm currently working on socks for myself using the same rib pattern as these mitts.

Today I hope to make M's graduation and recital invitations. He has a much bigger list of people to invite than his brother had two years ago.