Christmas

Christmas Time

 

It seems to be Christmas!  Last week I took Grandma to Century II to see the Goodwill Parade of Trees.  There were 90ish elaborately decorated trees in all sizes, and another ton of wreaths and table arrangements.

 



 The weather was very warm which was a good thing, becaue the parking was awful.  The "parade" was sharing the building with a  junior cheerleader competition.  Zillions of little pom-pom carrying girls accompanied by the whole extended family, I think.   I unloaded Grandma and the chair and then went in search of parking.  When we were finished, I just pushed her back with me.  Quit a trek!

I've put up my first Christmas tree since I got Toby.  He hasn't been interested in it at all.  T., do you recognize the Abby angel ornament?

 I gave away my big tree this year.  It's too heavy and bulky for me to get it up out of the basement anymore, so it found a home with some folks who are having difficult times.

After wrestling with boxes and more wrong sized boxes, I gave up and took all the packages for Chicago and Florida to the UPS store this morning.  SO easy, even if a fair bit pricey.  I may never pack anything for shipping again!

 

After 8 months of Christmas themed quilting projects, shopping and wrapping, I think I can now be finished with the preparations, and just be ready to enjoy the season.











Hmmm....I lost the password, couldn't remember the title, and don't know if this is going to work. Let me know.

Memorial Day Weekend

It's Memorial Day weekend, and my "duties' are finished. So, now I'm just home with the dog. DOG??!!?? Yes, this large elderly and extremely ugly brown dog has been living under my deck all day. I discovered him this morning when I went down to do the litter box. He was nice enough to lie beside the hostas instead of on top of them. Of course, feeling sorry for him in the heat, I gave him a pan of water. We don't have an animal control officer on duty on the week-end, so I can't get him removed. By tonight I was feeling more sorry for him, so I fed him. At this rate, I'm thinking he'll be living under the deck until Tuesday when Cindy the dog catching lady is back on duty.

Toby spotted him through the window, and was not too happy about the new visitor. Mom and I went to Fredonia to do the cemeteries yesterday. It was a nice day for a drive, and we saw lots of "amber waves of grain."

It was quite windy, but we got the flowers stuck in the ground well enough that I don't think any blew away.

Those of you who have been on the expedition will remember the huge old screwdrive that Grandma used to make holes in the dirt for the flowers. Somehow, it didn't get moved with her. That being my fault, of course, I had to come up with a new hole poking implement. My solution was a tent stake and mallet. It worked pretty well except when I pounded the stake in so well it wouldn't come out. Took a bit of effort those times.

The flags in the Fredonia cemetery were beautiful as always.

And we had to look until we found Grandpa's flag.

While we were at Farmington cemetery, I thought I'd document the source of our bright yellow lilies. No wonder there's such a huge bed of them there. Mr. Stevens having died in 1910, they may have been blooming and propagating for 100 years of more! Mine bloomed beautifully this year, but have been gone for a while now.

I was at church conference in Hutchinson Wednesday through Friday, Fredonia yesterday, and today was church in the morning and a 90th birthday celebration for Icel Lee Russell. Now I'm done. Hope you all are enjoying your long weekend.

Lots of Blooming Flowers

If you're not interested in flowering things, stop looking now. This is going to be a photo gallery of the things that are blooming in my gardens now. And, I found the close-up gizmo on my camera today, so I had fun trying it out. First is the butterfly milkweed. It started out as a little clump tht Troy dug up on the prairie. This is its best year yet.

And here it is in close-up. Note the bugs!

The 'endless summer'hydrangeas are loaded this year. Last year I didn't have 5 blooms among the three bushes.

The jackmani clematis is overpowering the mailbox, but I just can't trim it when its this gorgeous.

The bench got its annual paint job recently, and is being crowded by the host of lilies.

Larkspur are among my new favorites. I got one sad little starter from Cleo two years ago. They re-seed themselves and now I have quite a few. Aren't they great?

It's a picture-book perfect close-up!

And the pink lilies are putting on a show also.

The oakleaf hydrangea is full of blooms also. Last year it had maybe three. They're not huge like some we saw on the garden tour last week-end, but I'm proud anyhow.

Speaking of which, Barbara and I did the garden tours on Saturday. There were some lovely gardens, and at one we saw this very cool birdhouse. It's a tree that was cut down and turned upside down with the birdhouse on top. I love it!

May Events

Mother's Day has come and gone, and it was quite pleasant. I cooked. We watchec a basketkball game and then took a drive around tow. Grandma loved her flowers and strawberries. She shared the strawberries with some of her pals at Sunflower Gardens.

Lots of Mother's Day wishes came my way, and each found it's mark -- right into my heart.

Linda put photos from the graduation party on Facebook, so I'm sure everyone has seen them there. But I did get a particularly nice one of Linda and Kate that needed to be shared.

And Logan was being photogenic also.

Randy sent some photos of Kellie, T, & Shelby wrapped in blankets and gathered around a backyard fire. Made me jealous -- especially since it looked like they might be roasting marshmallows!! Until later......................

Chores and Blooms

The Handy Guy was here yesterday and we got some chores done. He used the power washer to clean the porch cushions, furniture, floor, walls, etc.

End O' April

Toby and I are relaxing tonight after a very busy 2 weeks.

I am teaching Sunday school for the next two weeks, and getting ready has taken a great deal of time. As I may have mentioned before, we have no curriculum. Each of us decides what we want to talk about when it's out time to teach. I found this book and thought it might be the basis for a couple of lessons. So, I've been much involved with Heaven(!!) of late. Very interesting.

And just today I finished planting for the spring. Well, almost. I still have to find something to put in the two big pots at the end of the back stairs. But all of the annuals are in, and not a moment too soon! With our weird early spring, the perennials are ready for dead-heading before I had finished planting annuals. The irises are about finished, but the roses have been opening up in the last couple of days. Here are some of my lovelies today....

A bright yellow iris that I got from Linda. Did I?

A blue Japanese iris that I got from Karen Williams, here in Valley.

A very sweet lavendar rose. Isn't the color remarkable?

An orange and pink variegated rose.

And, of course, the basic red rose. Have I mentioned how much I love my garden?

Big Blow

We survived last night's big blow, but it did make for a stressful evening and late night. I had the closet all prepared in the basement and my pockets loaded with keys, credit card, cash, and a flash drive with essential documents on it. My new lantern, which I bought yesterday with Linda's help, was charged and ready to go. I said "good bye" to Carmen and begged her to find us among the rubbish if we blew away. Toby, of course, was going in the closet with me. My worst damage, thank goodness, was a broken limb on my georgeous snowball bush. Here is is waiting to be cut up and put in the garbage.It was so heavy with blooms that it couldn't withstand the winds. But I cut off some branches and made a bouquet for the living room.Even with the remaining it makes for a really nice show for this year. Like all of the blooming things this spring, the snowballs haave been loaded. Barbara's baby, first year, snowball even had several blooms on it.Linda and I were going to go to Leroy, KS to visit a large nursery there yesterday. In deference to the impending storms, however, we opted to meet at Stone Creek nursery in El Dorado. I offered advice on what to plant in her wash tubs, and picked up a few things for me, of course! It's too wet to be in the garden this afternoon, but I hope to get some annuals planted tomorrow. The coming week is fairly busy, leaving little time for gardening.

My Mother, the Methodist!!

Just goes to show that we are never too old to change. Last Sunday, Grandma joined the Methodist church. Here she is with the pastor getting "sworn in."
She's not given any indication that she's in fear for her immortal soul, so I'm guessing that being a Methodist must be O.K. now.

Time marches on....

It seems to me that when you get old, time should slow down. After all, when there is less of it left, we ought to get to savor each moment of it. But, no, it just speeds faster and faster. So....in the past few weeks, things have sped on, even if I wasn't paying too much attention. We had five days of rain and chilly weather. A HUGE deal for us, and at the same time that Chicago was hot and sunny. What kind of a deal is that? Spring has been arriving anyway. I planted tulips in pots last fall, and these are the ones on the deck just outside the living room windows. I've enjoyed them so much. Even when it was too cold to go out, I had the bouquet just outside my window.I drug a whitebud home from Topeka last spring and worried that it would not survive last summer's heat. But look how cute it is! Blooming beautifully in it's first year.
At some point in late February, I met Linda for lunch at the Chinese place in El Dorado. She brought me up to date on the many transitions going on in her famiy.My computer got sick and it seems to be terminal. Something about the Mother Board going out. I guess it was no shame since it was seven years old. See my new one? Now I'm trying to get used to Windows 7. A few curses here and there.Toby got sick last week and had to go to the vet. A great huge trauma for both of us. Fortunately he got well without intervention so my night of terror was all for naught -- thank goodness.And in addition, Kellie has moved, Carrie has vacationed in Hawaii, and T should by now be eating solid food. Time moves on.....

End O' Feb!

Another month bites the dust! And the last of our February birthdays with Linda turning 48 on Tuesday. Things have been rather calm around here the past couple of weeks. I even got in one gardening day when the temp hit 63 on Wednesday. I finished the New York puzzle last week.It was fun to do because it reminded me of a particularly wonderful trip to New York at Christmas time. Now I'm working on the bears and butterflies that I got from the Barkers. The first part was easy, now....not so much. A few clouds, a lot of white sky and thousands of blue butterflies!My bigest techno-accomplishment to date occurred this week. I installed my new printer, got it wirelessed, and printing. It was a significant challenge. At times I thought I might have to give up and call the computer guy. But only a few hours later, it was printing beautifully.Toby kept me company the whole time, which, of course, made the task easier.The quilt I started last August was returned from the quilter last week, and I got the binding on it. This is the one where I learned to do curves. LOTS of them!